assignment 3

Assignment 3

Piazza Vittorio is a very different part of town that what we are used to. We have been spending the large majority of our time in or near the Campo di' Fiori, which is full of nice shops and white people. Here, there is very little diversity and VERY few restaurants of any type other than Italian. In Piazza Vittorio, there were restaurants of all kinds! There was Indian food, Asian food, and so on. There were also all kinds of shops selling traditional goods and clothing. 

The large majority of the venders at the market were from Bangladesh, Africa, and the Middle East. Anthony and I immediately began walking around and trying to talk to people. I bought some beans and vegetables and tried talking the a few venders. My first couple tries were pretty unsuccessful. Many of the men did not speak english and if they did speak a little, did not understand what I was asking or why. 

Finally we found two men to talk to us. One was from Egypt and the other from Bangladesh. The man from Egypt was in his late 20s and the man from Bangladesh was in his early 30s. The man from Eqypt had been living in Italy for 4 years and the man from Bangladesh for 6 years. They had been working as butchers in the market for almost as long as they had been in the country. The man from Egypt told us that he came here with his family and did not like it in Italy as much as he liked living in Egypt. He said it was just different there, better. The man from Bangladesh came here on his own and hopes to make a lot of money over the next year and by this time 2012 move to America. A lot of what these men told us go along with what we have been learning in class.

The local Italian we spoke with was a 22 year old female student from the university down the street from the market. She said she lived with her parents near the piazza vittorio. Anthony and I were surprised to hear from her that she and her family were very open to immigration and really enjoy living in this particular part of town. She said that she understands why some Italians are against immigration, but her herself does not see the point of so much anger and hostility. This opinion was a first for us to hear. I have talked to other Italians near the Rome Center and the responses have been very different. Anthony and I agree that it may be a possibility that she held some of her negative thoughts back from us about immigration, but in all honesty, she seemed like she meant what she said. Another way of looking at it is that she may had not known about the current controversy surrounding immigration.

This assignment was excellent. We were put in an area of town that we had not been to before and were able to explore and push our boundaries. We talked to a lot of interesting people and got to see into the lives of others who are not 'city people' living in Rome.