No Gas, please.

Europeans love their gassy water (sparkling mineral water). Us Americans love our "still" water, or, as the Italians put it, "Aqua, no gas". Nobody drinks tap water in Europe. I guess it is beneath them. So, we bought a lot of water on our trip. If you don't request it without gas though, you get gas. It would have been easier to have written "No gas" on our foreheads. Sometimes, they knew it before we said it. They knew that we were Americans and that we believe that gas stinks. Each time we ordered "Aqua, no gas" we felt as if we were making a personal statement - "I am American and I do not want gas!"