My quick (and probably biased) impressions on Italy from the recent trip:

• I noticed a lot of navy blue raincoats, and at least 10x more men wearing ties than you’d typically see in the U.S., though still much fewer than in Japan.

• Pizza and pasta were better than in NYC, though not quite the 2x level that I had expected—more like 1.3x. That said, the ingredients felt noticeably fresher. I ate quite a lot, yet didn’t experience the same heaviness or discomfort I usually would after eating that much pizza in New York.

• My previous visit to Italy, almost 20 years ago, left a particularly strong impression: a man sitting next to me on a train spoke with me in Italian for 30 minutes. I remembered and talked about that experience often. This time, however, I didn’t have any similar encounters—people felt a lot less outwardly engaging in that way. And there were more tourists nowadays.

• Mineral water costs about 1/3 of what it does in NYC.

• Extra virgin olive oil is about 1/4 the price of what you’d pay in NYC.

• Milk is about 1/2 the price, and tastes significantly better.

• Dining at restaurants is very roughly 2/3 the cost of NYC. I also prefer the system there, with seat fee per person or service fee, rather than the tipping culture in the U.S.

• It’s common to walk up to the register to pay for the restaurant bill.

• Bidets are very commonly seen in hotels and homes.

• Strangers in NYC like talking to kids much more than people in Europe do.