When you go to Italy, you eat a lot of pasta.
On my first trip to Italy, I remember stopping at a restaurant for dinner and ordering (what else?) spaghetti. When it arrived, I got out my knife and fork and began cutting the spaghetti noodles in half like I always did. It made it easier to eat. Then I noticed two pairs of eyes staring at me -- my two Italian traveling companions, frozen in place in shock.
"What?" I asked.
The look of dismay in their eyes was, well, dismaying.
"Don't cut the pasta," they told me.
That's when I learned that pasta is sacred in Italy.
I tried to think of examples in America that compare. Like stabbing your steak with your fork, holding it up, and eating it like meat on a stick. (My sister went to Hawaii for her honeymoon and told me she saw Japanese tourists there doing that.) But that's more about table manners. This was like disrespecting the food. Violating it. Americans just don't have the respect for food that Italians do. Hence Chicken McNuggets.
I spent the rest of the trip trying to learn how to eat huge, long strands of spaghetti without cutting it. Believe me, it's not just stab down, turn the fork, and shovel it in. Doing it that way, I got many, many forkfuls of pasta so big that they wouldn't fit in my mouth. During one exasperating meal, one of the Italians I was with finally showed me: Lightly skim the fork across the top of the spaghetti (it helps if you pile it up a bit), twist the fork to get a few strands, and voila!
I was in Italy for a month, and we ate pasta every day. I'm not kidding. Sometimes, twice a day.
And you know what? when I got back to the U.S., I started craving pasta. And I no longer cut my spaghetti.
Could you eat pasta every day for a month? Leave a comment!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Choosing a School
Before I knew which city I would be in, I knew that choosing a school would be easy. That's because while randomly searching the Web for info on language schools, I found this great book, Learning Italian in Italy.
The authors are a British couple, two doctors, who took a year off, moved to Italy, and drove around the whole country visiting every language school they could find. They weeded out the bad ones and only put recommended ones in their book.
Turns out that there aren't many language schools in Venice anyway, but the one they recommended, and the one I plan on going to, is Istituto Venezia. Here's what they say:
"The school is on the first floor of a restored palazzo, near the pretty cafe-lined Campo Santa Margherita. St. Mark's Square and the hordes of tourists are a short vaporetto ride away."
"There are extracurricular activities most afternoons and some weekeend outings are included in the price. The school has free Internet access in the afternoon and students are given a discount card for local shops and restaurants. There is a collection of Italian videos that can be watched after classes."
Not exactly glowing praise, is it? Well they're doctors, not writers, so I can forgive them for their lack of mellifluous prose. (For some schools, they go out of the way to mention that there is an Illy coffee machine. What's that?) The point is that they have been there and recommend it. Good enough for me.
I've fired off an email to the school asking for more info. Hopefully they'll respond in English!
The authors are a British couple, two doctors, who took a year off, moved to Italy, and drove around the whole country visiting every language school they could find. They weeded out the bad ones and only put recommended ones in their book.
Turns out that there aren't many language schools in Venice anyway, but the one they recommended, and the one I plan on going to, is Istituto Venezia. Here's what they say:
"The school is on the first floor of a restored palazzo, near the pretty cafe-lined Campo Santa Margherita. St. Mark's Square and the hordes of tourists are a short vaporetto ride away."
"There are extracurricular activities most afternoons and some weekeend outings are included in the price. The school has free Internet access in the afternoon and students are given a discount card for local shops and restaurants. There is a collection of Italian videos that can be watched after classes."
Not exactly glowing praise, is it? Well they're doctors, not writers, so I can forgive them for their lack of mellifluous prose. (For some schools, they go out of the way to mention that there is an Illy coffee machine. What's that?) The point is that they have been there and recommend it. Good enough for me.
I've fired off an email to the school asking for more info. Hopefully they'll respond in English!
Friday, March 5, 2010
The Hardest Part
It's been months since I decided to enroll in an Italian language school. Months since I told everyone I planned on going. Months since I started scouring the Internet looking for Italian language schools, maps of Italy, travel blogs, and advice from other travelers.
Deciding when to go, how long to stay, how much money to spend -- that was easy. Deciding WHERE to go -- impossible!
As some people have told me, you really can't go wrong anywhere in Italy. But I didn't want to go just anywhere. At first, my criteria went something like this:
My friend Cherie just got back from a language school in France. "Choosing where to go is the most difficult part," she said. Boy, is she right.
For a while it was Naples. Then Taormina. Then Bologna. Then Siena. Then Naples again, and so on. And people kept asking me, where are you going? I said I didn't know.
I had to make a decision. Enough with overthinking it. So I set a deadline. By this weekend I have to decide where I'm going.
It's Venice.
The hardest part is over ... I hope!
Deciding when to go, how long to stay, how much money to spend -- that was easy. Deciding WHERE to go -- impossible!
As some people have told me, you really can't go wrong anywhere in Italy. But I didn't want to go just anywhere. At first, my criteria went something like this:
- Someplace I've never been (which rules out Milan, Rome, Florence, Pisa, Elba Island, and a few towns)
- Near the beach
- Away from tourists
- With plenty of things to do while I'm not in class
- At a school listed in my book of recommended schools
My friend Cherie just got back from a language school in France. "Choosing where to go is the most difficult part," she said. Boy, is she right.
For a while it was Naples. Then Taormina. Then Bologna. Then Siena. Then Naples again, and so on. And people kept asking me, where are you going? I said I didn't know.
I had to make a decision. Enough with overthinking it. So I set a deadline. By this weekend I have to decide where I'm going.
It's Venice.
The hardest part is over ... I hope!
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