Ugh.
So, I'm in the cafe right next to the school, and this Italian man says to me in English, "This guy here makes really bad coffee.''
I tell him I'm from NY. Turns out he is a leather designer across the street, and sells to some places on the upper-east side. He starts complaining about starbucks... about how they could possibly get away with selling a very bad cup of $4 coffee.
Then the conversation goes like this:
''Oh, my store is right across the street. You have to see my work.''
''OK, but I have to go to the bathroom.''
''I have a bathroom in my store. Come.''
So, in broad daylight, I go to his store. It's about half the size of my living room, full of gorgeous leather. There are pictures of him with some famous american women... Mariel hemingway, Calista Flockhart, I think...
''Your leather is beautful,'' I say. ''So much better than that shit on the street.''
Now he hugs me. Tight. And I am very uncomfortable. I realize he has closed the door. I do not hug him back.
''This is why I like you! You know!''
He does not like my lack of hug. ''In Italia,'' he says, ''you give big hug.''
''In American, we don't hug so fast.''
''You know why I talk to you in the cafe? I like your nail polish.''
Another hug.
I say, ''Give me your card. I will come back to visit.'' Trying to get the hell out of there.
''Why are you leaving? I want to take you to dinner.''
''I am meeting someone. I cannot. I will come back. Give me your card.''
''What are you waiting for? Huh? Are you waiting to go out when you are an old lady and cannot walk?''
I laugh (painfully) and go to give him the obligatory kisses on the cheeck goodbye, and he gets so close to my mouth I am completely creeped out.
Yuck. Not only are the Italian men persistent, they are AGGRESSIVE. This particularly sucks, because now I don't want to go to my favorite cafe anymore.
But he does make a glorious leather coat.
Mario Romano. Via Pellicceria, 10R, Firenze.
17 comments:
I'll save you!
Bums and drunks on the trains. Leather dealers in Italy. Same difference. Momma says don't talk to strangers. Yucky.
That is hilarious! He did the same thing to my friend the other day... it was Marcia Cross & also Melissa Joan Hart! He picked us up at Mamma Mia restaurant. Luckily she had two of us to defend her and get her out of dinner that night!! I have a blurry picture of him, but didn't put it on my blog! :D
Holy crap. I can't believe this man. I think there could be a whole website dedicated to this dude!!
hi you dont know me...but i know Mario Romano and had a very similar experience! It was creepy and I missed out on a leather coat that he was supposedly going to give me for free and produce a whole line of coats in my name...but when he tried a few too many moves it was time to get far far away...and i avoided the area like the plauge from there on out. glad to here im not the only one who walked around florence avoiding people on every corner!
hey girls...
Ohhh Im so glad to find same story's, not that it was nice, dont get me wrong....just people to share the creep with!!!! OW yucky this guy was so creepy. I was just making pictures, my last hours in florence, of a bike in front of his store, than the invitingpart...trying all these nice jackets...trying hugs etc etc. 'I want to design you a coat! Look we have the same colour of trousers!!' After the storries that he would take me for dinner, a motortrip and even on vacation to Samos I got away with his card to 'come back for koffie with your friend.' I found my friend and luckily was 2 hours later already on the way to another city... uugh!! The moment I saw his very shitty desinged card I knew for sure that this was all so very bad!!
Creepy creepy guy!
I don't know y'all either, but I just got back from Florence and had yet another encounter with Mario! My friend was walking to school and he stopped her and said that he saw her walking to school everyday and that he wanted to buy her coffee. She had to go to class so she declined, but we lived on Via Delle Terme, right behind the Old Stove, so we saw him all the time. Well, one weekend Maria got strep throat and I was out of town and he ended up taking her to the doctor and brought her soup and was really nice about the whole thing. A few weeks later he told her to come in to the store and pick out a few things for family price. She bought a jacket and purse and then realized that she really couldn't afford both and needed to return at least one of them. He said she could return one but not both. He called her a few days later and said that he couldn't believe that she was going to do that to him after he took her to the doctor and all and that if she did he was going to send her a $175 bill for the doctor. We tried to go by the store that day and it was closed! He is so disgusting.
O M G> haha i just got back from florence too.. and he did the same thing! this is ridiculous this man should be locked up for this craziness. he told me i had the best style and that i needed to come try on his coats and showed me the pics with famous people and told me i needed to come to dinner no matter how many times i said no.... and he would NOT stop hugging and kissing gross. not to mention hes at least 30 years older that me. EW. mario romano..he may be creepy but hes one man alot of women dont forget.. and never want to see again ahha.
hey, the same thing happened to one of my roommates in Florence. It was so weird, he kept telling her that he saw her walking to school and at school. He lives in the apartments in the Corso Tintori building of Florence University of the Arts. It was so awkward!!!!
Hi guys!!!! guess what? it's 2007 year and he still does his creepy stuff and he also said he is the designer of haircut and dresses of desperate housewifes :) what a.......nice guy :)
I know this is a very old entry, but I just googled Mario Romano to blog something very similar about him. I just had to laugh when I saw this! He came and stayed at a hotel where I worked in Palm Springs about ten years ago. He came with a girlfriend. Shortly after he checked in, he came back and found me, pushed me up against a wall and started kissing me! And he kept saying, "you know I like you?" He kept doing this throughout his stay, I tried paying a housekeeper extra to shadow me and pretend to clean, but he didn't care, he did it right in front of her. He also tried to get my friend to go into his room to try on some leather coats, and told her they would only fit properly if she took her top off. What a creep!
Same thing as the other girls. I went to school there in 2003. Saw the pictures, the coats, and was offered the free leather coat. However, just wanted everyone to know....Mario is NOT Italian. He is from Baghdad. He changed his name when he moved to Florence. I had a couple of friends in Florence who knew him from back home, Baghdad.
This all makes me so happy... and yet so sad.... spread the word!!!
I went there in 2006 and stayed at the hotel next door. Same thing happened. He is very persistent. He showed me his equipment too
I know this post is old but I've got to ask - does anyone have a photo? I think I may have just met this same person but I am not sure and want to confirm before I make up my mind about him. IF anyone has one, can you please post? Thank you!
I realize this is old but just in case anyone checked back, I had the same experience. I stayed at the hotel next door
Wow! This is ridiculous. I was googling him to see if he was still in business when I ran across this blog. My friend and I were having lunch outside a cafe when Mario and his nephew sat next to us and started chatting. They told us about their store and we went by there later that day. (We both bought a jacket...beautiful!) While his nephew (a very nice gentleman) was helping my friend, Mario grabbed my breasts and said, "Bella!" I was so shocked I just started laughing and his nephew ran over yelling at his uncle to stop and profusely apologizing to me. I said, "Dude, if you were in America I'd own your store over this." To top it off, he asked if he could deliver the jackets to our hotel that night! So creepy!!
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