quote:

Originally posted by Carole B.:
Then it happened - I got a lovely smile from her AND an apology (!), and then she chattered away and even accompanied me to the exit!

So there's another thing that I like - if I'd said something like that back home, I'd probably have been reported for harrassment!!!!

The content of this message was intended to highlight the 'turnaround' by an individual when challenged about their behaviour, and the subsequent pleasure and surprise that I gained from it.

The anecdote itself was intended to, and I believe did, respond to the 'thread content'. The fact that it occurred in a 'hospital' was purely coincidental - so it wasn't yet another hospital story! But to omit the background to the story would have made for a pretty boring account of the incident!

quote:

spinach that comes in little cubes so you can make as much or as little as you like.

You don't have that in America? They've been around for as long as I can remember here (so, at least the last 20 years or so, probably much more!). Aren't they great?

and oh how I love this thread. I really do. Helps me cope with the rain and snow.

Here you can also find its ancestor in groceries: alread cooked spinaches rolled up in balls and squeezed. Tka one ball, heat a couple spoons of oil in a pan, add a garlick clove and a pinch of peperoncino, heat up the spinaches and there is your contorno.

Things I love:

- Ping pong tables in the city parks
- Dog poo bags provided free on the streets, and people really do use them (almost) all the time.
- The water in the streams/rivers here must be really clean because they are just teeming with fish, even here in the city.
- Being able to go to the doctor for free whenever I want, without having to wait more than two days for an appointment.
- Window shutters.
- Seasonal fruit and vegetables.
- The dish drainer above the sink (I think someone else already said this, but it makes my life so much easier.
- Being able to recycle 90% of our waste.
- Being able to eat at our local pizzeria/ristorante whenever we feel like it, without having to worry about the cost or quality of the food.
- Washing hanging outside apartments. Some of our visitors think it looks 'untidy', but I think it gives a place a certain vibrancy, colour, character and lived-in feeling.
- Being able to dry the washing outside in a few hours (in summer).
- Water from the tap that tastes better than any bottled water I have tasted anywhere in the world.

I find myself sitting reading this thread going 'ooh ooh me too, I love that too'

I think I need to get out more...

4 hole punch! I just bought one today... I feel so much closer to belonging ...

Living in Assisi, there are many festivals, drumming and flag tossing groups.

One night, hearing the loud music of drums, I looked out onto the piazza....I immediately called my sister in Alaska.."Cher, at this moment, there are 40-50 tall, handsome, Italian men in tights below my window! God, I LOVE ITALY!"

Another unexpected but much appreciated facet of Italy...a kiss on each cheek!

+ the way family members can give each other a peck on the lips and not be looked at as a bunch of nutters (we do that in America and some people think it's weird)

+ a kiss on the cheek is an acceptable greeting

+ if I wear flashy sneakers, people think it's cool!

+ the "honor system" on the buses

+ the "one ticket for an hour or two of rides" bus system

+ if you want eggs in the morning, you get them from your backyard!

+ the gorgeous men in Rome (and everywhere else, for that matter!)

+ INCANTESIMO!

+ in Italy, a bar isn't a place to get drunk and act like a scemo and doesn't have the connotations it does in America

+ smaller portions, yet better quality of food

+ SANGUINELLI!!!

What a great thread to bring back up! You've really been delving in the archives favolosamente

What's sanguinelli?

And if you are an expert in any field, you could offer courses yourself! ^_^

quote:

Originally posted by Delina:
What a great thread to bring back up! You've really been delving in the archives favolosamente

What's sanguinelli?

Hello Delina!! Sanguinelli are a type of Sicilian blood orange... mmm, just delicious!

The last time I was in Italy in May, I must have smuggled back 10 bottles of blood orange juice.. you just can't get quality like that here!

Raccomendata, yes I know it bothers people, the system of needing a reccomendation in order to get a job or get anything done. But, if one makes an effort to make friends, be honest and helpful with people, one gets into an network which is ever expanding. An example, we could not get anyone to make a door connecting the two apartments we use for work and living because it's too small of a job, finally reccomended by a friend who has various commercial interests, the job was done last week, during the work we needed a plumber, the mason called his cousin who came over in half and hour, the plumber had to remake a radiator a job we thought would be put off for weeks, two days later it arrived all done. I told the mason I would do the finish work myself, he asked if I needed any tools, then deliverd his electric table saw for me to barrow. Today we are off to pick up some difficult to find hardwood from another friend of his.

It can be very frustrating, but if you accept things the way they are and make an effort it works.

I was a cyclist before I came to Italy and I fully expected to ride in Italy. However, I just didn't grasp the extent of the popularity of cycling, especially in the the Veneto region. Now I've become a somewhat "serious" (what ever that is) cyclist. And, what a great way to see Italy! I write about all my adventures at www.italiancyclingjournal.blogspot.com

Fresh food! I just had the greatest salad: Two fresh hard-boiled eggs, Sicilian cherry tomatoes, roasted pine nuts, celery, scarolo, riccia, radicchio rosso, apples, pears, Pienza pecorino, croutons, and my very own olive oil! With a great glass of Vino Nobile.

Holy cow! You're gonna be sh*tting Tiffany cufflinks!

The view from my bed at dawn. My bed!!!

quote:

You're gonna be sh*tting Tiffany cufflinks!

Not a Full Metal Jacket fan, I reckon.

quote:

Originally posted by Joanna:
Fresh food! I just had the greatest salad: Two fresh hard-boiled eggs, Sicilian cherry tomatoes, roasted pine nuts, celery, scarolo, riccia, radicchio rosso, apples, pears, Pienza pecorino, croutons, and my very own olive oil! With a great glass of Vino Nobile.

Ho una fame da lupo!

Can I come over for dinner?

I've got to see Full Metal Jacket again. The movie, right? It's been years.

And if all I have to do is make that salad and open that wine, of course you can come over from NYC to dinner!

I bash italy constantly so i should probably add to this too!

-Prosecco, God's gift to Italy!
-Noone cares if you are a little late
-my great Italian boyfriend who I live with
-how much Italians love Canada (the ones I have talked to!) it makes me feel very proud to be Canadian

I'll add a couple of things too:

-lack of anti-Americanism compared to other European countries and Australia
-good, simple food
-seasonal fruit and veg
-tolerance and warmth towards children
-all the summer festivals in Rome
-lack of emphasis on career can be healthy

- the bill at the restaurant is split evenly instead of each person paying for what they ate!

My Brother always liked to split the bill evenly after 5 or 6 brews.

Soooo needed to read something like this at the moment. Have to aggree with a few things people already mentioned.
-the racks over the sink--why does nowhere else have these??
-drying clothes outside in about two hours in summer
-the sun, its rising its daytime adventures reflecting off the beauty of where ever it is you live, and its setting.
-the food, as many above have stated, fresh cheap fruit and veg, good qaulity.
-having a coffee can be a quick and easy as you want when you're in a rush or as long and interesting as you want when you chat to the people in the bar who are nearly always ready and willing to chat away to you
-the traditions and festivals that you find here, like some one mentioned about Assisi, the random historical and pagan festivals.
-definately the hilltowns of italy, sopratutto Perugia
-la vera pizza napoletana...bocconcini di mozzarella...mmm
-the fact that italians are a bit mad, but lots of fun
-how interested they always are in you (and not just the dodgy men either)
-the sea here
-the quirky exchanges in different everyday setting that make me chuckle, in bars , on buses, in traffic.

I know there are a million more but i cant think of them right now, yay for Italy loving!
I read on some ones post recently that we are all here (for the most part I believe) because we chose to be here....so why did we choose to be here? I think it is easy to forget why we love this country, for me I know Im getting bogged down from teh difficulty of moving to a new place and knowing no one, starting from scratch is always hard but at least reading this reminds me of why I came back in the first place!