Deep thoughts...

I've been wondering about this for many years now and have yet to find an answer. Why are Italian pre-sliced loaves of bread treated with ethyl alcohol? The first time I bought a bag, I opened it and was blown away by the smell of rubbing alcohol. I thought the bread had gone bad and threw it out. I bought another bag, opened it and it reeked of alcohol again. Upon reading the label I discovered this...

...it actually contains ethyl alcohol (trattato con alcool etilico).

Oddly enough, American pre-sliced bread loaves do not:

Now before you start getting all bread-snobbish on me, let me defend why, on occasion, I buy this kind of bread: bread goes stale quickly and sometimes I like to have an egg & cheese sandwich for breakfast but don't want to have to go out and buy fresh bread before I've even had breakfast SO it's handy to have a bag of this stuff sitting around. Okay?

Back to the point- I don't understand why ethyl alcohol is used in Italy but not in USA, where they tend to do all sorts of strange shit to food. Any clues?

Darkness

For the past few weeks, the entryway of my building has been in the dark. It took me a while to notice it (yeah, sometimes I don't pay attention to things) but once I did, I sent an email to our building's superintendent. A week later, we were still in the dark, so I called her office and left a message. Today, I noticed that people have been propping the front door open in order to make the pitch-black entryway less dangerous. I understand the reasoning behind this but I don't want my front door open 24-7 so I called the super on her cell. She said she heard my message and would send someone to take care of it soon. Great... but wait... so nobody else in the building contacted her? You mean all my neighbors who were bitching & moaning about it did not even bother to report the situation? Granted, lots of my neighbors were still away on vacation but those who remained indeed did notice that the light bulb was dead and indeed wasted no time to use this occasion to bitch & moan about the new superintendent.

I assumed they were bitching & moaning because they had contacted the superintendent or had informed her of the situation (which seems like the logical thing to do) to no avail, but apparently not. Who does that? Is it really that hard to pick up the phone and call? Why waste time and energy complaining about it instead of actually taking concrete steps to make the situation better? Boh... at times I really do feel like an alien in this country.

Mission: iPhone 4

I've been on a mission for the past few months, desperately seeking an iPhone 4 in the Eternal City (side note: I have to buy it in Italy because I can deduct the cost as a business expense). So far it's been an epic fail. The first few iPhones that actually were released on the official date at the end of July were snatched up in record time. Not even my Mac boyz managed to get me one!

Next step: I started calling every store possible to no avail because 1) lots of places had closed or were closing for the month-long August holiday and 2) lots of places just don't answer their damn phones. I find it odd that in a country where people are glued to their cell phones 24-7, they don't demand that retailers actually answer phones and provide you with information like prices, wait times, etc. Apparently people here have an abundance of time to go around to each and every store in search of a particular item. I don't.

It's mid-September now and I am still sans iPhone 4. Today I made one last desperate attempt to call ANY and ALL electronic stores in malls, since they're actually open all day long and usually answer their phones... usually. The results? Mediaworld bites the big one because they don't answer their phones, nor did half of the Euronics stores I called. Trony's operators win the prize for answering their phones and for providing me with the requested info.

As for the iPhone 4, nada. They *should* be in stock in a month or so (yeah, right). Wish me luck and if anybody sees a 16G iPhone 4 for sale, let me know!

Fiumicino does it again

One of the perks of living in Europe is being able to fly to another country in 2-3 hours. I took a little weekend trip to London to see friends, cool off, eat a variety of food, drink vitamin water (power-c is my personal fav), get a hair cut, and stock up on random shit like bagels and cheddar. This time around, I decided to not use a low-cost airline and instead opted for British Airways. I managed to get a good fare and the flight was pure BLISS… mind you, it was at 11:00 AM on Friday so it wasn't overly booked and for the most part the passengers were British, hence very quiet and polite.

The flight back, on the other hand, was anything but blissful. I booked an evening flight back to Rome, never imaging I would encounter the annoyance I encountered. I merrily and smoothly made my way to Heathrow (how much do we love the Heathrow Express train? It's so clean and efficient!) rather early so I had time to wander around and drink more vitamin water. As I made my way to the gate, I heard this incredible din and wondered what the hell was going on. Upon reaching the gate I saw something that makes me shudder every time- teenagers wearing matching backpacks and hats which equals GROUP FIELD TRIPS (side note, during the school year Italian students get to go on field trips all over Europe. Lucky, ungrateful bastards! The best field trip we got in my day was to Old Sturbridge Village) which equals annoying Italian teenagers on a plane!! I had a seat at the very front of the plane so I hoped I'd be spared a run-in with these unruly loud-ass kids. I hoped… Instead they were everywhere, actually there were TWO separate groups of youngsters. I've flown many times in my life, but never have I dealt with such chaos on a flight. They would not sit down and shut up until a male flight attendant literally shouted at them. Do these kids not know the difference between indoor and outdoor voice/behavior? They were acting like a pack of wild animals who'd never set foot outside of their homes before. They were kicking the seats in front of them, oblivious to the fact that there were people sitting in them (me), talking or rather yelling across the plane to each other, turning on cell phones during take off, getting up when the plane was taking off, talking so loudly it was impossible to hear any announcements made, littering everywhere, trashing the bathrooms, making all sorts of scenes and chaos. Luckily, I have the gift of sleep BUT the annoyance was brewing inside of me even while I caught some Z's. We finally landed in Fiumicino and of course, they clapped (hate that!) and tried to storm the exits before the seat belt sign was turned off.

As annoying as it was for me, I felt worse for the flight attendants who were probably ready to jump out of the plane or execute them all. I swiftly made my way to baggage claim hoping to beat the large disorderly groups of students. Hoping… Unfortunately, our bags took FOREVER and a day to appear and all the while I was being squished by sweaty oblivious annoying Italian teenagers who kept elbowing, stepping on toes, pushing and leaning over me to stare at the empty baggage carousel. At one point, this kid actually jumped onto the carousel to grab his bag, as if it would've disappeared into a black hole if he didn't grab it the first time around.

I know I sound like a cranky old lady but it was mind boggling to see how clueless and rude these kids were, they in no way paid attention to their surroundings or even cared about how uncomfortable they were making everyone. I even got pushed out of the way at one point and that's when I lost it. I basically told them to stop acting like wild animals… not sure what good it did because they kept at it and every time one of the students managed to find their bag they would all cheer for 2 minutes. EVERY time. Now, you may be wondering where the chaperons were, right? I can imagine that being a chaperon on a trip like that is worse than having your toenails yanked out with pliers BUT still, these people are adults and should act like adults. Instead they were just as hysterical and rowdy as the kids, they were shouting and screaming and acting like nutcases over nothing. No wonder why the kids were so unruly...

Wonder what the other non-Italians on the flight thought of this whole spectacle? I saw one British woman leave shaking her head, I saw a British family looking at these out of control kids with disdain (this family had 2 teenage kids who were incredibly well behaved), I saw a Chinese couple looking frightened as the kids bum rushed the baggage carousel right where they were standing.

It was seriously the most disturbing "welcome back to Rome" I've had in a while.

"No try"

Today I noticed another odd phenomenon that occurs seasonally in Italy. When stores hold their twice a year sales, you suddenly see signs popping up that read: "No try".

What they mean is you're not allowed to try on the clothes that are on sale. Is it just me, or is that the most ineffective way to get rid of merchandise? I really don't understand, all year long you're allowed to try things on and then suddenly when those same items cost 30% less, trying them on is no longer an option. Why? No really, why?

I personally don't buy ANYTHING unless I can try it on (or return it once I take it home and realize it doesn't fit… but returning clothing in Italy is an entirely different horror story that I'll touch on one day), so it's safe to say that stores with "No try" signs don't get a cent from me.

summertime...

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love summers in Rome. Summertime is high season for my line of work so I have to stick around till the bitter end. Yes, it may be unbearably hot & humid BUT the perk is that the Romans abandon the city in hordes. They run off to the sea, the mountains, to Sharm El-Sheikh and leave Rome ALL TO ME! I've already begun to see the first signs of this exodus and I'm giddy with excitement to take over the city.
In the meantime, there are some fantastic outdoor events. One in particular is FREE and in one of Rome's loveliest parks, Villa Borghese. I saw Amreeka (really great film) last night at Casa del Cinema and highly suggest you all go to at least one of their events this summer. If anything, just to enjoy the breeze, the fresh air, and a cold drink.

Sweet!

Lately I've been noticing some very stylish cookie packages around Rome and today I just happened to walk past the HQ of "Il Mondo di Laura". I went berserk and bought 3 different kinds of cookies, the lovely Laura (I'm assuming it was her) gave me some free samples as well. I just devoured a giant chocolate chip cookie and it was delish (and fairly healthy for a cookie). Can't wait to try all the other goodies.
It's nice to see new businesses like this in Rome. Go Laura!