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Italians Love Receipts
I'm just back from Rome, where I had an incredible time and will post more on it soon. But in the interim, I feel the need to tell you: Italians love receipts.
Italians give you receipts for everything, and when I try to refuse them, they are suprised. When I was on the train and ordered a three Euro sandwich, they gave me a receipt. When I went to the 99 cent store to get a bottle of water, they gave me a receipt. What's even sillier is the receipts are often void of the important information... such as what you bought. They just give the name of the establishment, its address, and how much money you spent.
As if I need a reminder of how much money I'm spending.
Posted in on October 02, 2005, 07:04 AM | Permalink
Comments
Ciao Scott!
I lived in Florence for nearly a year and experienced evey single day the same as you did. The reason I was given -it sounds stupid to me so it would be interesting to find out why they really emphasize so much on giving/keeping receipts- was to avoid missunderstanding. What sort of missunderstanding, you will ask. The stupid one that proves that you did in fact buy the bottle of water in the 99 cents shop rather than stealing it. I have to say no one ever waited for me outside the shops to ask me perfavore to open my handbag and show my receipt (of course if I would have refused to do so it would have meant that I was stealing the can, chewing gums or whatever you can hide in your pockets - I don't think they'd bother too much if you went and buy a fridge-freezer). What about the minute I would cut the first corner? Or the day after? Would someone ever approach me and ask me "Excuse me signorina, that Gucci watch you're wearing... could I please see the receipt?". I would naturally answer "Lo siento, no comprendo italiano". And if that wouldn't work (everyone thinks Italian and Spanish are the same language but with different pronunciation) I would then say something like "I forgot my folder for receipts slash accessories slash 2003 at home. Me dispiace"
This whole thing of the receipts intrigues me you know... I'll have a look around and let you know if I find a more sensible answer.
A presto!
Posted by: Rebeca at August 6, 2006 06:31 PM
