We picked up our van Tuesday! Much to my chagrin, I had to drive it back from Vicenza on the Autostrada. It was way past rush hour, so really no different than driving on any freeway and much less stressful than Miami! Whew! My real concern is the in-town driving with bikes and pedestrians behaving like maniacs and then there are the roundabouts. Don't get me wrong, I like roundabouts -- but these are really small and have 2 lanes. In theory, you're supposed to be on the inside lane until it's time to get off...but there's really not much time in a roundabout. Picture get in, get over, and move back to exit all happening with 2 lanes of traffic and bikes weaving in and out. Often, the drivers don't bother with the getting over and you never know who's going to come around the circle and who's getting off until the last second or whether someone is gong to whip around on the right to pass and get off just as you're trying to move to the outer lane to get off. I've been scouting areas to park on the edge of town by the wall and figure we'll just walk in! That will solve the parking problem, too! I've gotta hand it to folks here -- they get the park-it-in-a-small space award hands down!
Our other Tuesday highlight was our conversation with the rug man in Vicenza. He has a little shop in the PX. In Italian, it's very respectful to address a woman as "Signora" -- similar to the way we use "ma'am" in English. It was a little startling, though, when he began with, "Lady, I will teach you about thee rugs." (This is all in heavily accented English.) "Lady, thees rug eez good quality. Lady, eez not like the one you buy een market." It came out sounding like "Look here, lady, I'll give you a piece of my mind about rugs," which wasn't the way it was intended, so it was cute and charming. He told us his family has been in business for 148 years, I think. He had a sample of a rug someone picked up in the market and showed us how it didn't have the label on the back and how the material felt cheap. He did a great job of explaining about the knots and the difference between quality of materials and hand-tied vs. machine tied. He said the quality is the same, but with hand tied, you pay the salary of the man who tied the knots for a year. He has a warehouse full of hand-tied rugs that he offered to drive to Ferrara. A few months ago, several of the ladies bought rugs when he did that, but the difference in price is about 3800 euro on the rug I want. Not much for the knot tier, but a lot for me right now. The amazing thing is that they're made of silk and they fold into a small square that you can put in the washer and dryer! Crazy!
Our other Tuesday highlight was our conversation with the rug man in Vicenza. He has a little shop in the PX. In Italian, it's very respectful to address a woman as "Signora" -- similar to the way we use "ma'am" in English. It was a little startling, though, when he began with, "Lady, I will teach you about thee rugs." (This is all in heavily accented English.) "Lady, thees rug eez good quality. Lady, eez not like the one you buy een market." It came out sounding like "Look here, lady, I'll give you a piece of my mind about rugs," which wasn't the way it was intended, so it was cute and charming. He told us his family has been in business for 148 years, I think. He had a sample of a rug someone picked up in the market and showed us how it didn't have the label on the back and how the material felt cheap. He did a great job of explaining about the knots and the difference between quality of materials and hand-tied vs. machine tied. He said the quality is the same, but with hand tied, you pay the salary of the man who tied the knots for a year. He has a warehouse full of hand-tied rugs that he offered to drive to Ferrara. A few months ago, several of the ladies bought rugs when he did that, but the difference in price is about 3800 euro on the rug I want. Not much for the knot tier, but a lot for me right now. The amazing thing is that they're made of silk and they fold into a small square that you can put in the washer and dryer! Crazy!
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| The rug we picked out for our livingroom! |
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