In Italy:
- Everything costs money. Water, public bathrooms, chairs at the beach. Even sitting down at a table in a restaurant will cost you a service charge. However, the servers do not expect a tip more than the extra change from your pocket. (We were surprised to see other people leaving 50 cent tips for a nice dinner.) The water charge was the hardest thing for me to swallow (pun intended). Tap water is never served at restaurants, only bottles of sparkling or still. However, there are fountains with free-flowing drinking water found all throughout each city we visited.. By the end of our trip, we wised up and just held on to our water bottles, filled them up in the fountain and took them to the restaurant with us! Trashy? Nope. Resourceful.
- It is HOT in July. It's hot here too, but it's the kind of heat that I love: dry, desert air. In Italy, you leave your air-conditioned hotel room for more than a minute and you will need a change of clothes because yours are soaking wet.
- The roads are mainly made of cobblestones. Italian streets were not made for high heels. I brought 3 pair with me - I wore 1 pair, 1 night, for about 20 minutes, then I had to go back to our room and change into flats, because I almost broke my ankle 6 times. The widest road I saw was on the Autostrada (freeway) and it was 3 lanes, and that was only for a few miles (kilometers there, of course), heading into Rome. All of the streets inside the cities are narrow, and many of them do not even have lines painted on them, so you really have to know where you're going or else you will get seriously lost and/or in several head-on collisions. There are alleys EVERYWHERE, but there, alleys aren't ominous and sketchy like they are here, they are simply a smaller street.
- The drivers are CRAZY! Everyone drives vespas or smart cars, and they squeeze those things into the tiniest spaces possible, zipping around buses and pedestrians like mad. I'm sure there are driving laws, but the drivers there sure don't seem like they follow them. They go where they want, when they want. And I don't think I saw a single car there that didn't have dings and dents in both front and back fenders. It's like a giant game of bumper cars.
- There is no such thing as caesar salad. Or fettuccine alfredo.
- They have AMAZING swimsuit stores... Our favorites were Calzedonia and Golden Point.. My sister, mom and I drug the boys to every one we could find... and each ended up with at least 2 new suits. For under $20. Seriously. If you ever go to Italy, find one of these stores. You will be in swimsuit heaven.
- Their shoe stores - not so good.
Italians:
- Don't eat a big breakfast like Americans do. They will have a shot of espresso and a brioche (sweet roll) or chocolate croissant (What we had every day - YUM) and be on their way!
- Don't like their cold drinks cold. If you order a soda, water, or even iced coffee, don't expect any ice! It will come to you from the refrigerator, but they even keep their fridges set lower than we do... And in mid-July, when it is 95 degrees with 100% humidity, that can be a problem for us Americans who love our ice.
- Do not eat bread with oil and vinegar. Bread is brought to the table with the meal, to be eaten with the food. We got a lot of weird looks every time we asked for bread and plates before the food came (even though they do leave an oil/vinegar set on every table...)
- Are much more laid back than Americans, especially when it comes to customer service. They serve you on their time, not yours. You will sit at restaurants for a good 20 minutes before being brought drinks or having your order taken. And once the food arrives, don't expect to see your server again until it's time to order dessert. At the end of the meal, when we are ready to pay the check and get a move on, Italians will sit and chat for hours, so you probably won't be getting your bill any time soon!
I'm sure I could think of more, but this could get out of control quickly... So for now, I'll say Ciao! Up next, Adventures in Italia, part 1!
No comments:
Post a Comment