Day 45 - Impressions of France & Italy

Here are some of my impressions of France and Italy:

France

France is a pretty big country but does not have a lot of big cities. There is a lot of farm land and little towns that all seem to have a tall church steeple. It's generally a very attractive-looking country. The north has low rolling hills and is incredibly hazy. The south has steep mountains and a beautiful coast. It's a little warmer and sunnier than England, especially toward the south.

Positive: Excellent train system, nice architecture, smaller towns are in good shape, good English speakers in Paris and Marseille, most people are at least somewhat friendly and helpful, tons of cute girls, great fries, food cheaper than in England, generally happy atmosphere.

Negative: Parts of Paris look like 3rd-world countries with slums, some areas are dirty and smell bad, some people are unfriendly, even when speaking English the people can be very hard to understand, a lot of graffiti, many homless people on the streets - at least in Marseille, very hard to find wifi.

Italy

Italy has a lot of mountains and everywhere is pretty close to the sea. Some areas are very green and look very nice. There's a lot of farm land, which generally looks pretty nice. Almost everything is old, but the styles are very consistent - not a big clash between modern and old like Reading and London, for example. More big cities than in France. The cities seem not to have many suburbs.

Positive: Very nice terrain, nice countryside. Extremely good landmarks and historical sites. Prices of food are much better than the UK and a little better than France. Quite easy to find good pizza, pasta, and sandwiches. Has a unique style. Venice is wonderful. Many things that you can't see anywhere else in the world.

Negative: Very dirty, many places smell bad, tons of smokers, big cities very crowded, people generally unfriendly, lack of AC makes warm weather miserable, graffiti everywhere, many people arguing/yelling at each other in public, relatively bad train system, difficult to cross the street in big cities, most big cities don't feel safe.

Compared to the US and UK

There's really not much close comparison with the US. France's train system is light-years ahead and Italy has historical sites that the US could never compete with. Otherwise, both of these countries have a significantly lower standard of living than America in pretty much every category. In terms of cleanliness, comfort, modern conveniences, etc., I'd say France is about halfway betwen the US and Mexico, and Italy is about halfway between France and Mexico. And in case you're wondering, I'd put the UK about halfway between the US and France.

My impressions of these countries may change if/when I spend more time in them. But those are my thoughts as of now.

posted by Matt @ 11:58 AM