missypie

Carrom, makes sense about the salads.

The concept of what one eats at a restaurant versus what one eats at home is interesting to me. Our neighbors are British. I think they've been in Texas about 6 years. A couple of years ago we had them over for Thanksgiving. It was hysterical watching them look at my midwestern church cookbook orange/cream cheese/pineapple jello mold...they simply didn't know what to make of it and had to ask. A jello mold is not something one ever encounters at a restaurant - one encounters those at people's homes or church socials. There is probably a whole world of food in each country-good or bad-that most tourists never experience.

starrsville

Good one, amy!

Spygirl

Amy, one correction there: Muenchen turns into Munich, not Monaco.

missypie

Amy, love the observations...of course, a lot of this is crazy even to folks in the US. The level of air conditioning in public places is insane. I can hardly wear summer clothes in the summer. It can be 105 degrees outside, and we head off to the movies in long pants, carrying a sweater.

amy_zena

Spygirl, In Italian, Munich/Muenchen is "Monaco"

noe847

So true, Missypie. We had a heat wave one summer in Georgia (over 100 degrees) and I had no air conditioning in my apartment or car. We went to the movies (double feature!) to cool off. I had to go back to the car and get the blanket I keep there (for emergenies) and spread it over three of us as a lap robe!

cadillac1234

'- America is very organized and convenient.'

Compared to Italy a lot of places would fit that description...

But that's always been one of the most endearing (and frustrating) qualities of the place.

ira

>Americans drive EVERYWHERE,...they even drive from one side of the mall parking lot to the other side.<

Some of those mall parking lots have more than one area code.

amy_zena

Cadillac, was completely endearing and funny as a tourist. Is completely frustrating as a resident. This country couldn't organize a riot, unfortunately.

Spygirl

Yes, it does, but you were doing Italian into English, and then, Muenchen, which is German, into Italian. So to be consistent with your theme, you would say "Munich into Monaco"

missypie

May I ask one more question? Why does one have to validate a train ticket in a little machine, when one just bought the train ticket 30 seconds before from the ticket window? What purpose does that serve? Can't be to fight fraud, as the machines at least don't appear to be sophisticated enough to detect what kind of paper I stick in them. I heard you can be fined on a train if you have a real ticket, but didn't know to stick it into the little machine before you got on. Doesn't the ticket have the time of the train on it, such that it wouldn't be good for a later or more expensive train? The machine certainly doesn't know what train you're going to be on. I tried and tried to figure out the rationale for ticket validation, but couldn't.

LoveItaly

As SeaUrchin mentioned I was going to say there is now a section of immigrants from China in Rome..but the residents do not want to call it ChinaTown.

Even in the 1970's I saw lots of "people of color"..but not very much in the touristy areas.

missypie, you have received a lot of answers to your questions.

Regarding "figuring things out"..not sure (I say this with love for the Italians and Italy) I don't think anyone can really figure the people and the country out completely, lol.

cadillac1234

amy_zena-

I believe you completely. When getting on a train and getting to your destination within 20 minutes of the scheduled time is a major accomplishment in Italy I can see how the more mundane day-to-day things (like going to work, paying utilities, paying a parking fine) would become incredibly frustrating as a permanent resident.

There's an old joke about a guy who gets to visit hell while still alive and he ends up hanging out on the beach all day, sipping wine and talking to beautiful women. He thinks to himself 'This place is awesome'

When he dies he's tells St Peter to send him to hell because he had a great time there on his last trip. When he gets there he sees everything has changed and it starts to look like Dante's version of it.

None too happy, he goes up and asks the devil what's going on. The devil replied, 'Well, the first time you were here it was as a tourist...'

amy_zena

Spygirl, I was actually trying to use the language of the city's country, hence Munchen. And then saying what the Italians call each of those cities. But I don't know about Stockholm...I thought it was Stockholm in Swedish, but I'm not sure.

Missy, you validate so that your ticket is stamped and you can't try to reuse it again. No, not all tickets have the date and time on them. Eurostar trains do, and infact you do not need to validate those tickets.

mrwunrfl

Some rail systems allow for ticket refunds or exchanges. They might charge a penalty for not getting the refund by some time period in advance of the travel, but they may provide some refund or credit.

A reserved seat ticket, if not cancelled in advance, will be worthless after the train departure because it was specific to that train.

carrom

When you buy a train ticket with a reservation you generally get 2 bits - one is the ticket for the train: it's valid on any day and you need to stamp it in the machine so you can't use it again another day. The other bit is the reservation for the seat or the couchette and that's valid just for the train you booked and you don't need to stick it in the machine.