Italy/Switzerland: Impressions from a skip – Part 1
I’ve finally drummed up the effort to post up my thoughts regarding my recent european trip. I’ve been ever so slack of late, this has been in the works since I got back a few weeks ago but I’ve just not gotten around to it. Actually doing work while at work hasn’t helped at all either.
For those who were following along with my italian adventure, you know that I’ve seen and done a few things while I was away. In this post I’ll try to cover my impressions on various things regarding the european culture I saw and experienced.
The People
This section could also quite easily be titled, “The Arrogance” but I thought I’d stick with the current title as not everyone was a terrible example of a european.
When we arrived in Rome it was good to see the customs officials working hard ensuring the security of the nation by gathering in a small quorom near the wall to discuss something, who knows what, while we sauntered past entering into their country unassaulted by any official of any kind. Even passport control helped us out by just glancing at the fact that we had a passport, not necessarily that there was a photo, so that he could get back to his conversation with his nearby colleague in the adjacent booth. It seemed all about convenience really.
From there Rome stayed firmly at mediocre with regards to attitude, most of the people we encountered on our way were ambivalent to our presence, this extended to annoyance or even animosity when it was apparent that we required a service like a taxi a product from their shop. The only other people who were really interested in us were the gypsies that populated the area we were in, if we weren’t paying attention as close as we were then who knows what nefarious acts they may have attempted.
To me it seemed like the resident’s of Rome were annoyed at people like ourselves for the mere fact that we were invading their city, causing them hassle and then leaving, not unlike a tourist.
Florence was fantastic, I say that quite easily. I’ll happily go back to Florence, the people were great, easy to talk to and the best bit was not having to look over your shoulder to see if anyone was following you who might want to relieve you of your personal belongings or an organ perhaps.
I think at one stage I did refer to a waiter as ‘tiger’ when it was clear he was hinting for a tip, his service was terrible and the food was clearly not as fresh as they purported so no tip was he to get.
The only place which achieved more ambivalence that Rome was Milan, it’s just another big city in some country. It’s just they mostly speak italian. Except for the fuck-ton of African people there. It seemed most of them congregated just outside the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele to hand out “friendship bracelets” and then hit you up for a donation. I’ve been through this though, it’s in the forum post.
What was great was when we were leaving Milan to head to Switzerland, the taxi driver actually was visibly upset at us for having luggage. Clearly a taxi isn’t used for such things in Milan, perhaps it was an oversight on our part to assume as much.
Switzerland was a little one-sided to really gauge how they are as a people. We were just in St. Moritz, a place known for housing many, many bored million/billionaires when they’ve got nothing to do. Seeing children under 10 years old wandering about with their parents wearing expensive fur-coats highlighted this for me. Women, clearly still teenagers, carrying $5,000, $10,000 handbags and designer uggboots while amusing, is still amazing to see. More from a “why?” sort of perspective than an “that’s amazing” one.
That being said, everyone we came across was great. Nice people, probably used to having to deal with arrogant rich people more often than not so the regular people that come up during winter is no doubt a relief. The funniest thing was talking to Sammy, my snowboarding instructor, about the moronic outfits some people get about in. In one of the ski shops, Bolgers, they sell a single pattern ski outfit for women in which the jacket along goes for 2500 francs (so you can imagine the rest of the cost), looks horrendous and seems to cater especially to those with too much money and too little taste. Don’t get me wrong, ski gear isn’t cheap, especially for good stuff, but not that much. So the ski/snowboard instructors up there get to see a lot of this going on, much to their amusement.
London was what I expected though, I’ve been there before and being Australian seems to help. By the time we got back to the UK the language barrier was getting annoying and I was yearning just to hear english in more than just a passing conversation. Fortunately this was a little easier in London, at least they kind of speak english.
The Food
On to the food, this was all over the place. Florence had pretty good food in parts, Rome was decidedly average mostly, Milan had the best gelati I’ve ever had in my life. The comment on Rome’s gelati is that it achieves mediocrity while still looking like good gelati. Looks are quite deceiving.
Funnily enough, despite being in Italy, the best coffee I had was in London. At an Indian cafe. Go figure.
I’ve had this discussion with a few others but to me it seems the italians in the big cities have lost their way when it comes to food. I didn’t venture out into the country towns so it may not be 100% but certainly the italian food here in australia is much better in a lot of cases. All the grandparents who came out all those years ago were clearly the ones who were keeping the italian food industry alive.
Pizza’s however, were much better. Only in Florence though, I wasn’t game to try any in Rome or Milan, they look horrendous. Florence achieved a simplicity I hadn’t experienced before. A maximum of two or three toppings on a super-thin base meant that it was quick to cook in the oven and simple to eat. I feel this is the way pizza’s should be, we’ve been influenced by the american way of pizza making too much with the 4inch base and 16 toppings, etc.
I did have some glorious pasta while in St. Moritz though, since most of the good italian chef’s jump the border to Switzerland and get paid more, the hotels have great food on the menu. They stitch you up on the cost of said food but it’s still very good. The pasta was this rich yellow colour, rich in egg and flavour. It was fantastic. It made me want to make my own pasta to see if I could replicate it.
Overall, the food was pretty good. Definitely worth trying everything though, don’t make any assumptions when you go there too. You might come across some surprises.
Well that concludes part 1, part 2 will cover the culture and the landscape that I saw. Should be another long one too. I’m going to go and brave the heat now, it’s time to go home.
Scottyou’ve got me hanging upside down, burning, burning
Tags: Europe, Italy, Schnitzel, Switzerland
Sounds like the Italians have the same approach to customs as the Hong Kong-ese: go through, don’t bother declaring anything, because we just don’t care.
Which coincidentally is the same as the Malaysians, “don’t bother us, we know you don’t have anything we want”
All of those options are better than the Nepalese equivalent. You get taken through a booth, basically, with 2 soldiers standing inside, curtained off from the rest of the place. They simply ask “do you have batteries, wire, or other bomb making equipment?”, or something along those lines. Of course, EVERYONE has batteries in their cameras, but you don’t tell them that, because admission means a severe beating with the butt of a gun, followed by arrest, according to the tour guide I had.
Thailand is a lot like that as well. Bring in whatever you like after all we don’t have much and take out as much as you can carry.. or we will help you carry it if it means we turn a dollar.