More things I have learned about Italy

1. There are scorpions here. Let me say that again: THERE ARE FREAKING SCORPIONS HERE! GAH! So far, I have not been directly confronted with any of these devils, but I have squashed some large-ish earwhigs while fervently praying that they were not baby scorpions. Apparently scorpions like cool, flat places. Like basements. *shudder*

2. The weather is wildly varied and inconsistent. Thunderstorms can come up with very little warning. There is usually a breeze at my house. Weather.com sucks for the Vicenza area.

3. Sorting and taking out the trash and recyclables can be a full time job. Seriously, we got a four-page set of instructions. Organics can be picked up on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, but only from May to September. From October to April, it's just Tuesdays and Saturdays. Paper is picked up on Thursdays, every two weeks. Glass is picked up on the alternate Thursdays. Plastic and cans are retrieved on Mondays. The humid waste (organics) must be in biodegradable (preferable) or regular plastic bags, in the provided bucket. Paper and cardboard can only go in the proper yellow plastic box issued by the municipality, and all other trash goes in the provided bags, which are labelled for each municipality. Everything else must be delivered to the Ecocentro, which is open from 3-7pm M-F and 8-12/1-5 on Saturdays March through September, and 1-5pm M-F and 8-12/1-5 on Saturdays October through February. Whew. See what I mean? It's a good thing I have those flyers. They live on the side of the refrigerator. And I'm not above taking a grocery bag full of trash to base with me when I have to go check the mail or hit up the commissary to dispose of it there...

4. The stove is marked in degrees Celsius. I should probably get a conversion table and post it on the side of the refrigerator, too.

5. Electricity is fickle. And unreliable. It tends to go out without warning, for no reason. But the breakers are very easy to locate, even in the dark (but I keep a flashlight by the bed), and easy to reset. And when there's no power, I have to have a key to get OUT of the house through my front door. Otherwise I have to go out through one of the garage doors.

6. The roads are narrow. Especially in city centers and rural areas. I don't know why this continues to surprise me, even after two months here(!), but it does.

7. Northern Italians don't butter their bread. Nor do they dip it in olive oil. They just...eat it.

8. Ragu = bolognese, and alfredo is not an Italian sauce.

9. You order a pizza for yourself, and eat the whole thing. You will get funny looks if you decide to share.

10. The price of produce varies wildly. It's cherry (ciliegia) season, and you can buy them on the side of the road for dirt cheap. It's also asparagus season; I have no idea what it costs to buy them locally but we wanted a bunch from the commissary the other day and they wanted to charge us $9.86. Um, NO THANK YOU. Zucchinis sounded equally delicious.

11. Right-tighty, lefty-loosey does not always apply. Case in point: the drain in the bathtub.