Ciao, America!: An Italian Discovers the U.S.

This book was a fantastic read for any American planning on traveling to another country. It was fascinating to see what America is like to a person from another country, but the thing that I enjoyed and found most helpful was the fact that I was reading about an experience of a person that was going to be going through the same type of experience that I will soon be going through. It allowed me to see the perspective of a person that was in the country that I am most familiar with. When filling out applications to the program, I was to answer certain questions about things I may encounter when in Italy, things that may see trivial to anyone that lives in Italy or has experienced the culture, but I found myself slightly overwhelmed. Severgnini, similarly wrote about issues where to me, seemed like common sense knowledge however, he got himself into frustrating situations. He talks about issues such as getting settled, buying a unfurnished and not so nice apartment from looking through ads, to setting up telephones and even getting a car. I found it funny and a little bit distasteful in the sense that they talked very poorly about baseball games and clearly the food in America, the types of food and people that he encounters at restaurants that all Americans have predispositions about was very funny to say the least. Seeing our culture through another pair of eyes made for a very humorous and helpful book. I will try my best to not be so quick to judge and "jump" at certain situations while I'm thrust into the Italian culture. Anyone planning to travel abroad should read this book!