If you ever feel like,
you need to be put back in your place, too much spring in your step in need of
straightening up, try an Italian tool shop, the ones that sell the good stuff
though.
I was out to get tools
and equipment, and needed to stock up, so I went to a well-known ironmonger,
well let’s just give it away here, it was Gianola in Avenza, Carrara.
And here is their
website: http://www.gianola.it/storia.htm
I have the suspicion
that this shop is either a money laundering scheme or, what is more possible, a
bunch of wealthy Italian men pretending, Marie Antoinette like, to run a proper
tool shop, and getting a thrill out of stocking some fine machinery, and then
not selling it.
I was standing with my
selected goods, happy to depart with my hard earned cash.
On the till, one guy was
counting bolts and put them into cardboard boxes, which he then elaborately
sealed with masking tape, occasionally giving me a glance only to return to his
more important work.
Another guy was talking
to some curvy blond Italian girl, and 3 senior guys hushed around in the
backroom, glancing across the till and looking incredibly busy.
They also make you draw
this little paper numbers one gets on meat tills, only for the number never to
move past number one.
In the quarter of an
hour I patiently waited, nobody was served or, good forbid, exchanged something
as frivolous as money for their beautiful selection of ironmongery.
My heel squeaked as I
turned to leave the shop empty-handed.
And the hose, I go it
elsewhere, they were just plain rude, but it almost felt like at Fortnum and
Masons…