My random thoughts..

-  settimana bianca (white week) is a week when Italians take off from work & schools are closed so that they can go skiing.  This year it’s from Feb. 16-20 at my kids’ school. 

- unlike in the US & Japan where trash dumpsters are inside residential compounds or placed in the back of commercial establishments & brought out only on designated days, trash dumpsters here in Rome are permanently out on the sidewalks.  When they’re full & you’re walking outside, you can smell the garbage, especially those outside grocery stores.  In Naples it’s much worse though.  I didn’t see any trash dumpsters, so their trash were in black plastic bags along the street.  It was the first thing you saw & smelled leaving the Naples Navy base.

-  clothes dryers aren’t common here, just like in Japan

- most Pinoys here are domestic servants, i.e., maids or nannies.  We were often asked by fellow Pinoys we casually met on the bus or on the street “Part-timer o stay in ka?”

- during summer months there are lots of tiger mosquitos.  Unlike regular mosquitos that you can hear buzzing, these are silent.  You only know you’ve been bitten when you start itching & notice a red bump where the nasty pest bit you. 

- the number 17 is considered an unlucky number

-  customers print out the bar coded price tag for fruits & vegetables they buy.  There’s a number placed near the per kilo price in each produce bin, & after you bag your fruits & veggies separately, you place them on a scale, punch the number that corresponds to your item, & the scale will print out the bar coded price tag based on the weight of the item.