Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The forbidden....ice?


Anyone who has been to Italy and asked for ice may be able to relate to me with this one. If not, you are about to learn a very important lesson.

So we're sitting outside at an Italian restaurant in the summer. As you can imagine, the mediteranean weather had us hot and "sudato" (sweaty). To cool off, we did what any average American would do - we asked for some ice cold water. A simple request, right?

WRONG.

In Italy, like in many European countries, they drink water at room temperature because it is essentially healthier for you. You can drink larger quantities when it's not so cold (allowing for good hydration). Also, drinking water at room temperature increases your metabolism (so they say). So from a health perspective, you might begin to understand why "ice cold" is not the norm.....

Unless, of course, you were still hot and growing increasingly irritated.

So after getting our glasses of water, we had to call the "cameriere" (waiter) over again to ask for some "ghiaccio" (ice). <-----find out how to ask for ice in the 'word of the week' on the sidebar! So anyway, when all is said and done, the waiter brings out some ice (I'm talking 4 cubes for a table of 6 people) on a plate. Yes, a plate. And as I said before, the weather was hot so you can imagine that this little bit of ice didn't last long. But hey, at least we learned our lesson, right?

Take our word for it and don't make this same mistake in your travels. That way you'll keep whatever dignity an American tourist in Italy has!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That story about the italian waiter and the plate of ice is too funny. Who were the lucky ones to get a cube?

una mamma italiana said...

Thanks for the comment! Il riso fa buon sangue (Laughter is the best medicine), right?! Well we ended up asking for more ice until we got a lot of dirty looks. Needless to say we enver made a return visit to that restaurant! BUt I still love Italy's waiters nonetheless!

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