Dublinobba

Journals of a globe trotter archive

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Most people I know here in Pederobba are local to the village and with few exceptions, have never travelled further than Europe. The Italians, it seems, prefer to enjoy the beauty of their own country, rarely straying far from their fantastic Mediterranean diet and core beliefs – family and that all important relaxed pace of life, revolving around their next meal and the wonderful company with whom they will share it. A far cry from the selfish and somewhat disconnected lifestyle most Londoners live.
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In the entire ten years I spent in London, out of the hundreds of people I met along the way, the grand sum of three people were actually from the city, as in born and bred within the M25, family still within short distance. For the rest of us, family tends to be spread across the globe (London being the multicultural hot pot that it is) and so living in such a vast city you become self contained and somewhat narcissistic in attitude. You only have to take a tube ride in morning rush hour to experience the nonexistent congeniality of Londoners – at least at face value anyway. An attitude that is a far cry from my daily encounters now. In fact my life here resonates slightly of my time in Dublin, the vibrant city that is the capital of Ireland and my home for some three and a half years in my early twenties.
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“Wait a minute” I hear you gasp,
“Dublin is a city with a population of over 500,000 and Pederobba a mere provincial town. How could one possibly be comparable to the other?”
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But the similarity lies not in size but in the charm of the people who live there. Dubliners are a very likeable people. They are warm and generous and always make you feel like a long lost family member. Pederobba mirrors this. I have experienced some of the most altruistic hospitality here, ranging from a rustic ombra standing in a vineyard to extravagant ten course suppers.
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When I first moved to Dublin back in ’96 it was just becoming recognizable as an “international” city. With the attractive tax grants the government was offering, large corporations such as the one I worked for, moved their entire EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) sales forces and set them up in the business parks surrounding the city, creating this hot pot of multinationals, an entire expat community, all living together and drinking together in one City. This culminated in new and more glamorous bars and restaurants opening up and so Dublin moved on from the dark and smoky traditional pub culture to a cosmopolitan city full of “Beautiful People”.
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But the beauty of it all was that Dubliners themselves didn’t change, they stayed the same happy, generous and “beautiful” people they had always been. Much like here, you could build an entire city around the small town of Pederobba and I am fairly certain that the townsfolk wouldn’t change all that much, and do you know what, there is a certain comfort in that…..