The Thunderbolt

In Ep.8 of RideShare RoadTalk your host (and driver) quickly falls in love with an Italian business woman after 5 minutes of talking about Italian food, culture, and visiting the Motherland...Andiamo a guidare!

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:55 Oh Caserta!
• 2:06 Food
• 3:43 Amalfi Is Too Crowded
• 4:37 DC Life
• 6:46 ExPat Greece
• 7:48 Ciao Bella!

Transcript

Welcome to another episode of RideShare RoadTalk, conversations in Motion, a podcast where we create unfiltered talk space that examines the meaningful lives of my passengers while engaging in personal and topical discussions. I'm your host and driver, John Foundas. And we're cruising the streets of Washington dc Buckle up. Let's drive. How's your weekend so far? 

Good. Today was such a sunny day. How about yours? Yeah, 

It was okay. Windy as heck out. 

Windy, right? Really, really windy. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. 

Are you from DC? 

Well, no. I'm Italian, but I've been living here for a long time. 

Very nice. Part of my family's from Naples. 

Oh, that's nice. From 

Cato. 

Oh, Caserta. Yes, of course. 

I unfortunately, I've never been. 

Oh, 

You should. It breaks my heart that I've 

Not been No, you should. You only have time. 

Yeah, and my father's family was from Greece. 

Oh, nice. 

Yeah. 

Nice mixer. 

I know. And then my wife is Egyptian. 

Interesting. 

Our kids. 

Interesting. Our kids are beautiful. I like that. 

So how long have you been here in dc? 

Six years and a half. 

Oh, wow. Okay. 

Yeah, it's been 

And where's your family from in Italy? 

Well, we're from in north of Italy, so nice. Verona, which is between kind of Milan and Beep. 

Okay. So not in the mountains, but up 

That almost. Yeah. Not Corina, the North, not Cortina. Yeah, but closer than Naples. Let's put it this way. 

Yeah. Even though I haven't been, I find it fascinating how the food changes by 

Region so much. So much, so much 

Up north, less reds and more escape. Not traditional pasta, but nochi. 

Oh, yeah, Nochi. Yeah. So many, many, yeah. 

More so in the north than south, 

A hundred percent. But I feel like, again, you drive two hours, you changed region, and the food is, I mean, not completely different, but substantially different. 

Yeah. That must be beautiful. 

Yeah. 

I tried to plan a trip like nine months ago. For whatever reason, it didn't work out. 

It's okay. I mean, again, there's always time and Italy is going to stay the same. So 

This person's, I don't know where she's running. 

Oh my God. What is she doing? 

I don't know. But she was, 

Why is she doing? Oh my God. That's crazy. Because I almost moved to that building. 

Oh yeah, 

Yeah, almost. And then I picked that one, but that would've been funny if she was my neighbor. 

So you have lots of family back home. 

Yeah, yeah, 

Yeah. You go back often, super often. That's good. That's good. 

Yeah. Yeah. 

And what do you do here for work? 

I'm in consulting. I do international tax consulting. 

Oh, okay. 

Yeah. Stuff with numbers. 

You're a numbers girl. 

Yeah, 

Me. I'm not so good with numbers. 

Me, to be honest. About three bills. So 

Just enough to make a living. Right. 

Just enough to make a living. 

Okay. Back to the Italy conversation. The one thing I found, it's like Positano, Amalfi, it's beautiful, right? 

But 

It's, it's so crowded now. 

Oh yeah. 

It's almost like, I think I'd rather go in December or November. 

There's certain times, especially in August, July, in which year really doesn't make sense to go, because I mean, it's not enjoyable so many people as a carnage, but at the same time, if you go in June or in September, you have a completely different experience. So that's also good. But at the same time, I mean Italy, the whole Europe kind of shuts down in August, so everybody's on vacation. So prices are really, really high. Beaches are extremely crowded, and I mean, it's not always a really enjoyable time. 

You said you had dinner plans? 

Yeah. It's the birthday of a friend of ours. Oh, 

That's nice. 

Yeah. 

Like house party, you going out to eat? 

No, it's a house they have a really nice house in. That's good. Capitol Hill, they love to host them. So 

Yeah. Where do you like going out around town? 

Here and there. I mean, I don't go crazy out, but I mean, I like to find new restaurants and I think especially lately, this has been upgrading. Georgetown is nice for branch. I like 14th Street to a certain extent. It depends. Also, I mean, I live in Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon has a ton, too. Ton to offer, to be honest. 

The union market's an interesting area 

Union market. Yeah. It is pretty new. And they place a ton of new things in there. They're really trying to push in 

St. Anselm looks nice. And what's the other one? The Mexican place. El pte. 

Yeah. They just opened one Italian. No, a French one, but it's run by Italian. 

Wait, it's French, but it's run by Italians. 

Yeah, super 

Common. There's a joke there somewhere. 

Oh, I know. There's a joke somewhere. I know. And it's called Minia Tavern, and he's really, really, really good. Yeah. 

Yeah. I actually met a young lady that works upstairs. 

Yeah, the upstairs is nice. 

In the cocktail 

Bar. Yeah, 

She was very sweet. 

Yeah, it's kind of very new. Yorkish a little bit, but I think for the C standards, it's really pretty market. I mean, they're really pushing it really, really hard. I mean, if you remember, how was it a few years ago? It was pretty different. 

Yeah, it was. Have you spent much time in New York? 

Few. A few, yeah. 

Definitely. I get that area almost has a smaller meat packing district kind of vibe to 

It. Oh yeah. 

Its very edgy. 

Yeah. 

And it works. It certainly works. Just hearing your accent makes me want to go to Italy. Oh, you 

Should. Absolutely. And plus I have such a funky accent. I mean, I don't think I have a proper Italian accent. 

No, you do. Your voice is very deep. 

Thank 

You. 

No, you should. 

Yeah, I will. Quality 

Of life in Italy is really high. I mean, obviously you're in the US for the bride. Yeah, 

I'm over it. I think I can qualify for dual citizenship with Greece. With Greece and Italy. But I have all my father's paperwork, but I have nothing. 

Greece is such a simple life, but good, simple life now, 

But I have nothing for Italy. I'd have to probably go to the church and find a family name 

And then 

That would probably be very labor intensive to do that. Gosh, if I lived in Italy, oh my God, I'd probably weigh 500 pounds. 

No, because I mean, you walk a lot. 

It's 

Good. 

Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm to go visit now, so I appreciate you. I appreciate the conversation for sure. And Alia's got nice direct flights, right? From Dallas? 

Yeah, yeah. No, a hundred percent. I mean especially even from DC. You can do DC Rome 

From DCA? Yeah. Yeah. 

Like DCA or Thomas one. 

Okay. Okay. Thank 

Here 

So, so much. It was very nice meeting you. I 

Know. Same. 

Enjoy your evening. 

See now it's going to take me a second too. 

Oh boy. 

Repeat. Okay. 

No, no, 

Thank you. He's going to take me a second to get down. 

That's so funny. Have a good night, cia. We can touch out. Wow, Marron. Sorry, honey.