Sunday, June 10, 2018

Strange Stuff in Italy

There are a couple of cool things we discovered here in Rome. One was the cat ruins where Augustus Cesar was killed. It only takes up one little city block and is fenced off. You can stand at the edge and look down into the excavated ruins and look very carefully for the cats. They’re everywhere once you find one.
Another is the concept of car sharing. This isn’t what it sounds like. It’s a company called Enjoy. Apparently there are similar companies in the US, but I’d never heard of it. So one evening when the four of us were carless, Gianluca pulled out his phone and tapped his car-share app. It tells him what cars are nearby. He picked the car he wanted and we had 15 minutes to get to it. Once there he tapped a button and voila the Fiat unlocked. A voice came on that requested he look the car over and approve it. Then we climbed in and Gianluca picked the keys up from a hiding place and started the car. Unfortunately we were blocked in, but this didn’t stop Gianluca. He gently rolled forward and back and pushed the cars out of his way and we were off. The charge for the car is by the minute, so he was eager to get home. Once there we got out the voice reminded him to check for belongings. He did and shut the door. 15 seconds later it locked. And that was all. Isn’t that brilliant?
Did you know that for about two thousand years water has flowed into the city through aqueducts set at the perfect angle of 25 degrees? All of this water flows continuously into the city of Rome and explains why there’re fountains everywhere. But look more closely and you’ll see what looks like garden faucets left turned on with water flowing into a drain. To a Californian this looks almost sacrilegious. All of these have a down turned spout to fill your water bottles with. The water is delicious and cold. But here’s the extra info… on the spout is a little hole. If you plug the big opening with one hand it forces the water out of the smaller opening and becomes a drinking fountain! Naturally we first made fools of ourselves by cupping our hands and trying to drink the water until a local showed us how it done.
Not so cool things: there is an unspoken law in Italy regarding the proper consumption of cappuccino. We didn’t realize our social blunder until Egle gasped at a photo we’d taken of two cappuccinos and a beer. She asked in surprise, “Did Joe have a beer for breakfast?” Not that it is impossible knowing Joe, but I answered, “No, that was in the afternoon.” Her expression was even more comical as she explained that one never, ever orders a cappuccino in the afternoon. Gianluca joined the discussion and told about one time at a business conference he was asked by a colleague to order him a cappuccino when the server came by. Gianluca said no. He refused to do it because it’s not acceptable to drink milk with your coffee in the afternoon. The three of us thought this was hilarious, and later Izzy asked why anyone could care a less whether or not you put milk in your coffee? We enjoyed ordering cappuccinos in the afternoon much more after that.
Toilets seats or the lack thereof: seriously… Italy is having a shortage of toilet seats. I think we found maybe two on our entire trip that had a seat. The rest were just the bowl. Even nice places had no actual seat. You could see where it was originally attached at some point in time. So we thought maybe they should set up a Go-Fund-Me account to purchase seats for the country.
Apparently Italy is experiencing an economical crisis right now. Not as bad as the USA, because all of their debt is internally owned, but still it’s pretty bad. The main visually obvious sign of this is the terrible condition off the roads. Really terrible. Italians are already the most insane drivers I’ve ever seen, but add pot-hole dodging and you need to hang on as they whip back and forth across lanes. Driving there reminds me of a fast folk dance. It may seem like chaos to the outsider, but to them it’s all done like choreographed moves. And parking? Well that’s a skill I’ll never have. I think it’s something you begin to learn as a toddler in the back seat… or it’s genetic. Whenever I’m in Italy, I always think I want a little Smart Car or a Mini Cooper, but then I get back home amongst our giant cars and realize I’d be squashed like a bug.

No comments:

Post a Comment