LA BELLA FIGURA              We have been both delighted and surprised to learn that some of our Italian friends have been reading the Blog. Our original intent was to produce some observations that might be useful to family and close friends back in the U.S. It is also a means for us to keep a personal journal to provide reflections on what is happening in the new direction our lives are taking. Our first surprise came in discovering that there were other people completely unknown to us who had come across the Blog and began to follow it. Out of that group of readers we have been contacted and some promising new acquaintanceships have begun to develop. A few of our Italians friends told us that they began reading the Blog out of curiosity. They said they found it was providing them with a mirror on how Italian life in Ascoli Piceno was being perceived by people from a very different place. One of our Italian friends commented on the Blog discussion of La Bella Figura saying he found no quarrel with what was said but only that an Italian perceives the La Bella Figura idea to be quite complex and nuanced. At core, the concept is rooted in the effect one has on others and how that perception can determine how people are themselves perceived. It is clear, this is not a simple, black-or-white issue, but is a very gradational continuum with all sorts of factors involved. In more common parlance, the idea of La Bella Figura can be misconstrued. La Bella Figura is more than just a commentary on a visual fashion presentation. La Bella Figura also includes a social interaction component. No matter how fashionably attired, a person displaying an overbearing arrogance or condescension would more likely be considered as embodying La Brutta Figura – the opposite of La Bella Figura. But for us, attempting to identify La Bella Figura or La Brutta Figura involves applying judgments grounded in experience from another place. Caution is, therefore, very much in order. Actually, by now we have accumulated enough interpersonal experience to include an occasional instance of inconsiderate or even rude behavior that sure...