This is my second trip to Italy. Last year we spent 4 weeks in various beautiful locations throughout Italy. This year we have an apartment in Rome for 6 weeks and have yet to venture out in the city.

Controversy, that’s what I am about

This blog may be controversial and perhaps even offensive to some even close friends and relatives. So be it. I write from my heart and soul with a little bit of my quirky personality thrown in.

So many cigarette smokers in Italy

Let's get to the meat and "smoke" of this article. It is clear to me that most all Italians smoke. After discussing this with young kids ages 17-25 I asked how many of them smoke. They all said they smoke 10-20 cigarettes a day. I asked, "so when did you start smoking?" The answer was almost always 12-13. "So why did you decide to smoke?" "It was cool and all my friends did it, it gives us something to do with our hands." "Tell me about smoking after sex." "Oh, it's so relaxing, we both light up right away..."

Our waitress in florence

Julia, our waitress at a fine steak house in Florence

We had a great conversation with Julia before our dinner. I had told her about my “Italian Smoke Fest” blog, and I asked her about smoking in Italy. She said, “I don’t smoke, but when I was growing up and if you didn’t smoke you were NOT COOL.” She was not considered cool because she didn’t smoke. Her mother is a doctor and she smokes. Go figure.

Why nearly all Italians are thin

As a general rule nearly all Italian men and women are thin. I have concluded one of the main reason for this is because smoking is their main diet with a little pasta thrown in. Add to that thousands of steps a day and there you have it, thin Italians.

Just a few days ago when we were eating lunch at an outside cafe near the Spanish steps, we sat 2 tables away from 3 young women who were all smoking one after the other. Our neighbors were so upset, they got up and left. No one else in the cafe was smoking. If we could have moved we would have, Smokers, don’t you know how rude it is to blow your smoke in some one else’s face.

Smoking in Italy has been banned in public including bars, restaurants, discotheques and offices since 2005. A majority of Italians supported the ban at the time it was first implemented,[1] but there was a lack of support from smokers and some bar owners. 5% of bar and restaurant owners immediately introduced separate smoking rooms.

Note: I have never kissed a girl who smoked. I imagine it is like kissing an ash tray. I suppose smokers kiss smokers.

Read the warning label

I asked, "don't you read the warning on the cigarette box? " "That's all lies and propaganda."

Ok now that I have unsystematically established that a lot higher percentage of Italians smoke than Americans let me digress.

I understand I am different with a Mormon UPBRINGING

I grew up in a Mormon home where it was against our religion to smoke, drink, have sex outside of marriage and no coffee or tee allowed. When the bishop personally interviews you, violations of these rules can result in anything from humiliation to excommunication. "Brother Tom, did I see some Coke in your refrigerator?" Even though I have long left the Mormon church I still have never smoked a cigarette. I have smoked a few cigars for the purpose of a photo. My first cigar was smoked in the heart of Havana Cuba. I smoked the whole thing and didn't even get sick. I have never smoked or taken marijuana in any form. I suppose most of this is due to my Mormon upbringing Smoking was a SIN. Smoking marijuana a DRUG was a double sin.\

My first and 2nd to last cigar ever, smoked in Havana Cuba

My dad smoked in the Navy

When my dad was in the navy in WW 2 he said he smoked a bit. I have a feeling a high percentage of enlisted soldiers from any country smoke with a reckless abandon. After the war he never smoked. My brother Randy purposefully got kicked out of high school for smoking a cigarette. It was his way out. My sister Tina has smoked nearly her entire adult life. Mom and dad never knew she smoked and was very good at hiding the fact.

You are really a stud if you smoke unfiltered

Her ex husband smoked unfiltered Marlboro's. I called him the Marlboro man, and he was certainly good looking enough to be so.

European Warning labels

In the European Union, since May 2016, the Tobacco Products Directive 2014 requires tobacco product packages to carry combined health warnings consisting of a picture, a text warning and information on stop smoking services, covering 65% of the front and back of the packages.

Warnings have been required in Tobacco advertising for many years, with the earliest mandatory warning labels implemented in the United States since 1966.

So what's the point? I admit to many vices and bad habits and luckily smoking is not one of them. To my smoking friends and relatives, read the label, take up another bad habit like photography...

"Forgive me Bishop for I have sinned. I took 3,000 photos last week and I plan to take more." At least I am not going to hell for smoking cigarettes lol.