Strolling down the idyllic streets of Orvieto, we came upon the most beautiful of little shops selling Anise candies. Anxious for just one or two, we went inside and met the nicest girl whose family owned the shop. As we expressed our interest in some candy, she promptly brought out delicious homemade anise cookies for us to sample, plus samples of her father’s home-made Anisette which they sell to area restaurants. So impressed were we by the Anisette (not to mention the almond liqueur samples, the anise candy samples, the chocolate samples and the many shots of the various grappas her father makes in the bathtub or something), we were perfectly inclined to make a reckless decision: "Let's get a bottle of Anisette and ship it home!" We bought it along with a cube of marzipan, some amaretto cookies, and a pound of sugared anise cookies. We promptly brought it back to our hotel for shipment at the local Mailboxes Etc. in the morning... what could go wrong?
As we woke early to ship before catching our train to Assisi, we traipsed down to MBE to enquire about shipping. “Is it alcohol?” the clerk asked. “Yes it is Anisette.” we said excitedly. “I can only ship in quantities of 6, 12, 24, 48, etc.” “You can’t ship a single bottle?” “No. Your government won’t allow it. FDA.”
Unsure as to the logic of this particular practice, but more confused as to why someone would lie about such a silly rule ("is he joking?"), we were faced with a traumatic decision. We didn't have time to get a "second opinion" from the local post office. Because we’re traveling for so long, we have absolutely no space in our tiny tiny bags. We made a promise not to buy any souvenirs unless we were willing to ship them home. There were only two choices: carry the bottle onward (a major pain with three train transfers ahead of us that day), or leave it in Orvieto. A third option presented itself: pour most of our precious liquid in an empty water bottle (safer for transport) and leave the remainder as a gift to our hotel. We asked our hotel if we could use their kitchen sink and... viola!
It took less than two days for us to go through (almost) a bottle of anisette on the train. (Our CODE WORDS: “Can I have some more water please?”)
It may be twenty years before I can eat black licorice again.
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8 comments:
you must had a lot of fun on the trains! rule will be rule so they say. sco
next time, just buy a few more bottles and ship all alcohol to my house. let me know if you need my address ;-)
Could you have gone to another MBE?
What if the hotel had shipped it? I can imagine it was frustrating. I'm sure the little shop appreciated your business. Marzipan is delicious. There's a bakery in San Pedro (actually a Norwegian Bakery) that is known for a Marzipan cake.
Love,
Mark
Orvieto's a small town, I'm not sure there's more than one MBE there. We suspected the guy was maybe lying to us, but there was no time to find out for sure, we had a train to catch.
Have you had the red orange juice yet? It's way tasty!
Give us the lowdown on the THCorp and Ferry concert,
Any autographs?
Waiting with unmitigated envy,
pdoh
Boozers.
Hey Walt, do you mean blood oranges?? Can't say as we saw any:-(
Yes, we made it to Marrakech; we're still recovering from the Puro DJ party. We'll try to get some posts up soon (incl. more Italy posts...)
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