Elisa –

Elisa works at a purse shop called Ibiz just on the outside of the Campo de’ Fiori. Elisa makes all the purses herself using the finest materials available. Purse fashion changes every couple of months, but Elisa doesn’t try to keep up with it, really. She says that if she makes practical and classically stylish bags people will buy them. Her philosophy has always been one of practicality, utility, and quality. She usually limits her experimentation to the realm of color, as opposed to implementing radical new designs. She inherited Ibiz from her parents four years ago. They then opened the store more than thirty years ago, and she tries to carry on their design philosophy. Apparently, this design philosophy works because her customers are very faithful. One customer from Australia who bought a purse from her parents returned ten years later to get a replacement when the old one wore out. Elisa told us the story of the name of the shop. Her parents opened a leatherworking shop in 1972, but at the time, “everyone” in Rome was in the leatherworking business, and they needed something to set them apart from the rest. They went to a small island off the coast of Spain called Ibiz that is known for being the center of a masterful leatherworking tradition and there learned the famous old methods and designs. They named their shop in honor of that place and the experience, and also because it was good marketing to be associated with the island.

scamosciato – suede
abituale – returning (as of customers)
moda – style

Rosetta –

Rosetta works at the AS Roma store outside the Campo de’ Fiori near Largo Argentina. She has been working there for a little over two years. Rosetta is an interesting character because, *gasp*, she is not a soccer fan in the slightest. She doesn’t have a preference between AS Roma and Lazio, nor does she have a favorite player. She doesn’t watch, or go to games, nor likes discussing anything soccer related. When we asked why she worked there, she said it is only a job. I guess there is a common theme here in Italy at working jobs and not caring about what it is you are selling. Still, we tried to see if anything interesting happened in her store, like riots, or crazy Lazio fans, but she said no. She said if you want to buy tickets to a game you have to go to Piazza Colonna, where there is a bigger location of the AS Roma store. She answered the phone and blew us off while we were trying to interview her, so we went and played soccer with one of the soccer balls that was for sale. She didn’t like that very much, but she was unwilling to get off the phone and tell us to stop. All in all, it was a very unsatisfying interview. She didn’t even compliment Brian on his giallorosso maglietta.

Giallorosso maglietta - Yellow/red jersey (AS Roma’s nickname is i giallorossi)
calico – soccer
tifosi – fans

Rosella –

Rosella is the opposite of Rosetta (though their names are very similar). Rosella works at a travel agency in the Campo de’ Fiori. Surprise, she loves traveling. We asked her where Italians vacation in the summer and in the winter. For the winter she said that many Italians love to go up to the north, to the beautiful mounts, to ski and to snowboard. In the summer the Italians love to go down south, to the islands Sardegna, Ischia and Sicilia. We asked her where she wanted to go this summer and she answered Sardegna.

We asked her if she could go anywhere in the world and she answered Sardegna. We asked her what great wonder of the world she would go see, if she had infinite time and resources, and she said she’d go to Sardegna. We asked her where, aside from Sardegna she would go, and she looked at us blankly. We got the impression that maybe she wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but she was extremely convivial. With another lovely interview complete, we said ciao, arrivederci!

nord – north
sud – south
sciare – to ski

Fabrizio –

We met Fabrizio while he was taking a break with fellow gondoliers in the afternoon sun of Venice. We thought this was the perfect opportunity to talk to someone in a purely Italian profession. Fabrizio has lived in Venice for all of his life. We asked him how long he has been a gondolier; he said he started training since he was thirteen. His father retired and he inherited his gondola. He says work is really tough, especially in the summer heat. Powered boats take up most of the waterways now, and the amount of gondolas has been steadily shrinking. Most people, he said, don’t appreciate the romance of the gondola, and simply do it as a tourist attraction. Still, Fabrizio loves his job and wouldn’t trade it for any other job in the world.

Remo – oar
gondoliere – gondolier
barca - boat

Marco -

Marco is a bartender at Harry’s Bar, the fanciest bar in Venice. According to Marco, (in confidence) it caters to the “filthy rich.” He proudly boasted to us that the bar’s claim to fame is a drink called a Bellini, which consists of Prosecco and peach puree. We had to try them, and they were delicious. One each and 35,50 euro later, we resumed our conversation with Marco.

He told us that Harry’s serves a lot of famous people, like movie stars or government types from all around the world. He gave us a long and illustrious list of people his bar has served in recent years, including Jessica Alba, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and even Tom Cruise, of whom he was a huge fan. Whoa, wait a minute. We now have two Marcos we’ve talked to now who are huge Tom Cruise fans (if you’ll remember back a few weeks to the owner of the video rental store). Maybe it’s the same man in disguise? Crazier things have happened. In closing, Marco told us that, once, he had made two hundred thirty seven euro in tips and non-optional gratuities in one night while tending bar. We didn’t know whether or not to believe him, but it made us want to be celebrity bartenders, too.

Ricco sfondato - filthy rich
Precedente - former (as in precedente primo ministro)

Good afternoon, dear readers. Today's adventures take us from the depths of barbarism (a close shave in a hairy situation, we were balanced on the razor's edge) to the smoky peak of amorality. No puns intended, of course.

Mario –

Today, just off the Campo de’ Fiori, we interviewed a barber by the name Mario. Yet another Mario. One would think that every last aging Italian man is named Mario. In fact, this has so far been empirically true. Anyways, Mario has been cutting hair for over fifty years. He didn’t seem to mind us interviewing him while he was cutting someone’s hair (the man getting his haircut was on a cell phone). We asked him what the current style haircuts for men were and said that short haircuts are in, adding that the fashion changes from day to day. He was very (read: ridiculously) knowledgeable about men's hair fashions. If anyone were to write a book on the subject, it is our firm contention that Mario is just the man for the job. When Brian asked what he would recommend for his hair, he said he would muss it up, use gel, and cut the back of it with a certain pair of small scissors. He said Tony’s hair was perfect. Brian asked if he could get a Mohawk, and Mario said yes, and that he would dye it pink. After Brian asked this, Mario said that he gave Billy Idol a haircut in the eighties.

spettinare – to muss the hair

corto – short

fobici – scissors

Pino –

Our next lucky interviewee was Pino, who works at a Tabaccheria just off the Campo de’ Fiori. The Tabaccheria also has a bar inside that sells coffee and sandwiches, but we only wanted to find out about the life of a tabacchi salesman. Pino, like many of the best Italian shop clerks, was very busy doing nothing. So busy doing nothing, in fact, that he didn’t even have time to speak to a few poor American students (yours truly--thank you, thank you). Still, being persistent, Brian got a rise out Pino by asking him if he felt bad selling cigarettes, because smoking kills. In the same vein, Brian asked a somewhat more conversational (and defensive) Pino how he could sell ‘death’. By ‘death’ Brian meant cigarettes, of course, and Pino said that it was the Italian government's fault as well. He said that they take a share of his profits, and that Brian should go take it up with parliament if he didn't like it; Pino didn't lose any sleep over selling tabacchi. Brian, smiling, asked Pino if he minded selling Gelato (they have a cooler with ice creams there, too) and making people fat, and he said he didn’t mind that either. Apparently, all Pino worries about is Pino. What a terrible world we live in!

sigaretta – cigerettes

morte – death

preoccupazione - worry

Okay, guys, new formatting this time. Tell us what you think. Also, sorry for the late post, but it took a while to track down the photos. Good things are worth waiting for.

Giulia –


Our trip to another bookstore, Libreria del Viagggiatore, turned out very differently than the previous one. Here we met Giulia, who was very busy. She was reading some magazines and wouldn’t give us very much time to interview. She has worked at this bookstore for less than a year, and is only a job for the money, as she is not very interested in books, but she does love her magazines. When asked why she chose to work at a bookstore, and not anywhere else, she said that it gives her a lot of free time to read her magazines.

libreria – bookstore
rivista – magazine
letteratura – literature





Danilo –

Danilo has worked at the Colatti, a bike shop, since he was eleven, and for the past twenty seven years (you can guess how old he is if you so want). The bike shop Colatti has been around since 1899, and has been in the family ever since then, and Danilo keeps that trade going on and on. They make and rent their own bikes using the finest material, and space age aluminum. He said that most Italians bike for fun rather than as a means of transportation. Mountain biking, he says, isn’t as big as it is in the states because there aren’t very many accessible trails, but it still has many lovers of that sport. For those of you who want to rent a bike, you can do it by the hour, or for dieci euro you can rent a bike for the day. He feels that the scooters have replaced the bicycle as a cheap and fast means to get around the city, but there are still many that bike for fun, exercise and travel.



le bici/ la bicicletta – bikes/ bicycle
affitto – rental
alluminio – aluminum

Ciao gruppo, you're going to love today's. Ch-ch-ch-check it!

Uberto -

Uberto is a bizarre character. He was born in 1951 in Alexandria, Egypt. He is Italian, though, and was born in Alexandria because his grandfather, the last King of Italy, was exiled when Italy became a republic. He now lives just outside of Rome in a beautiful villa next to the Egyptian embassy. In his work, Uberto raises purebred Neapolitan mastiffs for dog shows and is a photographer on the cutting edge of art in the field of photography. He says that the subject matter of his shots is usually characterized by the two things he loves best, big Neapolitan mastiffs and gorgeous women. When we talked, Uberto said that he had 55 dogs, mostly mastiffs living on his property. We met a few of the dogs, but Uberto hasn’t named them all yet, and so it became hard to tell them apart. When asked what his favorite thing to do in the world is, he said he loves to wear a fez while sitting on a chair.

re - king

mastino - mastiff

Gabriele –

We met Gabriele working at a little bookshop called Fahrenheit 451. He has been working at this bookshop for the past 7 years. He is quite the literary aficionado, giving us much insight into the Italian literature scene. We asked him what his favorite author is, and he answered Calvino. We knew Calvino from reading his Invisible Cities earlier this quarter, and we compared notes about our perceptions of the book. It is a small world after all. He loves the book Invisible Cities because it is very complex, beautiful and dreary at the same time. Gabriele doesn’t have a preference between Italian and other authors with different nationalities, he just likes good books. When asked about film adaptations, he says he has no preference because books and films are so different that he can’t make a decision between two of the same subject. Finally we asked him about the name of the shop, whether it was the owner's favorite book or something. We were wrong, it is actually an analogy to Giordano Bruno who was burned as a "martyr for science" at the stake in the Campo de’ Fiori (where the shop is also located) because the book Fahrenheit 451 is about the burning of books because those in power don’t trust the ideas that books provide.

traduttore – translator
libro – book
autore - author

These are from before we left for Naples. Sorry for the late post!

Mina –

Mina works at a bakery just outside the Campo de’ Fiori. When we went there, we wanted to learn more about the bakery, but as it turns out, Mina doesn’t know much about the bakery. She has only worked there for one day. This was her first day. Instead of trying to interview anyone else at the bakery because they were all very busy, we instead tried to find some interesting things about her, and I think we succeeded. Mina is not from Rome, but rather Nice in France. She came to Rome because her aunt lives here. She loves sweets, of all varieties, so working in a bakery that specializes in the sweeter baked goods was a perfect match. When asked if she could vacation anywhere in the world, Mina answered that she would go to Africa. She didn’t specify where in Africa, just that she was mystified by the voodoo magic, and that she would love to participate in it. Of course, there were other reasons she wanted to go to Africa. The heat and the animals were a couple of the other things she mentioned. Since the bakery got very busy, we let her be without inquiring much more.

zia – aunt
strega – witch or sorceress
elefante – elephant

Gabriele –

Gabriele is the owner of a tattoo parlor that resides in one of the alley ways near the Campo de’ Fiori, very close to the Rome Center. He has owned the tattoo parlor for twenty years, and went on to explain his past and his philosophy on tattooing. His first tattoo was the Taurus symbol from the zodiac. He did that tattoo on his own arm, as an experiment. He said he wanted it because his sign was Taurus, and he was a big believer in the power of the stars and signs of the zodiac over peoples’ lives. For his shop, he designs everything himself. He doesn’t do predefined forms or ‘tribal’ tattoos. What he really loves doing is Japanese art (not lettering). It is a very distinct style that looks amazing as a tattoo. He also loves doing the classic American tattoos, the anchors, the pinups, etc. Besides tattooing, Gabriele is musician. He play guitar and he is in a cover band that plays classic blues and rock. He said, for those interested in blues and rock, head over to “Big Mamma” that plays live music most every night.

chitarra – guitar

tatuare – to tattoo

disegno – design

Marco ―

Hey, Tony and Brian reporting, up next: this week’s Neapolitan adventures. We were overjoyed to find, while wandering through Naples, an entire store dedicated to drums. We are both drummers, and decided that we must do an interview in this drum shop. A man named Marco was working there, and he was very interested to talk to us because he was a drummer as well. The store where he worked, called “Acoustica” on the “music street” just off Piazza Gesu, was open continuously throughout the day (they didn’t close for siesta). However, when we arrived at the store at 2:30 in the afternoon, there were no other customers at all. Marco moved to Naples from a small town near Bari five years ago, and has worked at Acoustica ever since. He said that his passion in life is playing the drums. We could relate, and began to ask about his favorite drummers and albums. He said that, overall, the jazz great Steve Gadd was his favorite drummer, but Billy Cobham was a close second. He loved the old fusion classics of bands like Tower of Power and Mahavishnu Orchestra. A very interesting thing about Marco is that he thinks that drumming is almost all in the hands, meaning that he thinks a great drummer doesn’t necessarily have to have a good touch on the bass drum or hi-hat pedal. Brian told him that he thinks a more holistic approach is required, but Tony agreed. Marco told us that’s because, in the jazz, funk, and classic rock styles, the emphasis is on the hands, but in the metal style that Brian plays, the emphasis is on the feet and the interaction between the hands and feet. The three of us then sat down in the otherwise empty drum shop and all played drums together for a while. This was by far our most fun interview.

batterista - drummer

ritmo - rhythm

Giovanni –

Giovanni is a guitarist; that is, first and foremost, how he defined himself. We met him at an unnamed Guitar shop in the heart of Naples. Brian, being a guitarist, and me being a fan of guitarists, had a lot of fun interviewing this guy. He has lived in Naples for all of his life, and founded his guitar store ten years ago. When asked why he thinks that Naples is a center of music of Italy, he said that there is a great youth culture here and a lot of opportunities for making it. He told us that many of the people who study at the conservatory of music or the university have their own projects outside of school as well. There are many clubs around, and all of these factors come together to create a real community for musicians. His favorite guitarist was Eric Clapton, and his favorite band was Rush. He said, laughing, that he didn’t mind their singer because he loved their guitarist so much. He has been playing guitar since he was five, but he is not in a band right now. He thinks that independent music in Italy is difficult to do and is still not very popular, and needs to find its feet. He said that there is a lot of talent in Italy that comes to Naples to become popular. He let Brian try a gorgeous Gibson Les Paul guitar through a classic Fender blackface amp, and seemed to be willing to go on for hours about Gibsons—they are his favorite brand of guitar. He, maybe in jest, told us that if he doesn’t sell that Gibson Les Paul in two weeks, he’s going to take it home as his own because he’s in love with it. It’s his store; we suppose he can steal what he wants from it.

chitarrista – guitarist

carriera – career

popolare - popular

Sorry dear readers, no photos this time because Brian's camera ran out of batteries in Naples!

Mario –

Mario is from Puglia, in the heel of the Italian ‘boot,’ but has lived in Rome for the most of his life. Mario restores antiques at a shop with no name, just off the Campo de’ Fiori. He has worked there in this family business for nearly twenty five years. We also happened to see his father there, but he couldn’t hear us, so we conducted the interview with his son. This shop restores all types of antiques, from furniture, paintings, candelabras, chandeliers, antique hardware and lamps to name just a few. He showed us the tools he used to fix the antiques. Mario specializes in antiques from the 1700’s. Mario only had a few minutes to spare for us, but we enjoyed talking to him a great deal anyway.

Arnese: Tools

Settecento: 18^th century

Mobili: Furniture

Marco -

Marco was born in Rome, and has lived here for his whole life. For as long as Marco can remember, he has worked at this little video and DVD retail and rental store off the Campo de’ Fiori called “Hollywood.” He has quite an expansive collection of films, posters and other cinema paraphernalia. His favorite director is Pier Paolo Pasolini, who directed such films as “Mama Roma” and “Accattone.” He is a very stylized artistic director that is very well known in the independent film crowd. However, Marco was not surprised when we hadn’t heard of him because of his relative lack of commercial success. Marco’s favorite film is “A bout de soufflé,” a French film by the director Jean-Luc Godard. When asked whether he prefers Italian or American films, he said it depends, that while some Italian films are very beautiful, many are also very stupid. The same goes for the American films. When asked about Tom Cruise, he says that he was very lucky to have been married to Nicole Kidman, who he finds to be the most beautiful actress in the world. He thinks that Tom Cruise, when directed properly, is a very good actor, although Marco finds his personal life a bit… strange. Marco thinks that comedies are the hardest films for directors to make because making people laugh while still retaining an intelligent manner is no small feat. Marco was a very likeable and talkative man, and if anyone wants to rent a movie, we highly recommend his shop.

Invidiare – to be jealous (that is how Marco spoke of Tom Cruise and his relationship with Nicole Kidman)

Regista – director of films

Catalogo – a public catalogue (as opposed to a collezione which is a private collection).

Moreno –

Moreno di Giacomo is an iron worker in an independent workshop just off the Campo de’ Fiori. He primarily repairs antiques for antique shops in the center of the city. He is a specialist on lamps from the turn of the century, roughly from 1890 – 1910. He is kept very busy by the antique shops because they always have new pieces for him to repair, but he says that he would like to work more on his own line of lamps. He showed us several examples of lamps he made in his shop in addition to a portfolio of photos of his work. He builds a metal frames that he then drapes in silk, creating very artistic and beautiful frames. He was anxious to get back to work, and showed us how he bent the “tondini” (iron rods) using what looked like big metal tweezers on our way out.

New words learned during the interview:

Ferro – Iron

Seta – Silk

Lampeda – Lamp

Tondino – Iron rod

Paola –

Paola was born in Rome and has lived here for all of her life. She started working as a clerk at Forno Campo de’ Fiori five years ago. We tried one of the specialties of the shop, a small ball of orange flavored dough covered with almonds on the outside. It was amazing. The bakery has been around since Pope Alexander VI. They like to say that they baked that Pope Alexander VI gave to his “amante” (mistress) as a gift. The shop has been under the current ownership since 1970. They still bake all of their own pastries and breads in their bakery in the back. They let us look into the bakery, and it was very busy and smelled great. We asked Paola what her favorite thing was in the shop. Surprisingly enough she did not pick a pastry, but rather a sandwich of eggs and artichokes, called a frittata di carcioffi. We asked what Paola did in her free time, and she laughed and asked, “What free time?” She told us that she has two beautiful kids named Giada and Alessia.

New words learned during the interview:

Carciofi – Artichokes

Giada – Jade

Amante – lover/mistress

Carmine –

Carmine was born in Rome and his lived here for all of his days. For a better part of those days, he has worked in the butcher shop Orelli, thirty five years to be exact. He is the big boss, as was his fathers and his father’s fathers since 1860. The specialty of this particular butcher shop is a special type of lamb called abbacchio. Being the boss of a butcher shop, he didn’t have much time to explain that the line of work. He liked American students, but not us so much. He seemed to think we were being rude by taking his time by interviewing him.

New words learned during the interview:

Titolare – boss

Maceleria – butcher

Abacchio – lamb

Mario –

Mario was born in Umbria near Perugia. He has lived in Rome for thirty seven years, and for thirty five of those years he has worked at the butcher shop called Rucceri in the Campo di Fiori. In addition to being a butcher shop, they also sell wine, liquor and other assorted items. The specialty of this shop is Estere which is a type of ham. A really good type of sandwich, as explained by Mario, is putting prosciutto and salumi together. Other good meats they serve are tachino and mortadella. The conversation changed to the topic of soccer. We found out he is a Milan fan, and us being AS Roma fans were not very pleased. We laughed a great deal about the recent game where Rome beat Milan 3 to 1. He laughingly said that Rome would have lost if Ronaldo were playing. When we asked about Ronaldo, he said he is fat and lazy but a good player.

Salsiccia – sausage

Mortadella – what we know as baloney

Tacchino - turkey

Acqua & Sapone

(From left to right: Laura, Brian, Tony and Alena)

Laura –

Laura was born in Rome. She has lived here all of her life. She has been the clerk at Acqua & Sapone for two years. Laura got the job because she knew the boss of the store. She says, laughing, that nothing is interesting about the store, the products they sell or her job. She said that a better way for us to learn Italian is to listen to the radio and music, but she was very kind, indulgent, and good natured during the interview. When we asked her some things that American students like us could from Italians, she said that we should learn “buona cucina,” meaning good cooking. We therefore asked her what her favorite Italian food was, and she said she liked “tutti i tipi di pasta,” with sauces from all different regions of Italy. She especially like Roman cooking, including spaghetti with carbonara sauce.

New words learned during the interview:

La radio – the radio

Comessa – store clerk

Carbonara – pasta with cream sauce and pancetta

Alena –

Alena was born in Romania. She has lived in Italy for four years, and her Italian, including the Roman dialect, is perfect. We mainly talked to her about the Italian language, and she told us many interesting things about the Roman dialect, also know as Romanuccio. She told us that she didn’t actually learn proper Italian, but rather the Romanuccio because that was the first Italian she was exposed to. Some interesting things about Romanuccio are that they have an entirely different word for coat pockets. Whereas most Italians say >>>>>, Romans say “saccocia.” Also, Romans say “magniare” instead of the traditional “mangiare,” and “nammo” instead of “andiamo.” When we asked her why she came to Italy, she said that she was looking for work. She had some friends in Rome, and one of them turned down a job at Acqua & Sapone, Alena volunteered to take the job in her place. She agrees with Laura that nothing is interesting about the job itself, but she is very outgoing and loves to talk to the people who come in. She also told us that she loves animals and had three cats back in Romania.

New words learned during the interview:

Magniare – mangiare (to eat)

Romanuccio – the Roman dialect

Saccoccia – coat pockets in the Roman dialect