The Little Things...

Italy is an incredible country, and I love being here, but there are a few things that baffle me and a few that make me miss the comfort and familiarity of home.

For instance...

HOT DRINKS

The almighty coffee is king of the hot-drink empire here in Italy; and King Coffee rules the others with an iron fist. It took me a little while to work out why the waiters laughed at me every time I ordered a hot chocolate in the afternoon, or looked at me, confounded, when I ordered a tea (especially one with milk).

Apparently only kids drink beverages containing milk after lunchtime. The rest of Italy drinks King Coffee in all his undiluted glory. Hot chocolate is for winter (many places don’t even bother to re-stock their chocolate powder this time of year) and tea is an enigma to the Italians.

Australia was spawned by the ultimate tea-drinking nation, and so I feel I have a certain right to have opinions on this topic! First of all, they never give you milk when you order tea, regardless of what kind of tea you have asked for. They assume the milk-for-kids-only rule applies to all drinks.

Secondly, they don’t bother to ask you what kind of tea you want because they probably can’t be bothered with the ridiculous names (Earl Gray, English Breakfast, Prince of Wales, Russian Caravan). Instead, they bring out a cup, a pot of hot water and a small tea caddy containing several varieties of both herbal and non-herbal teas squeezed in against each other. This is not right, people. Different teas should never be stored together without some kind of substantial barrier between and around them. The scents and flavours diffuse between the thin paper coverings – mixing – and compromising the integrity of my tea! Also, being left out of a container of any kind weakens the flavour over time.

Hot chocolates are easy to come by in Melbourne and it’s not so FLIPPING DIFFICULT to find a good one there. The best hot chocolate I’ve had here is from the vending machine at school – yes, my fellow Melbournians, it is shocking but true. For some reason many hot chocolates served here are more like heated up chocolate custard. Oh how I miss the amazing hot chocolates at Koko Black, Ripe in Sassafras, and Coco Lounge in Glen Waverley. The last time I ordered one here, the waiter chuckled to himself. In Melbourne I am the consummate hot chocolate connoisseur; here in the Coffee Empire I am a mere laughing stock!

TOILETS

For some mysterious reason 90% of toilet seats I’ve seen in this country have a crack in them! What’s going wrong here? Do they need some engineers to investigate the design flaws? Do Italians have some strange toilet habits that give rise to cracking? Are the toilet seats of Italy having an identity crisis; thinking they are mirrors and attempting to reflect the cracks they view daily? Sorry… I know that last one was a little in the gutter… but hey, I’m just trying to solve the mystery here. A good detective considers all angles.

Keeping with toilets, it took me a while to figure out how to flush the first one I used here. The cisterns are usually mounted on the wall much higher than the seat and at the bottom of the cistern (about eye level) there is often a small button that you push UP, not down. It is camouflaged. Apparently a big round button that screams “PRESS ME” is not in vogue here. Like I said, the Italian toilet is a mysterious entity…

Well, just those two anomalies have taken up an entire blog. Perhaps at some point in the future, I will explore the anomalies of the wonderful Italians themselves! Tonight I am having dinner with Sandy’s landlady and her family – the “true locals” ought to provide me with plenty of insight into the Sienese mind!