larryfromnextdoor wrote:A. M. Scott wrote: Right here in Italy
ive always wondered.. do you guys have an Olive Garden there? would that be like buying store bought pickles if you had a garden full of cucumbers?
Hey Larry,
I'm sorry for getting back to ya with long delay. Here u go....YES we are full of Olive Gardens here ... from North to South we have several of 'em ... infact we just make some of the finest olive oil in the world. BUT...if you meant to ask if we have private Olive Gardens on our own piece of land then we need to go further into our geography

First...despite what you see in pictures or portraits about Italy...the "bel paese" isn't actually what Italy is all about ...I mean Italy is not just Green ... we have much green and stuff but all those piece of land are owned by i.e. Company making Oil or Wine or Vegetables... most of the Italian territory is ASPHALT...I live in Milano which is the center of the Italian economy...I guess it's similar to New York in example. We don't have such lands here...we just live in apartments made into big buildings...I'm happy enuff to live in a building where we're just 15 families but I know friends living in buildings made of 100 apartments...they are all looking fine by the way but you can't compare 'em with a piece of land and a house built over it... Now to answer your question: 99% of the Italian Citizens just can't make Oil or Wine or anything by themselves...we just have to buy it...Also...a piece of land in the most weird and uncomfortable place in Italy could cost you up to 100,000 Euros (145,529 USD at today's change rate) per acre

...same goes for apartments....mine is around 1,200sqft and it worth 300,000 Euros (436.589 USD) ... you can figure out it is quite impossible for the mid-class or even often the high-class too to go buying a land or a house when the average income per year is about 25,000 ... working-class men just get 15,000 or so per year...you can't have a loan or something so easily here... I can consider myself as a really blessed guy cause I have a roof over my head, I'm running my own business in Marketing & Media and have some decent amount of money I did put aside...but I have friends who are really hurting financially..since we just joined the EURO thing back in 2002 it's been a mess for everyone here...
I think I ran out of the track right here ... I'm sorry
I hope I answered your question
Alex Mark Scott