In late June, our family went to Florence. Midsummer heat had not covered the city with a heavy hot and humid blanket yet, but we could feel it creeping around the corner, coming soon. We spent a couple of nights in a hotel, converted from an old residential building. In our room there was an awesome painting on the ceiling. You could lay on the bed, stare up and feel like you are in the museum or in some king’s palace!
Still pretty much jet lagged, we slept long and went out for breakfast/lunch closer to midday. There was a small pizzeria just around the corner. We went inside and after the proper greetings I said to the man behind the counter: 'We'd like some mushroom pizza and pizza Margherita, please!'
He nodded his head few times and said: 'It's a very hot day today!'
'Yes', I said, 'it's quite hot indeed. And next week it’s going be even hotter. Now we'd like some pizza...'
'Today it's quite hot outside', joined our conversation another waiter.
'Yes, lots of sunshine', I agreed, thinking that maybe in Florence in order to be polite you should talk about the weather before ordering a pizza. I did not mind, since in my Italian textbook the weather section was well covered and I could easily talk for awhile about rain, wind, snow, fog and so on… Meanwhile my boys had already read the menu and decided which pizza they want. We were all hungry, so I pushed to the point: 'We'd like to get some pizza...' An old man appeared behind the counter, cleared his throat and declared: 'It's very hot day!' We began giggling nervously. It felt like one of those endless dreams that keeps going around in circles. 'We do not bake pizza in summer!' - he continued. 'Too hot in the kitchen. We can offer you some sandwiches.'
Their sandwiches were delicious, indeed. But since then, every time we talk about ordering pizza, someone in the family says: 'It's a very hot day today!'.
