Le Cose Italiane Certamente

A running list, in no order, of Italian things I will defend without a lawyer.

• The standing coffee, taken at the bar, paid for after, gone in ninety seconds.
• Aperitivo as an agreement between a city and its evening.
• The refusal to put cream in a carbonara, and the willingness to argue about it.
• Vermouth from Torino, cold, before dinner, for no reason except that it is time.
• Arcades that let you walk a whole city in the rain and stay dry.
• The pause between courses that is not slow service but the correct pace of a meal.
• Wine that tastes like the place it came from and not like a competition.
• The word certamente, which means yes but with a small bow.
• Grandmothers who cook by weight and feel and would fail a written exam on it spectacularly.
• The idea that doing an ordinary thing beautifully is not extra. It is the whole point.