12 August 2007

People Watching

If you've flown BA recently you'll know that instead of the mini complete meals they used to give out, they now give sandwiches out - at least this is what happens on the Italy-England routes. I don't mind the sandwiches but I miss dessert. Anyway, on these flights I pass some time on by trying to figure out where people come from, what's their story etc. It can be difficult, especially when the parents have a bilingual kid. Last week I realised a near fool proof way of identifying if someone is Italian or English at least. It's easy, you see Italians hold their sandwiches in a paper napkin whilst they eat it so that they don't touch it with their hands. The English have a more hands on approach and eat it with their bare hands. I'm not sure what other nationalities do. Being a Brit who has lived in Italy for years, I'm in a bit of a confused state and forget what I'm supposed to do so I eat it half using the napkin and half without.

6 comments:

Roam2Rome said...

Really? that's interesting!

See, now when I'm in Italy I'm going to be staring at people eating their sandwiches, wondering if your theory is true! :) Hehe...

Ofcourse, expats must eat theirs half and half!!! :)

Gil said...

We try to figure out what is in the food the airlines serve!

Delina said...

It's all true Farfallina!

Gil, that is another good pass time too.

Michelle | Bleeding Espresso said...

It's absolutely true about the Italians, and I can't speak for all Americans, but this one goes sans napkin--and still gets strange looks from Italians ;)

Anonymous said...

I noticed that while in the US after my Italian husband and his Italian friend went to Subway and ordered sandwiches. Eating a sandwich without a napkin may draw stares in Italy but the opposite is certainly not true. I think I was the only one in the subway store who noticed and nobody cared.

Catie Cara said...

Oh so right. Holding your sandwich in a napkin whilst you eat it is definitely up there with all those other absolutely must do things if you want to try to disguise your foreigness in Italy. It's up there with only eating pasta with a fork, never drinking cappuccino later than breakfast, etc. etc. Ciao, Catie Cara