Italy Tidbits

There are some things that I realize I forgot to include in my daily recaps, that we'll want to remember as part of our trip. So this is tidbits - vacation recap style.

1. Public transportation is so convenient and affordable. It was a life saver to have learned the buses, metros and trains. Although we still walked - a lot - we saved ourselves a ton of time by using Rome's public transportation.

2. Instead of pizza-by-the-slice, they have pizza-by-the-kg. It looks spendy at first (€18 for 100kg of margarita) but in reality it's dirt cheap! We got a plate full of different types of pizza for under €6. To put it in perspective, 100kg is equivalent to about 220lbs.. can you even imagine ordering that much pizza? It is fun to try all the different kinds and man it was delicious.

3. Breakfast in Italy is nothing like breakfast in the US. They have rolls and pastries, cold cuts, juice and, of course, caffe and cappuccino. At the hotels they have watery scrambled eggs, cold cereal, granola and yogurt, but I have a feeling these things are just to appease tourists. By the end of our time in Italy, Blake was dying for some bacon, sausage or decent eggs (of course this didn't get any better in Israel - no bacon there!). 

4. Traffic. is. crazy. The lines are just suggestions, if there even are lines. In Rome and Florence, the traffic lights were generally followed, but in Naples - forget about it. Naples traffic is a free for all, pedestrians beware. In Rome, you could fairly safely cross the street when the light was red or when the crosswalk sign was green, but you'd better keep an eye out still. Crosswalks are also just suggestions, and as long as you are bold enough, you can cross anywhere. Just be prepared to wait for cars and not the other way around, and don't be surprised when cars don't stop but simply go around you. 

5. Horns are a disease. Drivers lay on the horn for any and all reasons. You waited 0.0005 seconds before going at that green light? Honk x3. You tried to turn but couldn't and are now blocking part of the road behind you? Honk x10. You are slowing down for a red light too soon? Honk x2. You are in front of a hotel? Honk x5. We thought this was bad in Rome.. but it turns out its even worse in Israel. 

6. Decaf beverages are called deca, even though the word in Italian is decaffeinato, so you'd think that 'decaf cappuccino' would still get the message across. Nope. They look at you like you have two heads. Then when you say, cappuccino decaffeinato, they say, "oh, si, si, si. Cappuccino deca." 

7. It isn't just, "si" for yes, it's, "si, si, si". Not in every context of course, but most of the time you get several in a row. 

8. Exact change is not only preferred but requested at every transaction. If you don't give some form of change, they'll ask you for it, and accept nothing short of emptying out your pockets as proof when you say you don't have it. Try to use a large bill and you might get turned away as a customer. Even major businesses, like the Vatican Museum for example, wouldn't accept an €100 when the change would have been under €20. Weird and annoying. 

9. Airport runaround. When we flew from Rome to Israel we were laughing at their system the entire time. First of all, you do the usual take a train to get to your terminal, wait in line, security, wait in line etc. Once it's time to board, you go down some escalators and walk outside to get on a bus. Yes, a bus. Then that bus takes you all around the entire airport (or so it seems) and way the heck out onto the tarmac, practically on the runway, where the plane is. We just couldn't stop laughing about how silly it was to cart us out to the terminal, and then cart us around the airport to the plane.. when the plane could have easily come to the terminal, or the terminal could have easily been one building, since the planes don't even come up to it! Then we get all situated in the airplane, and wait for about an hour until we're cleared to taxi out onto the runway (not even the one we were sitting next to). The flight was typical and uneventful after that, until we landed. Then the majority of the passengers started clapping when we touched down.. we weren't sure why. It hadn't been a rocky flight or anything. Blake and I wonder if we missed the announcement that this was the pilot's first flight or something. It was all a little strange!