Earlier this week I went to the little grocery store in the village. It was closed, and I found this sign on the door (in Italian and Slovenian): Closed for vacation from February 26-March 5, 2007.The small shops in the villages and the city are almost always run by families. There are no managers or assistant managers, and no name tags that read: "Mario: Sales Associate of the Month." Smaller grocery stores are usually closed all day Sunday, and Monday and Wednesday afternoons, so those are the family's days off. And at least once per year (usually in August), they literally close up shop and take off somewhere.
I'll have to scout out my favorite sign of all and take a picture for you--the "I'll be back in five minutes" sign. You see this sign in a shop window during business hours, and it means the shop owner has gone for a coffee. They literally lock the door, put out the sign, and walk to the nearest bar for a cappuccino.
So what if you, the customer, find the "back-in-five-minutes" sign right when you really need to buy something exactly at that moment? Well, you'll just have to wait. Or, better yet, go get a coffee and come back in five minutes...
4 comments:
I couldn't read the second line of that sign...so it was good to learn it was in Slovenian. No wonder.
And I'd like to add to the five minute sign that the Italian's interpretation of 5 minutes is often waaay longer than ours! :)
Tina
Ha! You're right about that, Tina...5 Italian minutes roughly equate to 15-20 American minutes!
The sign reads March 5, 2007
Thanks for setting me straight, anonymous...you'd think after so many years in Italy I'd get those backwards dates straight! I'll go up and change it in the post.
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