Things That Make You Go "Oh!"

Some of the things that I've learned about the small differences here in Italy:

• Tuscan bread is not salted, you can tell the difference right away. There seem to be different theories about why this tradition was started (high tax/cost of salt seems to be the most accepted?) but when you have lots of flavorful foods to accompany the bread (cheese, salami, rich yummy meat sauces) then do you really need that extra salt?
  
  
• When you get that bread at the beginning of a meal, you'll notice that you don't get a plate, nor do you get a bowl of butter patties or a bottle of olive oil to dunk it in like you do in the States. My understanding is that while you might want bread, you don't want to fill yourself up with lots of oil before a nice meal, therefore you eat the bread plain. Or you might save it to soak up the aforementioned yummy sauces.
  
  
• After-meal coffee is meant to help with digestion. Therefore the coffee should be espresso, not cappuccino or something with lots of milk as that just makes you more full. Combine it with limoncello or grappa and it's like you never ate anything at all. (Wishful thinking...)
  
  
• Gelato cups start with the very tiny and work their way up to quite large (i.e., American-size.) When you first see the tiny cup, you can't imagine why one would ever want such a small size. What I've come to notice is that the people with the giant cups/cones of gelato are the tourists, probably Americans. Over a couple of gelato experiences, you start to realize that the smaller cups are actually just right and even in the tiniest cups you can still get a 2-flavor combo. (see photo)
  
  
• Almost all bathrooms have bidets in them. So my parents weren't weird when they put one in our house (like all our friends thought), they were just very European in their thinking. While they may be good for their intended purpose, I have found them really helpful for pedicures.
  
  
• The sinks in many public restrooms have foot pedals for turning on the water. This is genius and I can't figure out why we don't do this in the States. Given the high rate of germaphobia, this method prevents us from having to touch undoubtedly bacteria-infested faucets, plus you don't have to worry about the water getting left on. The days of crazed hand-waving in front of unresponsive sensors could be a thing of the past. Genius.

I think that covers my Italian cultural morsels "del giorno." If I identify any more I'll share them.

In the meantime, I am going to start thinking about a future business opportunity in the import of foot-operated faucets.

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