La Italiana
Currently I’m living between Vienna and Lugano. My Italian husband and I spend Italian woman and her difference to us Austrians
While in Vienna we’re getting ready to celebrate Sigmund Freud’s 153rd birthday in May together with his discovery of psycho analysis, we sit in cafes and dwell on the bad weather & the unfairness of life in general - or as a woman, our favored word being ‘catastrophe’ - the Italian woman on the other hand simply enjoys life, anxiously awaiting the new spring/summer collection while doing her final sales shopping and her most used word being ‘bellissimo’!
The Italian woman doesn’t sit around whining or fighting for her rights. She simply demands them knowing that there would be no man/life without her, ‘e basta cosi’! She is self-assured, loud, demanding, speaks out her mind openly and with vigor, she sets her own terms and conditions. She’s no shrinking violet, no, she’s the exact opposite!
She feels beautiful although she doesn’t have the Nordic heights nor the Slavic perfect cheek bones. She is proud to be a woman and shows that she just adooooooores the finer things in life. She loves to eat and drink well and doesn’t mind the few extra kg. She wears (Fendi-) mink coats, big designer shades, and chunky yellow gold jewelry. Her perfume is strong and confident, her eye makeup is smoky and she doesn’t fall into irreparable depression over the first appearance of fine lines – after all she has laughed and enjoyed the sun in order to acquire them - her lipstick is a nude shade and she wears her hair long(-ish), layered, streaked and well done but never overly coiffed.
Her clothes are well chosen and of good quality. She would never be caught dead out on the street wearing sweats & sneakers – those are exclusively reserved for the gym. She mainly sticks to subdued colors like browns, black and dark blues and mixes the most elegant items with casual pieces. It’s a wild combination but on her it works and looks stunning! For her life/sense of style/fashion doesn’t end with her 40th birthday. Even if she’s well into her 50s she’s not afraid to show off her curves in tight fitting stuff. Her shoes are of exquisite quality and craftsmanship – naturally, she lives at the hub of their design and production. Although she might not own 50 handbags the ones she has are big and exclusively nothing less than Prada or Gucci.
She is 100 % woman, loves that fact and celebrates life!
You Italian women, I salute you with a glass of Prosecco in my hand, an admiring smile plastered across my face and I do hope that some of your ‘gioia di vivere’ rubs off on me! 
