It’s not everyone’s ideal, but sometimes it is mine.  To think of these things reminds me of Bra first of all, and how, after you’ve spent your life in other parts of the world going back to a place where this type of living is offered is a comforting thought.  I might add a good local market.

“In a small town, we don’t just want a congenial barber and a well stocked news stand.  We want professionally made coffee and a proper pizza.  We want a couple of streets to stroll down, an avenue to jog along, a pool to swim in and a cinema for a bit of entertainment.  We want a functioning courthouse, a reassuring hospital, a consoling church and an unintimidating cemetery.  We want a new university and an old theatre house.  We want football fields and town councillors we can pester in the bar.  We want to see the mountains beyond the level crossing when the weather’s good and the air is clear.  We want footsteps on cobbled streets in the night, yellow lights to tinge the mist and bell towers we can recognize from a distance.  We want doctors and lawyers who can translate abstract concepts into our dialect — my father can — and people with a kind word and a smile for everyone…We want all these things and in Crema we have them.”

By: Beppe Severgnini