Lessons Learned While in Italy

Just for the record, I do realize that I write ridiculously long blog entries on occasion.

Correction:  change "on occasion" to frequently.  But I just want to keep my readers in the loop.  (Perhaps this is why I have so few followers......I'll have to give that some thought.)

But really, don't you want to know the whole story?

Don't feel compelled to answer that question.

In any event, you may find this hard to believe, but there are actually a few items that I refrained from including in my daily posts simply because I ran out of time and energy.

So...I'm going to list a few of them here.

I'd like to entitle them "Lessons Learned"

1.  Jack Russell Terriers have the same attitude no matter where they live.

I'll admit that this isn't the best photo, but part of that is due to the fact that I zoomed in while walking along the walls of Cittadella,  in order to capture this ridiculous behavior. 

Is there anything funnier than watching a Jack Russell Terrier rush from the back of the house, plow through shrubbery, then stop and look up while barking his head off, attempting to let us know that our presence on the wall was not appreciated?  Even though we were nowhere near the property?

Obviously, the temperament of this breed is consistent no matter where they are bred.  And, they appear to be a favorite breed in Italy as well as in Scotland, as we saw many on our travels.

2.  Never presume that a mailbox marked Posta is a government mail slot, even though it may be the only one that you see in a 3 block stretch.

I spent 2 euro on an international stamp, popped it onto a postcard that I had written out, and stuck it in this mail slot.  I hadn't seen any others like it, so I presumed that it was an official mailbox.

I was immediately informed (after I slipped the card through the slot) that this was a private box for mail deliveries.

Lucky for me, the owner of this mailbox must have been kind enough to re-mail my postcard, as it was delivered in just about the same amount of time as the one that I did place in an official box.

It's nice to know that Italians can be helpful when an American can be "stupido"!

3.   Think twice about downloading a GPS app for the phone while in a different country, particularly Great Britain.  

I downloaded the navigation system for Italy while in Scotland.  The end result was  a woman's voice with a British accent who considered rotaries to be roundabouts and gave directions presuming that one was driving on the left hand side of the road.

In otherwords, what would normally be the 3rd exit on the rotary, was "make a left at the first exit" on a roundabout.  Luckily, most of the directions involved staying "straight on" which is the same in either context. 

4.  Be prepared to eat late in Italy.  Restaurants don't begin serving dinner until 8:00 p.m.

I don't know about you....but there have been times when that was darn near my bedtime here at home.

and, finally:

5.  Never presume that Italians speak English, despite being told that English is spoken just about everywhere.  I have not found this to be true in my travels.

It would be like me saying that I speak Italian.  I know just about enough to say good morning, toilet, and "allergic to peppers".  Does that make me fluent in Italian?

I think not.

And so...remember that most Italians speak only limited English.

My advice would be to always bring a pocket dictionary just in case you need to translate.

And.....forget Rick Steve's Italian pocket dictionary.  I looked in the index for "meal" and "gasoline" as well as some other necessary words, only to find them all absent from the listing in the back.

But, if I wanted to say "marijuana" in Italian, I was all set.

I really don't see the value in that.......and if you do.....kindly keep that info to yourself, because I really don't need to know.

Arrividerci!