I just had a grand time in Italy but I had 3 separate incidents with line-cutters.
I was at le Gole d'Alcantara, a magnificent gorge in Sicily waiting in line at a nearby gift shop to buy a waterproof camera. Suddenly this 50-ish woman moves her arse right in front of me to buy a Coke. I say to her politely in Italian, that I'm next in line and she'll have to wait and she gives me a look like she doesn't understand. I repeated it in English this time and she said "Oh, Okay, no problem no problem" in a very sarcastic way, as if I was the one who had done something wrong. I just said, "You're right it's no problem. You get in line, you wait your turn, and you get served when your turn comes up. It's quite simple actually."
Then in Rome I'm in the queue to go into the Vatican Museum and suddenly this woman starts walking past me again; I say to her politely, "Excuse me, you're cutting the line." She replies in English (again an American), "I'm just following my tour guide." So I say, "Then your tour guide is cutting the line." Once I see who the "tour guide" is (who is really just another tourist trying to cut in line), I say to him, "Please get in the line like the rest of us." He says to me quietly, "Follow me buddy, I'll get you inside in no time." I say, "No thanks, the line isn't that long and I really don't mind waiting like everyone else has to. Get back behind me."
Then the worst incident. I'm in a very very long queue to get into St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. I've already been in line over 30 minutes and getting closer to the front. Suddenly I notice a group of people cutting into the line, trying to basically walk past all of us in the queue. Again nobody says a thing until I speak up. "Oh, we're not going into the church," is their reply. So I say, "In that case, you're going the wrong direction because this leads directly to the church." Then their story changes: "We're part of a tour group and we're meeting our tour operator." "Sorry folks, nice try but get to the back of the line." Finally after a bit more back and forth they get behind me in the line (but not to the back). Again this is a group of Americans (about 7 or 8 of them). I'm astonished at their arrogance. So I say (rather loudly) to my partner, "I'm amazed at the gall of some people, that they think that they are entitled to just behave as if they are above everyone else and they will walk right past hundreds of people who have waited patiently... and to do this at the home of the Catholic Church no less." This of course riles them up, and they start arguing with me, "What do you care, we're behind you!" "Yeah, but you tried to get in front of me, and also you are still cutting line in front of all these people who have waited, so just get to the end of the line like you should do!" Names start being called toward me and they are getting increasingly aggressive. So I call on others in the line that they are in front of (mostly Russians coincidentally) and once I explained to them in slow English what these idiots had done, they join me and finally the group of a-holes move back 20 or 30 feet (though they still didn't go to the end of the line). I hope at least I humiliated them a bit.
What is wrong with people?
Cutters & Butters
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Re: Cutters & Butters
I don't know, but I have to say that when I was in Europe I definitely understood what the term "Ugly American" means. Personally I felt like a guest in someone elses house and bent over backwards to smile and be polite, but apparently others felt that they could tackle that uneasy feeling you get in a foreign land with more aggression.
- clement
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Re: Cutters & Butters
I came very close to using that term with the last group. But I also was very aware that the situation was escalating and I was outnumbered. Calling them that would have just raised tempers further and I don't think it would have been good for a brawl to break out in front of St. Peter's Basilica. We would have given new meaning to the term "ugly Americans".jim wrote:I don't know, but I have to say that when I was in Europe I definitely understood what the term "Ugly American" means.
- JL21
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Re: Cutters & Butters
Are you kidding me? That would've been hilarious!*clement wrote: I don't think it would have been good for a brawl to break out in front of St. Peter's Basilica.
*on a TV show. Not in real life, I guess.
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Re: Cutters & Butters
glad you stepped up
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Re: Cutters & Butters
I don't know. We had line cutting by Europeans the whole time we were over there, and we had been warned about it before we went. The most obnoxious was this older French woman at the Pompidou who first stood beside us and then kept wedging her bag further and further in front of us. Finally we said something and she kind of grumbled and moved back.
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Re: Cutters & Butters
Way to stand up for the common man, Clement.
Although as I was reading your story, this came to mind...
Although as I was reading your story, this came to mind...