The Sporting Life

Having ruined my heels while walking on cobble stones through a castle [what a sentence to be able to write!] Michael suggested that I go shoe shopping in Salo, the upscale town a few towns over from us. Well, you don't have to ask me twice, so off we went.

Shoes in Italy are displayed in cases: huge, often winding, windows of flats, dress shoes, pumps, boots, flip-flops, and a few sport shoes, are presented to the customer with care. The shoes are artful in their placement and intentional in their suggestion: shoes in Italy are about glamour. Glamour, in this case, is found in sumptuous leathers, shiny metalics [with jewels], cleverly placed ornaments, and heels that come in high, higher, and unwalkable. Shoes are just another way of presenting la bella figura, a term that has taken on real meaning while living here for a bit.

Bella figura means beautiful figure, but really is an Italian philosophy of living, emphasizing beauty, good image, aesthetics and proper behavior, even in every day life. At first, I found the idea to be a little oppressive: kids' clothes are ironed, people are put-together for every occassion, and there is a social structure of behavior, nuanced by class awareness, that I am only beginning to understand. Of course, as an American who is used to wearing "work out" clothes to the store after dropping off the kids at school, and whose idea of ironing is pulling out the shirt a little damp and smoothing it down with my hand, it's easy to dismiss the idea as purely form over substance, and too much concern with superficial life. But not so fast.

As our friend Guido explained to me yesterday at lunch, Italy has created a way to be fashionable no matter who you are. Therefore, Mrs. Everywoman and her husband can put on their shiny shoes, their pressed clothes, a little parfume or cologne, maybe a jewel or two, and have a walk and an ice cream, and feel, well, good. Bella figura isn't about beauty but about time to appreciate and care for what you have, when you have it. For the beautiful young things, this may be one thing, and for the less young, another. But always, the best foot forward. And more, an appreciation for life. This bella figura, he told me, creates a sense of community and pride for the Italians: "We are a fashionable and elegant people," he said, leaning in, "and this has changed the international perception of Italy from just a spaghetti country, to one that produces great wines, beautiful cars, top fashion...and you see why. Just look around at how everyone has a little bit of pride in themselves and that pride translates into what they do." He then went into a long discussion about how Tuscany has been touched by God, which probably is right, but I haven't been to Tuscany, really, except for Pisa, so he lost me a bit there.

In any case, if I think about how ironing my kids' clothes might make me take a minute to appreciate their little arms and little waists [when you iron their clothing you really see how little they are! Even Maddy is so tiny!] then maybe I wouldn't mind ironing their clothes. Of course, outside of Italy, and inside of Montana, the social construction is different, and the bella figura equivilant is something else entirely.

So different is the social construction here, that I now have a chuckle every time I see my new shoes. While trying on shoes, I was deciding between the ones above and another pair. "The other are more feminine," said the lovely sales woman helping me, "these are more for sport." Only in Italy are three-inch-heels considered sporty shoes. So with her definition, and a big smile on my face, I was a buyer -- and an athlete, too!


P.S. Turns out that those kinder chocolates are Italian. They fooled me with the German word for kid. I should have figured that they were Italian: who else would put a toy in a chocolate egg and call it a snack? Gotta love Italy for kids.