Here in Italy things are sometimes complicated, including simple things like paying bills. See our gas bills don’t get paid by us, but by the US government. We in turn pay them because we are exempt from the Italian taxes. Well, surprising I know, it got screwed up and the Italians turned off our gas…while we had guests. I had my landlord phone the gas folks to find out what was up and their instructions involved some faxes, officially stamped of course, and a minimum of 2 days to get the gas back on. The office which I phoned the next day, tried to take steps to fix it, but I would guess it would be about a week to fix…again big surprise. I have taken things into my own hands and turned the gas on myself, sometimes it pays to have a little redneck blood.
The gas guys did show up, four days later, to turn on the gas. As expected, they took little notice of the fact that I had turned on the gas; after all this is Italy and things are confusing and complicated and often more than one person or no one gets assigned a job. They just shrugged, ran some checks, filled out and signed forms and said “va bene”; good to go.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Thursday, April 1, 2010
PDA
With the warming weather and the reemergence of the sun there has also been a reemergence of something else…PDA. I’m not talking about the kind that organizes your day, but the kind where random people, from teens to retirees, are smooching excessively in public. It even happens on, or near, famous landmarks. Yesterday did not disappoint as people were making out all over St. Mark’s Square in Venice, including one bride and groom taking wedding pictures.
Launch the Space Shuttle, and Other Parking Adventures
Not long ago, after a 7 or so month wait, we had our parking space open up. We are allowed to park one car in the lot across the street, along with other public parkers, which is managed by a trio of Italian guys who look exactly how you would imagine Italian parking lot attendants to look. Perhaps not the smartest set of guys, but they work hard and are very nice. Of course there have been many adventures already; otherwise parking is not worth mentioning here.
To start, the guys keep a copy of our keys, so they can move our giant car around and accommodate space for “paying” customers. There are some rules: we are only allowed one car in the lot at a time and we leave our designated space mostly vacant during the day while I am at work. We elected to keep the Cady in the lot since Lauren prefers to drive the smaller BMW (see previous post on driving in Italy) and we have more sets of Cady keys. Of course, they were baffled, well not totally baffled, but at least confused by the Caddy with its automatic and manu-matic shifting options. They apparently mostly have experience on your more basic Fiats and what not which only have manual shift, as most cars in Europe. Then last week we had an incident.
Lauren went out to take the car someplace, which does not happen often as I usually drive it to work, and it reeked of smoke. When she confronted the parking guy about it, all in Italian (brava), he looked at her as if she was from the Moon and said “of course”. It seems our friend is a heavy smoker, judging from both the time I see him without a cigarette (never) and the gravelly sound of his voice. She threw what was later described as “my first Italian hissy-fit”. She said that I was “going to be very mad” (which may have been true but I couldn’t stop laughing at the telling of the story) and it involved several “No fumare in machine” and “come se dice ‘angry’ en Italiano?” Apparently to the amusement of several “paying customers” (all men) and the three parking amigos. I decided that the smoking in the car issue was covered so I did not address it the next time I ran into them.
Of course they speak zero English and so our conversations, the smoking incident notwithstanding, mostly involve “hellos’ and occasional direction on where to park. Then the other day I can home and the guys were in a bit of a pickle. It seems the lot was very full and many people were ready to leave. The only hang up was one very nice and very new BMW 5 or 7 series was blocking in several other cars. This is not uncommon since they play a kind of parking lot shuffle to maximize their parking usage. This car however was stumping them good. For starters they couldn’t figure out how to start it, so they enlisted me to help them out (I guess I was qualified since my car is “complicated” too. My car has nothing on this thing.
Just starting the thing is tricky, involving a key and 2 buttons. The shifter is not a consol shift like most of today’s cars, but a column shift…but not like your 1972 Buick. The shift lever is smaller than the blinker lever and involves, from what I deduced while driving, mostly electronics in shifting the gears. Furthermore, once the car is running the displays rival most aircraft I have flown; including GPS navigation, color displays, a head’s up display and sensors that prevent you from bumping things on all four sides with a corresponding color warning display. I don’t blame them for enlisting a professional aviator to handle such a complex high performance machine.
To start, the guys keep a copy of our keys, so they can move our giant car around and accommodate space for “paying” customers. There are some rules: we are only allowed one car in the lot at a time and we leave our designated space mostly vacant during the day while I am at work. We elected to keep the Cady in the lot since Lauren prefers to drive the smaller BMW (see previous post on driving in Italy) and we have more sets of Cady keys. Of course, they were baffled, well not totally baffled, but at least confused by the Caddy with its automatic and manu-matic shifting options. They apparently mostly have experience on your more basic Fiats and what not which only have manual shift, as most cars in Europe. Then last week we had an incident.
Lauren went out to take the car someplace, which does not happen often as I usually drive it to work, and it reeked of smoke. When she confronted the parking guy about it, all in Italian (brava), he looked at her as if she was from the Moon and said “of course”. It seems our friend is a heavy smoker, judging from both the time I see him without a cigarette (never) and the gravelly sound of his voice. She threw what was later described as “my first Italian hissy-fit”. She said that I was “going to be very mad” (which may have been true but I couldn’t stop laughing at the telling of the story) and it involved several “No fumare in machine” and “come se dice ‘angry’ en Italiano?” Apparently to the amusement of several “paying customers” (all men) and the three parking amigos. I decided that the smoking in the car issue was covered so I did not address it the next time I ran into them.
Of course they speak zero English and so our conversations, the smoking incident notwithstanding, mostly involve “hellos’ and occasional direction on where to park. Then the other day I can home and the guys were in a bit of a pickle. It seems the lot was very full and many people were ready to leave. The only hang up was one very nice and very new BMW 5 or 7 series was blocking in several other cars. This is not uncommon since they play a kind of parking lot shuffle to maximize their parking usage. This car however was stumping them good. For starters they couldn’t figure out how to start it, so they enlisted me to help them out (I guess I was qualified since my car is “complicated” too. My car has nothing on this thing.
Just starting the thing is tricky, involving a key and 2 buttons. The shifter is not a consol shift like most of today’s cars, but a column shift…but not like your 1972 Buick. The shift lever is smaller than the blinker lever and involves, from what I deduced while driving, mostly electronics in shifting the gears. Furthermore, once the car is running the displays rival most aircraft I have flown; including GPS navigation, color displays, a head’s up display and sensors that prevent you from bumping things on all four sides with a corresponding color warning display. I don’t blame them for enlisting a professional aviator to handle such a complex high performance machine.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Italian Speed
I think most Americans would blow a gasket if they lived here. The painter showed up yesterday… 7 months late. I ran out to pickup lunch on Sunday, kebaps a fast food after all, I waited in line behind two people…for 45 mins then 15 more for our food. A couple of times a day a train runs across the track that intersects the road I drive to work. It is not uncommon to wait 5, 10 or even 15 mins with the crossing arms down before a two car train goes by…during the morning and evening commute. Needless to say the Italians take life at a different pace.
So the fact that I waited for 40 mins behind one other customer for a haircut, plus the 30 it took to get my hair cut, didn’t seem all that unusual. Besides while I was there I noted that things in Italian barbershops are about the same as in the states; a bunch old men telling jokes and talking politics. Since it is election time here in Ferrara, today did not disappoint.
Despite my lack of Italian skills, I was able to get one joke about a singer, a communist and a socialist who die and go to heaven. They were meeting with all the angles, Michael and St. Peter and Gabriel and telling about what they did in life…unfortunately the guy fired up the hairdryer, to blow off the cut hair, during the punch line. Additionally there was a very animated discussion revolving around a handkerchief with pictures of airplanes, “Il Duce” Benito Mussolini and Sophia Loren. The discussion progressed rapidly, and loudly as usual, in the manner of a “so there I was” story. The conversation went so fast, and with the continued use of hairdryers around the shop, that I wasn’t able to get it all but whatever the point the three things in question centered on a political scandal.
All that said, I have been pleased at our progress in adjusting here to Italian life. Lauren and the boys especially have picked up Italian very quickly since they deal with it on a daily and regular occasion. I am still hampered by the fact that at work everyone speaks English mostly, but it does allow me to practice sometimes. I think we do best all together, as we can group translate and then let Braxton do the talking since he has the best accent. I’m not sure that barbershops are appropriate for mixed company here either though.
So the fact that I waited for 40 mins behind one other customer for a haircut, plus the 30 it took to get my hair cut, didn’t seem all that unusual. Besides while I was there I noted that things in Italian barbershops are about the same as in the states; a bunch old men telling jokes and talking politics. Since it is election time here in Ferrara, today did not disappoint.
Despite my lack of Italian skills, I was able to get one joke about a singer, a communist and a socialist who die and go to heaven. They were meeting with all the angles, Michael and St. Peter and Gabriel and telling about what they did in life…unfortunately the guy fired up the hairdryer, to blow off the cut hair, during the punch line. Additionally there was a very animated discussion revolving around a handkerchief with pictures of airplanes, “Il Duce” Benito Mussolini and Sophia Loren. The discussion progressed rapidly, and loudly as usual, in the manner of a “so there I was” story. The conversation went so fast, and with the continued use of hairdryers around the shop, that I wasn’t able to get it all but whatever the point the three things in question centered on a political scandal.
All that said, I have been pleased at our progress in adjusting here to Italian life. Lauren and the boys especially have picked up Italian very quickly since they deal with it on a daily and regular occasion. I am still hampered by the fact that at work everyone speaks English mostly, but it does allow me to practice sometimes. I think we do best all together, as we can group translate and then let Braxton do the talking since he has the best accent. I’m not sure that barbershops are appropriate for mixed company here either though.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Random Thoughts…and Observations
I’m mostly out of them lately, oddly enough. I suppose that most things I used to notice I have become accustom to here in Italy. I did notice that an unusual number of my past blogs have dealt with the weather, which ironically is the thing most similar to our past homestead. At any rate, I hope that my adjustment to the Italian life is does not leave me without much to say; which is doubtful because I am hardly ever without much to say.
On a similar note, however, I have noticed that I have also become very accustom to the slow paced Italian lifestyle. This is something I recommend highly, although I am not very good at eating the excellent food slowly…an old habit discussed at some length during Ryan and Caroline’s vist. In fact a whole “slow food” movement was begun here in Italy, something I think the US needs to seriously consider. According to Lauren the genesis of the slow food movement was at the installation of the 1st McDonalds in Rome. Something I think I would protest also. Check out these websites for some interesting discussion on food and Europe. The second one is a funny article on school lunch, and very similar to Braxton’s school.
http://www.slowfood.com/
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1967060,00.html
On a similar note, however, I have noticed that I have also become very accustom to the slow paced Italian lifestyle. This is something I recommend highly, although I am not very good at eating the excellent food slowly…an old habit discussed at some length during Ryan and Caroline’s vist. In fact a whole “slow food” movement was begun here in Italy, something I think the US needs to seriously consider. According to Lauren the genesis of the slow food movement was at the installation of the 1st McDonalds in Rome. Something I think I would protest also. Check out these websites for some interesting discussion on food and Europe. The second one is a funny article on school lunch, and very similar to Braxton’s school.
http://www.slowfood.com/
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1967060,00.html
Friday, March 12, 2010
Six More Weeks of Winter
I’m not sure what ol’ Punxsutanwney Phil’s record for prediction is, but he was dead on this year. After a break in the clouds for about a week, winter came back with a vengeance, bringing about 9 inches of snow to Ferrara. As you might expect from winter; it has been cold, cloudy and generally blah. It has even confounded the locals and long time residents of Ferrara and even the region. Not so bad for us, other than just the disappointment of losing Spring, we even had a grand snowball fight and built a snow fort in the back yard.
Our friends Ryan and Caroline on the other hand, who were trying to enjoy their first anniversary in grand Tuscan fashion, were besieged by veritable blizzard conditions. The snow effectively closed down the town and hotel they were going to stay in, and forced a on the spot change in plans. Kudos to them for surviving the driving in snow on tiny Italian mountain roads and managing to book a different hotel, without any Italian language skills. Fortunately, they have been able to press on with their itinerary, despite a minor loss in tasting of the fine wines of the region.
So for all of you planning a visit this time next year, be sure to check out Phil’s predictions first. http://www.punxsutawneyphil.com/
Our friends Ryan and Caroline on the other hand, who were trying to enjoy their first anniversary in grand Tuscan fashion, were besieged by veritable blizzard conditions. The snow effectively closed down the town and hotel they were going to stay in, and forced a on the spot change in plans. Kudos to them for surviving the driving in snow on tiny Italian mountain roads and managing to book a different hotel, without any Italian language skills. Fortunately, they have been able to press on with their itinerary, despite a minor loss in tasting of the fine wines of the region.
So for all of you planning a visit this time next year, be sure to check out Phil’s predictions first. http://www.punxsutawneyphil.com/
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
World Travelers
I have never really thought of myself as a world traveler, although have seen a good portion of the world out of an airplane window. My recent work trip to Greece followed by our quick vacation to Spain is truly amazing. Also being in Greece, Spain and Italy in a 24 hour span makes me seem and even think of myself as a world traveler. Also it reminds me of the amazing things that we have at our finger tips these days, we are practically The Jetsons. We can communicate over voice and video from different countries, send messages, book hotel rooms and even look at maps and get directions from our phones…which are portable and on our person at every minute. We can also travel across the ocean and multiple countries in less than a day. Hey I can even write my random and often trivial thoughts down for people all around the world to read…and they don’t even need a book.
Check out a funny video about this stuffhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk
Check out a funny video about this stuffhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk
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