cowboys

rocket

Italians and their cellphones

We went to this great dinner party last night in Parioli. It was a beautiful flat in a beautiful neighborhood with really great food and lots of wine. Everyone was having a nice time and the conversations were flowing when a friend of ours pulls out his cell phone to check his messages. At this point every other male in the room takes out their cell phone and starts to check their messages too. ( I'm not trying to be sexist here but this is what I observed because not one woman pulled out her cell to check it.) This is such a strange phenomenon.
Then everyone begins sharing their cell phone pictures with the rest of the table. The new nephew, the photos of friends, flying in a cesna, work, etc. etc. Then we go through all the different ringtones. Which ones are cool which ones are not, which ones they would like to have, and this goes on for about 20 minutes. After this they proceed to play games with their mobiles by taking two cell phone, disabling the caller ID and calling two random numbers out of each phone's contacts/directory. In other words there are two strangers talking to each other via cell phone and each one is saying "pronto?" "pronto?" "chi e?".
So I'm at one end of the table laughing hystericaly with an English girlfriend of mine because we just can't understand why Italians are so fascinated with their mobiles. I've been told that lots of them have 2 or 3 different phones, one for work, one for family, one for friends. This is incredible! And to think I always just thought my husband was one of those people who liked to talk on the phone. I used to make fun of him saying he's worse than a teenage girl. But then I remember not even I was that obsessed with the telephone when I was a teenager. Hmmmm....

The Best Pizza in Rome (a taglio)

We just ate the best pizza by the pizza champions of the world, at least the best pizza by the slice in all of Rome.



It's Sicilian style but it is so good that I am still drooling just thinking about it. Mmmmmmmm....truffle paste and potato, artichoke and tuna, gorgonzola and walnuts, cherry tomatoes basil and mozzarella......mmmmmmmm

My Roman Holiday

I am trying to get a handle on the Italian way of life here. Yeah yeah yeah I know this is so stereotypical but Italians have nowhere to be and are in no hurry to get there. Mind you, I moved here from New York City where everyone works a 14 hour day and if you don't there is something seriously wrong with you. Now I am decompressing and detoxing from a completely insane hectic lifestyle to, well, weird habits like not being able to go to the store between the hours of 1:30 and 4 because the whole city shuts down. What? No 24 hour delis? Banks close at 2pm? I have to wait until 4pm to go to the hardware store if I missed the window of time in the morning? And everything is closed on Sunday? What????
My husband, who is Roman (no, he's not just Italian, he's Roman! I've been informed that there is a difference) thinks this is life, yes this is the way to live. And I have to agree it is really really sooooooooooooooooo nice and relaxing but I can't just wind down from seven years of NYC so easily. I just can't stop thinking "i am so lazy, i am so lazy, i am so lazy...." Thank God he is so understanding and such a wonderful man that he can put up with all my post-NY neuroses!