What I Miss About Italy

We’ve now been back in the US for 2 1/2 years.

In some respects, these 2 years have felt like forever. In other ways, it still feels like we just got here.

Much joy has been had, along with many trials. From new babies to hard-to-swallow health diagnoses, new jobs, new adjustments, new living spaces. Enjoying family, enjoying seasons.

Most of my time is very busy, taking care of three young children. In the quiet moments (that’s called nap time!), sometimes I take time to reflect. I’m grateful for where I am, and I’m also grateful for the time I spent in Italy.

To be honest, there are a lot of things I don’t miss about Italy, but no country is perfect, and what follows are some of the little things, and bigger things, that I miss about living in Italy. The things that make my heart happy when I think back on them.

What I Miss About Italy

Walking Everywhere

I love walking. I don’t love driving. I love the exercise, I like the ease of being able to walk out the door and not have to worry about car keys, I love being able to go anywhere just with my own two feet. I love not having to worry about parking, or gas. I loved being able to walk out my door and go get a morning pastry and cappuccino in a matter of minutes. I like being able to step out my door and just…walk, as far as I want. I liked the slowness of it, having time to observe the Italian scenes, the intricate and interesting buildings, the Christmas lights, everything.

I never owned a car in Italy, only rode a bike a couple times, but solely relied on my own two feet, buses, and trains. I know, buses and trains and transportation in Italy in general is unreliable, but it was there and affordable when my two feet couldn’t take me where I needed to be. I loved that I could get most places, even a vacation, without ever having to use a car. No worries about where to park or how much you’d be paying, car insurance, and all those fun things.

I miss the freedom of walking!

Pastries for breakfast e’er day!

I love sweets, and starting my day out with a sweet pastry and coffee was really my er, cup of tea. In a weird sort of way, sweets first thing seemed to satisfy my sweet tooth, so I found myself actually eating less and desiring sugar less throughout the day.

Panettone Season

I loovveeee panettone. See point above about sweets. Sweet, tall bread with various fruits and add-ins. Chantilly cream. Chocolate cream. Chocolate chips. Candied fruits. And for as cheap as €3 or €4 for 1kg loaves! I loved when October would come around and I would start seeing the first panettone in the stores. I would often eat panettone for breakfast at home in November and December. So festive!

Have you had panettone? You can find them on Amazon for decent prices, like this classic one!

The Christmas Lights

Christmas is my favorite time of the year, not matter where I am. Christmas trees and Christmas lights bring out the inner child/Elf in me. I feel gleeful when I see them. Florence, and most other Italian cities, have fabulous Christmas lights. They hang them up in many streets, they have small Christmas trees, they have large Christmas trees, and they love to load them with Christmas lights. It’s one of my favorite things, walking down all the streets under the lights, walking by the piazzas with the sparkling trees. It’s Christmas magic. Via Tornabuoni is always a show-stopper, and always a favorite. Every year it’s a little different, a little bit better.

Good Gelato

Sure, you can find gelato here and there in America, but it doesn’t count if it’s in the freezer section in a store. Yes, I like Talenti, but it’s not the same. I once had good gelato in Washington D.C., and my hometown briefly had a really decent little gelato store, but it was only open for a few seasons. Sad.

In Italy, and especially Florence which is considered the “birthplace” of gelato, good gelato is quite easy to find. Don’t be fooled, there is a ton of bad gelato too, but you just have to have a bit of discernment and it’s hard to go wrong. The servings aren’t overly large, unless you get a “grande”, but a generic small 2euro cone I always thought was the perfect amount without being overly indulgent. It becomes much more justifiable to eat not-huge cones of gelato a couple times a week than it is huge American cones…right? :)

If you’re visiting Florence, Italy, and want to find some authentic, house-made, GOOD gelato, check out my guide here!

The Shopping

I come from a smaller town that does not have fabulous shopping. Our options tend to be big box stores like Target, expensive boutiques downtown, or shopping online.

Florence has good shopping. They have a nice range of small, local boutiques, affordable “fast-fashion” like Mango, Zara, H&M, and higher end luxury shopping, with lots in between.

the old top floor of la rinascente before they remodeled

Twice-a-Year Sales

Speaking of shopping, I love the simplicity of Italian sales. The big ones happen twice year, starting in January and July. It’s almost across the board with all stores, all merchandise from the current season making way for the incoming season. The first week some stores may start off at 30% off, but usually by the second week everything on sale is 50%. I learned to only buy clothes, when I could, during the sales. Why pay full price for something in December that will soon be 50% off in January? The sales usually last for about 2 months, but if you want the good stuff, go in the first week or two. By the end of the sales, merchandise can go up to 70% off, sometimes with additional discounts on top of that.

A few years ago some stores in Italy started to catch on to the big “Black Friday” that happens in the USA, which can also get you some good sales, but usually not quite as big as in the US. I prefer to wait for the two big sales of the year.

Personal Pizza

I’m not here to bash American pizza and say Italian pizza is best, because honestly, I view them in separate categories. They can be so different, I don’t always see it as fair to compare them. They are each delicious in their own right, if made well. I’ve had bad, and great, pizza in both countries. But the “great” pizza in each country looked quite different.

I do miss Italian pizza. There are very, very few pizzas, if any? anywhere near where I live that compare to a good Neapolitan-style, fluffy crust pizza. So yes, I miss that chewy, steamy crust, simple and high-quality minimalist ingredients.

Do you know what else I miss? That in Italy it’s customary to order your own pizza. Pizzas are smaller, 12 inches maybe? So it can still be challenging to eat your whole pizza if you’re not ravenous, but the glorious fun is you get to choose what kind of pizza you want every time, no sharing necessary.

My top pizza choices were usually:

the classic Margherita (tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, sometimes mozzarella di bufala as an option!!, and fresh basil)
Ortolana (tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, grilled zucchini, grilled eggplant, marinated bell peppers, sometimes I would add on smoked scamorza)
Quattro Formaggi (four cheese pizza, usually a blend of mozzarella, parmigiano, fontina, and Gorgonzola, I like it when they use a tomato sauce, but this pizza often comes without)
Caprese (fresh mozzarella, fresh cherry tomatoes, fresh basil)
and sometimes:
Marinara (very simple pizza, just tomato sauce, garlic, oregano, and a sprinkling of parmigiano and olive oil)
Tonno e Cipolla (tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, tuna, onion - yes, am I letting my weird side show? haha)

If you haven’t been to Italy you might be thinking, don’t they ever put meat on their pizzas?? The answer is yes, they certainly do, but I really love their vegetarian pizzas, apparently! They use various kinds of cured meats, one of my favorites would be salame piccante, a spicy cured meat similar to pepperoni, featured on the “Diavola” pizza.

Holiday Festivity

Human beings love holidays and excuses to celebrate (and days off), and Italians are no exceptions! In fact, it feels like every few days there is some holiday that has the post offices and stores closed, grocery stores closing early, and buses running on an (even more) irregular schedule.

One of the best things about walking everywhere is how much more a part of the city and culture I feel. On holidays, you see everyone out and about with good cheer, the pasticcerie extra full while people buy a caffè for a friend or pick up a special cake, and walking to get to their big midday festive meal. While the big holidays like Christmas and Easter are of course my favorites, I also appreciate the smaller holidays that are still observed with flair. I love Palm Sunday and all the people carrying their palm (actually olive) branches around, and International Women’s Day (March 8) with women being gifted small bouquets of mimosas, or picking up littles cakes decorated to look like a mimosa. I also love December 8th, The Immaculate Conception, which is also a big holiday in Italy. There is a parade through the city center, and the giant Christmas tree in Piazza Duomo is lit. Involving Christmas and Christmas lights, I of course, love it.

It’s the little things that bring spots of joy into the day!

If you’d like to read more about Italian Holidays, what they mean and how they might be celebrated, click here!

Parades All the Time

Going off of the holiday festivity above, I always loved going into the city center and stumbling upon crowds of people stopped to watch a procession or show. It felt like every time I went into the city there was some obscure holiday I had forgotten about, but that the Italians felt needed a parade, flags, and traditional Renaissance garb to celebrate. Seriously, so many parades, flag throwing, horses, drums and horns.

If there wasn’t a parade, then there was always something else to watch, like street performers. Never a dull moment!

Parade in front of the duomo on Befana (january 6th), where the wisemen go to see baby jesus

Very Good Wine for Very Good Prices

Of course a list about the good things in Italy couldn’t go by without a mention of wine, right??

Some of my favorite wines are Italian, not sure if I’m just most familiar with Italian wines or Italian wines really truly are superior. Either way, it’s a definite perk living in a country with excellent wine for affordable prices. Who sells wine for €2 a bottle?? Of course, I’m not saying that wine is worth buying, but still. €2. And then some really really nice wines, some excellent chiantis or Montepulcianos, for around €15? A Brunello for €20? I’m not complaining.

a selection of wines, olive oils, and balsamic vinegars at the mercato centrale

The All-You-Can-Eat Sushi

I’m not entirely sure why, but all of the sushi restaurants around Florence (and there are a good number) are always an all-you-can-eat formula. And honestly, it was one of the best things. While it means you might be paying more per person than your average night out in Florence, it’s absolutely worth it! Do you know how giddy I felt sitting down in Aji Tei (my favorite sushi place in Florence) and being able to order anything and everything I want, all for €30?? Yes. Very giddy. And not just sushi, but sushi cones, soups, desserts…only drinks excluded. Especially now, post-Covid and post-inflation, that feels like a steal. Especially especially since even at that time in the States that’s about what you’d pay for two rolls of sushi! Of course, at the time, this was still very much a splurge for us, birthday or anniversary dinner, maybe. For perspective, eating out in Florence can be as cheap as a €7 margherita pizza per person, or maybe a more “average” expenditure would be a plate of pasta in a ristorante for €15 per person. When that’s more the normal, maybe you can see where suddenly 2x or 4x the expense per person becomes a splurge. But oh, what a great concept. Endless rounds of sushi. Take me back.

the first of many orders of all-you-can-eat sushi at Aji tei

The Blossoming Jasmine in the Spring

I’m pretty sure it’s jasmine, anyway? All over Florence, beginning in March, all of those green hedges everywhere suddenly get thousands of white buds that bloom into these glorious little white flowers. Not only are they pretty, but you can smell them long before you see them!

I was never much a fan of artificial jasmine scents and perfumes growing up, but I guess that’s because they pale in comparison to the fresh, real flower. OH MY do they smell good. Do you like peonies? Or a David Austen rose? Then you would love jasmine. It rivals these, if not more pungent and beautiful. I could never get enough of it walking around Florence in the spring time!

Mercati Everywhere

It seems that every weekend in Florence there is a different market, in a different piazza. And this is true! I actually found the schedule after so many years in Florence, it wasn’t random, ha! Some would pop up every second Sunday of the month, some were annual, some are daily. I loved always stumbling upon a new one and discovering new treasures!

Don’t forget of course, the staple mercati for food, Mercato Centrale and Mercato di Sant’Ambrogio for your daily produce!