Well, actually, I didn’t WIN all by myself, as the post title seems to suggest. I won together with one of my best buddies, last night, at a charity card tournament here in Florence. There was a total of 18 couples, and, after taking a “beating” at the first table, she and I began winning hands down…until, to our surprise, we ended up winning first prize, which was (is) dinner for two in a newly-opened pizzeria on our side of town. Yaaay!
Today, though, my feet are back on the ground. I’ve been working all day, and I still am not finished!, on a legal translation from Italian to English (don’t ask!!!), so I have to get back to it. But I wanted to share what I thought was a hilarious BBC news article on Italian “ailments”: http://goo.gl/8bk3T Nothing to do with myeloma, btw…just a fun little thing…
I’ve lived in Italy for most of my life, so I can tell you that what the article describes is all, generally speaking (with a few exceptions), true–from the absurd Michelin toddlers to the “hit of air.” Oh, and some of my friends wear those “health shirts.” LOL. Come to think of it, even bigger LOL! Stefano does, too!Though in his case, I just call them cotton T-shirts. 🙂
Whenever I go over to my in-laws in summer, even if it’s 300 degrees outside (uhm…ok…slight exaggeration…) and sit in front of an open window in a desperate but futile attempt to catch even a teeny tiny waft of (boiling hot) air, my mother-in-law will tell me that I shouldn’t do that…that I might get what in Tuscany is called a frescata, which is basically what this article calls a “hit of air” or colpo d’aria. In a Tuscan’s mind, a frescata is something to be avoided at all costs. Air conditioning or even electric fans in summer are also to be avoided, since cool air on your sweaty body could make you look a bit like the doubled-over fellow in the cartoon…
I always reply to her that these things don’t exist in the U.S., and that, since I’m an American, I’m immune to ’em. So I was very much amused that the author of the article replies in a similar manner…a bit tongue in cheek, mind you…Anyway, yes, I could relate…
An American friend of my mother’s used to say that she never even knew she had a liver until she moved to Italy 🙂 .
Okay, back to my translation…mamma mia…I’d much rather be hit by some air!