Italy Expectations

 First and foremost I know I am expecting Italy to be warmer than it is going to be. It's hard to blame myself here, as basically all photos of the country are taken during summer and feature beautiful blue skies and golden sunlight. I know this is not to be. 

Setting that aside, I expect Italy to feel old. It's the birthplace of the Roman Empire; I can't help but want to feel exactly how ancient the places I'm visiting are. Everything is so young in America. I don't think we realize it until we leave. Tens of thousands of years of civilization crumbled under our 100 year old houses and buildings and we call them old because to us that's how they feel. I want to see things that are actually genuinely old again. 

I expect the people to be similar to people I know. They aren't aliens, they're from a different continent. Largely, I expect things to be more orderly than they are here; whenever people in the United States want to make changes to our society, we point to how things are done in Europe, or East Asia; healthcare, transit, you name it. I think this has planted an expectation in my mind that those societies are as a whole more advanced than my own. I want this belief to be proven and disproven at once.