So, during the past few days I've learned a few things about Italian culture that differ from America...
In walking around for oh, about a day, I have already had more exercise than in the past two years combined...The reason why no one is fat here. Cara, Kelsey and I are making progress though; we climbed the 3 flights of stairs to our room without panting today! Go us!
When you try to speak Italian to the locals, they speak back in broken English. The girls and I discovered this on our first shopping trip to the farmacia. We entered the extremely small store and proceeded to stare blankly at the products before us. Unlike the USA, almost NOTHING is priced. Finally, I found some lotion and toothpaste that were familiar brands. I brought them to the counter and the woman, who most likely was the owner. She rang up the 2 items and then announced, in broken English, that it was 27.35 Euros....ouch. This brought me to the next logical question- How in the world does anyone afford to live here! I guess they just deal with the dry, cracked skin that comes with winter.
Our next adventure was trying to buy a hair dryer. The woman in the salon didn't speak any english, so we pointed to the device and asked "quanto costa" (how much?) The woman told us 35 euros and then took the dryer out of the box and demonstrated that it did, in fact, work. She also pointed to the instructions and told us to read them. They are in Italian...so we did not. Everyone we've met in the stores so far have been really helpful and super nice, which is lucky since short simple phrases are all I can spit out. Yay for hand motions.
Another interesting fact about Italy- nearly every town has a piazza girabaldi. Our local Italian teacher, Lorella, pointed this out to us as she took us on a tour of the town. She also mentioned that the city begins with a large gateway (arch) that points to Roma and ends with one that points to Firenze. magical.
The main thing I've learned--It's not just yellow taxis that don't stop here. Pedestrians DO NOT have the right away...and as stupid as those little smart cars are this will hurt you when they run you over going 50 down a medieval alleyway. Proceed with caution.
Something about Italy that's the same? The weather. We went from a balmy sunny day to clouds and gale force winds...sound familiar? I thought so.
Another note- Cara has been doing a spill of the day, but she didn't spill today and I did. I am no longer allowed to pour water at the table (darn you depth perception) and the sleeve of my white coat is adorned with kiwi stains. Snack for later.
Tomorrow we are headed on our first trip... to Arezzo! Pictures will follow.
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