Living La Dolce Vita in Texas – Part I

“Is your car in the shop?” “Why are you walking?”  These are comments I’m used to hearing now. 

Unlike in New York, Boston or other metropolitan cities, walking to your destination is not the norm in most Texas cities. I get it now, but I didn’t before moving to Italy. 

When I lived in Houston I could have taken a city bus  four miles from right outside my apartment to my job in the Medical Center, but I never did. Not once. I thought I’d get sweaty waiting for the bus and then, what if I needed my car during the day? Forget that my office actually had a car available for business use if any of us needed it. Nope, I chose to pay serious money to park my car in the even more serious Texas heat for the “convenience” of having my car nearby. Regrets? Absolutely!

In Rome, I enjoyed the benefits of not owning a car. Yes, the benefits though most might think we were deprived. Go ahead, please deprive me of parking headaches, insurance premiums and repair bills, not to mention the annoying required annual inspection and registration, basic maintenance and continuously filling up the tank. And if you’ve been to Rome, you know you really don’t want to drive there!

It didn’t take long to get used to doing my errands and shopping a piede or on foot, by bus, tram, or  taking the Metro. I can remember each cab trip, three total, during our 21 months living in Rome. When they are that rare you remember. We had so many options cabs were not needed.

When we moved back to the states, we didn’t have as many options but we still added a few requirements that any new home should have: be in a walkable, bike-friendly area with access to city bus routes. This allowed John and me to manage with one auto for eight years, but we were definitely the odd ones out. I’d get strange looks crossing an intersection in Austin on foot, walking our son to and from school (.6 miles one way) in San Antonio, and walking from one end of a large shopping area to the other instead of driving and searching for a new parking space. 

I’ve walked my son to school most days since kindergarten (he’s in middle school now), and like yesterday, when it was raining cats and dogs, a neighbor offered to pick him up and take him with her son. One less car stacked up in a very congested and wet drop off line. 

It’s been 15 years since we moved back to the States, but having lived in Italy still impacts us, in a good way. It feels good doing little things to cut expenses, traffic congestion and air pollution. I’m curious to know if there are more people like us, and how’d you get here?