Terror in Volterra 8th dicembre 2011

Terror in Volterra 8th dicembre 2011

Today is one of those very rare events - a national holiday in Italy. It is the Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception, and certainly we stumbled across a church that was having some sort of thing!
Today I decided to go for a ride. A long ride with a work colleague. We cycled from Siena to San Gimignano to Volterra and back to Siena - a total of 71.1 miles. A tough route with lots of climbs, getting up to well over 500 metres in Volterra.

http://app.strava.com/rides/2621625

The weather stayed nice for us. Actually it was about 14C with a hard wind. I am terrified should I ever move back to the UK as I took this ride with full winter gloves and winter overshoes, several tops, and a full vizor buff. Weak! Mind you, there was a bit of wind, but my lord not as bad as the winds that have been seen in Scotland where it is not only snowing, but there are winds of up to 165 mph - which has resulted in this wind turbine catching fire!

San Gimignano was our first port of call. This is sometimes known as the first city of skyscrapers due to its huge numbers of still existing towers. Typically, each family would build a tower to demonstrate their power and wealth and social influence. In San Gimignano there are 14 of them left, but in the 13th centuray there were over 70. I say in San Gimignano as Siena also used to have lots of them too, but they were cut down by the Moors-influenced Spanish when they came rampaging through in around the 17th Century. Shame, but you can see evidence of this in some of the old photos of Siena.
It's also famous for a special type of white wine called Vernaccia - but unfortunately I have yet to try it! Today I tried too much and felt incredibly full for the rest of the day. In the bar in San Gimignano I had a chocolate panforte, a rice tart, a coffee and an evil hot chocolate that nearly was the end of me!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernaccia_di_San_Gimignano

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gimignano

Our final, and furthest destination was Volterra. This has been described as being atop the hilliest hill. The views from the town are stunning. The town is typically famous for a number of items: it was one of the big Etruscan cities, so there is plenty of Etruscan gubbins around, especially marble and alabaster - typically the horse sculpture. Also it has a well preserved Roman ampitheatre.

However, Riccardo gave me some great info as to why the town is famous in Italy. It had one of the biggest mental hospitals in Italy, until it was closed down in the early 1980s - for that reason, the Italians still think of it as being a town full of crazies. Just like the folks from Luton - mad as hatters and all that. The other thing is that it holds a huge jail - it is one of the strongest and most fortified jails in Italy and holds a deal of the Mafioso due it's high level of security. It was built in 1342 and is almost impenetrable. Maybe in the near future it will hold Michele Zagaria, a Naples clan boss - of the Casalesi clan - he was found in a secret bunker in his hometown near Naples yesterday. Classic cosa nostra - he has been on the run for 16 years!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16065556

However, Volterra has been made famous recently due to it's association with the Twilight movies.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/6616301/Twilight-in-Volterra-The-inspiration-for-vampire-movie-New-Moon.html

The most recent film - New Moon - has some part of it set in Volterra, largely in the Piazza del Priori. However, the shocking aspect, and certainly extremely upsetting for the Volterrans, was that the film was not actually filmed in Volterra, but in Montepulciano, apparently due to there being a fountain in the square. In a bar in Volterra we discussed this with the barrista and she talked about the influence that Pisa has over the area (it is in the province of Pisa, whereas Montepulciano is in Siena province) and how this possibly negatively affected the decisions taken by the film crew. Shame. According to me Volterra needs the business, it is bustly but it is really not the same as other towns in the area. For example, San Gimignano is ALWAYS busy, always super rammed. Maybe this is due to it's proximity to Siena, and it is certainly very accessible from the autostrada between Florence and Siena. Anyway, it's a shame as I think it's a lovely place.
It also has a huge Etruscan gate. Well, the original side stones were laid by the Etruscans in about the 4th century BC - pretty amazing that they are still there fortifying the city to this day! Have a look at the picture I took today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volterra

Other exciting news from the ride - there was a big "O" near Volterra - there always is the big "O" - it is by a locally-based sculptor. This is right at the top of the hill climbing into Volterra and the views from it are amazing.

Near there we saw an eagle. I think it was an eagle, it certainly was extremely close, pretty damn huge, and stunning to watch. And the final thing was the part below. Graffittied onto one of the power huts was the following phrase "Ceilbato - la perversione piu' disumana!" - "Being celibate is the most unhuman perversion". Classic!

Over n out.

Oil and acorns 1st Dicembre 2011

Today, 1st Dicembre, is a bank holiday in Italy. Actually, it might just be in Siena, whatever, I am very glad to have had a day off. Last week we were in USA with Dawn's parents for Thanksgiving. To clear all the work I needed to before leaving I ended up staying up until 05:15 am the night before leaving, and had to get up at 06:00 am to get the plane. This meant that I spent the whole week recovering and eating and sleeping - wonderful. Losing a night's sleep and some work pressures since we have been back means that I really needed a rest again and today has been quite wonderful to restore a little balance.

Bank holidays are rare in Italy, certainly rarer than the UK - this is compounded by the fact that if they fall on a weekend they are not rolled over, but fall into the abyss, somewhere between Rome and Milan there is hidden a hell of a lot of bank holidays that I am owed. Frickers. Stronzi!
I took a ride again today, but was pretty slow. Either a result of being cream knackered (thank you Mark and Lard - lordy how I miss those guys!) or as a result of being back in the gym this week. After over 3 months of low grade illness, the week of sleeping and illness has made me feel better and I have been to the gym every (a mighty 3!) times this week, even if only a little bit. Plus my regular Tai Chi on Monday evenings (well, regular, since I have been going about 4 times). The weather was pretty foggy, but it is always foggy in Siena. Nah, it's not always foggy in Siena, but it can be very foggy in Siena. At the minute, when I drive in in the morning it is beautifully, if dangerously foggy - see some pictures attached. The fog can be absolutely stunning some mornings when the sun is out, and also strange on our road, which is hilly, as we see many patches of fog that you drive through, sometimes only a metre or two in balls. Freaky! Pazzo!

Anyway, the ride was nice, if a touch cold. I was well and truly wrapped up complete with shoe covers and new winter gloves, vizor buff. I tried out my new mini camera, but the picture was of very poor direction, so will not upload this time. It seemed to take about an hour of video, great, but I need to attach it firmer to my bike to get a decent picture. Of course, the inactivity of the past 3 months has made me a behemoth, so I need to get rid of a gut before I can cycle quickly again. I am trying to cut down on the booze and carbs after the past 3 months, wish me luck!
Whilst we were in the USA, Dawn picked up a bike. A decent, slightly used, full carbon with Ultegra kit. Pretty nice - a Kestrel RT-1000 from 2011. Very nice. And the best thing was that we got it back to Italy seemingly without any damage. Thankfully I am a top level business class member on the airline that we flew so we got a reasonable treatment. Bikes in Italy are really freaking expensive, absolute crazy prices like you cannot believe. It's always the way though, in fact, in the USA I ended up buying some Italian herbs and oils, made in Italy, as they are cheaper in the USA than in Italy, rather like the shoes and other Italian-made clothes that I ended up buying in the UK.


At the minute there are acorns everywhere. Absolutely everywhere - it is quite dangerous when you ride as you have to constantly avoid them, it has been a bit critical the last month or so, between the mud on the roads from tractors that are moving olives around, leaves on the ground that have fallen from the trees and the acorns, honestly, proper dangerous and I've had a couple of near misses. Not only that but I've been riding a few times when the acorns have been raining down from the trees and they have hurt me as they are pounding me on the face! It reminds me of one of the letters written in on the Friday Night Comedy show from the BBC - the news quiz with Sandi Toksvig. One of the amusing letters spotted in the paper was from a guy who was moaning about noise from acorns falling on his roof when wind blew overnight keeping him awake. The amusing thing was the phrase which was something like "when it blows hard, it keeps me up all night with the banging" - or something like that. I sympathise with him, and maybe the hunters that are running around at the minute shooting the wild boar (cinghiale) should let them stay around a bit to eat all the acorns! Of course, I could not be without my podcasts - between Collings and Herrin (sadly now demised), Fighting Talk, Friday Night Comedy, The Bugle etc, it allows me to stay in touch with the real world, and saves me too much from the struggles of Planet Italia. It has now been 2 years, in fact, tomorrow is the 2nd anniversary of my first day of work, and the fun is almost gone.

There are some good things left though! I mentioned the oil collection recently and now the oils are coming out. The olio nuovo - new oil - is absolutely fantastic. I really didn't get it when I first moved here, but now I am starting to really get it. About a year ago, we went to a Michelin-starred restaurant in the countryside around this time and as part of the starter we received a small glass - similar to a sherry glass - of new oil. This seemed really freaky and weird but now I totally get it. Actually, that restaurant was great. We had a good amount of very good wine and the set menu of about 4 or 5 courses and it was only about €70 each, including paying for the people that were leaving. The second course was a single huge ravioli, with an egg in the middle - and each was perfectly cooked - the yolk was perfect. A sparkling course indeed. Actually, it wasn't perfect for me. I am still suffering after a disastrous trip to Basel when I was working with Roche. My entire team went and we were at one of the busy times of year so we were placed in some AIDS hotel. It was terrible. My room was at the end of a corridor and really narrow. In fact, it was so narrow that I could not walk through the door straight on, but had to turn my shoulders sideways to get in! There was also a random drunk off the street walking the corridors trying the doors late at night, TnL had to share a room. It was a really weird room, like some sort of 1970s suite. There were the bizarrest lamps, a balcony, but only one bed. A kitchen and mould on the ceiling. Classic. Anyhow, in the morning there was an AIDS breakfast buffet and I ate a boiled egg that was not cooked properly and gave me super AIDS. SInce that time I have been really funny about eggs, and can only handle eggs that are cooked super hard.

Also, now I get the significance and the reason the Italian families spend so much time growing, land and time collecting and pressing the oil. It is a labour of love, with very little financial gain. I was recently given another figure for production; previously I was told that it was 1 litre of quality oil per 100 kg olives, now I have been told 14 litres of quality oil per 100 kg olives, which sounds a bit more realistic.
On our two campuses in Tuscany we have some olive trees. These were collected and a few litres of olive oil was made. At lunch this week we had DIY bruschetta - some thin toasted bread, cloves of garlic to be dragged over bread with a fork, salt, and some of our own oil. It was awesome. Equally spicy and the taste was amazing.

Cari colleghi,
desideriamo informarvi che martedì prossimo, 29 novembre, presso le mense di Siena e Rosia sarà possibile degustare delle ottime bruschette all’olio.
Quest’anno infatti, gli olivi presenti presso le nostre aree hanno prodotto un notevole numero di frutti. È sembrata, quindi, una buona idea mettere a disposizione di tutti i colleghi l’olio dei nostri alberi. Nei giorni successivi e fino a esaurimento, potrete trovare l’“olio nuovo” presso le mense di Siena e Rosia, sul tavolino delle spezie vicino alle casse.
Buon appetito a tutti!
Communications
Italy

--------------- Dear Colleagues,
Please be informed that on Tuesday November 29th at Siena and Rosia canteens you could taste some delicious bruschette with oil obtained from olive trees of our sites. Next days the “olio nuovo” will be available to everyone at the canteens of Siena and Rosia, close to the cashes.
Enjoy your lunch!
Communications

And on that oily note I shall greasily sign off. Ciao!

I love strava.com 13th novembre 2011

I love strava.com 13th novembre 2011

http://www.strava.com/ is one of my favourite websites. It allows me to upload my GPS data from my rides (and runs too, although I haven't run in months) and play aroudn with it, set up segments and compare your performance against others running the same routes. It's great. And it's free. Cracking.

Vai via Berlusconi 13th novembre 2011

Vai via Berlusconi 13th novembre 2011





I thought it would never happen, but it has! Yesterday evening "Il Cavaliere" - "The Knight" Silvio Berlusconi resigned as Prime Minister of Italy. In July, driving through the outskirts of Naples I saw a sheet hung from a tower block saying "Berlusconi Vai Via" which means "Berlusconi go away" reflecting the feeling of the people. However, he hung on and on. Political issues and personal issues never seemed to damage him, the accusations of being mafioso or the numerous gaffes with senior foreign political figures were water off a duck's back. He had numerous votes of confidence and he won them all. And yet, yesterday enough was enough, as the country was hit where it really hurts - it's wallet.  A few days ago, with Italy teetering on the brink of following Greece and Spain into financial ruin, Berlusconi offered to resign if his austerity measures were passed. They got through the lower house the other day and got through the upper house yesterday. So, he took his last address in parliament yesterday and left to rapturous cheering from his political mules, and to jeers from the public waiting for him as he took his last drive, inspiring instant street parties.
Speaking of mules though, Lucia Annunziata - the former director of RAI - the Italian media network said  "beware the dead donkey! He looks dead and then he kicks you!"
The fear is of "contagion". OK - Greece's economy is FUBARed - everybody knows that, however it is tolerable. If Italy's economy goes down it is a whole different kettle of fish. Italy's economy is massive, the debt is more than three times the debt of Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland combined. If Italy goes down, France may follow as they hold a significant portion of Italian debt. The Italian economy is the third largest in the Eurozone. The debt currently stands at 118% GDP. However, drilling down the Italian people are not overtroubled with mortgages and the Italians generally have not massive unstable debts. Part of this is due to the family way of life of the Italians, houses are passed down through families so they do not overburden themselves too much.

So why is Italy in trouble now? The reason is because its economy is so weak. Italy is plagued by poor regulation, vested business interests, an ageing population, and weak investment, all of which have conspired to limit the country's ability to increase production. The country has averaged an abysmal 0.75% annual economic growth rate over the past 15 years. That is much lower than the rate of interest it pays on its debts. And this creates a risk that the government's debt load could grow more quickly than the Italian economy's capacity to support it. In the past, this risk has not materialised, thanks to Italy's relatively high inflation rate, which has steadily pushed up the government's tax revenues. But now the outlook is much more grim. Like other southern European economies, Italian wage levels rose too quickly during the good years, and left Italy uncompetitive versus Germany and other northern economies within the eurozone. As crazy as this sounds to me - Italian wages are shocking compared to most of the other countries in Europe I am familiar with (UK, Germany, Switzerland), but now they are going to be frozen. Foooook. However, Italy is stuck in a period of low growth and high inflation. However, Italy needs to recover the debts but Italian binds borrowing is now at terrible rates. To borrow money for one year Italy has to pay 6.05% where by contrast Germany must pay only 0.25%. This means that there is a risk of contagion that may spiral downwards. Greece was offered a payout last week, the Greek PM then took the option to a referendum in Greece, which shocked the rest of the Eurozone. This week the Greek PM stood down. However, the upshot is that there is a lot of money being put into stabilising the greek debt, which leaves money short for Italian debt to stabilise.

A review of Berlusconi's career


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvio_Berlusconi

Career: Berlusconi is Italy's richest man, owner of RAI media corporation, Inter Milan, so controls a lot of what is written about him. Born in Milan in 1936 he rode the rollercoaster of the times when Italian become a huge superpower moving to the 5th largest economy in the world in the 1980s. At school he wrote essays for classmates, getting paid for it. He played double bass and sung in a band whilst at university and became a singer on a cruise ship after leaving university. He set up a tv station and then started a construction company that had a massive boom creating an area in Milan called Milan Due earning him his first fortune.

Politics: Amazingly he has had a successful political career for 17 years. He started a party called "Forza Italia" - "Go Italy" - named after a Milan football chant in the 1990s and at that time it was a breath of fresh air to have this passionate, character in politics. He has held PM office for the longest period post-war. In fact, since Mussolini's rule was actually a dictatorship, so in fact Berlusconi is the country's longest service democratic PM.

Scandal: He has been subject to 23 judicial investigations, mostly for corruption. He has been accused of having sex with minors, sex with prostitutes, but the worst accusation, from and Italian perspective, was having sex with an under-age Moroccan prostitute - Ruby. Noone seems to be able to tell me if prostitution is legal, but certainly this 17 year old working as a prostitute seemed to really reverberate around the country. His wife filed for divorce after he started surrounding himself with leggy women, even giving some of them positions of seniority in his political party, despite absence of qualifications. In some quarters he is known as "The Sultan" for his behaviour. His "Bunge Bunga" parties/orgies are legendary.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunga_bunga
And there were recent items - how he boasted of having sex with 8 women in a night and how he was disappointed to turn another 3 away (http://www.newser.com/story/128802/berlusconi-brags-of-8-women-in-a-night.html), and of course, the phrase "e' una culona inchiavibile" which I discussed elsewhere.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/8286270/Silvio-Berlusconis-women.html
The guy is clearly a legend, but hated by women (who he is not sleeping with) and men whom are not financed by him.

The bunga bunga has been translated into a website "bungle bungle" which lists all the gaffes that Berlusconi has made.
http://www.bungle.it/

One that stands out for me is the one that happened whilst he was visiting L'Aquila after the devastating earthquake in 2009. He said that the homeless should view it as a camping trip and enjoy it and he asked the councilor "Can I fondle you?"

And then there are the links with the Mafia. There were payments to Cosa Nostra ("our thing" what the mafiosi call their organisation) that were discovered.

Mangano was hired to run his stables but later was jailed for drug-trafficking and murder. In fact, it is suspected that Berlusconi was a key link between the north and the south - the Mafiosi controlling the mafia-corrupted south, Berlusconi controlling the north and helping unite the two.

In 2009 he was attacked by a man armed with a statue of Milan cathedral. He got him in the face and did some considerable damage. Fairplay to the old boy, despite being bundled into the car by his security and with blood all over his face, and I think a tooth or two missing - he got back out of the car and showed to the public that he was fine.

On top of that, he wears high heels to make himself look taller, has hair transplants, and has had numerous facelifts. Well - the man is 75 after all! And he has a pacemaker.

  

However, despite all this he is still absolutely loved. The potency of his aura was perhaps unwittingly revealed by the conservative newspaper editor Vittorio Feltri. Speaking on a national TV talk show on Monday, Feltri decried those asking for Berlusconi to step aside. "If you were in England, you wouldn't ask the Queen to step aside, would you?" Feltri burst out angrily. However, yesterday the leader of the democratic party called it "a day of liberation."

Next steps: So - who is next? Unfortunately Italy has a reputation for corrupt PM's even post-war. One had to flee to Tunisia to see out his days, hiding from financial misdoings. High on the agenda is "Super Mario" - Mario Monti. Disappointingly he is similarly old - born in 1943 so 68 years old, but he is a tough and economically wise head. He studied at Yale under Tobin - a leading economics thinker, inventor of the "Robin Hood tax" and has been an EU Commissioner. But it was in his second term at the commission (1999-2004) that he earned the nickname "Super Mario" for the way he took on vested interests. He blocked a merger between General Electric and Honeywell, and battled Germany's powerful regional banks.

He also launched an anti-trust case against Microsoft for its bundling of audio and video software. In 2004, the EU fined Microsoft 497m euros (£325m) for what it said was abuse of its dominant marketposition. He is well esteemed throughout and could be the man for the job. He needs to work miracles for the Italian government and people, and also for my job and salary! The austerity package contains the following: An increase in VAT, from 20% to 21%A freeze on public-sector salaries until 2014The retirement age for women in the private sector will gradually rise, from 60 in 2014 until it reaches 65 in 2026, the same age as for menMeasures to fight tax evasion will be strengthened, including a limit of 2,500 euros on cash transactionsThere will be a special tax on the energy sector.

So hopefully none of them will affect me immediately, but I can see a tough few months and years ahead for a lot of people. I hesitate to say it but - Forza Italia!

Brekkie time 12th novembre 2011

I will never get used to Italian breakfasts. It is impossible to find bacon, it just does not seem to exist here. They eat a lot of pig, but most of it is in salami, so the cut of bacon cannot be found. There are some similar cuts that are ready to eat, some pancettas, smoked, but nothing raw. More concerning is the lack of savoury items for breakfast. Italians eat sweet pastries for breakfast, the most common in Siena being "cornetto con crema" - a kind of sweet croissant with a sweet custard filling, usually sugared on the outside. They are actually very nice, but I cannot get used to it. Dawn has embraced it but I stick to fruit, maybe some protein, and have an omlette on the weekends.

All the pasticceries sell these items in the morning. After 12 noon they will have sold out, or not be good to eat any more, they are made fresh and like all bready products in Tuscany seem to go off and hard almost immediately. The pasticceries are very good, and one of the most common chains here is "Sclavi" - complete with a great pictographic representation of Siena, complete with walls, porta romana (the main gate to the south - in the direction of rome, plus the tower in the main square and the tower of the duomo (the cathedral) - very pretty indeed.

However, I did have one this morning - but that was Dawn's fault, and it was only after my omlette with pancetta.

Buon appetito!

Hai vinto!! 12th novembre 2011

Hai vinto!! 12th novembre 2011

Many things remain to be absolutely perplexing and confounding in Italy. Supermarkets are always interesting, food is strange and shopping styles continue to perplex. One of the major supermarkets is the Coop. Of course, pronounced in the local dialect it is more like "ho'p" with a long-sounded "o".
Dawn popped in quickly before work yesterday to buy a couple of items "fare la spesa" before going to fly to LatAm today. She picked up a couple of items and went to the checkout, after paying the checkout girl said to her "hai vinto!" - "you've won" - there was then a huge kerfuffle, the manager was called and an official photographer. She was getting excited and there was a delay of about 40 minutes whilst all the kerfuffle took place. And at the end of it what had she won? A car? A year's shopping? A trolley dash? Sadly, it was none of the above, but a bottle of own-brand extra virgin olive oil - at a value of €5.60 - woo hoo.
Was it really worth it?
Maybe she had won a car or something, and the locals realising that she was a foreigner (staniera) replaced it with a bottle of olive oil. We will never know.
However, we do have a bottle of olive oil and a receipt with "hai vinto" written on it :)

Accentuate the positive medicate the negative 13th novembre 2011

Accentuate the positive medicate the negative 13th novembre 2011

Whilst I was looking for some stuff about the relocation relocation stuff (see recent post for the fullish very strange and upsetting story) I stumbled across the following wonderful stuff. There is a condition called "Foreign Accent Syndrome" when people have some sort of incident that leaves them with a full-on foreign accent, including one lady who is Scottish and now speaks with an Italian accent. Marvellous.

http://video.au.msn.com/watch/video/foreign-accent-syndrome/xfx1pf3

http://news2.onlinenigeria.com/world/international/112902-scottish-grandmother-debbie-mccann-suffers-stroke-wakes-up-italian-accent.html

Speaking of accents, here is a great instruction on how to ham up an Italian accent. Maybe if I can speak English with an Italian accent I will be able to speak Ihttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTt8XQCiBgY&feature=related

Actually I have become very used to understanding Italians speak English which wasn't so easy at first. Certainly the level of English spoken is nowhere near as good as in France, Germany or Switzerland, and you become very used to hearing it with an accent, and now I can understand it well, whereas when I first moved here I found it hard to understand. Also, with people that I work with who are used to Italian being spoken badly by Americans, English or other foreigners, it is very easy to communicate in two languages, dipping in and out of English and Italian when it seems right. However, when you try to take that approach with the general population with people who cannot or who are not used to speaking English it is very difficult, some of them really do not get my accent frustratingly, and I am told that I have a good accent - well, actually I am told that I have a good Tuscan accent, and certainly use some Tuscan region dialect phrases, deliberately.

There are some key aspects, a lot of them focusing on the pronunciation of the letter "c", per esempio - Coca Cola becomes "coha hola" in a slightly Florentine accent. "Babo" is used a lot for father and although it exists in "Babo Natale" - "Father Christmas" it is not widely used elsewhere. Swear words make an area stand out - "Maremma" - an area of Tuscany that is now very nice, but used to be a malaria-infested swampy place is used as a polite curse, and of course adding in other words to bring out "Maremma Maialla" sounds and feels right. In a similar vein, "Madonnina Zanzarina" hits the spot!

Of course, Eddie Izzard gets it spot on about the Italians
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PmuHWPZSkY&feature=related

But naturally the Pythons have it the best
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3iAqxNpQ-A&feature=related and interestingly threw in some north-south divide banter to spice it up a little.

However, this comedy sketch is the most spot-on that I have seen for Italian accents, speaking English and doing the hand gestures, and the most annoying thing - Italians clapping in a plane when it lands. Grrr. Awesome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD-44Cx1Iaw

And this video also covers the same point and a lot of other strange Italian habits, particularly:
Driving, Parking, Politics, Bureaucracy, Buses, queueing, and many others - very true and well worth a watch!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKC4XGGlnRI&feature=related

But probably the most notably different thing about the language is the "feel" and the hand gestures. You cannot just speak words and expect to be understood, especially with a dodgy english accent. It's not just about rolling your Rs but about really attaching yourself to the language. Without the feel and the swagger and the love of the language, a lot of touching and gesturing, and overemotionalising everything you will simply not be understood. Equally, you don't need to speak much Italian - if you can gesture and emote then the words are of secondary importance. Drama and melodrama are perfetto!

Some great instructions for hand gestures here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9AZB64fH3Q&feature=related

Gotta love it. Ciao for now.