Visiting Madrid this week on invite from a college friend who's moved his family here for the summer - My First Day observations are for better or worse more reflective of Italy:
It’s easy to compare Madrid’s street scenes in terms of my time in Italy, since Italy is the destination of most of my previous travels to Europe. In short, Italy is the more distinct culture starting with its distinct cuisine – pizza, pasta, pizza, pasta – everyday, everywhere across Italy. Whereas Madrid’s more diversified dining is influenced from all over. Italy is distinctly more Catholic, filling their parishes for Sunday mass and incorporating religious symbolism across daily life, such as through architecture and jewelry. Whether its wine, cars, or fashion, Italy maintains all their own brands, without many foreign brands breaking in.
On one hand, to any American eye, “Spanish culture” might not appear as distinct because of how exposed Americans already are to “Latin culture.” But on the other hand, aren’t Americans just as well versed in Italian culture – pizza, pasta, Prada, Pinot Grigio, pour-over coffee, the Pope? But the real reason for Madrid’s comparative indistinction is how overrun its streets are with American branding. (McDonald’s was the only American brand readily visible in Italy; no Starbucks, though I hear there’s a few opened in Rome.) Madrid is saturated with American fast food: McDonald’s, Taco Bell, KFC, Burger King, Five Guys, plus Sephora beauty shops. And every hotel lobby and sidewalk café blasts American music (like Bruno Mars) and every gift shop sells American movie posters (like Fight Club). Despite all this, Madrid is certainly a European city, but the spell of the Old World is too often broken when rounding the corner and spotting, say, a billboard for Sabrina Carpenter’s new CD posted beside a Cathedral dating back to the Crusades. Everyday Americans don’t realize just much American Pop Culture fills in as the World’s default Pop Culture. Or, in other words, how much the rest of the World takes their cues of what’s cool from American film, fashion, and especially music.
