Italy-awesome but with issues

[nioh]

Originally Posted by summej2

Just be glad you didn't bring any orange pants. My friends there informed me that they are now quite out of fashion. Red seems to be the new thing.
On the contrary, I've never seen so many orange trousers as I did in Naples just two weeks ago.

 

[amerikajinda]

Originally Posted by kennethpollock

...31 Euros (including the music charge) for a hot chocolate and a Capuccino at the famed Florian at Piazza San Marco.

Music charge!

It's Italy's oldest cafe - dating to 1720!

 

[summej2]

I saw them in Sicily too, but was informed they were no longer the thing in the north (Genova or Milan).

 

[kennethpollock]

Originally Posted by amerikajinda

Music charge!

It's Italy's oldest cafe - dating to 1720!

Yep! 5.70 Euros each for the music, but it was worth it; they played the theme from "Cinema Paradiso."
To get to another subject, I think most members of this forum and AA have a rather low opinion of the quality of most Polo stuff, except for some of the Purple Label (EG, St. Andrews, etc.), but I have never heard it said before that Italians were more into style than into quality and that explains their affection for Polo.
I find nothing wrong with the QUALITY of Kiton, Isaia, Attolini, Borelli, and others. In contrast, I find the STYLE of 99.9% of Italian shoes to be abominable.

 

[kennethpollock]

Originally Posted by epa

I had a lot of cheap and very nice food in Venice this spring. The grilled eel was the best, maybe, and I had it several times. I found food surprisingly cheap, but then I did not go to any "famous" places. Well, I actually entered Harry's Bar, but when I saw what they charged for a tiny Bellini, which is basically sparkling wine and fruit juice, I walked out. I guess that Hemingway would have done the same if he revisited it today; it is probably not his kind of crowd that hangs out there nowadays, anyway.

My Venice meal prices, for two with wine, in Euros (multiply by 1.37 to get dollars):
1. Fiashetteria Toscana (excellent) 133.00
2. Da Fiore (Michelin *-really superb) 250.50
3. Ca Sagredo (dining room in a brand new hotel - fairly good) 149.00
4. Trattoria S. Toma (tourist joint-fair) 78.40
5. Algiubagio (Tuscan steak house-quite good) 139.50
6. Ristorante La Columba (famous, expensive and fairly good) 226.60
7. Centrale Restaurant (where we had the asparagus; very hip and good) 173.60

 

[TheFoo]

Originally Posted by kennethpollock

. . . but I have never heard it said before that Italians were more into style than into quality and that explains their affection for Polo.
I find nothing wrong with the QUALITY of Kiton, Isaia, Attolini, Borelli, and others. In contrast, I find the STYLE of 99.9% of Italian shoes to be abominable.

You don't see all that many Italians running around in Kiton or Attolini. Even Italians that do wear high-end tailored clothing often mix in casual, sporty elements.

Also, I didn't mean to imply that Italians simply don't care about quality. My point was that people on SF and AAAC--myself included--tend to have tougher and more meticulous standards for quality than most. Very stylish people don't necessarily comb over their clothes for loose threads or attempt to calculate the ratio of hand to machine stitches. Hence, a random stylish Italian's threshold for satisfactory quality may be somewhat lower than you'd expect.

In the grand scheme, Polo quality is perfectly adequate. The stuff isn't about to fall apart. The value proposition may not always be that great, and people-in-the-know may be able to point out all sorts of flaws, but that doesn't make a Polo garment low quality in any objective sense.

Anyway, it's not Americans buying all the Polo in Italy. Eddy Monetti and Davide Cenci are absolutely littered with the stuff, and those two places are frequented largely by Italians. So, if you think Polo quality is low, the answer to how much Italians care about quality is right there in front of you.

 

[whnay.]

Originally Posted by kennethpollock

My Venice meal prices, for two with wine, in Euros (multiply by 1.37 to get dollars):
1. Fiashetteria Toscana (excellent) 133.00
2. Da Fiore (Michelin *-really superb) 250.50
3. Ca Sagredo (dining room in a brand new hotel - fairly good) 149.00
4. Trattoria S. Toma (tourist joint-fair) 78.40
5. Algiubagio (Tuscan steak house-quite good) 139.50
6. Ristorante La Columba (famous, expensive and fairly good) 226.60
7. Centrale Restaurant (where we had the asparagus; very hip and good) 173.60

Followed by some darn expensive *****...

 

[kennethpollock]

Originally Posted by FIHTies

Mr. Pollack...Intentional or Ironic Thread Title???

 

[imageWIS]

Originally Posted by FIHTies

Mr. Pollack...Intentional or Ironic Thread Title???

LMFAO.

Jon.

 

[AlanC]

The esteemed Mr. Pollock has asked me to post the following pictures from his Italy trip:

 

[LabelKing]

Those khaki trousers have an unusually nice leg.

 

[epa]

Originally Posted by kennethpollock

My Venice meal prices, for two with wine, in Euros (multiply by 1.37 to get dollars):
1. Fiashetteria Toscana (excellent) 133.00
2. Da Fiore (Michelin *-really superb) 250.50
3. Ca Sagredo (dining room in a brand new hotel - fairly good) 149.00
4. Trattoria S. Toma (tourist joint-fair) 78.40
5. Algiubagio (Tuscan steak house-quite good) 139.50
6. Ristorante La Columba (famous, expensive and fairly good) 226.60
7. Centrale Restaurant (where we had the asparagus; very hip and good) 173.60

It looks reasonable, more or less what you would pay in Madrid. Of course, it depends a lot on the wine. I guess that you did not have any nice Amarone wines, they normally push the price a bit further. It also depends on the number of bottles of wine, of course.
I had excellent tasty meals in Venice for around EUR 30-40 per person, but, of course, with simple wines and at simple places. However, my experience is that things like grilled eel and pasta can taste as well in a quite simple restaurant as in an expensive one.

 

[epa]

Originally Posted by AlanC

The esteemed Mr. Pollock has asked me to post the following pictures from his Italy trip:

I remember that Black Watch shop, I was surprised by the name and I believe to remember that I also was surprised by the mix of things that looked "high-end" (Cesare Attolini?) and "low-end" (Kenneth Cole?).