When in Italy, Just Smile and Don't Ask

Here are some interesting observations I hadn’t considered seriously until trying to prepare Anastasia for her arrival (tomorrow!!):

Should you use cash or credit cards? In Italy, cash is almost always preferred, especially in restaurants. I’m not so sure that Italians consider it much of a civic duty to be entirely honest when reporting revenue. Also, do not ever expect precise change when making a purchase. Italians do not enjoy using coins smaller than the 5 or even 10 cent piece. You don’t really need those pesky two- and one-cent coins weighing you down, anyway. Conveniently, if upon your arrival at the next register you find yourself a few cents shy of your purchase total, the cashiers aren’t too demanding. I suspect the change they never returned to the previous customer will probably cover their losses at the end of the day.

Should you arrive early for the trains or are they always running late? This is a bit of a tough one. To be safe, you should always arrive a few minutes early because you never know with the Italian trains. However, even when they leave late, things always seem to work out. My train leaving Naples was delayed by twenty minutes, but I was lucky I’d set my alarm 15 minutes before the scheduled arrival time before falling asleep: the train still managed to reach Rome ten minutes ahead of schedule.

Is there anything you should bring to wear? If you want to look Italian, you will not wear shorts or sneakers. Despite the sweltering heat, Italian women will go to great lengths to avoid a fashion faux pas. Besides the standard set of tight jeans, they can be spotted in skirts and dresses, but death before shorts unless, as my roommates explained, you are in a beach town, at which point the article becomes acceptable though still not often worn. Also, forget practicality when it comes to shoes. Sneakers might spare you all sorts of foot pain, but these women would rather sparkle in their gold and silver sandals, of which it seems every Italian woman owns at least a pair this season. Fortunately, it is possible to find trendy (mostly silver and gold) tennis shoes for those who would rather not sacrifice so much on the comfort or those, like me, who are wondering how the heck they could possibly survive a whole week of touring around Europe in those uncomfortable little sandals and ballerina flats.

Do you need a visa? Thank goodness, no, people spending under 90 days in Italy are spared the nightmare of Italian bureaucracy. To get my permission of stay, one set of finger prints, although digitalized, simply would not suffice. The two offices demanding the fingerprints couldn’t possibly email the files to each other or even walk a disk across the street since that’s how close together they’re situated. An appointment with the “Questura” must be scheduled weeks in advance, yet still the office will keep you waiting several hours after the appointed time. Despite the proximity of the offices asking for the fingerprints, each only opens for several hours a day, rendering a single day’s visit to both buildings impossible. Efficiency is not a part of the Italian psyche. Workers update each other on the minutia of their social lives between grabbing each of your fingers, either assuming you don’t actually understand the country’s language or figuring that you probably don’t have much better to do that to get a crash course in their personal lives. Anyone wishing to live in Italy must prove themselves patient and in possession of a strong sense of humor.

Thanks to FunDraw.com for the free clip art!