"The Italian way of life is just inefficiency masquerading as charm"
"An unhappy and perpetually flustered businessman in Milan, Bruno decided several years ago to consult a life coach; the gambit for happiness worked, and then some—Bruno ended up marrying the coach [...] Last August, Bruno and Ella visited New York for seventeen days—“to understand if we could do something like this in this beautiful town,” Bruno said. The Contigianis stayed in south Harlem (“It reminded us of a small village in the south of Italy”). They were dazzled by the friendliness and efficiency of the city’s bus drivers. “In New York, the typical phrase is ‘How can we help you?’ ” Bruno said, beaming. “And to us that is wonderful. ”"The “face of slowness” in Italy is a negative, outmoded one in Bruno’s mind; to him the clichés of the simple Italian way of life are really just inefficiency masquerading as charm." (Katherine Stirling, The New Yorker)
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