Last Tuesday, I went with some classmates to Fiesole for the afternoon. Matthias (the guy from Switzerland who is going to school for his work) has a car here so he drove us up there. Our classmate Theresa wanted to see the Roman amphitheatre but the rest of us weren't interested so we went and sat in a caffe overlooking the city. This looks like a weird picture but in a higher-res version you can see the Duomo right in the middle of the photo. It was pretty hot in the city that day but there was a nice breeze in Fiesole:
There isn't terribly much to see in Fiesole but while she was in the amphitheatre Matthias and this other classmate Andrea and I walked around and went in the church. Last time I was in Fiesole there was a funeral going on so I didn't go in. This time it was open and empty except for one man playing the organ. So with the music, it made our visit a little more special and a little more haunting. We had dinner at a nice restaurant overlooking Firenze. I had the homemade pasta which was amazing:
It was so fresh and delicious, it melted in my mouth! Plus the sauce was arrabbiata so it was nice and spicy. Here is Theresa on the right and Andrea on the left:
Andrea is older and takes vacations in Firenze, studying Italian. From what I understand she has come to the school for 2 weeks at a time for a few times now. She was nice enough but I kind of think she regarded me as a stupid little girl. She seemed bemused by my problems with Italian men and was more of the attitude "Well, one should be so lucky" rather than being sympathetic to my plight! Anyway, she was interested in getting us drunk so we had two bottles of wine with dinner. And then poor Theresa's meal didn't come so she was getting really tipsy and the waiter was ignoring us and being rude, so I finally (being slightly buzzed) walked into the kitchen and asked if her meal was going to be ready any time soon. They pretended to fuss around and said something about it being ready in two minutes. So I marched back to the table and finished my pasta. Matthias enjoying the last bits of his steak:
Matthias got pissed because the rude waiter didn't change our wine glasses when we switched from a bottle of white wine to a bottle of red. So he griped for the rest of the meal about how terrible the service is in Italy. Now mind you, most of these conversations are happening in English but I am the only true English speaker. Theresa and Matthias are Swiss-German and Andrea is German (from Hamburg). Theresa and Andrea speak English very well but Matthias has never truly learned it, just what he has picked up. So it is pretty funny to hear him try to express his frustration in English. After all the hullabaloo, and Theresa finally getting her meal, the bill came and they didn't charge us for one of the bottles of wine. So Matthias thought justice was served but Theresa thought it was completely unethical for us not to tell the waiter. I really didn't care either way although I do subscribe to the belief that honesty is always the best policy. Matthias just kept repeating "I don't care", as in "I am not going to pay" and Theresa was getting kind of mad. So she pulled a different waiter aside and told him about the missing bottle of wine and he said that if they neglected to put it on the bill then we didn't have to pay for it. So all was well in the end. Both Theresa and Matthias felt vindicated. And I just tried to stay out of it since I like both of them! It wouldn't even be such a big thing but just yesterday in class (a full week after the event), Matthias brought up the whole story while we were discussing stereotypes of various countries. The discussion steered towards waiters in Italy and out he came with it! AND, I was sitting right in between Matthias and Theresa AGAIN! Ack! But it was pretty funny and the teacher got a kick out of us trying to recount the story in broken Italian.
There isn't terribly much to see in Fiesole but while she was in the amphitheatre Matthias and this other classmate Andrea and I walked around and went in the church. Last time I was in Fiesole there was a funeral going on so I didn't go in. This time it was open and empty except for one man playing the organ. So with the music, it made our visit a little more special and a little more haunting. We had dinner at a nice restaurant overlooking Firenze. I had the homemade pasta which was amazing:
It was so fresh and delicious, it melted in my mouth! Plus the sauce was arrabbiata so it was nice and spicy. Here is Theresa on the right and Andrea on the left:
Andrea is older and takes vacations in Firenze, studying Italian. From what I understand she has come to the school for 2 weeks at a time for a few times now. She was nice enough but I kind of think she regarded me as a stupid little girl. She seemed bemused by my problems with Italian men and was more of the attitude "Well, one should be so lucky" rather than being sympathetic to my plight! Anyway, she was interested in getting us drunk so we had two bottles of wine with dinner. And then poor Theresa's meal didn't come so she was getting really tipsy and the waiter was ignoring us and being rude, so I finally (being slightly buzzed) walked into the kitchen and asked if her meal was going to be ready any time soon. They pretended to fuss around and said something about it being ready in two minutes. So I marched back to the table and finished my pasta. Matthias enjoying the last bits of his steak:
Matthias got pissed because the rude waiter didn't change our wine glasses when we switched from a bottle of white wine to a bottle of red. So he griped for the rest of the meal about how terrible the service is in Italy. Now mind you, most of these conversations are happening in English but I am the only true English speaker. Theresa and Matthias are Swiss-German and Andrea is German (from Hamburg). Theresa and Andrea speak English very well but Matthias has never truly learned it, just what he has picked up. So it is pretty funny to hear him try to express his frustration in English. After all the hullabaloo, and Theresa finally getting her meal, the bill came and they didn't charge us for one of the bottles of wine. So Matthias thought justice was served but Theresa thought it was completely unethical for us not to tell the waiter. I really didn't care either way although I do subscribe to the belief that honesty is always the best policy. Matthias just kept repeating "I don't care", as in "I am not going to pay" and Theresa was getting kind of mad. So she pulled a different waiter aside and told him about the missing bottle of wine and he said that if they neglected to put it on the bill then we didn't have to pay for it. So all was well in the end. Both Theresa and Matthias felt vindicated. And I just tried to stay out of it since I like both of them! It wouldn't even be such a big thing but just yesterday in class (a full week after the event), Matthias brought up the whole story while we were discussing stereotypes of various countries. The discussion steered towards waiters in Italy and out he came with it! AND, I was sitting right in between Matthias and Theresa AGAIN! Ack! But it was pretty funny and the teacher got a kick out of us trying to recount the story in broken Italian.
1 comment:
that is very funny, even in another country ppl get worked up over the waitstaff!
Post a Comment