The postman always rings twice

Postmen in Italy know very well their neighborhoods. You can spot them on their Vespa carrying their bags full of mail, quickly get off their motor scooters and ring (twice) every bell until somebody opens the main door of the building. Unlike in US, postmen will not pick up outgoing mail. You have to drop it in those red mailboxes dispersed around the city.

Don't ask for Pasta Alfredo, please...

My wife is collecting in her new ebook a variety of misinterpretations of Italian cuisine. Today it's the turn of … Pasta Alfredo.
Alfredo Sauce or, Salsa Alfredo, is more of a myth than a reality and you are not going to find it in any real Italian recipe books. There is a restaurant in Rome which makes the original fettuccine Alfredo, but that is made with butter and Parmesan cheese. The only product that somehow resembles Salsa Alfredo (Alfredo Sauce) is called panna (which is a thicker version of whipping cream). I suggest you do not ask for Alfredo Sauce when you are in a restaurant because the vast majority of the people will not know what you are talking about.

Blog on vacation

As it's Thanksgiving, we'll take a few days off and post new updates next week. We are going to Vancouver, Canada to visit Francesca's brother who moved there a few years ago. He is an interesting free-spirit character. In 1994 he quit his job in Italy to cross solo the two Americas by bicycle (yes, from Alaska to Argentina).

Gas in US is cheap

That's right. Gas in US is much cheaper than in Italy. Today, 1 liter of gas costs Euro 1.23. That's $5.5 per gallon! No wonder why fuel efficient cars are so popular in Italy.

Ape: the Italian truck

The Ape is a landmark of the Italian roads. Built by Piaggio, the same manufacturer of the Vespa scooter, it's still a fairly popular transportation vehicle for light cargo. Compared to the gigantic US and Japanese trucks, the Ape with its 50cc engine is a far economical option ... and easier to park too.

The best dryer is the sun (and it's free)

What's the deal of hanging your underwear outside your window? Let's face it: dryers are a nice invention that haven't conquered Italy yet. Most of Italian housewives will claim that dryers can damage delicate garment (which is true), and natural air is the best and most economical drying process. Reality is that condos in Italy are quite small, and there is no left space for nice-to-have appliances. Just another enjoyable experience of walking on Italian streets...

I love Prosciutto Crudo

If you love food like I do, you're probably a fan of Prosciutto Crudo. What my friend Marino Buzzi is showing in this picture is the famous Prosciutto di Parma, which is produced in central Italy, near a city called Parma. The ideal atmosphere of this area is the key ingredient for a successful curing of the ham, which process lasts no less than 13 months.

It's a boy!

At a time when blogs, web sites and digital photos can reach the furthest friends around the world, you may still miss the chance to let your neighbors know about your greatest news ever: your kid is born. Colored bows (blu = boy, pink = girl) attached to doors or anything that moves (car antennas, scooters, etc.) are the best way to advertise the happy news. The rest organically happens when your favorite butcher, postman or hairdresser will spread the news to their customers. That's what I call social tam tam.

We are writing an e-book about the Italian culture

Francesca is writing an ebook about the Italian culture. She is 90% done and this blog just scratches the surface of its content. This project was inspired by our previous trip to Italy. Given the fact that we have two little kids, we had to take a much more rigorous and organized approach to the plan, because there is very little free time in our life...

Fresh from my Program Manager experience in Microsoft Office 12, I divided the work in the following five phases:

Planning
Francesca spent two months (mainly weekends and nights) researching any available travel guide on the market to make sure that she wouldn't duplicate efforts. Then we started collecting all our ideas in OneNote (a fantastic tool, if you haven't used it yet). During this exercise, we identified 630 subjects that we wanted to capture in pictures.

Content creation
We then flew to Italy for three weeks. While our parents where busy and delighted to babysit our kids, Francesca and I drove around several cities and took thousands of pictures. With our little MP3 recorder, we also captured a variety of original sounds.

Development
It took several weeks to clean up and organize our digital archive, but now I can proudly say that I can retrieve with a few mouse clicks any of the 2364 pictures by any subject (e.g. parking, food, shopping, etc.). Francesca in the meantime started writing her book.

Testing
After several more months of work (remember, she is still a full time mom), she is close to the end. The ebook is almost complete, we are reviewing it with friends and family and the feedback we are getting is very encouraging.

Shipping
The launch of the ebook is planned in the May '06 timeframe. Stay tuned for more updates and in the meantime, please enjoy this blogged preview of its content.

Need a ride to Venice?

Venice is like no other city in the world. There are no cars to be found, because it's build on water and the canali are its streets. Venice airport (Marco Polo) is about 8 miles far from the city. The easiest, fastest and most expensive way to reach downtown is to use a water-taxi (up to 6 people). 30 mins and Euro 100 later you'll be at your destination.

However, if you want to save some money, you are better off taking the public transportation boat to San Marco square, or take a bus to Mestre train station (and then the train to Venice), or the bus to Venice bus station (Piazzale Roma).

Our suggestion? Take one of the cheaper transportations and save your money for your souvenir shopping. The public boat will still give you a good thrill when you'll enter the Gran Canal.

Where is my Euro coin?

A year ago, we went back to Italy on vacation with our two kids. We arrived at the Venice airport with plenty of suitcases, strollers and backpacks. After claiming all our baggages, I looked for a cart. To my surprise, carts could only be unlocked from the rack using an Euro coin. But there was no coin dispenser available nor currency change bureau.
How do travelers from other countries get Euro coins before their trips? Banks only dispense paper notes.
While we managed eventually to get an unlocked cart, Francesca was puzzled by this episode and decided that during that trip she would have paid more attention to such details and took note of them. Before not long, we ended up with more than 80 topics that we thought were deserving some sort of explanation to first time travalers to Italy. And that was the time when we decided to create Italy from Inside.

Why learning more about the Italian culture?

Both my wife and I grew up in Italy and moved to US in 1996. I recall myself during the first 2-3 years of living abroad to continously making comparisons between my new and old lifestyles. I missed the good food, friends and walking to some places without the need of driving.

Then I started to get used to the comfortable living in the States, the large roads, the grocery shops always open and the efficiency of the public services. During my trips back to Italy I became more and more aware of differences that I didn't notice when I was living there, because they were part of my everyday life, if I liked them or not.

Part of the fun of travel is discovering new cultures on your own. But knowing ahead of time some of those cultural differences may save you some time, possibly money and disappointments.

We expect to cover key topics such as driving, transportations, calling home, food, accommodation, but feel free to let us know if you'd like us to blog on something specific.

Welcome to Italy From The Inside!

Welcome to our blog Italy From The Inside. My name is Paolo Tosolini and with my wife Francesca have decided to start publishing a series of useful tips for travelers planning to visit Italy for the first time.
Bookstores already offer a variety of travel guides about Italy, but they mostly focus on places to see and things to do. There is very little about introducing you to the real Italian culture, the way people do things in Italy, from driving to shopping to eating. And the more you'll learn about it before your trip, the better prepared you'll be to appreciate your sojourn.
Please enjoy the reading and please send us your comments on specific topics you'd like us to cover.