Limited edition, folks. Try not to be jealous.

Oh, and BTW? It really is pronounced CAH-pree, not ca-PREE. Even though everyone will look at you funny if you say it that way in the non-Italian-speaking world. Just like if you go to a restaurant like the renounced renowned Olive Garden and try to order a bru-SKET-tah instead of a brush-etta. (Cute, brushetta. Like a little brush, kind of?)

It sounds so naive and so reckless, and yet, part of living abroad for me is a continual risk, in the sense that life is uncertain, and trying to pretend that everything is going to fall into place perfectly in the “five year plan” for me is just an illusion.

Let me get esoteric on you here.

Take a look at this image:

This is a Tarot card; this card is the first in the deck: “The Fool.”

He is the perfect example of “jump and the net will appear.” (A quote attributed to John Burroughs)

Sometimes, ignorance is bliss, and sometimes, being foolish brings the biggest rewards.

My move to Rome back in 2001 was an act of “foolishness” that has led me down so many various and exciting paths, and brought so many wonderful people into my life, and has asked me time and time again to just walk off that cliff and wait for the invisible net to appear. The archetypical “fool’s journey” represented by the tarot also for me reflects what it’s like to jump into life in a foreign country and make your way through the unknown to eventually come out the other side somewhere, only to then start all over again!

Why do I bother to post this at all? Because I find time and again that articles like my BFF blogger buddy Sara’s recent “Stop Sabotaging Your Own Success: A Manifesto” always seem to resonate with so many people who want to take a chance, but for some reason just hang on the edge of that cliff. As of today, 195 commenters and many, many “likes” and shares attest to the fact that we can take heart that we’re not alone when we want to take a risk but need a push, or feel afraid.

I was recently reading this biography of Albert Einstein, and was pleasantly reassured when I saw that he had tried for so many job openings prior to getting hired at the Swiss Patent Office (and even then only through a close personal connection), that he actually had to take an ad out in a newspaper offering his services as a math and physics tutor:

Sometimes we have to be less black and white about things, and about life in general. The only thing that is certain is that everything changes. Finding a way to balance a scientific and rational view of the world with a more open, curious, child-like and mysterious view of the world, for me has become a tricky but effective combination necessary for a *usually* successful life as an expat. The bottom line is, it’s never too late. And we are often our own worst enemies.

Cultivating faith in life and in the fact that no matter what happens, happens for a reason, has often helped me to get through days where I wondered what the heck I was doing here. And it applies not only to expat life, but to life anywhere, at any time. When your heart is calling, leap, and the net will appear. And most of all, take other people’s opinions into account, but then go with what you feel in your gut is the right thing to do. We give way too little weight and value to our inner intuition and I think that cultivating intuition is one of life’s great gifts, and something we all have hidden deep down.

Years ago I wrote a post about my expat experience, called Bread and Tulips, and I realize now that as I raise three (!!) little half-Roman half-Americans, I’m kind of starting that journey all over again. It’s a 34 year old viewing Rome again with the eyes of that 24 year old who first came here nearly 11 years ago and met her future husband, father of her kids, and future ex, all on day one! Life has its ups and downs. Cultivating faith that in the end, that net is going to be there, is one way of finding trust in life and trust in the bigger order of things.

“To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest.”
― Pema Chödrön

Tackling the farmacia in Italy can be a challenge when you’re visiting, because besides the fact that probably most or all of the brand names of the OTC drugs are different than your brand names from back home, another hurdle is that even the OTC meds are kept behind the counter. That means that if your pharmacist doesn’t speak a word of English, it can be a challenge to get what you need. ù

I remember an embarrassing scene I had 10 years ago when I had first arrived in Italy. I desperately needed Band-Aids because I had a major shaving blunder on both ankles and the bleeding wouldn’t stop. I walk into the pharmacy and there’s a gaggle of old ladies discussing their health issues in frenetic Italian with the pharmacist. I was in little homey San Lorenzo and there wasn’t another tourist in sight. When I came in it was like Moses parting the waters. Everyone turned to look and there I was, in the spotlight. Geez. Of course Bandaids weren’t easily on display, or in supermarkets like they are now, so I had to start in my super broken Italian. First I try explaining that I got a cut. Puzzled looks, all around. Now the old ladies are really into it. I’m sure they were thinking in their heads whatever the elderly Italian lady version of WTF is. Anyhow, after a lot of hemming and hawing (yes, I actually hawed, more than once), the pharmacist looks at me and literally a light bulb goes off over his head. I swear, I saw it. And he goes:

“OOOOHHHHH!!! You mean you wanta Band-aida?”

Uh, yeah. Guess I could have saved myself some time. It was this big procedure, taking the box of bandaids out of their special drawer behind the counter, carefully wrapping them up in tissue paper, carefully scotch-taping the whole confection shut. Gee whiz man, you would have thought I was buying an elaborate gift.

So, let me spare you the drama and therapy-inducing experience described above. Here, I give you, my top 10 OTC drug equivalents in Italian pharmacies.

1) Ibuprofen (Advil) = Moment. Sold in boxes of 200mg caplets. You don’t have to specify the dosage because 200mg is the standard. Then there are Moment’s brothers and sisters: Moment Act (400 mg), Momendol (220 mg) which I think they market for backaches and menstrual cramps, and the pink Moment which you can ask for “bustine” if you prefer a powder that dissolves in water.

2) Acetaminophen/Paracetamol (Tylenol/Panadol/Calpol) = Efferalgan (eff-air-AHLL-gahn) or Tachipirina (tahky-pier-EE-nah) Efferalgan is a tablet that dissolves in water and you drink it. Tachipirina is a caplet, or, for babies, you can get suppositories, called “supposte.” (soo-POH-stay)

3) Antihistamine (Pseudoephedrine) = Reactine (ray-AK-teen)

There’s also Fexofenadine (Allegra) = Telfast and Cetirizine (Zyrtec) which also goes by Zyrtec in Italy.

4) Heartburn/nausea medicine. Italians don’t really say “heartburn” they say “bruciore di stomaco” (stomach burn). They use the Alka Seltzer equivalent (Sodium bicarbonate and citric acid) called Citrosodina which is a powder that dissolves in water, or you can have a chewable (masticabile = mah-stee-CAH-bee-lay). There’s also a product in grocery stores that’s basically the equivalent of baking soda, but it becomes a fizzy drink like Alka Seltzer, called Brioschi (bree-OH-skee).

There’s also Maalox, and there’s something that lots of Italians have told me they swear by, called Geffer, which I’ve never heard of in the States, called Reglan (active ingredient metoclopramide). Trust me, if you feel nauseous and have to puke, Geffer will get it done.

5) Diarrea medicine (loperamide). Easy, it’s called Immodium here too.

6) Cough syrup. Dextromethorphan (Robitussin DM) = Bisolvon.

7) Sore throat. Lozenges = Benegol Spray or gargle = Tantum Verde

8) Condoms are called preservativi. They are often also sold in machines outside of pharmacies. And often now condoms are on display on the counter so you don’t have to ask for them.

9) Sleeping aids. Melatonin = melatonina. Valerian = valeriana. The equivalent of the famous Tylenol PM would be “Aliserin” but it requires a prescription here.

10) Vomiting and rehydrating solution. This is particularly important if you are traveling with a child who gets ill. It’s awful having to wonder what the heck the locals might call “Pedialyte.” Here in Italy they sell little juice boxes in the pharmacies of a liquid called “Dicodral” and that’s the equivalent of Pedialyte, and it’s orange flavored. And my children’s pharmacist always tells me to give the kiddos “Biochetasi” for nausea and “Tiorfix” for diarrea, both are OTC medicines. For adults to stop vomiting there’s a syrup called Plasil.

Hope you don’t need any of these, but if you do, hope this list helps!

If you find yourself with a medicine in Italy and you don’t know what the brand name equivalent is, you can look it up here:

International Drug Name Database

“Guanciale Demasonic” : The Demasonic Pillow

Just proves that the acronym WTF has more uses than I ever could have imagined!

Because, are you kidding me?

Tagline: “The musical pillow for your free time.”

This, apparently, is for people who don’t realize that you can put earbuds in your ears AND put your head on your pillow at the same time?

?

But wait, there’s more! As there always is!

What would be the logical way to take this invention just ONE STEP FURTHER?

By all means, click here.

That’s right, folks. The iPod pillow. Unauthorized and ready for your free time.

Oh, BTW? Don’t mind me mocking this stuff. I’m just a lowly plebe. Seems the celebs in the UK love the “Soundasleep Speaker Pillow.”

Sweet dreams, or as we say around here, sogni d’oro!

Ahhh, love. Yes, love when Carnevale rolls around and the fried crispy powdered sugar covered deliciousness of frappe comes back to Rome. Ooooh I could eat these all day. It’s like when you eat too much candy corn and get a stomach ache. I eat these literally until I don’t know when to stop. They only come out around February because they’re to celebrate Mardi Gras, Carnevale, however you want to call the period of gastronomical debauchery prior to the Lenten season.

Check out how cute these two are! This is Adele (ah-DEH-lay) and Valeria, showing the good stuff they’ve got going at Mamma Che Pane.

Look at Adele, how adorable she is! She is demonstrating the typical Roman hand gesture for “buono” when food tastes yummy. You stick your index finger in your cheek and turn it. No I don’t know why. It just is so.

As if the frappe weren’t enough to make me weak in the knees, how about all this:

“Accoppiati con Nutella Ferrero” — first, they specify that it’s “Ferrero” meaning ain’t no sad imitations around here, we use the real deal. Second, they call these cookies which are sandwich cookies with Nutella in the middle “accoppiati” (coupled) which in the spoken Italian I’ve heard used as the equivalent of “mating,” therefore qualifying them as the best-named cookies in Rome, as far as I’m concerned. I’ll take 5 mating cookies, please.

But wait! There’s more!

Smiling Nutella, anyone? Yes, please.

How about buy 10, get two free? An Italian version of “cheaper by the dozen”?

As I was snapping away, Adele says to me “Hey! Try this! It’s foccaccia with prosciutto affumicato!” Tip: taking pictures in an Italian forno will sometimes score you freebies. Weee! I ended up buying some. It was absolutely amazing.

Bread, bread, mamma che pane!

Plus they have an entire section of meats and cheeses that I didn’t even have time to get to. Man… so much yummy stuff to eat, so little time.

Mamma Che Pane
Via Aristide Leonori 78
00147 Roma
Hours
Mon-Sat 9:00 – 13:00
Mon-Sat 16:00 – 20:00

There’s a big, I mean huge, shopping mall not far from where I live, and leave it to my son to yell out as we approach: “Hey mom! There’s a Burger King!” Well, that’s novelty as far as I’m concerned. Let’s hit it.

As we walk in I get a chuckle out of the “King Drive.” Let’s call them “king drives” in the States instead of drive throughs. It makes it all so much more, well, regal, no?

There were carefully placed paper crowns adorning the entire restaurant, every table, everywhere. This Burger King was so spotless you could practically eat off the floor. Not that I would, of course. I mean, not that I would after the obligatory 10-second rule. Those first 10 are probably about as healthy as the amount of germs I normally inhale living in a home with a four year old and two toddlers who all go to nursery school, therefore I say: why waste a perfectly good fry or two?

Here is the reluctant prince: look how forlorn! (Yes, I just used forlorn in a sentence. I’m that good.)

But he was damn happy when we got a plastic whale with BK stickers that we could “brand” it with. Nice. I give you, the Burger King whale:

Vince took this picture of me as I helped him hold my cell phone camera. I am rocking that paper crown, or maybe not.

But truly, the height of my BK in Rome experience of course was the ol’ Ceez himself, all decked out with his BK sippy cup.

Oh, good citizens of Rome, have it your way!

Most of the information in that article is still accurate and relevant, but here’s version 2.0.

1. How to Get a Taxi in Rome

I think most locals would agree with me that hailing a cab isn’t as frequent a way to get a taxi in Rome as it might be in other cities. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever hailed a cab here, and many a time I’ve watched as tourists get frustrated by what they consider as rude Roman cab drivers who don’t stop when they are signaled from the curb. Many taxi drivers in Rome operate with a radio service and therefore are already on their way to pick someone up or already have someone in the car. Here are some ways you can get in the door:

Text Message
If you have a cell phone, this is the easiest way I’ve found so far to get a licensed radio taxi. This number is for the 3570 company; if you know of others that are reliable, please share in the comments section.

Send a text message to the following number: 366 673 0000 (I’ve never tried this from an international phone so I’m not sure if it works, but if you want to give it a go, then you’ll need to first put the international prefix +39)

In the body of the text message, type the following: Roma, [insert address here, for example Via del Tritone 113]

That’s all. Then the service will text you back when they begin the search for the taxi, and another text when the taxi has been found, listing the taxi name, number, and wait time.

Phone Call
This was pretty intimidating to me in the beginning, since I didn’t speak or understand Italian well. Each radio taxi company has a number you can call to request a taxi.

City of Rome “ChiamaTaxi” (Taxi Call Service) Dial 06 06 09
Call and clearly state the street name and building number where you need the cab, and the computer system automatically sends the call to the taxi stand nearest you. The cab driver will then confirm and the caller will receive notice of how long the wait will be.

Other reliable Rome cab company phone numbers (dial 06 before each): Coop. Autoradiotaxi Romana 3570; Radio Taxi 6645; soc. La Capitale 4994; soc. Tevere 4157; soc. Cosmo 88177; coop. Samarcanda 5551

Taxi Stand
You can identify these by the orange “TAXI” sign. Passengers wait in a line (theoretically—remember, this is Rome) and the first cab in the line takes the first passenger in line. Sometimes if the line is all a jumble, you might have to ask the drivers “Chi è il primo?” (Who’s the first in line?) to know which cab to get into.

Printable list of Rome taxi stands and addresses

2. How to Avoid Getting Ripped Off

Reiterating in brief the points from my previous article:

- Only take city-authorized cabs. They have the “SPQR” city coat of arms on them and a taxi sign on top. I recommend radio taxis (those that have clearly marked phone numbers on the outside doors) because they work with a radio cooperative, not independently, and therefore are less likely to risk ripping you off since their dispatcher knows their fares and you should have recourse for any problems.

- Note the name and license number of the cab driver or cooperative on the inside back door (a small placard will indicate this).

- Know in general where you are and where you’re planning to go, at least having looked at a map of the area or some landmarks for your destination.

- Don’t be shy about arguing if you know you’re being ripped off. Threaten to call the carabinieri (the number is 112). They’ll generally back off if they are being dishonest.

- Know the city-regulated set fares and tarriffs and don’t take a cab without a meter:

Airport fixed rates: 40 euro from Fiumicino to within the Aurelian Walls and vice versa; 30 euro from Ciampino to within the Aurelian Walls and vice versa

Otherwise, there is always an initial fare on the meter, as follows:

€2,80 from 7 am to 10 pm on weekdays
€4,00 from 7 am to 10 pm on Sundays and holidays
€5,80 from 10 pm to 7 am all days of the week

The first bag is free; excess baggage is charged at a rate of €1,00 per bag

If you’re going 12 mph (20 kph) or over, the taxi meter will go up 92 cents for every kilometer (just over a half mile) within the GRA ring road, or €1,52 if you’re outside the GRA ring road.

Wait time charges before cab arrives:

When you call for a cab, they will tell you how long the wait should be. The taxi meter starts from the time the taxi takes your call, which means the initial fare on the meter will be higher if you’ve called a taxi than if you get in from a cab stand. Here are the official city rules, within the city’s ring road, if the cab is supposed to arrive within:
5 minutes = €2
10 minutes = €4
more than 10 minutes = €6

No one is jumping up and down for joy about Rome’s cab service. A survey by the Italian Automobile Club revealed that Rome, along with Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Madrid, Prague, and Vienna, has an “unsatisfactory” rating for taxi service, based on factors like cost, respect for speed limits, unnecessary detours, red-light running, and aggressive driving. In fact, in the final rating report, Rome scored second-to-last, above only Ljubljana, Slovakia.

More depressing news is that, although there is an official form (here in English) for complaints, from my own personal experience, as with many bureaucratic things in Rome, it’s next to worthless. I filled out a complaint after having a really bad experience with a dishonest cab driver in Rome in December 2007, when I was nine months pregnant with my son and I had to ask the driver to stop where we were to let us out because he was cheating us and wouldn’t admit it. Nearly TWO AND A HALF YEARS later I received word that my complaint had been registered and the driver would be “reprimanded,” whatever that involves.

As if that weren’t bad enough, as I was writing this, I got tipped off by a Twitter user to this article that reports of a recent investigation revealing that some Roman cab drivers have rigged fare meters to help them earn up to triple what a normally sanctioned day of fares would earn. Apparently there are unscrupulous mechanics who, for €500, will “fix” the meter so that the meter goes much faster than normal, registering €1 for every 300 meters instead of the city-sanctioned 98 cents per 1 kilometer.

But truly, the easiest and cheapest way for cabbies to rip off passengers is simply to use “Tariffa 2″ within the ring road city limits, as opposed to the cheaper and correct Tariffa 1. Or to turn on both and add them together!

This article on Slow Travel is still relevant and helpful, with photos illustrating the points I’ve mentioned.

Happy travels! And remember, not all cab rides are bad! I have some of my best conversations with cab drivers.

I find shopping in my local grocery store an unending source of odd discoveries. First, it was brains. And now, Hello Kitty salad (“limited edition”) for 1 euro? I think the acronym “WTF” was invented specifically for moments of conundrum such as these.

Or how about the flavored Philadelphia Cream Cheese? Tuna or ham, anyone?

There was also salmon once upon a time. I think they just like adding any form of meat to the cream cheese. Perhaps horse meat is next. As my supermarket was offering fresh horse meat hamburger patties the other day. Come to think of it, I didn’t even take a picture. I suppose that means I’m going native, as it doesn’t seem to set off any alarm bells for me any longer. Remember when my mom freaked out about horse meat baby food? Ha! Yes, indeedy. I moved back to the States when Vince was like 6 months old and remember that US Customs was questioning me about the content of the baby food jars. Coniglio? What’s that? Oh, no worries. That’s just your garden variety Peter Rabbit all mushed up in a glass jar.

Oh, stop it! They say it makes babies grow healthy and strong. Right?

Visitors to Rome often wonder where they can go to access free wi-fi. Rome isn’t necessarily set up like places that have a Starbucks culture of the “third place” concept, which can create difficulties for students who need to find places other than home or school to study and work, and for tourists who don’t have a place to access internet in their lodging.

One option that’s available requires an Italian cell phone number and an address, and it doesn’t even have to be a local Rome address. It’s the province of Rome’s free wifi network with over 300 access points throughout the city, and over 800 throughout the entire province of Rome!

Here’s a map to the wifi hotspots in this program.

It’s free and you can register online or at any of the points displaying the sign pictured at the top of this post. The registration form is in Italian. To register go to this page. Then after you fill out the form, you have five minutes in which to use the Italian cell phone number you registered with to call a local Rome number which verifies your cell phone number. After a couple rings and without having to talk to anyone, the system verifies your registration, and then all you have to do is use your cell phone number and password you chose when you registered, and you can access wifi at any of the points with your laptop, smart phone, tablet, etc.

If you are just visiting Rome for a short period and don’t have an Italian cell phone, I have a couple of personal recommendations of cafès in the center where you can sip your cappuccino and surf the web simultaneously: Chiostro del Bramante, Via Arco della Pace 5, and Circus, Via della Vetrina 5.

If anyone knows of any others that they’ve found in their travels through Rome, please share in the comments section!