“The word for a scraping in Italian is graffito,” explained our guide. “Here at Pompeii,” he continued, “on the facades of the buildings and the columns of the forum, you see remains of scrapings made by the ancient Romans who lived here.”
A few summers ago, Lief and I took an extended tour of Europe… including a stop at Pompeii where we met the guide who explained the origin of the word “graffiti.” As he did so, he pointed to two examples, one red, the other yellow, still clear, bright, and complete, “scraped” some 2,000 years ago on the front of what was then the home of one of Pompeii’s wealthiest residents.
“Those could have been the names of candidates in an upcoming election,” the guide suggested.
The people of Pompeii also scraped, on the outsides of their structures, word of events taking place in the marketplace and general alerts for the citizenry. We saw vestiges of these advertisements and notifications all over the ruined city. They were written carefully, artistically.
Graffiti is part of Italy’s cultural heritage and evident today in every Italian city. Hardly an exterior surface in Naples, for example, where we enjoyed dinner following our day out at the ruins, is unscraped. The effect, though, is not nearly as charming as that of the ancient scrapings at Pompeii.
I found little I’d qualify as charming in Naples. This is a crowded, dirty, polluted, noisy, smelly city where life is lived in the streets and in your face. Take care crossing the street and keep your wits about you. The drivers won’t slow down to avoid colliding with you, and the pickpockets are well practiced at identifying distracted tourists.
In other words, I wouldn’t recommend Naples as a top retirement option.
Tuscany, on the other hand, is a retirement dream for many. After Naples, that was our next stop. Driving through the hills in the direction of Florence, we passed olive, cypress, and pine trees, mature vineyards, fields of sunflowers, and classic Tuscan-style, ochre-colored homes.
Quintessential Tuscany… for many, the definition of beautiful countryside. And I’m not saying it’s not.
But I’ll take the French countryside any day. It’s the architecture, I realized this visit a few summers ago, and the palette. The buildings of Tuscany are square and indelicate, and the color schemes, both of the structures, which are brown and terracotta, and of the gardens, which are simply green, are limited.
“Italian gardens feature shrubs and hedges,” a resident of Florence explained to us over lunch. “They can be elaborate and complex, but they are all about plants and trees. It was the French and the British who added flowers to their gardens,” our new friend continued.
From Tuscany, we continued on to Provence.
I’d wondered in Greece, where we’d spent time before Italy, what had become of the fathers of classic architecture. They built ancient Athens and then seemed to disappear from the Grecian landscape. I’d say they all relocated to France.
In 600 BC, the Greeks founded Marseilles, the oldest city in France and one of the oldest in Europe. By the 1800s, Marseilles was the leading resort destination along this coast. Today it’s a busy, lively, bustling, tidy port town that glistens white in the summer sun. No graffiti here.
Over the centuries, the French added flowers to the gardens and, we observed, balconies of ornately wrought iron to the buildings. The overall effect is inviting, welcoming, and engaging; the picture from afar clean, calming, and colorful.
“I’ll tell you one thing I definitely prefer in Italy,” Lief remarked when the bill arrived for lunch in Marseilles. “The prices. No question—France is more expensive. Italy could be the cheapest destination in Western Europe right now.”
No, Provence isn’t what you’d call a budget destination… but, as Lief pointed out, parts of Italy can be. Our resident Italian expert Monia Di Guilmi will be revealing specifically where you can enjoy the best of Italian country life even on a modest budget during our Live and Invest in Europe Virtual Conference later this month.
She and I can pick up this Italy versus France discussion there…
Sincerely,
Kathleen Peddicord
Founding Publisher, Overseas Opportunity Letter
