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“Variety Is the Spice of Life!”
What do cappuccino, mojito and basil have in common?
Have you ever heard of Sorano? I don’t blame you if you haven’t. It’s a tiny little village in the south of Tuscany, where my in-laws have their weekend house. I remember visiting this place for the first time. I was spellbound by its mesmerizing charms. Apart from that I learnt one important thing. About cappuccino.
I entered the bar at Mario’s, the only one in the village, to pick up their famous ricotta cake, which I ordered in the morning. It was 7 pm. I still hadn’t had a proper coffee that day and this bar - in the middle of nowhere - was serving Illy coffee. What could possibly be better? So, I ordered a cappuccino. Mario could tell I was a foreigner, so he double checked: “Cappuccino?” “Si!”, I replied proudly.
While Mario’s wife was wrapping the cake to take it away, I was sitting in their patio and sipping cappuccino. And then – my husband arrived. Do you know what he did? He apologized to Mario, saying something: “Sorry, Mario … She is not Italian and doesn’t know that cappuccino is a morning thing!” Up to 11.00 am to be precise.
Then my husband elaborated on it a bit and said that at 7 pm, the Italians usually go out for an “aperitivo” (an apéritif), a cocktail or another alcoholic drink served with little snacks before dinner. It’s true. There were several people at Mario’s at that time. They were all sipping drinks and having little pieces of pizza. And I was having a cappuccino ☺ It was hilarious. We all laughed, Mario included.
This is just one of my, not only Italian, experiences (I’ve travelled all over the world) and it tells me how great diversity is. You can always learn something new. Yesterday, my daughter played in the park with two Chinese girls. Last week we went to the local swimming pool and we met Sonia, an American from New Yersey, who lives in Florence with her family. And at the end of this month we are going to Ljubljana, Slovenia for two weeks, where we’ll hang out with Rok and his Mum and we’ll speak and think Slovenian.
What I’m saying is that diversity is not an obstacle, rather an advantage. If you work for a multinational, you probably know how different it is working with someone from the States or with someone from Near or Middle East. Or how different can even a German and an Italian be? What I suggest is to embrace such an opportunitiy, take full advantage of it, learn from it. And embrace any kind of diversity, be it in terms of gender, social background, age, nationality … If you do it, others will respond the same way. And any activity you’re engaged in thus becomes a mutually profitable learning experience. Very often it does not cost anything.
I have learnt myself the benefits of such a varied environment. It was this year in Venice in a team-building event for Knauf, an international company, where I worked with Amedeo, Matteo and Stefania as a trainer. Knauf wanted to take full advantage of its staff brought together from Turkey, Iran, UK, Germany, Serbia, Italy … to see what they can learn from each other. Together they created the puzzle you can see in the photo, using the same, but yet different (shades) of colours (leading colours of the company), reflections of oneself as I call it, to contribute to a common objective. A hilarious experience it was.
And now I’m going to fix myself a nice mojito. You know the drink with rum, cane sugar, lime, club soda, crushed ice and – basil leaves, as my mother in law says (a sworn Florentine, mind you!): “No it’s not mint, it’s basil!” This time, however, I’ve decided to do it the Cuban way. I’ll use mint leaves.
