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!
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 :)
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