We always talk about little Romanians scattered all over the world. Little Romania from Turin. Or the one near Madrid. Little Romania from Brussels. The one from the outskirts of Paris. These are places where you have a neighborhood shop with Eugenii, puffs and small meats. The market has stalls with Romanian handicrafts: palincha, ceramics, Sibiu cheese. The stall names are confusing. Samples of Romania are scattered all over the world.

Instead, we are not talking about pieces of Europe that arrived here. They were brought, given in exchange for the fragments that I lost. Apart from the money they send back home, Romanians who left to work abroad gave us what we desperately wanted after communism: a country like abroad. Its basis, at least. A skeleton on which to build the future.

About 20 years ago, they began to change us as a society, to transform our villages and cities. Our houses have become bigger, taller, with large balconies and shade, like in the southern Mediterranean. What does it matter that Bukovina does not have such a scorching sun to hide from as in Turin? Then the summer kitchen disappeared. The dowry room became a guest room. Open space kitchens appeared. A stable or shed became a garage. Bathrooms have acquired bidets, which act as trinkets. But it should be, because this is what bathrooms “outside” look like.

Panorama shows you a fascinating phenomenon that has been little discussed until now: how Romanians who went to work abroad modernized their places of origin on the model of those they arrived in Europe. How Suceava was transformed “according to the Italian model”. Why do we find traces of France in Maramures? Bites of Spain at Bistrita Năsăud. There are crumbs of Germany in Arad. Do we want such a country as abroad? Be ready to see Romania through different eyes.

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