The Things We’ve Learned So Far (in no particular order)

1. Italian women do shave, Dutch women, however, do not.
2. Never vacation in Rome during August, the weather is miserable and three quarters of the town is on vacation themselves.
3. We are not above picking up something of use found on the street, ie a beach towel and a cool pair of sunglasses.
4. Italians love to talk to themselves, at the beach, on a bus, at a restaurant, etc
5. Italians have an extremely high tolerance for their neighbors’ dogs that bark throughout the day and night.
6. Cheap but good beer and wine are a right not a privilege.
7. Expect to wait upwards of 20 minutes for a bus that you will be on for 5 minutes.
8. “Ciao” means hello and goodbye.
9. Charles can actually tan but is more likely to burn.
10. The Internet still hasn’t really “caught on” around here.
11. Charles can still read and actually enjoys it.
12. Italians believe in changing the name of the street on every block in effort to confuse foreigners.
13. Being “on time” in Rome is the same as 15 minutes late in the States.
14. Italians aren’t as vain as most of the world supposes, otherwise they couldn’t walk around with growths on their faces big enough to require their own postal code.
15. “Uriney Goodness” more on that later.
16. Romans of all ages are more obsessed with the ‘latest and greatest’ cellphone, even more so than Americans.
17. There are still tomatoes that taste like tomatoes.
18. If you ride a motorcycle, you don’t have to obey the traffic laws. In fact, if you do obey them, you will probably get hit by a car driver not obeying the traffic laws.
19. Lunch with our landlord was painless and delicious.
20. Italians clap when their plane lands.