Mama Roma - Mama Mia

From the window of the little Lada I was amazed by the beautiful architecture of this city that I would soon call home. My friend and team mate, Misha, was zipping his little blue car up and down the streets, jumping from one island to another in this "Venice of the North" called St.Petersburg.

That was about 3 years ago. The destination of that little drive was to a restaurant called Mama Roma's. A local Italian chain that is moderately priced, provides free internet (when it is working) and has pretty good food. Knowing that I would return many times, I got a discount card. It has gotten lots of use, especially as my friend and Elaine and I have made visiting there a tradition.

So, when I went there for a business lunch on Friday, I was surprised to be told by the waitress that I needed to go on-line to "register" my discount card. I have been using it for 3 years, but the system was changing and I needed to adapt.

Online, I discover that Mama Roma's fancies themselves the "new Facebook". First of all, to register my card, I had to upload a profile picture. Then, I had to list which cities in Italy I have ever visited. The questions went on and on... Seriously?

Today, I started receiving notifications that a guy named "Vladimir" wants my contact info. On top of that, all members are invited to go on-line and vote for "Mr. & Mrs. Mama Roma". This is ridiculous!

I am not crazy about seeing my inbox fill up with silly requests from people I might run into at the local food trough, but I can't resist the discount. Maybe I'll start going incognito....