Lunedi Lunacy

Anyone who has lived in Italy can tell you that learning the body language is half the battle! It is one of the wonderful silly things about a country that it is easy to criticize but easier to love.

For my darling Walter, Robert, Dario, Larry, Vincenzo, Simonetta, Linda, Nazareno, Gail, Jolka, Micki, Marco, Diana and Cindi - I give thanks that I had four wonderful years with you and miss you with all my heart.

As Walter reminded me in an e-mail yesterday - Roma is Amor spelled backwards.

10 ottobre/October - San Daniele Comboni

And He Confound the Language of All the Earth ...

Languages are filled with "false friends" - anyone who speaks Spanish or French runs up against them constantly in Italian. But its not exclusive to the Romance languages. An anglophone could be forgiven for responding with a list of their University degrees if being told by an Italian that they were maleducato (badly brought up) though the Italian would wonder if all holders of Doctorates were ill-mannered.

And an Italian would be equally puzzled and a little concerned if you said you had bought "confetti" to throw at a wedding. I mean "confetti" is perfectly acceptable at a marriage, baptism or even a graduation but if you throw it here someone could get an eye put out.

My colleague Antonella is getting married today and she distributed the traditional "confetti" in the office yesterday. All the guests at her wedding will receive one of these little tulle bags.


Bedecked and beribboned it holds one of my favorites sweets - "confetti" - sugared or Jordan almonds. They are said to represent both the wish that a couple will have a fertile marriage and to remind them of the bittersweet nature of any relationship.

So here the bridge and groom will give their guests "confetti" and I will go to a shop and buy "coriandoli" to throw at them. And no I will not be throwing a pungent smelling green much beloved in Mexican cooking, that would be "coriandolo". Language is so complicated!

10 ottobre - San Tommaso di Villanova

Parolo Inglese? Non! Que fachi?

There are many countries where language is not a problem for Laurent or I – the U.S., England, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, the Caribbean, Mexico, Spain, France. Sure there may be the occasional problem understanding quaint local accents and idioms and often the natives have trouble understanding our mid-Atlantic or Québécois accents – though in the case of the later its mostly done to let you know that you are from a former colony (lost to Britain back in 1763) and therefore your French is inferior to the nasal, English-laced, honking of the average Parisian. But we can get by.

Here in Rome it has become obvious that getting by just won’t do, learning Italian is a must. In the major tourist areas English may be the lingua franca but here in Nomentana it’s Italian. Not that anyone is obnoxious about it – we’re in Italy not France – just that the average person here doesn’t speak English. I do have some vocabulary based on years of listening to opera but the chances of having to scream Ohime and faint into the arms of a fat tenor or husky barihunk (Ohime!) are extremely remote. Laurent has Spanish and there are enough similarities that he can get by for basics. But we are going to be here for four years and frankly Sunday night when we had to explain to the maid upstairs that water from her flower pots was cascading onto our balcony and soaking our guests, basic wasn’t enough.

So starting next Monday (27 agosto – Santa Monica) I will be spending four hours a day, five days a week in a classroom – Laurent will be taking a more intensive course in late September. At the moment we are five in the class – two young girls from Africa, a French chap, an Iranian woman and I. The school, Ciao Italia, has a good reputation and has come recommended by several friends and colleagues. We’ll see how good they are – if they can teach this old dog some new linguistic tricks they are good!

21 agosto – San Pio X Papa