Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Hutch on July 13, 2018, 11:15:11 PM
-
1) Almost all the autos there are tiny hatchbacks. Most of the rest are small hatchbacks.
2) The cities, towns, and villages are old, and have narrow streets, with few traffic lights.
3) If you want to drink anything with a meal, including water, you will pay for it.
4) Water comes to the table in a cool, but not cold, liter bottle. The glasses are cocktail sized, not tumblers.
5) Even the cheap wine is good.
6) Tipping the waiter is not common practice.
7) The average driver there is more alert, observant, and adroit than the average driver in the US.
8 )Because of 7), they can push more traffic thru their highway system than you can imagine.
9) Pizza actually IS very popular with the locals. It is not sold in variety of sizes. One size, to feed a moderately hungry adult. The varieties are named, and these names seem to be common across several disparate ristorantes. There is no concept of “choose 3 toppings from the list”. Btw, the “Americano” is offered with French Fries as a topping. I defecate thee not.
10) about ALL property is “developed”. Lots of farms are cultivated right up to the front door. There are pastures, vineyards, and row crops on mountainsides that defy belief.
11) All the foregoing gives the impression that the people are not impoverished, but highly resource constrained.
12) Breakfast there is very scanty. Coffee is served very, VERY strong, in very VERY small cups.
Helluva trip.
-
When I visited Venice in 1993 I discovered that when it rains, the rain is gathered in the .... er, "sidewalks" and enters the hotel lobby, and they set up walkways of boards supported by cinder blocks as bridges.
Carrying suitcases across these gets pretty .... bouncy! Ha ha ha. [popcorn]
-
They gave me a pretty sporty manual shift van, a stack of gas vouchers and a few hundred drunken sailors to move across town. Drive like the locals they said. Challenge accepted. I had drinks ask to ride again, like it was the amusement park.
-
Which part(s) of Italy?
Are there attempts at pizza any good?
-
Which part(s) of Italy?
Are there attempts at pizza any good?
I was in Italy on a tour when I was in high school. The second worst pizza I've ever had was in Rome. (The worst was in a small town on the California coast, the name of which escapes me. Midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco.)
-
My only experience with Italy was La Maddalena and Palau, Sardegna. Similar experience but '89-90 the most common vehicle on the island was scooters/mopeds and small motor bikes.
Pizza was a very different animal than what we see here in the good ole USA. What I found was good but a very different experience.
The most striking memory was that the city still dumped their raw sewage straight into the ocean, right there on the edge of the town.
Of course the joke was; If they ever give the Mediterranean an enema La Mad was were it would be done.
-
Never been to Italy. Would love to go for the museums in Rome and Florence.
Worst pizza I've ever had was in Toronto. Absolutely inedible.
Second worst was in Brussels.
-
I remember in the 80's driving from Germany to Lago Garda with some cousins and friends to go windsurfing. I got stuck with my turn to drive after we crossed the border. It was mostly a mountain road, and I actually found the experience a bit harrowing. More than once I was almost run off the side of the road because some eyetalian was taking a hairpin curve at 100kph mostly in my lane. I was told that was normal.
Pizza is definitely different. I thought it was good, but remember it being very thin and almost soggy. I recall having a terrible, terrible fish dinner of what they said was the local lake trout.
-
I remember in the 80's driving from Germany to Lago Garda with some cousins and friends to go windsurfing. I got stuck with my turn to drive after we crossed the border. It was mostly a mountain road, and I actually found the experience a bit harrowing. More than once I was almost run off the side of the road because some eyetalian was taking a hairpin curve at 100kph mostly in my lane. I was told that was normal.
Pizza is definitely different. I thought it was good, but remember it being very thin and almost soggy. I recall having a terrible, terrible fish dinner of what they said was the local lake trout.
Sirmione is a great little town
-
Which part(s) of Italy?
Are there attempts at pizza any good?
Mostly near a small town in Lombardy called Sovere. It’s near beautiful lake Iseo. This is the north, in the first hills of the Alps.
Pizza is always a thin crust, which is light and crispy except in the center, where it gets a bit soggy, as others have mentioned. The toppings are not piled as high, and the seasoning is more subtle. I enjoyed it.
-
There's a YoobToob channel called Wolters World where he does a lot of "Things you don't expect in..." and "Things You Should/Shouldn't Do When Traveling To..." segments. Informative and interesting.
Brad
-
There's a YouTube channel called, iirc, wanted adventure or something very similar.
It's basically a woman from Florida who now lives in Germany, and has various topics with the differences. Surprisingly it isn't a zomg Germany is awesome wtf is wrong with the US, she's fairly balanced when such subjects pop up on her videos.
Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
-
I remember in the 80's driving from Germany to Lago Garda with some cousins and friends to go windsurfing. I got stuck with my turn to drive after we crossed the border. It was mostly a mountain road, and I actually found the experience a bit harrowing. More than once I was almost run off the side of the road because some eyetalian was taking a hairpin curve at 100kph mostly in my lane. I was told that was normal.
Pizza is definitely different. I thought it was good, but remember it being very thin and almost soggy. I recall having a terrible, terrible fish dinner of what they said was the local lake trout.
Ben, I was the guy in the red Saab with US Forces plates that passed you on one of those mountain roads... ;) =D
We drove to Rome (She wanted to see the Vatican and the Pope). My impression was that most driving was done by horn. I thought the food was really good, but we didn't eat in the tourist-y places , but went an ate well off the beaten path, where the locals ate. And yes, the pizza was thin a crispy, mostly; and very light on the toppings, much like the Pizza in Italian Ristorantes in Germany. Only country where I thought we would starve was Britain. I can only eat so much Fish and Chips. Until we found the McDonald's at Picadilly Circus, I was ready to go home. Even the German restaurant we found in London had horrid food.