Myrtle Claus
Neatly shaved and clipped. A nice scent. Very stylishly dressed in a chic suit. Charming and courteous in his manners. A man to get through a ring. One that seems to have walked away from an advertisement of any well-known Italian clothing brand. But it's not a fashion model dashing past me down the stairs, greeting me beamingly. It's our neighbor on his way to work.
One overdressed is not the other
As a Dutch person you might feel 'overdressed' if you went out dressed like my neighbor on a normal weekday, with no special events on the program. A little awkward maybe, because it's very elegant and you don't have to go to a wedding that day. In Italy, however, my neighbor is by no means an exception to the rule. Anyone who has ever looked at the people around them in an Italian city can confirm that.
Fare la bella figura, looking good, is the common thread that runs through all facets of Italian daily life. It seems ingrained in the Italian nature, the neat and courteous manners, the manners, the eye for the small things. You feel it in the way people treat you. But it is something that is especially visible in the street scene. Well-dressed and well-groomed people who want to present themselves as well as possible. A pleasure to watch. And I confess that I do so with a touch of jealousy. I never manage to be as elegant as the ladies and gentlemen around me.
Fare la bella figura in my village
That's why I'm secretly happy that I live in an Italian farming village. True fare una bella figura is important, but it doesn't show up as clearly in the ways one is dressed as in the towns and cities further afield. Or rather, not at all. Because often my neighbors seem to have dressed themselves with less care than I do. And some even seem to have donned the first thing they encountered on their way to the bedroom door.
A lot more relaxing for me. Because now I don't stand out when I do my taxi rides in my jeans and sneakers to drive kids to and from school. I don't have to get into a nice dress and quickly slip on high heels of at least eight centimeters to do that. I can run into the grocery store without staring at it because I'm wearing a printed t-shirt and not a suit on a weekday. That makes a difference. And it makes life a bit more carefree if not everyone around you is groomed to perfection, while you are already trying to remove the first stain of the day from your sweater within five minutes in the morning.
The shocking weekend outfit
Of course I know that those elegantly dressed people also have their hair in spikes on their heads in the morning and slip into the bathrooms in slippers while rubbing the sleep from their eyes. Just as I well know that my elegant neighbor is not in his Armani suit stirring the tomato sauce at night.
But it was a somewhat surprising experience, the first time I met him on the stairs on a Saturday morning. Radiant, groomed and charming as ever. But in a tracksuit. And on plaid slippers. He made, as always, una bella figura, yes. But it was a strange sensation that he suddenly looked a lot more like me.
Photo: YouTube
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