I have finished another 3-month stay in Italy. This was June, July, and August in Rome with Daniele. Rome is feeling more like home than NJ right now, and I'm pretty sad to leave. At least I have enough to do state-side these coming months that I think the time will go fast.
This seems like a good time to share my latest observations of Italian culture, educate, and other miscellaneous things.
(1) In the grocery story you generally have to pay for the plastic bags, thought not much. The bags will either be under the belt before the cashier (potentially free) or you have to ask the cashier. If you have to ask, you have to pay. If the cashier asks you something while ringing you up, it is probably if you want a bag.
(2) Also in the grocery store, customers weigh their own produce. Each type of fruit or vegetable, next to its name (and normally its origin) has a number. In the produce area is a scale, use this number to print a price sticker for your bag of produce. Also note, it is etiquette to use plastic gloves while selecting your produce and discard them after. They are normally by the plastic bags along with a garbage bin.
(3) The post office is always really crowded. That is because the post office in Italy is also a bank. Italians have to come here all the time to pay their bills. For example, If I were the electric company, I would not send a bill to your house, I would bill you through the post office, and you would go there to pay. When you arrive at the post office, you press a button to take a number. The buttons are P for people with actual “Post” business (almost no one), A for people with bank business, and E for people with checking accounts with the post office.
(4) I thought I knew all there was about making pasta already, not that it is the most complicated dish. But I have improved my technique recently with little things that I never thought made a difference before. Boil water in a thin pot (thick is for sauce), covered with a lid. This gets the most heat most efficiently to the water to boil faster. Use a bigger pot for spaghetti, it is barbaric to break the pasta in half. Keep the pasta pot covered after adding the pasta. This is especially important for ravioli type pasta that float and need heat above the water too, don't cover completely so you can see before it boils over. I used to think I was healthier for not salting my pasta water, but now I am used to it salted, I can't eat it unsalted. I worry about who I severed unsalted pasta to all those years. I only add a small amount, but it makes a big difference. You can also cook pasta in sauce. It takes longer, about twice as long, but the pasta has great flavor and is creamier because the starches remain in the dish rather than getting tossed with the water. Just add pasta to sauce over heat, add small amounts of hot water as needed, stir. It's perfect for something like a pasta puttanesca or pasta fagioli.
(5) The correct way to store garlic is to refrigerate it. It is good for a long long time. Eventually, the part in the middle turns green and you don't want to eat that part, but the rest is still good as new. To remove the middle, after pealing, cut in half lengthwise so you have two flat parts with a pointy tip and a part of the base. You should see a line of green from base to point (or not and your good). It flicks out easily with the front round part of a butter knife.
(6) How to pay at gelateria or bar. At most of these places, especially the busy and big ones, you will first go to a cashier, tell then what you want, pay, and get a ticket/recite. You bring that ticket to the counter to get your coffee or ice cream.
On the other hand if you are at a by-the-slice pizzeria you normally go to the counter first. You tell them what you want and how much, they weigh it if they are by-the-kilo and they give you the ticket to bring to the cashier.
Obviously if the place is really small and there is only one person working there and you are one of a few customers you order and pay with just that person.
(7) Slices of pizza are typical for lunch, while personal pies that are considered real meals are for dinner only. Italians will grab a slice of pizza for a quick lunch, but a sit down “round pizza” is only for dinner. In fact a restaurant outside the center normally wont even have the pizza oven going during the day.
(8) Americans more typically put all the food on the table at once. The advantage is that we know everything there is and the chef can sit and enjoy the meal, too. A full meal starts with a soup or salad then has a main course with sides, finishing with desert. A vegetable and starch are normally incorporated. On the other hand the full Italian meal starts with antipasto, then pasta, second/main dish possibly served with a contorno/side dish, then salad, then deserts (possibly also served in courses like nuts, pastries, and digestifs). The biggest difference is each dish is cleared between each course and you never know how much more food is still waiting ready in the kitchen. It's wonderful, but very dangerous.
(9) Parmigiano-Reggiano is made with the summer milk. Grana Padano is the same thing but made with the winter milk when the cows are eating dry grass. Both are D.O.P (AKA P.D.O., D.O.C., C.D.O.) cheeses that can only be made in Italy.
(10) Almost no one in Italy has a drier. Which is great, they ruin your clothing anyway. But what about sheets and towels, right? Daniele passed me some of the wisdom of his ancestors in getting by without a drier. It starts with the spin cycle in the washer. You want get rid of enough moisture that you have a head start, but not so much you have wrinkly cloths. So while they are still damp from the washer we fold, pressing them flat, against the edge of the bathtub. We leave them there a few hours before they get hung up to dry. We have three cloths drying wracks. A small one inside on one of the wall heaters (for winter when it's harder to dry outside), one on the biggest balcony, and one that hangs over the other balcony over our garden. The one that hangs over the garden is where we dry big things like sheets. We just fold them and hang them up. The next day fold them the other way, eventually they dry, it just takes a while. Every bed has two sets of summer and two sets of winter sheets so you can do this. Fun, right? Our clothing gets put outside and we just try to time laundry with the weather so they can have a chance to dry. I've used these racks for years for my cloths (I don't like to put my cloths in the drier even when one is available), but I have been doing it wrong. I always draped each top over a different bar, but you need to use two bars per top. That way it dries folded over in a way that stressed the fabric less. Can't believe I never thought of it!
Well, so long for now Italy. See you after the holidays!
(Entrance to the beach)
(Sunset on the bay)
(The bird sanctuary on LBI)
