Day 2. Our first full day to explore the Eternal City. The time had finally come to practice what little Italian I had crammed into my noggin and to take our first foray on the Roman metro lines. We were headed to Sciascia Caffe 1919 in the Prati district for some morning grub. I don’t remember if we had any difficulties getting from Termini Station to the Ottaviano stop on the red line (the Roma Pass works on this line). What I do recall was that it was a Tuesday and the car was packed with commuters on their way to work and the funny-sounding name for ticket in Italian, biglietti.
FUN FACT. You will find many dining establishments/eateries that have the suffix “Da/Dal” followed by a year in their name. This signifies when the business was first established.
“Buongiorno signore, due cappuccini e due cornetto, per favore” I meekly told the man at the cash register. He handed me a receipt to bring to the barista. “Grazie!” I responded, hardly able to contain my excitement.
Nothing. Not a look of astonishment on his face or the batting of a eye. Here was an obviously Asian man speaking passable Italian.
FUN FACT. The Italian word for “thank you” is Grazie (“gruhtz-see-eyh”). Maybe my hearing was going but every time I heard it said it always sounded like “gruhtz-see” with the “eyh” end chopped off. Has Duolingo been steering me wrong this entire time!
TRAVEL TIP: Don’t be embarrassed. Make an honest, heartfelt attempt to use the Italian or French or German you practiced back home. So what if you sound silly or don’t come remotely close to sounding intelligible! The attempt will go much farther than you can imagine.
