Italy is My Favorite Country to Visit (Perhaps It's Because I Am Italian)

Buon Giorno…Prego…Amore…Mangia…Ciao… Just a few of the phrases you’ll hear as you travel in Italy.

Perhaps it’s because I am of Italian ethnicity but Italy is my favorite country to visit. Yes, it’s (usually) hot, maybe crowded, loud, a bit dusty and I don’t really understand the language much, but it’s “bellisimo!”

My family is from towns on the Italian Riviera about an hour from Genoa and near the towns of Rapallo and Portofino. In Portofino, my family and I took a glass bottom boat trip to see “Jesus Christ in the Sea.” It is a giant white cross – perhaps Jesus Christ was on the cross but I don’t recall - lying at the bottom of the ocean. On another day we visited the tiny hillside hamlet of Lorsica, where I watched young ladies balancing wrapped bundles of straw on their heads walking down the street. And, in this very poor community, there is a small but beautiful Catholic Church with magnificent stained glass windows and gold everywhere. Prominent over the altar is a list of contributors to the church building fund. Grandma proudly pointed out her father’s name, near the top of the list. This is where my grandmother lived as a little girl; the family lived upstairs and the first floor was a dirt floor where the animals stayed at night.

I remember the excitement of Venice and I never noticed the fading paint along the water line. St. Mark’s Square was beautiful and I remember shopping in the nearby shops and visiting the Murano Glass Factory. There wasn’t time to take a gondola ride so I must go back.