"Oh no, put those away. Don't try and pay me with those things, for pity's sake. Just pay me in lire".
As far as familiarity with Europe's new currency is concerned, the signora at the till in Bar Castagnistill has some way to go. Like many of her compatriots on yesterday's first euro day, she preferred to deal in lire.
Even though she has a new cash register complete with two cash flows - one in lire, the other in euro - she was still much relieved when I put away my brand new 10 euro note and pulled out familiar old lire to pay for my cappuccino and cornetto.
In these northern Lazio parts at least, the euro was notable more for its absence than its presence yesterday. Walking away from the village bank after successfully claiming a first fistful of euros from the cash dispenser, I was greeted by enthusiastic euro-crusaders out on the search for the new currency, which was otherwise unavailable.
Indeed, the euro would appear to have made most impact at ATM machines, since more than half a million euro withdrawals were made successfully in Italy between midnight on New Year's Eve and midday yesterday, according to ABI, the Association of Italian Banks.
Down in Naples, however, not everything functioned quite as smoothly as in our village since lengthy queues gathered in front of the only two out of 30 cash dispensers in the city centre which had actually made the change to euro.
Despite the rush on cash dispeners, however, the bars, restaurants and petrol stations around us were all still working in lire yesterday. Memmo, who runs an IIP petrol station, pointed out that his self-service distributor will not be converted from lira to euro for at least three weeks.
Down at the Cantinella restaurant, staff were at full stretch dealing with a brisk New Year's Day trade of day trippers out from Rome to enjoy the lakeside air on a brilliantly sunny first day of the year.
Yet, despite both a full house and the fact that all the bills were made out in euro, no on had actually paid in Europe's new currency.