I have been in Italy now for 2 months. At times it feels like I have been here much longer - meaning I am beginning to feel very comfortable. I will be traveling back to the states for a quick trip (less than 2 weeks) so to my Minneapolis friends I apologize in advance if I don't have time to see you. I will also be attending a wedding in California. This will be my last post until I return to Italy on July 28th. Following are just some fun and off the wall observations I have made over the past 2 months. I have been gathering these along the way.
- When grocery shopping you have the choice of two different types of carts - the normal cart (albeit a bit smaller than ours) and a red plastic cart with a handle and wheels - you pull it like a piece of luggage. So the red plastic ones are in the store at the end of each aisle and you just grab one if they are available. The other ones are in a cart corral in the parking lot BUT they are chained together. It took me a few trips to the store to figure out how in the heck you unsecure them. It is an ingenious idea for making sure carts are available and not all over the parking lot.
If you look real close the top of the black plastic thing says "2€, 1€ or 50 cents. This is attached to the handle of the cart. You put a coin in a slot on the black box - lower part of picture, it then releases the chain and you can pull the cart out. When you are done you return the cart to the coral, insert the chain (with red end) from the previous cart into the black box (top part of picture) and your coin pops out. Every once in a while there will be a stray cart that you can grab but that is not typical. I have to admit the first time I saw it I said - what the heck I am not paying to use a grocery cart - DUH! HAHA! I finally figured it out when I saw another cart in use in the store and I could see a piece of the coin sticking out of the black box. Makes perfect sense now but at first...........!
- Italian driving......It may be the only thing they do not do slow. OMG! They are in such a hurry - but wherever they are going you can be sure they won't be fast when they get there. When I drive down the mountain to go somewhere it is a bit unnerving as the cars are right on my backside as I am very careful as the roads are narrow and very curvy. The Italians drive it like they are on a racetrack. In addition when driving just the normal roads - not highways - they pass all the time even if you are going faster than the limit. No distracted driving here or you are in trouble.
- Women (more mature) don't wear shorts...... not sure why but in the heat of summer, at night when out walking, shopping, whatever, women are either wearing a dress (mostly older women) or wearing slacks/jeans, etc. I get strange looks when I am out and about in shorts - guess what - I am not going to change.
- Produce in grocery stores.... you have to weigh it and ticket it yourself or sometimes there is a person in the produce area that will help you. There are signs with numbers for the various types of produce (fruit/vegetable). You take a plastic bag, fill with whatever, use the number on the sign and key it into the scale - it prints out a ticket that you attach to the plastic bag. Interesting though that the check out stands do use scanners for checkout.
- Church Bells - there are multiple patterns of ringing church bells. I am going to try and record all the various types - you have the normal time, but then you have ringing bells for a mass, a funeral, a wedding, and multiple holy days. The problem is I don't always know when they are going to ring so I'm not always prepared to record. A work in progress but rather interesting as I am told all but the time bell ringing is done manually. Would be fun to meet the bell ringers!! I will work on it.
- Beach time - this time of year the beaches are pretty full - but will be packed in August. People get there by 10 a.m. in the morning. and usually start to leave around 1 - but many do come back later in the afternoon into the evening. On some beaches if they are coming back they will leave their umbrella, towels, etc. at the beach - no one touches it and it is there when they come back after lunch. A few interesting observations - everyone (all ages, sizes, shapes) is there AND goes in the water. It is usually a family affair - grandparents included. The water where I have been swimming is crystal clear and very refreshing. You can just float in the water for hours (seriously). Southern Italy is known for its beaches and water. I'm excited to explore more areas when I return from my trip.
- Shopping is not for entertainment like in the U.S. When people go in a store they go in because they are looking to buy something - not just to look - like we do in the states. The stores are very small and typically the owners are tending to the clients. But talk about service - when you do need something and go into a store they will work very hard to make sure you walk out with what you need. If they don't have it they may even tell you where they think you might find it. Also the price on the tag is not always what you will pay. Just recently I purchased three items in three different stores. With each one I paid less than what the price tag stated. Not sure why but I wasn't going to question. I was willing to pay the price on the tag so when they told me the price was less - It was my lucky day!!
So on that note I will close for now. I hope you are enjoying my journey and I will be back toward the end of July with more fun stories.
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