Tourist life

Farewell

As we travel somewhere for some time, we get used to that place and those people who surround us. We also become a little part of their culture, because we are curious about the way they live and we want to know about it. Visiting Italy for few weeks, showed how small cities can be enormously different from big cities.
It also taught me how every culture is unique and how people see everything totally differently. Let me give you the most simplest example. In Toronto, when we go to the bar or restaurant we are most likely to tip the waiter/waitress who served us because that's how it is for us. In Italy, tipping the waiter is totally something big, because their wage is as high as the wage of an engineer so it wouldn't matter for them at all.
Shopping boutiques and grocery store would close early on the weekend.
All these small, different, unique and cultural things we learn make us understand and learn more about the culture and also get used to it very quick.

As my amazing trip ended in Italy, I can say that Italy stole my heart. I may not be Italian, but as they say "Home is where your heart is." My home is in Gaeta now. I'm planning on living there happily every after! :)

Italians don't like to shop

Everybody loves shopping, right? For some reason, I didn’t think like that about Italians. In Rome, I never saw a big mall with neither shopping stores nor shopping places. 

However, they do have small clothing boutiques that open till 1.30pm afternoon on the weekends. Isn’t it so weird? Because usually people go shopping on the weekends, afternoon time, but not early in the morning.

Also, when you do go shopping for clothing or shoes, make sure that you know the sales associate who works there’ll assist you. Basically, the shopper sometimes isn’t allowed to touch anything and the sales associate does the job and everything for the shopper. Shopping for clothes is one thing, but when you go grocery shopping Italians have their own schedule for it too. For example, grocery stores, supermarkets and other business places close on Sundays after 7.30pm in addition to that they take long lunch breaks. They might be from 12.30 till 3 or 4pm. It seems very strange to me. Business wise, it’s good to have grocery stores open to make budgets and make extra money, but I guess that’s not the case. They prefer leisure time to working and making money. Speaking of shopping, since Rome is visited by millions of people each year, they have souvenir shops only in the shopping heart of the city, which is located on Piazza del Popolo. 

Despite's that, Italians clothing shops are amazing! Too bad they do not carry some of the brands in North America.

August in Italy

Canadian summer is weird. It may be rainy, cloudy, hot or chilly. (#canadianproblems). No matter how humid it gets all the malls and shops are open. On the weekends most of them are open till 7pm. I went to Italy in the beginning of August and the weather was amazing! (And by amazing I mean it was real summer weather there that I was enjoying every second of it.) But I didn’t know that everything closes either early or shops are just closed. August for Italians is the month of the summer when they go to the seaside of Italy, that’s why most of the shops are closed, but tourist’s sights are open. Another reason some shops are closed is because of the hot humid weather. They even have a special name for it. Streets are pretty quiet, but everything get busier when people start coming out in the evening time, except tourists, who are out the entire day. My friends and I had to pull long missions to find a restaurant that was open where we could go and eat and enjoy our time together. But hey, it’s a part of their culture that I learned about Italy :)

When walking in Rome, we could find small water fountains with drinking water. Isn’t it so smart? Especially when your bottle of water finishes, you can easily go and refill it anywhere.  OR you can refresh yourself with cold water and get a really nice tan without trying hard.

P.S oh and by the way you should really try Italian ice cream (gelato)! The most delicious thing over there besides real Italian pizza of course.