Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Due espressi doppi

No, it's not Snow White speaking to one of the dwarves, it's how you order two double expressos in Italy. They have to be doubles because Italian coffees are served in thimble-size cups, and if you want the coffee to cover the bottom of the thimble you have to ask for a doppio. If you want normal size 'gnat's piss' coffee, you either say Americano or whatever is Italian for 'Can you please direct me to the nearest Starbucks'. In England, the drink of preference for truck-drivers is a pint mug of tea with lots of milk and eight sugars, so when Brits see a couple of burly Italian truckies belly up to the bar and order, drink and pay for their thimbles-full of coffee in one nanosecond, they're reminded of that scene where Bob Hope slouches into a western bar, pushes cowering customers out of the way, and orders a glass of milk. As they look on in astonishment, he adds 'In a dirty glass'.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have been known to drink tea with lots of sugar and milk. Does that make me an Italian truck driver?

Tuscan Traveller said...

Not quite - but make it a pint and you'll qualify as a Brit one.
OK, we'll accept two out of three.

Anonymous said...

This doesn't mean I am exempt from the Road Use Tax or whatever they call it you have to pay every time you drive a car into London, does it?
Dangit.

Tuscan Traveller said...

Sorry, unless your car has CD plates, you have to pay the 'Congestion charge' - tho 'road use tax' is a more meaningful term. But Red Ken, the Mayor, won't call it a tax because diplomats don't have to pay taxes, so he calls it a charge. (Wife and I went to a hospital in London last week and duly paid the $12 charge - or tax - but hospital was half a mile OUTSIDE the Congestion area! Paying online easy - getting money back impossible!)