- We saw
many sorts of police throughout the country: more soldier-like police, also men
and women in blue uniforms, and, in the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele in Milano,
police wearing swallowtail coats and Napoleonic hats with plumes and carrying
swords. Police on the highways had still another sort of uniform. Who are they
all? What’s the difference among the various types? We never did learn.
(Return)
- Italians
seem to be as enamored of using English words in product and
business names as non-Italians are of using Italian words. In neither case do the
words have to make sense. Did you know that “targa” (as in Porsche) means
“license plate?” (Return)
- Passeggiata: the evening walk. Families
with babes in strollers and small children in tow, old folks, young folks, all
ambulatory members of the
community stroll and converse and shop at the end of the day (most shops are open
till 7:00). The passeggiata lasts from around 6:30 to 7:30, when people go home
to their dinners or to restaurants.
(Return)
- Including a beautiful place called Zoagli, prompting the
inevitable dialogue: “How ugly was it?” “It was Zoagli…”
(Return)
- Many times we wished for a knowledgeable American contact: a friend, friend-of-a-friend, Embassy staffer, or whatever, of whom we could ask mundane or profound questions such as: What do you dial to get an operator? (Hint: it’s not “0.”) Why are there virtually no Japanese cars in Italy? Why is gasoline so expensive? Why are there two separate and completely unrelated house-numbering schemes on the buildings in this city? What do all those different police uniforms signify? (Return)
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