Looking Back
Looking Back
More reflections on being American in Italy
something that we agreed upon verbally: our American instincts simply led us directly to cutting the corner. I heard a group of Italians mutter “Look at the Americans.” Another lesson learned: stop cutting corners and use the designated sidewalk paths (even though they’re always too narrow to walk on anyway!). And it seems that every time I come to a corner in Florence where I can easily trample on the grass to get to where I want to go, I always have to force myself to pause, think for a second, and then continue on the sidewalk.
Once I was in the supermarket and forgot to weigh my fruit when I got up to the cashier (I’ve made that huge blunder the very first time I went into an Italian supermarket and didn’t even know how to use it—seriously, why don’t they put up signs for that??). The cashier lady said to me that I forgot to label one of the fruit packages that I bought, so I had to walk all the way to the back of the store to weigh it and come back. Not one customer waiting in line grumbled, mumbled under their breath, or cursed when I “held up the line.” In New York, even if I had to look though my wallet to get exact change for a purchase, people would roll their eyes or sigh to indicate that you were wasting their time.