CHURCH BELLS IN SANTO SPIRITO
The
sounds of
church bells are what
awakens me on
Sunday morning. Not at all a bad way to
wake up and thankfully the first ones don’t strike
until
8:45am, so I am not forced out of bed too early.
If I stay in bed for another 15 minutes, the second
reminder of Sunday sounds as the bells attempt
to call me to church.
I’m living in the Santo Spirito area of Firenze,
so happy to have moved away from my first apartment by the Ponte
Vecchio.
My new place is only 25 Euros more a week and it’s
more than worth it for its tranquility (one of the few places in Firenze
where I’ve not heard the constant noise of Vespas, talking
and metal rolling doors being lowered and raised).
In addition, it has two items which make it a goldmine:
a washing machine and a courtyard.
It’s on two floors, has security and
is wonderfully un-Florentine in its renovated
bathroom and kitchen.
Every towel I use and plate I turn over says Ikea,
but I’m perfectly happy with living
in an Ikea showroom as it is clean and light yellow
and white and very livable.
I’m slowly making my way through the pastries
at the local pasticceria near school, but I have a
big job ahead of me, as there are so many ricotta, semolina,
con panna, frutta (fragole o lamponi) to choose from.
CAFFE' E "CAPPUCCIO"
I’ve lost count of how many cappuccini, espresso macchiati
e pasta I’m consuming each day, after all the coffees
are piccolissimi and after one it almost doesn’t feel
like I’ve had it.
I’ve discovered that un cappuccio is Florentine
slang for un cappuccino. This was
incredibly frustrating because I kept saying “vorrei
un cappuccino, per favore”and they would respond
with “un cappuccio?”and then
I would say, “no, un cappuccino.”And
on and on we would go. It’s a subtle difference,
but like most things in Italian, subtlety is everything.
ITALIAN-ENGLISH
I discovered that Italians take about three times as
long to say something as English-speaking people do.
It amuses me when I say something to someone who speaks English and
then it is translated to the Italian-speaking person
and five minutes later, I am still waiting for them to finish the thought.
Italians LOVE to talk, endlessly, even when you understand,
they say it another couple of times and in a different way. They are passionate
about everything and very patient listening to long stories.
AL RISTORANTE
I’m making a bit of a name for myself at the local restaurants as
I’m always eating alone.
One place they announced I was da solo and
gave me wine in condolence and at the other
place they felt the need to tell me they weren’t open on Thursday
(like I was going to show up every day) and then gave me desert and
made me sit at a table with another person who was also alone.
I can’t tell if they are pitying me, trying
to help or making fun of me. The Italians have a confidence
that entirely unsettles and intimidates me.
WEATHER, ARNO,
The weather has been cold and rainy mainly
with clouds that look as though a dropper-full of steel ink has been
released into water, dispersing and staining everything.
The quality of the water of the Arno is unlike anything
I remember seeing before-It looks like a lacquered surface-a
beautiful latte-brown color with the smallest undertone of
green. Bellisimo!
When it is sunny there is a marked difference
in people. There have only been a handful of sunny days
while I’ve been here, most of the time it is nuvoloso and raining.
But when the sun comes out, people look up (instead
of looking down all the time to keep their necks warm) and they
look at you. It is a small indication of what spring and summer
will be like and I can’t wait.
MY
ITALIAN FRIENDS
I’ve made an Italian friend, Claudia (pronounced “cloud-ia”),
who works at the real estate agency were I found my
apartment. She doesn’t speak much inglese, so I am trying really
hard to speak in Italiano, but think I will respond to one of the ads
for language exchange so I can get as much Italian practice
as possible.
MY ITALIAN GRAMMAR
Some days I think I will learn Italian in cinque months, other days
I feel like I’ll never get it.
They have verbs for everything in Italian!
In English, you usually just use a version of “to be”to
say everything and add a word to the end, or just say “I, she,
they”…followed by the same word. I speak, she speaks,
they speak…But in Italian not only do they have a particular
verb for “speaking,”they conjugate it every time:
io parlo, lei parla, noi parliamo.
LET'S ROLL!
Last night Claudia and her friend Roberto were trying
to teach me how to roll my “r”s successfully,
so that I sound like an Italian. Over the weekend
I had been in an Irish pub and a very drunk Italian hit on me in English
and I responded with “non parlo inglese”, but apparently
I have a lot of work to do on my “parrrrrlo”to make it
sound like I actually DON’T speak English.
ZEN APPROACH
A Zen attitude is very much needed while
in Italy because I’ve become so accustomed to the
way everything in America is immediate (England
and Australia are similar to Italy, although in Italy there
is confusion on my part of WHY things have to be done a certain way).
At the moment, I am attempting to get internet in my apartment because
my cell phone reception is terrible when people call me from overseas
(no idea why local calls are fine).
I went to the internet place last Thursday and they
told me I had to return on Friday because I needed
to talk to a particular person about it and it would cost more for
some reason.
The next day I came back, spoke to the SAME man and
he said I didn’t have to pay more and didn’t
have me speak to anyone else and then got me to fill out the
form. There were two American girls in the store at
the same time as me and were being told they would have to be put on
a waiting list to get internet and they just didn’t understand
why they would have to wait for anything.
Coming from the land of immediacy-they were arguing
with the man, hoping to win with the “customer is always
right”attitude they use negli Stati Uniti,
but it wasn’t working. I’m crossing my fingers that my
acceptance of the situation will result in me getting email
in the next week….
Article by Sassica Francis-Bruce
