When at Fault

This strikes me as a very Italian argument. If they do something wrong, someone will yell at them, and then they'll just yell back.

For example, while I was on a bus recently, the driver passed a stop people had requested, so they yelled to him about it, and he was like, "basta, basta!" ("enough, enough," with arm motions), and then he stopped. I've also seen something similar to the cartoon happen, where someone pulled out in front of someone else and yelling ensued from both the person who was cut off and the person at fault.

Maybe it's just a city thing. I don't know the difference.

Random Observations

I'm a little behind in blogging and will fill in the gaps in the next few days. In other news, it's less than a week until Kristen comes! In the meantime, here are some tidbits:

• Italians must really like their lingerie. Either that or it’s a popular souvenir. There are two chains of lingerie stores in the city, as well as plenty of independent stores, that have to be making enough money to pay the probably not insignificant rents. There are even lingerie stores in the train station!
• Even though there’s a law against driving while talking on a cell phone, that’s often ignored, as you can imagine. In fact, even the bus drivers can often be found holding a phone in one hand and driving the bus with the other.
• Quote of the day: “The ‘face of slowness’ in Italy is a negative, outmoded one in Bruno [Contigiani, founder of “L’Arte del Vivere con Lentezza”]’s mind; to him the clichés of the simple Italian way of life are really just inefficiency masquerading as charm.”
  -- New Yorker, April 7, 2008