Europe sucked 100-200 years ago. It was a land filled with tyranny and poverty. Of course they left I would’ve and you would’ve too

@gaslightyourmom Counterpoint, southern Italy where most Italian Americans came from is about as poor as Puerto Rico these days.

@Tyler_The_Wise True southern Europe is still an impoverished shithole

@gaslightyourmom I wonder what could have been happening in Europe in the early-mid 1900s where people would abandon such a utopia

@Longnosedfish It was also atrocious in the 19th century

@gaslightyourmom Also, Italy today still has roughly half the per capita GDP of the US. I doubt that spending more time chilling at the beach explains all of that gap.

@gaslightyourmom @SwannMarcus89 Hard for ppl to realize or conceptualize lack of opportunity

@romanyMessi10

@gaslightyourmom I think that's the fundamental thing here! People are assuming that the "tourist experience" of the peasant village is what life there is like. Obviously, it isn't. In fact, I think people do this with "traditional life" in general. Keeping a farm isn't the romantic holiday you

@gaslightyourmom My exact thoughts reading OP. Like Italy was a monarchy until 22, fascist until 45, and then there were the years of lead no wonder people left lmao

@gaslightyourmom @LinkofSunshine My Nonni would bring 2 cartons of cigarettes when she went to visit where her parents were from in Northern Italy and be treated like a Queen

@gaslightyourmom Between 1900 and 1914 most of the two million Italians that arrived in America lived in NYC. This is NYC in late 19th and early 20th century. Poverty was everywhere

@gaslightyourmom Me visiting Ireland confused why my ancestors ever left because you can get potatoes easily now in 2023.

@gaslightyourmom Yeah I was in London recently and thought it was an amazing city! But when my ancestors left it in the 17th and 18th centuries it was overcrowded, mortality rates were terrible, and people dumped their sewage directly into the Thames.

@gaslightyourmom My Czech ancestors came from a beautiful village I visited several years ago. They left because his business went sour and they were going to put him in debtor’s prison. Maybe stories like this explains things? Wealthy tourists are an embarrassment.

@gaslightyourmom Until the unification of Italy in 1861, the Kingdom of the two Sicilies was the most prosperous, wealthiest and populous of the Italian states.

@gaslightyourmom Vaffanculo.