After more than a decade in Rome, I had the opportunity to observe and reflect on some cultural priorities that really make Rome and the Romans very different for the rest of the world. Coming from an Italian family such as mine, I am well accustomed to the warnings that the accompaniment of certain activities that you may consider absolutely harmless, but for Italians, if you do not lead them, can lead to death! The following are the ideas of some of these “dangerous acts”; drink something with ice, go out with wet hair or get “malokchio” (evil eye) to name a few. Usually I just ignored these superstitions and wrote them down to old stories about novels, especially that I didn’t drink anything with ice ... I mean, how do you expect you to have iced coffee without ice?
A terrible “air battle” that would have been an Italian wrapped in a scarf at the height of summer, for fear of getting a creak on my neck, I used this rather amusing and strange characteristic of the Italians, but now it has become something of a discord. Thanks to global warming and climate change in Rome for many years was one of the warmest Maces, and no one expected the heat that came, as you can imagine that any shops or other commercial enterprises began to use their air conditioning, since I he was also preparing his bikini bod for the summer and began to prepare for the summer season at his local gym.
I know that you think that for Italians it can be very advanced to have air conditioning, but now it is fairly widely available, and not just for rich Americans. When I first moved to Rome, although it was a different story on Lyra’s day, Ac were few and far between, so I survived without her, and I’m sure that again at some stage, but the one thing that I I can not do without a special hot and sweaty gym while you work at FAN! Therefore, intending only to endanger my own life, if you want to believe in the fear of “colo d & aria”, I am going to a secluded corner of the gym to use the machine next to the fan, at this stage no one else was in the area, therefore my work was done under the pleasant wind of the ceiling fan next to me. My sweaty workout was soon stopped by a woman whom I learned from my class of steps, she stepped straight and, without a pause to consider, simply turned off the fan. It’s as if I was determined to be confrontational, so I just got out of the car and went back to the fan to enjoy the rest of my work, that when it all started, and I don’t mean work out!
Paranoid schizophrenic, but otherwise wonderful queen of aerobics: (from here we will call her PSBOLAQ): Sorry, you can not do that!
Me: Oh no? Funny, I don’t remember you asking if it would be normal to turn off the fan before you do it, and seeing how I was here first, maybe you can come back in ten minutes when I do my job, # 39; so worried about that.
PSBOLAQ: Everyone knows that this is harmful! All I need is to get on this car when an explosion of air gets on my neck and I will take two weeks with bronchitis!
I: (I try to be good) No, of course, you don’t need it, but I walked up to this abandoned corner, so you and other people here would not have to take this deadly risk
PSBOLAQ: Yes, naturally, I cannot stay on the same machine all morning, and not in my gymnastics, I need to use all the different types of machines!
ME: Yes, I understand your need for the perfect gym, you just have to put up with a fan if you want to use the machine next to it. I have been practicing with a fan for about 15 years, and I do not know that I am still alive to tell a story!
PSBOLAQ had enough ... before I found out that she left to find a gym manager to report my attempted massacre, exposing the gym with a little fresh air that the ceiling fan could create. To think that 2 adult women couldn’t figure out the problem that the fan still annoys me, anyway, back to the story, the manager explicitly binds to avoid all the cats in his sporting experience to calm both of us and decided the fan the lowest level, thereby finding a happy compromise. So back to our work, and we promised that after 10 minutes I left the area. On the way, I saw PSBOLAQ break away from my step to turn off the fan before any other crazy man was crazy. tried to kill her with fresh air! I still do not understand why they have fans, if we are not allowed to use them without having such a hassle!
While this scene was unfolding in the gym, I tried to scan the room to see how other Italians reacted to it (Italians seem to like to participate when there is a “situation”). What I saw was a whole series of reactions ... a few nice smiles, a few pretending not to listen, and some looked at me as if I were crazy.
My question is that if modern science has taught us something, we know that the cold and flu are transmitted by spreading a virus or bacteria. Why then do people still insist that they ride the magic carpet from a gust of air? It will be a long and very hot summer in this gym ...
