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Here’s what’s going on in my city.  Very proud of all affordable housing advocates and specialists dedicating their careers to keeping our cities affordable and liveable!

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So awesome

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The real reason we want entertaining spaces

According to a recent study out of UCLA, which I discovered via this Curbed article, American families tend to spend most of their time at home in informal, rather than formal, spaces. That means more time in the kitchen and family room, as opposed to in the living room and formal dining room. 

I’m sure this comes as no surprise to all of you. Was a study necessary? Maybe you even have plastic on the furniture in your formal rooms because, you know, they’re reserved for “entertaining.” The reason I mention this is because I thought it was funny how Kate Wagner describes this phenomenon in her Curbed article:

The ironic inefficiency of hyper-exaggerated high-end entertaining spaces belies a truth: These spaces aren’t really designed for entertaining. They’re designed for impressing others. And not just impressing others: After all, it’s general politeness to compliment a host on their home no matter how impressive it is. The real goal, deeply embedded in these oversized, over-elaborate houses, is not for guests to say, “Oh wow, this is nice,” but to make them think, “Oh wow, this is nicer than what I have and now I feel jealous and insecure.” In true American irony, these giant “social” spaces (and McMansions in general) are birthed from a deeply antisocial sentiment: making others feel small. Considering that so often our guests are members of our own family adds another layer of darkness to the equation.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Kate Wagner, she is the founder of McMansion Hell, which is a hilarious website dedicated to blasting McMansions. A pejorative term for houses that privilege raw size and the appearance of wealth over quality. Now that you know that, I am sure the above blurb makes a lot of sense.

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Here’s a sick new waterfront development in San Francisco and it’s got some pretty innovative urban design techniques included by Gehl.  

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Check out these cool projects going on in Saudi Arabia!  Thanks to @archpaper for these great article.

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Here’s a rad stadium doing cool things. It’s also located in Bijlmermeer, a sucessfully redeveloped area of Amsterdam that has done a 180 since a 1992 redevelopment plan.

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Thesis Abstract

Hey guys!  Here’s my thesis abstract I had to turn in for NYU’s Undergraduate Research Fund Conference I’ll be participating in at the end of the semester.  Enjoy!

Since 2000, Peru’s GDP has grown an average of 5.9% per year, increasing foreign investment as much as 21.8% annually (The World Bank, 2018).  This has put Peru’s capital city, Lima, on the global stage for economics and culture while it continues to absorb the majority of the benefits of the nation’s economic growth (U.S. Department of State, 2013).  Lima’s current economic growth follows its drastic changes in urban fabric, demographics and culture during the 20th century as large scale internal migrations added 9 million people to the capital in 60 years.  Lima is in need of urban solutions that keep up with the investment levels while also creating an efficient, livable, and sustainable city for its residents.  However, since present-day Lima functions distinctly from Euro-American cities, creating urban solutions are only possible by understanding the complex social, cultural, political, and economic processes unique to Peru (Myers, 2011).  This paper elucidates Lima’s urban distinctions by looking at key moments in Peru’s politics and economics that have shaped the culture and identity of Lima through the city’s two dominant themes of urbanization: urban elitism and primacy, and how these characteristics contributed to Lima’s development as a privatized city.  In conclusion, with these themes and their results in mind, the needs of Lima’s rapidly changing culture and its inhabitants’ social desires are brought to mind to question where the city is going and how Lima could plan for its future.

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Pueblo Joven

I peaked out the window of my great-grandma Oma’s Mercedes at the dusty cerros on my right as we cruised down the Carretera Panamericana Sur.  Someone had planted an incredibly organized forest of saplings on the side of this sand mountain.  “Maybe it was them,���  I thought as scattered hay shacks appeared over the crest.

I wriggled excitedly in my seat.  I couldn’t really put in to words why (it was only until I was older and I saw my passion for cities fuel my academics and career that I could define that excitement as knowing I was about to see a city in all its stages of development appear right before my eyes).  This was my favorite part of the trip.  The shacks started to appear in denser clusters while they also crept down the mountain side towards the highway.  We left the cerros behind.  At this point the buildings weren’t shacks anymore but full-on houses built out of concrete and wood. Every now and then you’d see a second or third story on a few houses.  Soon enough though all the houses had two or three stories.  Then, you’d see apartments dot the horizon until we were surrounded by them driving on a now eight-lane expressway. 

When we crossed the Surco District border not much changed, or so my five-year-old self thought.  As a college student I’d probably notice that the buildings had nicer paint coatings, the glass was shinier, or the cars that passed by were similar to the glossy sedans I’d see everyday back home in the U.S.  I only noticed differences though when we got off the Panamericana and turned down the tree-lined avenues of posh, walled homes with their white stucco walls and garnished wooden portones, all the while their trees and tiles roofs peaking over the walls.  I looked up. It was a typical, cloudy, Lima winter day.

This 30 minute ride on the south-side of Lima from my grandparents house in Lurin to my Oma’s in Surco was an everyday ritual on my trips to Peru as a toddler.  I didn’t realize though that a mundane commute at this age would inspire my passion of understanding how cities work.  I remember on these trips always asking myself why Lima was like this:  how did these “slums” pop up while there seemed to be a “normal” city teeming right next to them?

That normal city though was normal for me, having been born and raised in the U.S. by a Peruvian family, each member having been born and raised in the traditionally planned Lima of Miraflores, Surco, San Isidro, and La Molina.  It was only until recently that I’ve realized that the normal urban experience for most Peruvians are these “slums” - a.k.a. pueblos jovenes in Peru - but, most importantly, that these slums aren’t even slums.  The majority are probably just informal settlements, part of peripheral urbanization so common in cities around the world today.

What this peripheral urbanization is like in Lima is what my thesis will analyze, through a historical and ethnographical lens.  My goal is to identify and examine urban processes within the specific context of Lima in order to better understand the factors influencing the city, its identity, and its character. 

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Why my Thesis Topic matters

My thesis will analyze peripheral urbanization in Lima, Peru through a historical and ethnographical lens on one of the Peruvian capital’s informal settlements.  My goal is to identify and examine urban processes within the specific context of Lima in order to better understand the factors influencing the city and its identity and character.  My theoretical and methodological approaches are inspired by Garth Myers’ African Cities: Alternative Visions for African Urban Theory and Teresa PR Caldeira’s “Peripheral Urbanization: Autoconstruction, transversal logics, and politics in cities of the global south”.

With Myers I am interested in applying both theoretical and methodological approaches to my research, particularly from his claim that African cities are challenging “prevailing theories and models of urban geography, sociology, anthropology, and planning” (Myers p.1).  Myers’ first key point is that Euro-American planning theory and practice have been imposed on African cities without regarding the African condition: the economic, social, political, and cultural processes shaping African cities, which he identifies are developing much differently than those in the western world (Myers p.9).  For Myers, African cities therefore have different needs than western cities, and so too do other cities around the world, requiring planning practice and policy based on context and specific circumstances.  Second, Myers believes that attention to the urbanism of African cities can contribute to wider urban theory for all cities, both in the global north or the global south (Myers p.42).  By integrating global perspectives, Myers aims to develop a more inclusive urban theory, maintaining that there is no reason why African (urban) studies must categorically reject Western urban theory” (Myers p.26) despite the differences between Euro-American and African urbanisms.

In researching the political, economic, historical, and cultural processes specific to Lima, I hope to extend Myers’ approach to understand the Peruvian conditions of urbanization by drawing from his theories on African urbanization, specifically with regards to informality, accepting his invitation of using the unique urban experiences of African cities to contribute to wider urban theory for all cities, whether in the global north or the global south (Myers, p.42).  I will also do this by using Caldeira specifically for theoretical inspiration by drawing from her research on how politics, economics, and culture contribute to and are affected by peripheral urbanization.  My end goal is to suggest planning solutions beyond Euro-American theory that can contribute to study of urbanism in general and to Lima’s urban literature so as to be useful to scholars, planners, and politicians dealing with Lima, Latin America, and the global south.

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Mads Kjaer from the Copenhagen-based non-profit, Gehl - Making Cities for People, shares an intriguing blog post on rooftops' potential for integration with the public sphere.  As cities rapidly densify and grow taller, thinking about how we can utilize rooftops to increase quality of life for all citizens should be a major concern of real estate investors, planners, designers, and politicians world-wide.

If you don't know much about Gehl, definitely check them out!  They do incredible work in researching how to make cities more people oriented so as to better inform stakeholders in any city's planning and design process.

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Foodie and urban planner unite (yay): super cool podcast on food's changing nature and it's possible implications on cities and culture in general!

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Redesigning Florence

Being an urban planning student I’ve been asked multiple times by Italians and Americans here how I would redesign Florence.  To us Americans we may think why there should even be a reason to redesign this picturesque city with its even roofline, famous landmarks,  particular architecture, and lively street life.  However, once you start ingraining yourself in Italian culture you slowly start to hear how comparable Florentine traffic is to Milanese and Roman gridlock.  

And once you move here you see it.  For a city of only 300,000 the gridlock is on par with Atlanta’s or D.C.’s, some of America’s worst traffic cities.  Here’s a photo of Florentine traffic (firenzetoday.it)

Compared to Milanese traffic. (controradio.it)

Remember that Milan has a population 10 times the size of Florence’s.

Before I begin, what’s key to my viewpoint is not so much redesigning but about retrofitting Florence.  Redesigning implies razing what’s present to the ground and building it up from scratch whereas retrofitting is more about fitting new systems into what is already present - i.e. the majority of what planners are taught in planning school.

Living with Florentines is the best way to get the daily scoop on the state of the city’s transportation situation.  My host mom has mentioned that what takes 5 minutes in car without traffic will take you an hour during rush hour.  AN HOUR. Parking is another thing.  It’s also taken my host family an hour to find a parking spot.  Yes again, AN HOUR.  Honestly this is something unprecedented that I’ve never seen or heard of before in a city of this size.

(typical parking situation in Florence)

With regards to parking, my host family has also told me that Florence is one of the only Italian cities where cars are used more so the get around the historic center, main station, and inner suburbs.  To avoid traffic, Italian cities usually build huge underground parking complexes near transportation arteries (bus or trams mainly) and limit the cars that can go in the afore mentioned areas (usually by license plate number) encouraging people to use public transit, therefore decongesting the city.   Florence doesn’t have this parking system though and since the majority of Florentines in the center use cars there’s a huge parking demand.

You may be thinking why doesn’t Florence just expand its roads.  Well, if you do you destroy precious buildings, history, and culture, ruining a city’s character.  And this is definitely important in Italy because urban character is of major importance to one of the nation's largest industries - tourism.  And even if you did expand the roads like we do in America it wouldn’t solve the problem.  It would just increase the car volume that can move through the city, encouraging more people to rely on cars.  Here’s a link to a study done on how widening roads actually increases traffic.

http://www.npr.org/2011/07/09/137708751/more-roads-may-pave-way-to-more-traffic

Based on my two years in school, I’ve noticed that planners today therefore are focusing more and more on planning for the person, not the car, by planning  bus or train lines instead of highway construction, or retrofitting bike lanes, sidewalks, and street trees instead of street expansion.  This then encourages people to travel shorter distances, localizing jobs instead of encouraging people to traverse a whole metropolitan area during their commute.  In the US this localizing idea is more “pie in the sky” (even though it shouldn’t be because it leads to the above issues) because of a more capitalistic market force that shapes our cities, but in Europe it’s easier to do because of previously existing urban fabrics.

Florence as a whole is very bikeable and walkable since it’s so dense, but alternative transportation infrastructure is few and far between and mainly composed of inefficient and uncomprehensive bus lines which get trapped in the traffic.  FAIL.  Also, safety-wise it would be a mess to bike from the burbs to the center.  However, my visit to Bologna earlier this semester gave me the opportunity to see a comprehensive biking system that covered the whole city and particularly in a way that encouraged biking - multiple green ways bypassed roads altogether to connect apartment complexes and work places by snaking through parks and open/unused city spaces.  

(Below: One of Bologna’s many greenways retrofitted inside an avenue’s median.  Even though traffic whizzes by you, you still feel safe because speed limits are lower than in the U.S. and you have a wall of trees as a cushion between you and the cars)

Just this itself could calm much traffic because a bike, like a car, let’s one localize trips.  Many people don’t use public transit because it doesn’t take you directly from point A to point B, but bikes make transit more convenient.  With a bike one could go quickly to a bus stop that’s maybe a mile away and take the bus to work instead of taking a car down the same road as a bus.  

This could definitely help remove car users in the center city and inner suburbs, but, since Florence is much larger than Bologna one would need to incorporate some form of rail along major avenues to encourage people living farther out to get out of the car and on their feet.  Rail can bypass traffic altogether, moving people faster through a city.  Thankfully a tram system is finally being incorporated into Florence’s city grid, which my host family has said has already greatly reduced traffic in the areas it reaches.  

(Tramvia map - toscanaoggi.it)

Unfortunately I don’t have the time to fully explain the issues tram construction has caused here, but to keep it short, if city officials had planned well enough, tram construction could have barely disrupted Florence’s traffic flow.  Instead it’s lead to an incredible number of standstills (the epitome of Italian political inefficiency). 

All in all, Florence can greatly decongest itself while keeping its prized possession - it’s stunning Renaissance center and calm, residential character.  How to keep this though should based on a pedestrian-focused transit system that requires retrofitting biking infrastructure and arterial transit lines to create the centric-peripheral connection.  Based on how things are going though we’ll see what Florence will become.  

Sources:

Ponte A Ema: Caos E Code per Tubo Rotto. 2016. Firenze. Controradio.it. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

Firenze Fra Le Citta Piu Congestionate. 2015. Firenze. Firenzetoday.it. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

Tramvia di Firenze. 2015. Firenze. Toscanaoggi.it. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

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Ragazzi & Italian Social Life

Honestly I envy Italian ragazzi's lifestyle.  Before I explain why lemme say what ragazzi even are.  It's plural for ragazzo which, in Italy, means teenager. However, it's a loose definition because it's also used to say my boyfriend/girlfriend (il mio ragazzo/ la mia ragazza), and also encompasses tweens to 40 yr old bachelors and bachelorettes.  Here when I say ragazzo I mean high schoolers to 25 year olds.

Here's why I envy them:

Having gone out at night in Bologna and Florence, and having watched Italian movies on teenage life ("Notte Proma degli Essami" & "Lo Più Meglio della Giuventù") Italian teens’ social life seems to start earlier and develop faster (and therefore creates stronger bonds) as compared to Americans. One attribute is obviously the culture of being around friends and family, but I’d also attribute it to the layout of Italian cities.

Because cities are so walkable, ragazzi get out-and-about by the time a social life becomes important (about 6th grade), whereas us American teens are limited to the safety of our friend’s backyards or neighborhood pools until we can drive.  And since these ragazzi are hanging in a city, as opposed to a secluded suburb, they travel in packs for safety.  I'd  also attribute Italians' "pack" mentality to their regular hanging with family since birth basically.  It's what Italians do and the two seem to feed off of each other to make hanging in groups a quintessential part of the Italian lifestyle.  Another thing that convinces me that city density affects teenage social life is that this pack mentality is something I've also seen among NYC’s teens.  In this sense (and many others I can't name because of the time and space I have to write this post) I find more of a similarity between New York’s highschoolers and Italy's ragazzi than the former with other American teens.  

Sorry for the blurry photo but I took it as I was walking by.  Here’s some Italian ragazzi for ya

Now I have a feeling you've noticed that even suburban Americans travel in packs, BUT they travel in packs once they are at the destination.  In my social life in NYC and Florence (even though with American friends) you travel as a pack to the destination. This creates MUCH stronger bonds between people because  you are interacting while being attentive to each other's safety.   Italian bonds are on steroids though because the culture is used to being more open and attentive since family is a staple to the culture.

Italian friends become so close knit that the pack seems to stay close as they grow (i.e. for FerroAgosto – Italian holiday – our host family got together with 65 other friends… 65!!!!!!!)  I think this photo of 10+ 70 year old Italian men chilling at a cafe is a good explanation of what I’m trying to say.  In an ordinary American town it’s rare to see a cafe by the river let alone such a large group of older men hanging out like this. 

Obviously, also attributing to ragazzi social life is that they have more to do. 1) the legal age to drink and get into clubs is 18, not 21; and 2) public spaces also seem safer.  Regarding the later, since they've been a continual cultural aspect in Italy since Roman times - as compared to Americans hanging in private yards - there's less stereotypes of and more of a realistic view of what you'd find on city streets and public parks.  What's super intriguing about Italian public spaces and social life is that you know which piazzas to go to and which not to go to based on your age group and what you want to do.  It would be like knowing which high school party to go to based on what you're looking for.   In Florence, Piazza della Republica is for high schoolers and college students who just wanna loiter at night. Santa Croce is specifically for 18 + ragazzi that want to drink.  Santo Spirito is where you go for drugs (Hashish and weed mainly) or to a really hip bar until 5am or before dancing at a club.

I’m irked that it’s blurry but this is a good photo: a group of Italian ragazzi sitting by the water while listening to tropical house and having some drinks.

It’s a completely different youth culture.  So interesting and to be honest, this style of teenage life is on point.

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ITALIA  Y  PERU

For the past month I’ve been in Italy, this great country has reminded me a lot of Peru.  I guess you could say it’s partly because of the Italian twist my Genovese family has given my Peruvian experiences, but it’s also the little things I’ve noticed that bring back memories of that enchanted land of llamas, mystical mountains, and panpipes (not stereotypical at all).

Family has such a strong hold on both societies.  Every day the immediate family eats at least a meal all together at a table and it usually lasts minimum 30 minutes on a weekday.  On a weekend the extended family is bound to cook up a feast that can stretch into a whole day’s event when it wants to.  This, I’ve noticed, keeps the family bond between siblings and cousins strong past childhood because, with my cousins and me, we end up spending so much time together at crazy long meals and parties that we find (waaaay too) adventurous ways to entertain ourselves.  Once these generations start to grow I’ve noticed that their bond is so strong that their regular (bi-monthly) get-togethers become natural.  

The cities’ characters are also similar.  I would definitely say the crazy driving habits in both countries are very comparable, but it’s also the bakeries and mom-and-pop stores every few corners, the shaded parks where one can just lounge, and the density of the cities which leads to that regular, loud rumbling of buses and trucks that make Italian cities a reminder of Peruvian ones.  Even the air smells similar (American air has a different smell.  I can’t pinpoint it).  Then there are those quiet, residential streets, but not the quiet suburban streets you find in American subdivisions.  They’re those streets literally right next to the busiest viales and avenidas giving you a faint sense of connection to the city.  Lined with massive trees and alternating Mediterranean-style houses with mid-rise apartments, the cities in Peru and Italy aren’t cookie-cutter.  Each building, and therefore each neighborhood, has a unique style.  It makes even the calmest form of city-living an adventure.  

The countryside here even reminds me of Peru’s, specifically those irrigated valleys along the Peruvian coast like the Pachacamac, Mala, and Caral.  Both of the countries’ rural regions are blocked with multiple shades of green and brown while shrubby fence lines and hedges demark property lines.  Houses and barns dot these fields with the occasional village sprouting atop hilltops. Every so often you see livestock roaming around, adding a peculiar noise and stench to the landscape.  The only difference, I would say, is that Italy has more houses and villages clustered within its fields.  Obviously as an urban planning student, I’d definitely attribute the respective countryside’s’ similarities to density because even though Peru is four times the size of Italy (1.3 million sq. km vs 300K sq. km according to land mass data from mongabay.com), only 2.8% of Peru is arable as compared to 23% of Italy (tradingeconomics.com).  In both countries every ounce of farm counts!

Then there’s the food. Both countries are world renown for their unique cuisines which, as I said, are their staple for bringing families together.  FOOD IS PARAMOUNT.  But the Italian food that reminds me the most of Peru are Italy’s pastries and breads.  Many Italians are accustomed to having a pastry with their coffee for breakfast and buying fresh bread every day to make panini or eat with dinner.  This means there’s regular trips to the bakery just like I remember in Peru.  Also, since Italians don’t like their cakes too sweet and they like ‘em fresh it gives the cakes this unique texture and flavor I have only found in Limeno pastries. My host mom’s torta di mela (apple cake) was a prime example: when I took the first bite it transported me back to going to Bondi or El San Antonio in Lima for desayuno or lonche, or having someone bring pastelitos for their afternoon visit to my grandparents’ house.  

Even though I’m thousands of miles on the other side of the Atlantic, experiencing these and the many other similarities between the two cultures make me feel right at home. Sure there’s the occasional home sickness that comes from missing my amazing family and friends, but I’m so thankful for these similarities because they’re one of the things here that keep me going.  

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The Smallest Bus EVER

When I arrived in Florence I started seeing these guys everywhere

And I was like what the heck.

But, after looking at their specific routes I realized they're the only buses that go through the historic district. That's because they're the only ones that can fit in the area's teeny streets and take the super tight turns without hitting the building walls. Here's a photo of my roomie, who's 6'5", inside one of these things. Not happy.  But he’s definitely not your average height so it doesn’t matter.  I just thought his misery was funny.

I applaud Italian planners who really have to exercise ingenuity.

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Venezia

All of the following photos were taken by yours truly  :)

Since this is an urban planning blog I guess I should mention my visit to this place.

I had low expectations for it.  Weird, right? Especially since when you think of Italy your mind immediately thinks “pasta, pizza, Rome, Venice”.  Am I right?  Maybe? ...Um... ok moving on.

Venice being such a huge destination is precisely why I didn’t want to go there, especially in early September when tourist crowds are still high and there is still the threat of heat spikes.  These reasons, coupled with the amusement-park-esque (i.e. unauthentic) feel that major tourist destinations create, and what I’d heard were stinky canals were not my idea of an ideal get away.

I went with a group of seven other friends (SEVEN) and arrived in the pouring rain around lunch time.  What fun.

In our search for a good restaurant we wandered 30 minutes through an industrial complex (the last place I thought I’d see in Venice) and we ended up where we started.  But, I’m so thankful for this crew though because we immediately laughed it off even though we were soaked.

I grew to like our cozy hostel which was 30 minutes out on the mainland.  Our bungalows at Camping Serenissima (what a name) were basically furnished shipping containers.  Even knowing Italian I could barely understand the owners who spoke with an incredibly thick Venetian accent.  We definitely made the best of it though and I really really grew to like the place!

It was 3:30 by the time we headed back to Venice to do some sightseeing, but being the American college students we are we got lost.  Yay!  What was supposed to be 30 minutes turned into 1.5 HOURS.  what.  First the bus took forever to come.  When it did we were so ready to be done with waiting that we got on the wrong bus.  Being the urban planner of the group I noticed this only because I was soaking in every difference of these suburbs with those I’d seen in the rest of Italy.  When we started passing the expressway leading into the city and then the Mestre train station I thought “ok we done messed up”.  By the time we got off the bus though we were on the east side of the suburbs.  Then we had to wait for a bus that would take us to another bus which would take us into the city.  The perk though was that by the time we got into the city the beautiful blue sky decided to show its face and made for the following stunning photos:

To top off what seemed like a “day fail”, one of my friends fell into a canal.  Phone and all.  It was epic.

The following days were gorgeous with clear skies, 75 degrees, and a light breeze.  The architecture was something I’d never seen before.  It was definitely Italian, with its red-tiled roofs and stucco walls that were partially chipped to expose red brick and warped wood.

But since Venice was arguably the naval and economic power of the late middle ages it had more contact with Constantinople and the Arab world than other Italian and European city states.  There’s an incredibly strong Byzantine character in the windows, bright colors, delicate cornice ornamentation, and gaudy exteriors.

The capstone of Byzantine influence is definitely seen in the San Marco Cathedral’s domes, reminiscent of Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia.

( v The church in the foreground with the funky domes).

Here’s some photos of the interior that I took while attending mass.  The domes are completely covered in gold mosaics and the interior art looks like what you would find in Greek orthodox churches. Going to mass there was a crazy fluke by the way!  My friends were headed to a museum but we missed our vaporetto stop and ended up right by one of the world’s most famous cathedrals right before mass started.  One man’s trash (ma frenz’ day being messed up) is another man’s treasure ( v )

(Hi)

We also went to the island town of Murano, basically a mini Venice, just forty minutes away in the city’s vaporetti (water busses).  Along the way, while cruising through the azure Venetian lagoon and seeing the mass of opulent apartments, villas, and churches spread out in the distance, the beauty of this place finally hit me.  It made me think, if I am this astounded with what I am seeing, how much more stunning and alien did this place look to merchants coming in from the Far East on their last leg of the Silk Road, to sailors arriving from the Arab world of the Middle East and North Africa, or to farmers arriving from western and northern Europe or even the adjacent Venetian countryside.

(Here’s the vista I was pondering)

It also made me realize the importance of building aesthetically appealing cities (Venice is an anomaly but we can dream right).  It brings you so much peace of mind, especially when the day gets hectic and you feel overwhelmed.  Stuff like this inspires me more and more to dedicate my career as a planner and Urban Design student to building cities where people’s quality of life can increase even by the smallest elements.

Even though I felt a little dubious about Venice at first I definitely recommend visiting! Like all other Italian cities, try to visit around fall or spring when there are less tourists and when the weather is much more pleasant. Also, sure do the Rialto bridge and St. Marks Square, but don’t forget to get lost in the winding alleyways of the Cannaregio and Dorsoduro neighborhoods in search of local food and nightlife.  Do something adventurous like kayak or paddle board the canals.  Get off the beaten track because that’s how you’ll truly experience any city.

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LOSER

“She was lookin kind of dumb with her finger and her thumb in the shape of an ‘L’ on her forehead”

-  “Allstar” by Smashmouth

Every American knows this 90’s hit and knows what to do when this lyric pops up – the universal “LOSER” sign… or so I thought it was universal.  

Yesterday at dinner my Italian “cousin”, Alissa, made fun of me so I pointed this sign at her, because that’s what I always do when people make fun of me.  When she asked what that meant though it caught me off guard.  I’d always assumed it was a universal sign until I realized that the word “loser” doesn’t exist in the Italian language (DUH JUAN).   To make it more interesting, if you make the “loser” sign and twist your wrist, it becomes one of Italy’s most used gesticulations meaning “there’s nothing here”.

Weird things I feel you’d only experience in Italia