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Location: San Francisco, Northern Cali

GYPSY: (noun) One inclined to a nomadic, unconventional way of life. The first time I traveled alone I was 4. My mom pinned a note to my dress then put me on a plane from Atlanta to L.A. to visit my dad for the summer. That must have marked the beginning of my insatiable wanderlust because I can't seem to get enough of running away from home. In the mean time, I've spent my life between a career in the media and years in the hospitality industry. My independence has kept me single but that's a part of life when your first love is travel. I've been robbed in Australia and slept on a park bench in Amsterdam, but at the end of the day, I was on the road and that's where I'm most at home.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Vino Italiano

Today, I am doing something I haven't done for quite some time. Literally. It could be at least 12 years, since I studied for an exam and if memory serves it was to be a Notary Public. Wow, and I say this with absolute glee...TIMES HAVE CHANGED! Whew...


As reported in a previous blog entry, I am now working at a trendy Italian wine bar in the Marina named Ottimista. As would be expected, I am charged with having a decent grasp of Italian wine. I need to start by saying that I do have a decent grasp of wine and convinced the owners during the interview that whatever I didn't know I would learn. After all, I have been in the business for most of my life, and how much more difficult could Italian wine be from Californian or French?



I'll tell you.



California has around 60 grape varietals, which means there are grapes then sub-species of grapes and so on. France has around 90. Italy, in all her glory, has around 1000. Mille. I was handed a 500 page book called "Vino Italiano" and asked to study, get to know, browse and memorize its contents so that I may have a better grasp of the regional wines of Italy. How the hell I intend to pull this off, I have no clue. But, I have been studying day and night and hopefully at some point this is going to sink in. Lombardia, Luguria, Veneto, Alto Adige... yada yada. Ironically, the clientele at Ottimista, by and large, couldn't care less about the varietals, regions, climates or even the price of the wines. They want to know if it's sweet, dry, red or white. In fact, a sexy wine glass full of cranberry juice with a new Prada hand-bag and a Marina girl is ready for action!

So, I have been playing the studious one all week, making notes, flashcards and coming up with all kinds of word-association tricks to memorize this stuff and at the end of the day, if I blow the exam, at least I'm developing a new skill set. I know that I have done my best and that my guests appreciate me. Mostly, it reminds me how much I love to read, learn and act a lot more clever than I really am! Now when I go for that next job interview, I can actually fake my way through with proper jargon instead of faking foreign words with a decent accent.

posted by the gypsy girl | 9:36 AM

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