Granted, few top my favorite of the summer, "Excuse me, there was a flood here in October, right?" "Yes..." I responded.
"What noise did it make?"
Sigh.
But, the other night, questions like, "The spaghetti, are they cooked?" "Yes, we don't serve raw crunchy spaghetti", I responded, knowing this was going down a path that would leave me shaking my head. "Ah, ok, but do you cook it in water or what?"
"The lasagna al ragu...I can't have gluten, can you make it with no lasagna?"
"How long will it take me to get to Monterosso or the Cinque Terre from here?"
"What does in "Ligurian style" mean?" "We are in the region of Liguria, it means it's cooked in a traditional style." (as I walk away from table, she whispers to her husband, "This girl doesn't know anything, we're in Monterosso, not 'Liguria' or whatever she said. I even checked the map when we got off the train!")
Australian woman to me: "The water here is safe to drink, right?"
"Tap water isn't really drank in Italy - in fact, most places won't serve you it, and at home you even drink only bottled or filtered water. But if you drink tap water at your hotel or something, you probably won't die", I responded.
"Ah, ok", she nodded, seriously. "You're obviously American, so you understand me - you know how it is in these third world countries. You can never be too careful!"
Ha.
That is all just so embarrassing. One of the reasons we avoid most areas that other Americans visit, when we travel.
ReplyDeleteGood luck on holding your tongue!
HA to clarify, one of these situations was Norwegian, another Australian, and another Canadian, if that helps at all.
ReplyDeleteOK I don't want to come down too hard on you here but that last comment regarding the water was kind of uncalled for. There are plenty of places in the developed world (read: Canada and the US) where the tap water is questionable or flat out dicey. It was a legitimate query.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. That wasn't my point. I'm wary to drink tap water in many places, and, in fact, it is not drank in Italy normally. It's a TOTALLY legitimate query.
ReplyDeleteItaly is, however, in NO WAY a third world country. By any stretch of the imagination. That was my point. That was the incredible part of the statement. Sorry about that, I assumed it was obvious that someone calling Italy a third world country was worth of head shaking.