Goodbye Italy, Hello Home :)

So my time in Italy this summer has sadly come to an end and I'm faced with once again getting on that terrifying tin can of the skies. Since I arrived 11 weeks ago, the news has been filled with plane crashes and faulty airplanes which hasn't been good for my confidence. Believe me when I say I have looked into every possible way of getting home which doesn't require me to leave terra firma, but I don't really fancy a 40+ hour coach journey across Europe, so flying it is.

As I've got closer to flying, I've been having weird dreams about it. According to my nightmares, I will miss my flight due to taking too much time to decide which meal deal to get at Boots, then they'll tell me that I'm the only person booked on to the flight so they've scheduled a tiny little propeller thing to transport me to a heliport on top of the County Mall where I will be welcomed back to England by Boris Johnson and be asked to turn on the Crawley Christmas lights with Peter Andre. I think the coffee from all the tiramisu I've been eating has done something to my unconsciousness...

I've obviously had to pack up all my belongings again which has been interesting considering all the stuff I have acquired in the last 11 weeks. Somehow I don't think this is will make it into the hand luggage, not sure what airport security would have to say about it!!

I was a bit of a plonker when booking my flight. So I'd remember where I am sitting I booked seat 19A. 19 for my age and A for Alice. Silly me forgot I had a birthday in August in which I turned 20 :)

I can't say I'm glad that this part of my year abroad is over. I have had the most amazing time and seen some truly wonderful places. Italy has surpassed all of my expectations in every way and I feel like I have only scratched the surface so literally can't wait to come back next year to see more of this extraordinary place. Having said that though, I am so excited to be going home and can't wait to spend a few weeks indulging in being British as much as I can before heading off to France at the end of September. 

So I suppose this is the part where I'm supposed to write a long and sentimental piece about how I've changed as a person since going overseas and how living here has had a profound and everlasting effect on my worldview. That sounds incredibly boring and pretentious though (and I don't think I've changed that much anyway) so instead I shall do what I do best and sum up my time here by writing lists.

My Favourite Adventures:

• The Post Office- this was the first time I went out on my own with the intention of solving a problem. I can't explain how nervous I was about this, but really it wasn't a big deal at all and the lady behind the counter there was so sweet and patient that she made it really easy to say what I wanted to without mixing up my words. I was keen to avoid any type confrontation with the Italian administration system but I'm glad this challenge came up because otherwise I'd still be terrified about dealing with official stuff that isn't in English.
• Venice on my own. This was my first time dealing with public transport other than buses on my own abroad. Just like the Post Office, it showed me that the best confidence boosts come after you succeed at something you think you're going to be terrible at. Barely a word of English was spoken that day, and it made me really happy to see the locals' reactions to a British person having a go at their language when it would have been so easy to slip into English in such a touristy spot. Even if you can only say "ciao" and ask how much something costs, they will praise you so much you will feel like you're fluent and they will appreciate it so much more than we do in England when foreign tourists make an effort.

Top Places I've been:

• Venice. Obviously. Love this place to bits, and so much more than I expected to. Despite the rumours, it doesn't smell one bit (unless you're at a pizzeria, then it smells beautiful), it doesn't have to be massively expensive if you're careful about where you eat and what transport you use, and while it is crowded there are plenty of places to get away from the crowds. The lack of tall buildings and plentiful supply of wide open piazzas and canal-side spots make it easy to escape the holidaymakers. I went on the ferr'agosto holiday which is like the Italian equivalent of the August bank holiday and the busiest weekend of the year, but there were still plenty of park benches to go around and I didn't have to queue for my gelato fragola :)
• Treviso. My adopted hometown for the last 3 months. I'm sad that I didn't get to see more of it and I never actually went into town on my own, but the bits I did see were lovely :) I spent most of my free days at the park and walking along the canal enjoying the sun rather than going into town where I knew I would find myself lost and sunburned and buying things which would make my excess luggage charge pretty hefty on the way home...
• The Park. I ended up spending quite a bit of time here people watching and fuelling my hayfever. It was worth it though because it gave me a chance to compare it to British public spaces and made me realise that there are some fairly drastic differences in attitude between the two countries. One of the obvious differences is that here, PDAs in the park are totally normal and acceptable and every other bench is taken up by a canoodling couple. However, as soon as a girl wearing shorts walks in to the place she is stared at like she is committing some awful crime of indecency. 
• The Dolomites. My first ever trip to a mountain range didn't disappoint in the slightest, and although I was incredibly homesick that week, I appreciated the experience and the surroundings very much and would definitely go back.

Best things about living in Italy:

• The people are the loveliest. I can honestly say that everyone here that I've met has been absolutely wonderful. They are genuinely interested in learning about where I've come from and are so so welcoming and encouraging about putting up with my far less than perfect Italian.
• Tiramisu
• The culture and way of life are impossible to dislike. I've forgotton what a cloudy day looks like, I've eaten pasta almost every day and the beach and mountains are both less than an hour away- no wonder they're a happy bunch of people here!
• Tiramisu

Things I've missed the most about England (despite the obvious family and friends):

• The 10 o'clock news. I miss Huw Edwards updating me on the world's goings on every night. When I hear this music, I'll know I'm home.

• Duvets. It's far too hot for them here, but a good night's sleep is not the same without them.
• Breakfast cereal. No-one eats it here and breakfasts just aren't the same :(
• Sandwiches. I love and miss sandwiches.

And on that note, I'll say goodbye for now. I may squeeze in another post once I'm back in England about coming home and whatnot, but I'll be back to regular posting once I'm in France and on the main part of my year abroad, which will be from the end of September :) Thank you to all of you who have followed my blog this far, and I'll see you all soon :)

Alice x

Venezia 2.0

I went back to Venice! I couldn't resist going again with it being so close by and train tickets costing 5 euros for a return journey half an hour each way (take note Gatwick Express). I've had a niggling feeling the last few weeks that I just had to go back to Venice and experience more of it before I leave. I'm very glad I was able to go with my host family the first time to get a feel for the place, but this time I was determined to do it alone and prove to myself that I can actually speak enough Italian to have a day out!

It turned out to be my best day off since I've been here and was a great confidence booster. I used 3 different types of public transport (bus, train and water bus), translated a few sentences for a British family on the train who were being spoken to by a group of French people, and somehow found my way from the station to all the main sights without asking anyone for directions (although I did take some wrong turns, but in Venice there are no wrong turns as you usually end up seeing something even prettier than you would have had you taken the main route!) Thankfully, it all went pretty smoothly.

In Piazza San Marco, I went up the bell tower to see the amazing views from the top. It was well worth the 8 euro ticket, but not one to do if you are scared of lifts or are claustrophobic as they pack you in like sardines.

I also went to the Basilica San Marco (which is free, Italians are horrified by the idea that in England you have to pay to get into some churches, even if they are main tourist attractions), and despite queuing for half an hour in the sun and being spoken to in Russian (that's a new one for me, they usually think I'm German if they don't pick up on my Englishness) it was definitely worth it. It's very dark and Gothic and Catholic inside and not as crowded full of tourists as the queue outside suggests. Definitely worth going into if you ever find yourself in Piazza San Marco, although it doesn't really take more than 15 minutes to see the free (you have to pay to see the "treasure" whatever that is) and open to the public bits despite looking absolutely huge from the outside.

Using foreign public transport for the first time on my own was surprisingly easy. Apart from one small mishap. At the train station in Treviso I thought I'd make life easier for myself and use the self-service ticket machine which had an English option. Fate obviously had other ideas though because there was an error with my bank card and I had this machine shouting "Error, error, please remove your card" over and over again, alerting half the town to my foreignness and making me miss my train. Lesson learnt, next time I will have more faith in myself and go straight to the human being who understood me perfectly.

On the train, I couldn't help noticing that there were many signs warning of the consequences of travelling with a faulty or out of date ticket... all in English. I don't know what they're implying about the honesty of British travellers!

Unfortunately I won't fit into the category of being a British traveller for much longer, but I really am looking forward to going home on Friday, and I will squeeze in one more post before I leave :)

Alice :)

Buon Appetito

I feel that it would be a crime to come all the way to Italy and not do a post on the food. It really deserves a whole blog dedicated to it, but I haven't got time for that so I'll give you a sneak peek at my Italian culinary adventures in this post :)

It didn't take me long to adjust to Italian life. After a week I felt pretty settled and after 5 it felt like a home away from home. In fact, it would be difficult to find someone who the Italian way of life doesn't suit. It is really easy to get used to, and the food is a big part of this.

First of all, it goes without saying that Italian food is among the best in the world by anyone's standards, and it is very very true. They have set mealtimes and never snack except on the occasional piece of fruit and everything is cooked from scratch. Although this can become annoying. Trying to find a pre-packaged sandwich in the supermarket to take to the park with me in my first week was impossible and I ended up buying and carrying round with me an entire pack of rice cakes all afternoon. Now I realise that people rarely eat in public here. Snacking on the street is considered slobby from what I've picked up on and you very rarely see food being consumed outside the house unless it's a proper sit-down picnic at lunchtime. I have barely drunk anything but water and peach juice since I got here, which for me is a big achievement (EDIT: this makes me sound like an alcoholic haha, I am referring to my Diet Coke and orange squash addiction!)

McDonald's Happy Meals here don't come with ketchup, instead they give you a little pack of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese! The kids here have very sophisticated taste...

You never ever see signs outside restaurants saying "Children Welcome". It is a foreign and unnatural concept to the Italians that the children wouldn't go out to dinner with the parents. Everything here revolves around the family.

In 10 weeks, there have been only 6 days in which I haven't eaten pasta. I've been keeping count. Sometimes we even have pasta for both lunch and dinner so it works out that I've eaten pasta more times than days I've been here!

There is a strange obsession with pistachios here. I'm not sure if it's just the Italians or a Europe-wide thing as I've noticed it in France as well. Everything that can be flavoured has a pistachio option. Pistachio jelly anyone? For a place that's known for it's amazing food, that is not something I thought I would encounter!

Probably my favourite Italian food item is tiramisu. It is coffee scented, creamy, spongy deliciousness and I will miss it. That brings me on to the coffee consumption habits here. Having friends round for a 9pm espresso is considered normal and a completely reasonable way to consume caffeine. This confuses me.
Seems like I'm not the only one...

In other news...

I had a hilarious/ disheartening moment this week when I logged onto Duolingo to do some language practice. It's this free website where you can practice your languages or learn new ones from scratch. I was doing quite well on the Italian and had leveled up so decided to see what my French is like after 10 weeks in Italy. I tried to skip a few stages thinking that after 9 years of learning, I'd be a bit beyond the beginners' level. How wrong was I! After taking a skills test in listening and translating, the smug little owl who is the website's mascot told me I was not worthy of skipping even the first stage. Hmmm, my brain is firmly parked in Italian mode for now, and this week I have to send formal emails to France. Bleugh. Maybe I should spend my evenings reading and listening to French instead of watching penguin videos...

Unfortunately, my Italian hasn't improved much with the demise of my French. Mistake of the week goes like this. The Italian word for "eyebrows" is "sopracciglia" ("sopra" means "over" and "ciglia" are eyelashes). I went and got "ciglia" muddled with "ciliegia" which means "cherry". So basically I ended up saying something like "uppercherry."

This week the girls seem to have developed a habit of burning things. The 7 year old managed to put her shoe next to the insence which burns in the garden to warn off mosquitoes, resulting in a blackened flip flop. Her response was “I like it. It makes my flip flops look older, like they are from the second world war 300 years ago.” On the same day, I came out of the loo to be greeted by a burning smell coming from the kitchen. I thought what on Earth could they have done in the 2 minutes I was in there that could produce such a smell? Turns out the 11 year old was trying to defrost a bread roll on a plastic plate in the microwave. The plate got a hole burnt through it and the bread roll was welded to the plate. I think she was pretty embarrassed and determined that her parents wouldn't find out so she took it upstairs. When I asked her what she’d done with it she said she’d “hidden” it. Remembering what it was like to be an 11 year old, I guessed it was lingering at the back of her wardrobe somewhere, so I had to have words to make sure it was put in the bin. She assured me it was “got rid of” but wouldn't bring it downstairs so who knows if it actually is in the upstairs bin or not...

It's tipping down with rain at the moment. It is strange to see this place in the rain and I'm annoyed because I was planning to go back to Venice this week but won't be able to if it's like this :( We made the most of it though and embraced the rain to have a proper English afternoon! We made English tea and watched Harry Potter with the shutters closed and it was wonderful :) It's strange that living abroad has turned me into a tea drinker! I don't think it went down too well with everyone else though. Mixing milk and hot water was just too much of a weird idea for them to handle!

I've only got little over a week left here before I return to England, but I'll fit in another post before I go :)

Until next week chums!
Alice :)

The Hills Are Alive...

With the sound of chickens cock-a-doodle-dooing at 5 am every day. Living on a farm isn't nearly as peaceful as they make it out to be on Escape to the Country. But the amazing scenery in the Dolomites and the abundance of apple strudel more than make up for it :)

This was the beautiful view I woke up to every morning for the past week:

We've been staying half an hour away from Austria, most people here know me as "Maria" (no-one can pronounce Alice so they call me by my conveniently Italian sounding middle name instead), and it's my job to live with a family and look after the children. I'm basically a von Trapp :)

I have truly climbed every mountain and forded every stream this week, including part of this scary looking one:

It made Duke of Edinburgh look like a light stroll and all that was running through my head while climbing over slippery rocks on my hands and knees was whether my travel insurance stretched that far. I doubt it, so maybe from now on I'll stick to walking in the park.

Speaking of perilous situations, Italian ideas of what constitutes safe driving + bendy mountain roads with huge drops down one side = many terrifying experiences. I have discovered that there is aptly no Italian word for "passing place" so they use the English word to refer to the concept, even if they do not use the actual passing place in practice. They call the blind spot in a driver's field of vision the "angolo morto" which means "dead angle". It certainly is a dead angle because I never see it being used! Oh dear, I'm a terrible backseat driver... I am sorry for all of you who ever have to drive me somewhere, but at least all driving in England will seem perfect now that I've got used to their interpretation of it here!

One of the girls who lives on the farm where we stayed is called Astrid. The kids I'm looking after had even more trouble pronouncing her name than they do with mine, and kept thinking her name was pronounced "Hagrid". Suddenly the problems I have with my name don't seem so bad anymore...

The Alto Adige/ Sud Tyrol region of Italy is so different from the rest of the country that it felt as though we'd left Italy all together. All the TV was either in German or the dialect of Italian that they speak in parts of Switzerland and the radio played this weird Austrian punk concoction which made me glad that the signal was sketchy. I found that it was lovely to have a change of scenery and experience what was almost a different culture in the mountains; the humidity was a lot less suffocating at 2500m and after 8 weeks of nothing but pasta for lunch everyday, dumplings and apple strudel were a welcome change! As lovely as it was to get away though, I am glad to be back in Treviso where I have work to do and an established routine for the next 3 weeks before I can come home and speak English all day everyday :) Being understood in my own language is something which I will never again take for granted, and I think this experience has given me the ability to have a new level of patience with people in Britain who struggle with English. I think learning another language gave me a degree of heightened patience a long time ago, but it's impossible to imagine the exact feeling of isolation and frustration that sometimes comes along when you can't make yourself understood, or you run through a sentence in your head 10 times before saying it to find that people are looking at you blankly when you finally get it out. The good news is that those moments are thankfully becoming fewer and further between, but if I didn't have the wonderful enthusiasm of the Italians and the encouragement to learn their language that they willingly give, I would be in a bit of a pickle.

In other news, it's forecast to hit 42 degrees this weekend, and as much as I worship summer and the heat, that would be going too far. My laptop shuts itself down every hour or so because it can't take the heat and the insides of my phone are melting to the extent that it would probably be quicker for me to send a letter via the Italian postal system than a text.

That's all for now wonderful people :) There is freshly made pizza wafting up the stairs calling my name...

Alice x