Trademark Infringement

I have seen so many examples of trademark infringement while traveling that it inspired me to make a collection. Here are a few just from Italy.

Italians want Starbucks

Italy is one of the countries I know that does not have Starbucks. Or Pizza Hut for that matter. Why would they want those chains when their coffee and pizza are so good, right? I have run into a few Italians who yearn for Pizza Hut, which makes sense. Even if you think Pizza Hut is gross (personally I enjoy it as a nostalgic indulgence), it really is its own thing and no Italian Pizzaria sells “pizza” like it. Same reasoning can be applied for Starbucks. Italians have cafes (or Bars, rather) with delicious espresso and typically a hearty dose of charm on virtually every corner. Why would they need a big chain coffee shop? Same answer, it's just different.

Last night at a BBQ with about 15 Italians and myself I heard for the first time someone say how much they wish there were Starbucks here in Italy. Every region in Italy makes pizza a slightly different way-- from the thick Napoli pies, to the thin ones here in Rome, to the ultra-thick focaccia-like pizza they make near Genoa, and so forth. While everyone insists their own region makes the best pizza, they seem more united on coffee. There are a handful of household names: illy, lavazza, danesi, segafredo. Almost all coffee here is one of these brands and the people are pretty much in agreement that Italian is the best coffee. Knowing this, I was really interested where this conversation was going to go.

Coffee is a strong part of their culture. In fact just earlier during dinner I had one of my favorite debates with Italians: “Why can't I order a cappuccino after dinner?”. For those curious, it is a faux pas to order a cappuccino after morning hours. With some prodding, the best reasons for this I have been able to get are: “it is bad for the stomach”, “you can't drink warm milk after a meal”, or “it just isn't done”. I love bringing it up because they always seem to feel very strongly about it, but are never very sure why. Though you know what they say, “When in Rome...” so when I'm here in Rome I try to blend in and just get an espresso or mocchiato, both perfectly acceptable, and save after dinner cappuccinos for when I'm back in the States.

If you ask any Italian they will happily explain to you the difference between an espresso or cafe (interchangeable), cafe mocchiato, cappuccino, americano, cafe corretto, cafe latte, and mochaccino. I think when I was living in Milan someone new explained it almost every day of my 3-month stay. And when I left I was drinking on average five shots of the stuff a day. They will also eagerly tell you how many coffees they have had that day (like asking a US college student how many beers s/he had last Friday). They love drinking it. They love talking about it. At the first mention of Starbucks, the crowd started buzzing about all the fun “american” or “long” coffee drinks (coffee can be long or short depending how much water is in it) and drinks with caramel or that you can walk around while holding. This is something I miss, as much as I love the Italian espresso and the “at the bar” experience here, there is something nice about having a warm coffee in your hand on a cold day to sip on while walking. But this is something they just don't have here and it never occurred to me that they wanted. In the US, anything that anyone wants-- it exists, twice, and you can get it delivered.

However, it wasn't the coffee that was really being praised in the end. Those who had ever stayed in a Starbucks while traveling abroad agreed how nice an atmosphere the place had. They liked the free wi-fi and that you could stay as long as you liked, reading, studying and no one bothered you to buy something else or leave. This is truly the opposite of the experience you would get in a bar (cafe) in Italy. Here you pay a different price to sit down (seriously). In fact the group decided that if a Starbucks did open here, it would go out of business because it would become too Italian and wouldn't pull off the same effect.

Anyway. I thought it was interesting.

Proposal

This weekend (weekend for us) Daniele organized a surprise for me. It wasn't a total surprise, I knew what was going on and had a rough idea even where we were going, but he organized everything by himself and actually managed quite a few surprises for the trip.

We left Sunday morning (8/21) when he finished his night shift. As soon as he got home we had a little breakfast together and headed north (about 90 minutes). That was when I found out our first destination because I had to get directions: Bagni San Filipo, Castiglione d'Orcia-- so that's why I needed a swimsuit!

Side Note
Bagno, plural Bagni is an interesting Italian noun that means both bathroom and an outdoor pool. Not a typical swimming pool, or “piscina”, though you can “fare bagno” or bathe (as in swim or wade) in one as well as the ocean. Bagni as I have come across them are typically natural man-enhanced pools or springs. End side note.

The destination was actually the Therme of San Felipo. Daniele had brought me to terme once before near Viterbo not far from us. Those were the typical Roman style with different pools filled with hot, medium, or cool water boiling up from the ground. These here were in a park. The hot water came up in different places and mixed with the fresh streams that flowed through the woods. There was also this giant white bolder-mountain perhaps made of the calcium that flows from the hot spring water, I'm not sure. The hot water poured all over it and you could also lay in the sun. At the top there were pools of the hot water and even a little cave. Some water showered down from an even higher level, but I avoided the boiling-shower and sat in the little pools instead.

Lunch hunger hit me pretty hard since we had left early and the restaurant that Daniele's friends had recommended to him was closed for Sunday. There was one other restaurant near there and I was really hungry so we went there. It was OK, nothing special, but not bad either. Daniele is very picky about restaurants, him agreeing to eat here so easily was definitely for me. (Only a little complaining)

After lunch we continued North to the town of Pienza. This cute but small town had a surprising amount of Americans there. The houses on the edge of the old center were newer but in the typical Italian / Tuscan villa style, so beautiful! The center had a lot of cute stores. The obligatory main church and city hall were pretty impressive. There was a park just outside the center-center. Super cute little town and just the kinda of thing I love to visit in Italy!

(Old Tuscan sunflower farm house on road to Pienza)

(Kait in Pienza)

(Cheese store in Pienza)

After that we went to find and check into the hotel. We were staying in a hotel that used to be a tobacco farm. It was pretty cool. We got there like an hour before the pool closed, so we did that for a little while.

(Daniele and Kait at hotel pool)

Daniele had bought a package that included one night dinner in the hotel restaurant. Like he read about, the restaurant was high quality, but the service was like a trattoria (one guy who kept forgetting he still had not taken our order). It was a package, so we each got two big plates of food. I knew he had the ring with him, and he even did a few fake outs.

After we finished dinner we took a short walk around the grounds of the hotel. That is where he asked me.

The next day we went to the city of Arezzo. Besides being a super cute city they have a ton of history-- that even I know about! Two important people from the renaissance were from here. First we visited the house of Giorgio Vasari. He was an artist and architect, but he really made a name for himself as a writer. Before him no one ever really knew much about the artists behind famous works of art. He wrote about the super stars of the renaissance and is the reason we know about the people they were today. Then we visited the first home of the poet Francesco Patrarca (in English Petrarch). He is one of three poets, along with Giovanni Boccaccio and Dante Alighieri primarily credited with fathering the Italian language. Even in the time of the renaissance, the Italian language did not exist. While the French and Spanish had united under a common dialect, Italy was still a collection of different regional dialects with Latin used in universities. Florence's central part in the renaissance (much thanks to patronage from the Medici family) led to many important works being written in that region's dialect. Then when the nation finally united 150 years ago they chose it as their language. However still today depending where you are you can hear words mixed in (think “hella” or “wicked”) or entire separate languages spoken in the different regions. The city of Arezzo was also dripping in medieval charm. There was big squares, gardens, and colorful flags and family plagues all over the place. Probably one of my favorite places I've been in Italy, though as a disclaimer, it might be less impressive if you didn't geek out as much as I did at those two guy's work.

(Family plaques in Arezzo)

(Pozzo (water well) in Piazza Grande of Arezzo with the Palazzo delle Logge del Vasari / Columns designed by Vasari on the right)

(Piazza Grande of Arezzo)

At night we went to the city of Laterina to get dinner. The city was small and cute. Most places in Italy close either Sunday or Monday. This was Monday and just about everything was closed. We did find a place called "Anema e Core" (Soul and Heart in Napoletano) where we were finally able to eat. And then just like that, our magical weekend was over.

The rest of the photos from this weekend are in my Proposal album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110821Proposal

Pinoli Nuts

Hearing Pinoli (or Pine) nuts came from trees that grow all over the place was almost like hearing there was a money tree. Or an avocado* tree. Pinoli nuts are so delicious, and versatile, and expensive-- I can pick them up off the ground?!

*This reminded me of a conversation I once had in San Francisco: How many avocados would you have to eat per month in California to offset the higher rent by the lower avocado prices?

Pinoli or pine nuts come from the Mediterranean Pine Tree. Our boring Christmas Tree type Pines make different cones without nuts. Typically a big ol' pine cone or “pigna” falls from the tall trees. If you get to it before any little kids it should be FULL of black, filthy nuts. You can bang the cone around to set the little nuts free. The cone may have some sap, but the nuts WILL be covered in this black dirt-powder. Gather your haul in a bag and bring them home.

(Mediterranean pine cones with a few pine nuts still inside)

Now run some water in that bag to rinse the dirt off a little. Do it a few times. They don't need to be perfect, you're going to toss the shells. You just want it clean enough to handle them without getting black fingers yourself. So far this has been the fun and easy part. Leave them out to dry somewhere and gather your strength for the last step.

(Daniele showing me how to clean the pinoli nuts)

(My Pine Nut harvest in a basket to dry out for a few days)

What you have now are Pinoli nuts in their shell. That is a really hard shell. The only way to crack it is between two rocks or with a hammer on a rock. I tried using a wood cutting board and (1) I dented the board and (2) I wasn't getting a clean crack, damaging the super soft nut inside. But any smashed nuts you'll just have to eat.

(My Pinoli Nuts! All done and about to become pesto!)

The fresh nuts have a stronger taste than the store bought ones. I love it. When I cracked one open for my friend Fabienne she spit it out and said it tasted like sap. She actually seemed pretty scared from the experience. Now maybe she got a bad nut, or maybe it's just not for everyone. More for me =D

Water Park

Daniele has fallen in love with an Italain Groupon called Groupalia, at first I actually thought it was the same company. After enduring night after night of hearing about all you can eat pizza offers for 5 euros (one pizza typically cost 5 euros and that's all I can eat), I got something good out of this new obsession-- a trip to the water park!

This water park called Aquapiper. It has tube and no-tube water slides and two of those steep drop slides. There is also a wave pool and several other pools and acres of lounge chairs so all those Italians can get their tanning done. We normally go to the beach on his day off, this was a super fun way to mix it up.

All in all it was like an American water park (except maybe cuter lifeguards). I only made one major social observation this day. So. Most of the water slides all boarded on this one platform. One level down were some tube slides and one level up were three of those drop straight down slides. This middle platform was the busiest with the most and best slides. I'm sure anyone who has every been to Italy (or even an Italian bakery) can imagine the neat organized lines everyone formed, right? Of course it was just a big mob of people, everyone just kinda standing, or pushing, the kids running up to the front.

One time I get up to the platform and it was completely full (people are touching each other crowded) so I was standing at entrance and I put my foot and arm over the doorway so no one can get past me. I am at the end of the line, for any of the slides. Some kids try to get past me, to push to the front of the line for one of the slides, and I stop them, which I feel it the fair thing to do. They are not toddlers, they are like 12 years old. Then who shows me whats what-- one of the lifequards comes over, he's making rounds looking for kids to bring to the front.

So, apparently children, even older children in Italy don't have to wait in lines. Which makes it easy to see why adults in Italy never learn the simple skill. I asked Daniele about this and he confirmed it. Guess I was in the wrong blocking the little brats from cutting. Though he added that in a place like this, were it is more than half kids, it normally wouldn't apply. It's more for when there is just one kid, you let them go to the front.

These children seemed so obnoxious to me, as do their grown up counterparts. For example, when they place a basket in line at the supermarket and then go about their shopping, expecting the rest of us to scoot it forward, rather than just step around it (which I've done and gotten a nasty look for). Or when someone walked up next to me (rather than behind) in a line and when asked who was here first, she can't remember, but she only has one thing (same as me) do I mind?

This observation really drilled home for me the significance of having children follow the same rules as adults. It was also a reminder that while I may drink the coffee, speak the lingo, and hopefully soon have the papers to say I'm Italian, I'll always be American.

(Daniele coming down the slide at Aquapiper)

More photos are in my Summer Rome Album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110608Roma