Monday, August 4, 2008

Additional Comments on Conclusions after Two Months Here

Refer to this post for the original list.

1. The concept of customer service still doesn't exist here, although I will say I've found a few places that will try to help you and/or not rip you off. In general, they aren't familiar with the idea of keeping customers by providing a good product or good service.

2. They don't snuff out their cigarettes, they just drop them on the sidewalk. Also, while they don't smoke in indoor public spaces, a space with a roof and 3 walls is considered outside.

8. I put this in a comment somewhere, but another fake meat product that I like is Yves canadian bacon.

10. Piaggio, which I see a lot, is the parent company of Vespa.

15. Some things that cost less here: watermelon, bottled water (only at supermarkets, not downtown), some vegetables, some cereal (though the selection is fairly small), pineapples (even though they come from Costa Rica), generic brand pasta (by the way, they do have Barilla here), wine
Some things that cost more here: pine nuts (aren't they an Italian ingredient?), ramen and lo mein noodles (though I haven't checked Prato yet), sun dried tomatoes (aren't those also Italian?), other things Italians apparently don't eat (peanut butter, soy sauce, corn, dried chilis, etc.), electricity, sun screen

17. Mosquitoes can disappear

21. I've actually seen dried cranberries and cranberry juice in more than one store here, but they're definitely not common. There's not really a word in Italian for them either.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mosquitos can disappear? I'm moving!

Kristen said...

I guess I should expand on that. They disappear a second after you notice them, when you're trying to kill them. They reappear mainly when you're sleeping to bite you. They only use their power for evil.