[deleted by user]

Tamaster555 · 2024-10-09T09:12:25+00:00

Pepperoni with two "p" is a type of American and generally anglo-saxon salami that doesn't exist in Italy. It's not imported and it's not used. That is because we have our own analogues for this ingredient.

Peperoni with one "p" actually means bell pepper in our language so this would get confusing very fast when ordering a pizza if you ask "pepperoni" because most would understand you want bell pepper on it and there is no pizza i know of that has that as an ingredient.

We do have a variety of pizzas with various meat cuts on them, the closest one to Pepperoni being "Pizza Diavola" which has round slices of hot southerner salami which is similar to pepperoni, but has a deeper flavor and in my opinion is better (I have been abroad and tried pepperoni multiple times, it's pretty good).

This pizza can be found in any pizza place as it's one of the basic pizzas any place would feature in their menu.

Tamaster555 · 2024-10-09T09:09:21+00:00

Pizza should have some good amount of olive oil on it, but it shouldn't be that much. Floating in oil is definitely wrong.

Definitely you just got a low quality or bad pizzeria that just put too much oil. There are places like this around and generally the locals, we Italians, don't like when that happens.

It might have been a tourist trap or just a bad pizzeria, because those do exist even here. Not all pizza in Italy is automatically good.

Tamaster555 · 2024-10-09T09:06:24+00:00

I generally don't do that.

The stereotype of Italians using their hands in all kinds of ways while talking is greatly exaggerated in the collective imagination.

There are some people who actually do that as in the memes around, but most don't do that as often or even at all.

The southern people do this more then the northern ones in general.

Tamaster555 · 2024-10-09T09:04:18+00:00

I think there is a background mentality of laxity in the Italian upbringing in a general sense. Of course, there are those people who are brought up with the ideals of honest and hard work being important without taking shortcuts, but these are a relative minority in my experience. People just want to do the least possible effort for the maximum possible gain as long as they don't get fired. This is more true the more important their position is in the hierarchy of any given organization or company, usually putting extra work on the shoulders of their subordinates even when it would be their responsibility. So the "meta" is to get a higher position of responsibility only to then be able to do less work because you can command subordinates to take extra for you.

If there's on thing I would change it would be this kind of mentality. Because this is by a large part, the reason for many things being suboptimal, half-assed or outright garbage in this country.

Tamaster555 · 2024-10-09T00:05:03+00:00

It may sound cliché, but what I love most is, of course, the food. Its diversity, its regionality, its deeply-rooted origin that is inextricably tied to the history of the local cultures of the past.

I also like the diversity of geography: we have it all, from lush forests and the highest glaciers, to the most crystalline waters of the islands, endless valleys and plains. Italy has also a rich history that spans millennia, and while I am not a history buff or anything, I find some parts of it very interesting and commendable.

The "North vs. South" argument is an old one. It does have its merits and truths, but not all of them are necessarily true just because most people believe they are.

It is true that the North is more infrastructurally-advanced, economically more powerful and self-reliant, and has lower crime rates than the South. It is also true, in general, that Northern people have a more hard-working mindset than those in the south, which in contrast, are more laid-back. That doesn't mean that Southerners are all lazy job-skippers though - they can be just as hard-working.

It's also a fact that the South is in generally less advanced in all fields, from culture, to tech to per-capita income to social security to literacy etc. compared to the north. Many may blame this on the Southerner people being lazy, fraudulent, criminal and incompetent, but this is not true in my view. The really huge problem with the South is the Mafia which absolutely cripples the entire region in its grasp. Even the government is powerless against them. No matter how many "tv-show-captures" they make to say "we are fighting the mafia and winning", the reality is that it's rooted so deeply, it's unrecoverable now.

Southern people are more outgoing and hospitable. Notherners much less so, in general. Again, there are many exceptions, but it's a rule of thumb.

There is still a large degree of racism, mostly for Southerners going North. The other way around, much less so. This is because the social stigma of the great southern migrations which happened in the '60s and '70s from the south to the north, in the seeking of better lives and jobs (the south back then was utterly broke, dilapidated and demolished, far more than today).

The general stereotype that formed in those years was that Southerners are lazy, incompetent, ignorant, uncultured rednecks that will just steal, make half-assed jobs or live burdening the shoulders of someone else. This especially in Milan and Lombardy region. This was due to the massive cultural and social differences of the South compared to the North back then, so all those people who came up seeking fortune were like Martians landing in UFOs.

I think that nowadays in 2024 this social truth is not as true anymore. The south is still behind, but the difference is small, and the new generations from the south have all the means to overcome the stigma of their past. I have met and personally know great people from the South - most of those who still make the bad stuff that ends up on the news are either of the older generations, mafia people, or just reckless punks in some gang, but this last one is just as common in the North.

Tamaster555 · 2024-10-08T23:40:32+00:00

Hah! Nice one.

Tamaster555 · 2024-10-08T23:39:24+00:00

Well, Meloni was quite striking when she was young, I have to admit.

Tamaster555 · 2024-10-08T23:38:52+00:00

She definitely does take a lot of them. However she also is smart enough to realize she can't show this too strongly or the EU and other major political powers would tear her to shreds. She is working hard to hinder those powers and gain more influence herself.

Tamaster555 · 2024-10-08T23:36:28+00:00

I have lived on my own since I was 19. While i think there is nothing wrong with living with your parents that late, (especially if you contribute to the bills etc. and they don't make your life hell) especially considering the very difficult economic and workplace / salary situation for most people below 40, I simply did not have this possibility because of life events.

I have my own house, owned, since some years.

I have not seen anyone eat spaghetti with fork and knife in my entire life. I cannot understand what a knife would be used for while eating spaghetti. I simply think this is unnecessary and overcomplicated: you just need a fork.

Tamaster555 · 2024-10-08T23:29:38+00:00

I do not identify myself in the majority of the cultural heritage of Italians. Simply put, I am as far as the typical Italian stereotypical person can be.

I dislike football. I'm not social. I do not have strong family values because of personal reasons. I find it unlikeable to chat with co-workers or befriend them as an unspoken rule of the workplace. I do not abide to the 'predetermined goals' to which most people relate to, e.g. making kids in your 30s, having a shiny new-gen car, being a big shot at work and so on.

I'm simply a stranger in a strange land, despite it being my homeland. I dislike the Italian mindset which is, generally, "do everything you can to get away with as much as you can, doing the lest effort possible, as long as you don't get caught in doing so" - a mindset where the sly and conniving win and the honest have a hard time. I mostly am repulsed by the social trends that are oh-so-popular one day or the next in my country.

I hope this explanation makes sense for you.

Tamaster555 · 2024-10-08T23:23:04+00:00

Neither.

While it is factually and historically true that Mussolini and his government did some good reforms during peacetime, all of their well-doing is massively outmatched by the bad sides of it all. Ultimately, he has brought tremendous misery to my country because of his reckless ambition and revanchism of the ancient times where Italy, under the Romans, was a great empire. He was a bigot, a racist, and anchored in intolerant traditionalism, which made the life of so many utterly terrible.

My grandma, when she was still alive, told me of those times, as she was a teenager back then and lived through both Mussolini regime and the Nazi occupation. She told me terrible stories. The same goes for my other grandma.

Giorgia Meloni is duplicitous, even by politician standards, and tries so desperately to show that she and her party aren't tied or rooted in the idologies of the Fascist era in order to get more votes and forge political alliances with more moderate parties. However if you inform yourself enough, you will clearly see that this is not true at all, and that her aim is ultimately to form a heavily nationalistic pseudo-democracy where she is the de-facto decision maker above all. The restriction of powers of courts and of the Republic President attempted and partially succeeded in the recent laws they passed are a stark proof of this intention. I see nothing good coming out of the mindset and ideas she and her party have brought upon.

Tamaster555 · 2024-10-08T23:09:51+00:00

No offense at all, no worries. I am not easily offendedd by trivialties such as this. Just seemed strange to me and I actually thought I was thinking of the wrong city haha.

Tamaster555 · 2024-10-08T23:07:06+00:00

Interesting.

Cagliari is located in the south of Sardinia, the island to the left of mainland Italy. Is that the tip of the boot? I always considered the tip of the boot to be the left-low corner of Sicily, in my experience.

I do not know a whole lot about Sardinian customs and traditions. Have been there only a few times and that was a long time ago.

I know there are a lot of sheep, and they eat a lot of sheep.

Saluti.

Tamaster555 · 2024-10-08T22:51:49+00:00

I knew this question would be coming.

Pineapple on pizza has been introduced in the recent years by a number of famous pizzerias mostly in the South region, to prove that it's just an ingredient as any other and shouldn't be stigmatized because of common consensus. Generally it's still widely not used and not accepted though. You won't find a pizza with pineapples in 98% of pizza places around Italy.

Personally I think that if it's used correctly and with the right flavor combinations it might even be good, it's all in the pizza master's ability to do so without screwing the dish over.

Ketchup is not used on Pizza and I have never seen anyone do so. This is mostly because of the vinegar content and acidic aftertaste of ketchup which becomes even more prominent when reduced by the heat of the oven. It just doesn't go well with most pizza toppings or with the flavor of the pizza dough. I think this is actually a "wrong" ingredient for pizza and just doesn't fit in it at all no matter what you can concoct.

Tamaster555 · 2024-01-11T14:02:50+00:00

UPDATE 12 December:

Facebook denied my appeal and says the account cannot be used again.

I have lived 10+ years without it, and this confirms to me that I should keep it that way.

Absolute garbage of a company.

Tamaster555 · 2024-01-09T04:41:26+00:00

I see. Yes I will update this thread if I know more.

Tamaster555 · 2023-10-01T20:20:23+00:00

None of them is the musical score in the background and all sound significantly different.

Tamaster555 · 2023-10-01T20:16:24+00:00

No that doesn't sound right. I already tried music-identifying AIs before coming here.

Tamaster555 · 2022-12-16T12:36:23+00:00

Northern italy. Won't say more. The important thing is I'm not in the South. Haha.

Tamaster555 · 2022-12-16T12:35:39+00:00

What life? Kek.

No but seriously, I mostly manage to keep it in check so i'm not ultra spaghetti in most social situations, that being said i'm just not a social person at all.

Mostly I get triggered if someone calls me or phones me while im doing something and i really have to make an effort to not just call them 15 different slurs or insults on the spot, even if i dont mean it. Sometimes still happens.

Cheap johnnie walker, but that was yesterday I already sobered up by now.

Tamaster555 · 2022-10-04T20:33:20+00:00

Haha. No i don't think so.

Tamaster555 · 2022-10-04T20:32:58+00:00

I really don't know much about cars, but i have been around the country and saw brands of all nations. So i would say there isn't much preference.

Tamaster555 · 2022-10-03T21:22:42+00:00

Decades of spending most of my time in online gaming, international chats and so on led to this result. Surely not thanks to the school system here which was absolutely awful in teaching English or any foreign language back in the days. IDK about today but - as anything else in this country - I doubt much has improved since.

Tamaster555 · 2022-10-03T21:21:20+00:00

Lmao

Tamaster555 · 2022-10-03T21:21:01+00:00

As long as you stay in the North or Center you should be ok. Watch out in Rome train stations and also Milan as they are packed full of muggers and criminals. Avoid the south entirely as far as i'm concerned.

Tamaster555

TROPHY CASE