A tennis shoe clad foot clambers down from the bus onto the cobblestone street, its mate following seconds behind with laces slightly ajar. The owner of these feet flicks her eyes upward, peering at the foreground and taking in every rustic detail of the city before her — Viterbo, Italy.
She flares open her nostrils in an attempt to breathe in this new, damp air. The young woman naively expects it to be fresh, tinged with a sweetness from the nearby bakery, but instead experiences a coarse, burning smell that hits her squarely, making her lungs ache.
The bitter aroma is one she recognizes. She begins to look around for the perpetrator of this foul odor and, as she zeros in on the cause, she is immediately taken aback. There is not only one culprit, but several covered in a foggy haze.
The man closest to her in the group flicks the catalyst of the scent near those same tennis shoe clad feet. She flicks her eyes downward now, staring at the literal smoking gun — a cigarette. The embers glow red against the grey, contrasting sidewalk. Smoke continues to filter out, polluting the air. A feeling of slight disgust passes through her.
“I guess we really aren’t in the U.S. anymore,” she thinks silently to herself with an awkward smile.
Living in the U.S., I have experienced cigarettes before, but nothing to this extent. Most people I have encountered either quit smoking completely, never tried it to begin with or use electronic cigarettes. It came as a shock to me to see so many people, of varying ages, smoking so openly.
Compared to Italy, the U.S. has incredibly strict guidelines when it comes to what and where someone can smoke, as well as who.
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, people must smoke at least 20 feet away from any business or storefront or in a moving vehicle with a minor.
Olivia Heersink | Argonaut
Tobacco products can only be sold to people over the age of 18, and each package or container must also carry a warning from the U.S. Surgeon General, stating some of the health risks the items can cause, such as lung cancer, heart disease, birth defects and emphysema.
Despite banning cigarettes in public places, like bars and restaurants — mirroring the U.S. — people are still able to smoke directly outside of a building in Italy, and they do so immediately beside the door, allowing smoke to waft in with each open.
Although it is also illegal for minors to smoke here, I constantly see young teens doing so anyways because of normalcy of the act.
Growing up, my father smoked and continues to, but that never made me want to try cigarettes — in fact, it did the opposite. Watching a loved one use a product that is commonly termed as a “cancer stick,” doesn’t bring much comfort, nor favorability toward said item.
The natural proclivity toward smoking in Viterbo — and Italy, in general — makes me wonder if people are in the dark about all the health risks cigarettes can cause. It does seem as if it the act itself is a social one, bringing people together by uniting them over a lighter and their shortened lifespans.
The narrow cracks of the cobblestone streets are filled with the dingy, orange ends of the cigarettes — each taking just a little bit away from the city’s beauty, leaving me with a sort of melancholy.
When I left the U.S., I knew things would be different. How couldn’t they be? However, this is not what I expected: a blatant disregard for one’s personal health, as well as others and the environment.
The fad of cigarettes, at least across the Atlantic, has faded like a dying spark, quick and painless, but in Italy, especially Viterbo, that flame is alive and well. Maybe my tune will change in two months’ time, but for now, I’ll keep holding my breath.
Olivia Heersink can be reached at [email protected]