Mia amica Italiana

On Friday I had a great day hanging out with my Italian friend, Rosa, and her 6 month old baby boy, Gabriel. Rosa and I met through the Yahoo Group, "Naples Moms", and after emailing while I was still in Seattle, and then chatting on the phone once we got to Napoli, she and I finally connected in person yesterday. It was a great visit, and so fun to have a new Italian friend. Evan also got a kick out of having another bambino around, and he stared at Gabriel a lot while flashing him a wide grin every once in a while. It was so cute.

Rosa and I spent about 5 hours hanging out, and as we walked and chatted, she answered quite a few of my questions, and gave me some great insight on life in Napoli. Some of the things I learned or we discussed:

-Every morning, as I walk along the water, I wonder what all the padlocks are for that are hanging from the railing along the sidewalk that lines the waterfront of the Bay of Naples. There are tons of them and I wondered if they were for crab pots..but where are the pots? For boats...but there aren't tons of boats lined up there? For bikes...but hardly anyone is brave enough to ride a bike around here..!?, so what are they for? Rosa explained that there is a famous movie where the main characters write their names on a padlock as a symbol of their unending love and locked hearts. Now, the people in Naples "are just copying the movie" as Rosa said, and so there are hundreds of locks. Today on my walk, for the first time, I noticed that there are names on all of them. I guess Josh and I will have to add one soon:)

-Rosa's never heard of Starbucks! I love that! And, that adds validity to the claim I had heard that Italy has some sort of ban on Starbucks. When I told Rosa what my typical Starbucks order was "Venti, decaf, non-fat, extra-hot, no foam, vanilla latte", she was amazed by all the customization we can do. She was surprised that we could pick the type of milk and the flavor etc. After I told her how large a Venti cup is, she said, "No wonder you like to have 2 cappuccinos, you are used to your big Starbucks!"

-After lunch, Rosa and I walked around the city a bit more and then I suggested we stop for some Cappuccinos. She said, "ahhh..Italians never have Cappucinos in the afternoon, just in the morning, and usually,just one". I told her it looks like I'll be standing out as an American again!

-There is no return policy on purchased goods in Naples. If you buy something, that's it, you can't return it. I said, so if you buy a shirt, and it doesn't fit, you can't return it even if it has the tags on it. She said..."No way...they would laugh at you." I told her about Costco and Nordstrom's generous return policy and she couldn't believe it. She said she would bankrupt them because she'd do all her shopping there and then return things when she got sick of them. She said she would take total advantage of it. I told her some people do, but for the most part, we are used to being able to return things, so it's not that abused. She said the exception here is shopping at Ikea since they allow things to be returned. She said, it's so nice to shop at Ikea because "you don't worry, you just buy what you like, and if you change your mind, no worry, just return it. It is so nice at Ikea!"

-She said Naples recently passed a law about making the city more wheelchair accessible. We were talking about how difficult it is w/ strollers and I said I can't imagine what people in wheelchairs do. She said there are just parts of the city they can't go to at all, because even with help, there are too many stairs connecting some areas to others, and most shops, restaurants, public transportation etc, don't have wheelchair accommodations.

-There is a no smoking rule for all shops and restaurants are supposed to have smoking/non smoking sections. The problem is, it isn't much enforced. When I picked up my laundry last week, the 2 owners and their friend were all chain smoking amidst the clean clothes. Nothing like having your clothes all reek of smoke after paying to have them cleaned.

-I said, why do you think Italians are so much thinner than Americans? She said when she was in the states for a bit, she couldn't believe how much Americans snack. She said, there will be fat people eating chips and nuts and tons of soda. She also said, "You drink milk with meals! Milk has all the nutrients and ingrediants to be it's own meal, and you drink it to go with your meal. That is part of the overweight problem."

-Rosa was dressed so stylish for our visit, but she downplayed it,and felt like she was just dressed totally comfortably. She had on stylish boots, wool,tailored pants, a nice sweater, gorgeous long coat, and a fur hat. I told her I hope to expand my wardrobe and become more fashionable while here, but until then, it's jeans and sneakers for me...especially when out walking the city.

-Employment--Rosa said many companies totally take advantage of their employees because the unemployment rate is high, and bosses figure if their employee quits due to bad conditions, there are hundreds of other people who would love the job. She used to work at a hotel, and she said that it was normal for her to have to work an extra day a week with no pay, or even though her shift was supposed to end at 4, she might be asked to stay until 9--all for no pay. If you complain, the boss will just say, too bad..if you don't want to do it, someone else will gladly take your job. She is glad that she was able to leave after her 2nd baby. In Italy, you get 6 months of 100% paid maternity leave from the government--a generous benefit, but Rosa said taxes are so high, it's just good to get some of what you pay in, back.

There were lots of other things we talked about, learned from each other, and shared, and we are looking forward to hanging out some more soon. She wants to have us over her apartment for dinner, and she said once we get settled into an apartment, she'll come over to show me how to cook Eggplant parmigiana (since that has been a recent favorite at restaurants) and tiramisu. Yum!