Monday, February 16, 2009

You Know that You're in Positano if ...




Italy, the land of contrasts, where tradition and modernity mingle merrily...


You know that you're in Positano if ...

You get periodic phone calls trying to sell you Info Strada telephone subscriptions, Sky Satellite television and then also the region's specialty of fresh Mozzarella made from Buffalo milk
(all on the same day).
What do they try to sell you?

Credit: Ed.Vincenzo Carcavallo

An old postcard showing the ruins of Furore on the Amalfi Coast before they were reconstructed.

27 comments:

Anne in Oxfordshire said...

Another place to add to my "to visit" list!! :-)

It is going to take me years to see all the areas of Italy...maybe..God willing, We will get to spend a bit longer than 10 days at a time over there!!

Anonymous said...

A coffee machine totally free. The hitch = you are obliged to buy all refills from them at an exhorbitant price. (I'll just stick to my mocha, thanks.)

Rowena said...

My husband answered the citofono one day to find a vacuum salesperson on the other end. "You have to speak with my wife," he says. "I'm not qualified or trusted to make any decisions for cleaning the house...that's her department."

Rosa said...

Anne- You could visit all the Amalfi Coast in ten days, though you'd probably want to spend more time there.

Sally- There is always a hitch isn't there! Even the mozzarella's need to be bought by more than a kilo !

Rosa said...

Rowena- LOL Trust him, Trust him - get him to do the testing !

Lucia said...

I'd love to visit one day!

I'd love to see all of you!

xo

Anonymous said...

God...by phone mozzarella, olive oil, wine, Tele2 (phone) and at the door vacuum which I always say I DON'T LIKE ( and they are shocekd to hear so!).

Anonymous said...

ooops it was me, Dollyna

Laura said...

Love that postcard image of Furore! Does it have a date on it? Do you know when the city was reconstructed?

nikinpos said...

Gosh, I wouldn't go so far as to call Furore a city!
I figured out how to deter those pesky callers.. I get my daughter to answer the phone and chat nonsense til they get bored and hang up!

Anonymous said...

In a whirlwind, hop-on, hop-off cruise of the Western Mediterranean last year, Positano was everyone's favorite town in Italy. I enjoy your window into this beautiful place.

qualcosa di bello said...

if only we hadn't taken the hydrofoil to capri...

(oh, well, next time!)

Chef Chuck said...

Great Photo!
That is a wide array of calls, I must say, I wish I got that call for Mozzarella {Buffalo}!

Rosa said...

Lucia- Put it on your 'to do' list-and prioritise!

Dollyna- I can't believe they drag vacuum cleaners around those stairs. Ha! We are to far down for them to try our door!

Laura- It doesn't have a date but Positano was being re-constructed in the boom years in the sixties and seventies so it may have been then (?)

Charlie- And I'm sure that she charms the pants off them !

Pretending that you don't speak the language works well too :)

Cristie- And thank you very much for dropping by to say so!

Qualcosa di Bello- Capri is too crowded to please me any more.

Chef Chuck- I'm sure you'd come up with a great recipe for it too.

Louise | Italy said...

Yes, yes, yes! I get so MAD. Four phone calls in one week from Tele2 asking if I would like to give Telecom Italia the old heave-ho and route all my calls through them. All either at meal-times, bedtime or potty time. The first three times I was very polite. The fourth time, I said very politely "Adesso sono arrabbiata..." and proceeded to be very angry, very enjoyably for several seconds. Then I went back to being a buttoned-up Brit again. In England I was on the stop-the-sales-calls-list and this put a stop to it, but here in Italy I haven't the slightest idea if such a thing even exists. Oh, yes, it's telephone companies, Sky (they go nuts when I say we don't have a tv), and artisan makers of olive oil or natural cremes for ageing skin (ha! cheeky).

♥ Braja said...

Beautiful...

Anonymous said...

That's such a lovely photo!

- Cleopantha

Saretta said...

I like your new header photo. When did you take it, last July? Yesterday I got a call selling a back pain prevention kit!

Rosa said...

Louise - The timing is always terrible !!

Braja- Wasn't it...

Cleopantha- Hope that you're not suffering the heat too much :(

Saretta- From what I read on your last post, they must be psychic !

Anonymous said...

Ciao Scintilla,

Grazie, for your kind thoughts:) It has cooled down a lot thank goodness. Melbourne was covered in smoke for days, its all clear now. Marysville (you may remember my post when l was there around this time last year), is pretty much gone.

Although, the positive is the absolute generosity everyone has shown towards the people affected by the fires.

I hope your well. Cleopantha

Anonymous said...

Yes, the mozarella call would be one I would welcome :)

Anonymous said...

I don't live in Positano, but here in Southern California - we are always getting those calls that our car warranty is running out - at least 5 times a day. Extremely annoying!

You have such beautiful pictures!

Rosa said...

Cleopantha- I wish your blog was still up.

Maryann- You can tell who the foodies are here!

Cathi- That would be sooo maddening!
Thank you, but the place is just bursting with pretty areas...Nothing to do with me!

Anonymous said...

I wish I had someone calling me to sell frsh Mozzarella di bufala! I love that photo.

LaDue & Crew said...

Wow, I've never heard of a cheese solicitor before, ha! When people call me like that and they ask, "Ma'am, how are you today", I tell them how I really feel... "Oh, my arthritis hurts, had a tummy ache, babies diaper needs changing...", I just go on and on, and finally they hang up!

Thank you for the compliments on the cakes! No, I have never taken any courses. I just watch TV shows and try to imitate techniques. I would love to take a flower making course though. They are so beautiful and life like when one knows what they are doing!

Unknown said...

Ciao! Scintilla

I wanted to send you an email, but could not find an address to do so, so please excuse me for posting instead.

My name is Donna, I am English and I live in Maremma, Italy with my Florentine husband and our daughter.

I am writing a Travel Guide to Maremma to share this breathtakingly beautiful place with others and just wanted to let you know that I have set up a link with a brief description of your Blog on this page of my website http://www.maremmaguide.com/living-in-italy.html. The page is also on the left navigation menu.

The Maremma Travel Guide is only a few months old and is growing slowly, but already I have visitors from over 25 different countries every month.

I wanted to give them a taste of what living in Italy is like (for a non-italian) and your Blog does that so well and more. It is beautifully written and illustrated and makes me giggle. Thank you for that.

Scintilla, if there is anything you would like me to change about the words I have used to describe your Blog, do let me know.

If you would be happy to do so, I would be delighted if you could save some screen space for a link to my site. But if not, no problem, your link will stay there anyway. I want my visitors to enjoy reading your experiences as I have.

Salute!
Donna

Monika said...

That's hilarious - the sky phone call and the mozarella phone call!Only in Italy!