Soul of Italy

Every country in our head has some stereotypical vision. All of us start from it when creating opinion about what we would like to experience there. Stereotypical jokes about Italy consisted out of pizza, spaghetti which go along with recognizable sign consisted of all fingers together while arguing with person pretty much describes what I have expected to see there- emotional, loud people who are keeping their traditions. I had visited Italy several times before i have found out my gem. All tourist cities had beautiful things to see, but they were all somehow adapted to its visitors. People did not seem emotional and honest, everything was more like acting created to fulfill tourists expectations. Small city of Ancona, which tourists usually do not visit except if they are catching ferry to Croatia seemed like every other city. Old houses, several nice streets and squares, It was not place where you imagine yourself falling in love with Italy. As I was taking a walk through its main pedestrian street, Corso Giuseppe Garibaldi I wa thinking if it would be betrayal if I buy kebab in Italy. There, i got attracted by the sound of Italian masterpieces played by some grandpa on his accordion. Right there, on the place where my street is crossing Piazza Cavour young man passed by this player and looked at me with some shifty smile. Interested, i followed him with my sight. AND there happened the scene where my expectations of Italy have been fulfilled. He passed by a man who has been holding hands with his wife and slapped her booty. Astonished, husband started running after him yelling all kinds of Italian words that, i can only guess, were not compliments. At that moment, old player who didn’t even look up to see what’s going on started playing magnificent song Caruso. “Te voglio bene assai ma tanto tanto bene sai”. Call me weird, pervert or anything, but that was what i have always imagined as an Italian soul. No, not violence or disrespect, but that beautiful mixture of love, melancholy, anger, passion, bravery, which were accompanied with smell of food. That was the first time i have seen people as they are, not as they are pretending to be in order to impress tourist. Caruso, love for beautiful women, food and paved streets made me fell in love with that city, and most of all understand that the soul of the people can be found only in such a smaller places where people do not have to sell their behavior, but rather simply react as they are.