Comments on: Local, how local can you be?

By: max191

max191 — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:18:47 +0000

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regards
charcoal grill

By: Isis

Isis — Sun, 24 May 2009 16:10:38 +0000

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Rina

By: John

John — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 14:58:05 +0000

The inconsistency is something you need to adapt to and work with. And thats not by any means easy. Another dimension of inconsistency, relates to time — time is understood in Italy as a uneven landscape — you think you understand what happening, and then just over the next peak is a huge drop. The most extreme example of these large cultural gaps was one that needs more space to explain, this short version wont do it justice. But let me try — there was someone who worked at the villa we lived in, he tended to the garden. He spent a day a week, or sometimes two days, working the garden. He also spent a fair amount of time in the garden just sitting and looking at the lake and the garden. After months we figured out that no one paid him. He tended to this garden because he loved it. I will write more about him and the garden at some point but all to say that while Italy can seem and feel very familiar — life there is profoundly different to the way we live here in the US.

By: mary hodder

mary hodder — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 02:28:34 +0000

I like how each restaurant or oseteria, cafe, bar, panneteria, has its own matches, napkins, cups and saucers, plates, little pieces of shear paper for putting on a plate with a roll, all with their brand printed on them. It’s such a big part of their identity. It feels like it’s how they know they are somewhere, verses our nowhere and everywhere brands. What is the difference if you eat at the Target cafe in Iowa or Florida? But Oseteria Castelvecchio.. there is only one, in Sienna. And it’s slow food. And there are only 8 tables. And the food is etherial. But you could never repeat it exactly. Good food is not scaleable. Italy isn’t scalable.

Local does mean inconsistent. When I was in Italy for a couple months (May through July) a couple of years ago, a friend asked if she could come for three weeks. I double checked that she was okay with traveling and variety, and inconsistency, and she assurred me that she was and had traveled through out Asia extensively. About 2 weeks into her stay, after seemly having a wonderful time, she totally broke down and cried. Everything we had was amazing and great, but inconsident. She just wanted to eat something where she knew what it would be before going into the establishment. And that’s impossible in Italy.

By: John

John — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 09:22:51 +0000

Yes, this maybe a component of community — living in NYC for so many years cut off this aspect of what local meant to me. Interesting slow food came from Italy — didnt know that — thks Nic

By: nic

nic — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 22:48:55 +0000

No wonder that the SLOW food movement that made it to the US several years ago originated in Italy in response to fast food and global pressures. SLOW is associated with higher quality (ie time and expense) and authenticity. Though, in the US, I tend to think of this more as a wistful longing for “locality” in reaction to a history of extreme mobility.

Intriguing thought as to how this may mirror future markets. Are you suggesting that the corollary to the creation of the “Italian-local-market” (a population that has stayed in one place for generations) in the online world going to be determined by the length of time of membership within the “local” online group?

Seems like many forums and trading groups have already taken on this structure complete with the requisite suspicion toward outsiders and new entrants.