Parla italiano?

"So can you speak Italian?!"

That's the first question that the majority of people from home ask any of us when they speak to us for the first time in awhile. And I get it! We've been here for 4 months and one of our big goals was to learn the language while we're here. I know everyone is excited for us and wants to give us an opportunity to show off how much we've learned. Unfortunately, it's not quite that easy I'm afraid.

I think today might be the first day I might be willing to answer "yes" when asked that question. However, it would be followed immediately by "Enough to get by anyway." And sadly, that's about all I've got so far. I can shop ("Vorrei comprare tre bottiglie di vino, per favore.") , send things in the mail ("Inviare questo a California."), tell my kids we're leaving ("Andiamo!")  or to come here (Vieni qui!"). That's great and all and I won't downplay how cool that is. The problem is, I only sort of count it as speaking.

What do I mean by that? Well, sadly after more than 100 days here, we officially have zero friends. That's not to say there aren't, to quote Sesame Street, some people in our neighborhood we know, but, like in the song, they are just the people that we meet each day. We know Ricardo, the wine guy (don't judge!), Paola (our real estate agent/downstairs neighbor), "Cell phone store nice girl who speaks English and other guy who doesn't speak English", "super nice market guy", Daniela and Valentina (the girls' cooking class teachers), and people like that. We are recognized and most of those people have been told our story and know why we're here. But I wouldn't call them "friends".

The reason we don't have any come-on-over-and-have-dinner friends is because, you guessed it, we can't speak to them to make those sorts of connections. For instance, there's a very nice family that lives one floor down from us. The mother seems lovely and the dad is a nice guy. They have a young teenage daughter who would probably get along with our girls well enough. Alas, when I see them I can get as far as "Come stai?"...aaaaaand that's about it. I could even start to ask them where they work or some other super fundamental questions, but as soon as they hit me back with an answer, I'd be at a loss to continue. I just don't have the go-to ability to be able to hold a personal conversation with anyone.

Sometimes even more frustrating than the inability to make friends is the inability to be witty and/or funny, which, for those of you who know me, is something I (try) to do quite frequently. I remember an afternoon I came across two older ladies on the street and I was carrying a couple bottles of wine (I swear it's not all about wine here!) home from the store and one of them rattled something off to me in Italian. I could tell they were being pleasant and making a joke of some sort. They smiled and looked at each other and me as they passed. I couldn't figure out what they had said so I just smiled back. About 20 meters further, I was able to interpret in my head that the lady had said "Is one of those for us?!" It was so frustrating to have missed that opportunity to share that moment with them. Even worse, had I been able to figure it out quickly enough, I don't think I would've been able to come up with a funny response to play along either! Sigh.

What's preventing me from progressing more/quicker? Before we came to Lucca, we purchased Rosetta Stone, which, in case you don't recognize the name from radio and/or internet advertisements, is a language learning program (this was pre-DuoLingo by the way which is a free language learning app I recommend you check out). We started to do some of the lessons while still in California, but learned only super basic words. The plan was that once we got here, we'd be surrounded by Italians using the Italian language all the time so by process of immersion we'd just know it. Right? The problem we've run into is that we're not really immersed as much as we thought we'd be. Because we chose to homeschool the kids, we aren't surrounded by their classmates and their parents. We spend most of our time together, which was another plan for the year. The only drawback to that is that we all speak English! We do get out to shops and restaurants and those pieces of the language are the ones I've picked up the best. We don't have built-in opportunities where we're forced to learn the language, so when we have opportunity to try, we don't have enough experience to be successful. We need to know a bit more before we feel brave enough to try, but to get better, we need some more experience. It's a Catch 22.

Now a quick sidebar for my teacher friends who are reading this. Remember all the second language learning professional developments we've gone to? Remember how it's all great information but seems a bit hard to really relate to? I relate now. Completely. I've gone through a long period of Pre-Production and have recently hit Speech Emergence. I have two college degrees and 5 year-old children come up to me and say things to me and don't know what to say. Adults look at me like I'm a fool because I can't speak and half the time can't understand them. It's one of the most humbling experiences I've gone through.  I will have a completely new and different appreciation for future students who are new to English.

For now, I'm plugging away on Rosetta Stone which is actually a great program. It's slow and repetitive, but in a good way. Every time I do more I find myself using my phrases the next day. Today we went to buy some sports equipment and I was able to request things we needed, tell the lady our story, thank her for specific things she helped us with, tell the cashiers that we were on our bikes so if they could bag our things extra well we'd appreciate it, and understand a woman outside the store who asked if she could have our hangers since Ashley was about to throw them away to save space on our bikes...ok maybe I'm not doing that poorly. Perhaps I just need some more wine.

Gondolas, Glass, and the Grand Canal

Okay, being totally honest, picking photos for this blog was the toughest yet. Why? Because Venice is totally unique and mesmerizing. I was unsure about visiting in January, because I had read it could be a bit cold and bleak, but that was not our experience at all. We had mostly sunny and some overcast days. Yes it was cold (well cold if you’re from California), but avoiding the crowds of this popular tourist destination made it well worth donning our scarves and gloves.

This past week Dave’s mom was visiting us and so this was an adventure we got to enjoy with her. Perfect for the lady who collects cat figurines, and fun for us (Dave especially) to play tour guide.

In preparation for the trip, Dave buffed up on Venice a bit. That is, the Venice of Robert Langdon in Dan Brown’s Inferno. Oh how many times did we hear “this is the spot where…” or "did you know..."

Here’s my best attempt of highlights for our 2 night stay. 

We arrived by the high speed train, the Frecciargento, meaning silver arrow, via Firenze mid-day. Stepping out of the station, there it was, the Grand Canal. We were immediately on the water. So cool. Water boats, water busses, water taxis, gondolas, cargo boats, postal boats, construction boats, ambulance boats. Everything is transported by water. No cars. No bicycles. Only the vast array of boats. Boats, and our own two legs used to navigate through the maze of corridors between buildings and over bridges to cross the clouded blue canals. 

We spent the majority of our first day exploring. We went into St. Mark’s Basilica and the museum upstairs. The basilica is covered with mosaics, surrounded by gold tiles. As the saying goes, we felt rich just breathing in the air. We saw the original Horses of Saint Mark, also known as the Triumphal Quadriga, in the museum inside, and the replicas on the loggia. St. Mark’s does not allow photography inside, but one of my favorite art pieces was a mosaic of Mary’s family tree from the 1500’s on the interior balcony. The views out on the loggia were remarkable and really gave you a sense of the power felt here in the political capital of the Roman Empire.

Much of our free time was spent exploring the many shops with glass sculptures and figurines, Venetian masks of every flavor, extravagant jewelry, and high end fashion retailers. For dinner we decided that since we get Italian food all the time, we would give the girls a little taste of home and hit Hard Rock Cafe for burgers, mac 'n' cheese, and fajitas. 

Our next full day we had arranged for a tour of two neighboring islands, Murano and Burano. Murano being famous for its glass and Burano for its lace. As in London, we booked our tour through Viator and were not disappointed. In Murano, we visited the CAM glass factory where we got to see the local artisans creating their masterpieces. In the first room we watched the apprentices work on pieces for a chandelier. The girls were fascinated with every stop of the process. In the second room we got to watch one of three glass masters on the entire island work on a piece for a sculpture. Yes, that's what a glass master looks like. 

On Burano, the most unique sights are the brightly painted houses. Since Burano is a fishing village, and historically boats were made of wood, they needed to preserved often with fresh paint, so after they painted their boat, they used the leftover paint on their house. One building can have several different colors. Each color represents a different owner or home. We also stopped in a family lace shop where on a typical day we would have gotten a demonstration of how lace is hand stitched. Unfortunately for us, the artist was out with the flu. We still got to see the incredibly detailed work that has been produced there for centuries - tablecloths, napkins, dresses, wraps. 

That evening, back in Venice, we decided we needed to experience a gondola ride. An expensive treat. It was amazing to see how our gondolier navigated the turns and bridges along the way. No singing unfortunately, but Arya did keep our driver busy with questions like, "How long did it take you to learn how to steer that?" Answer? Seven years. He learned from his uncle.

We took a big lap around many canals and underneath the Rialto bridge and the Bridge of Sighs.

The restaurants we visited for local Italian fare were very touristy and by far not the best cuisine we have experienced. We did enjoy the atmosphere strolling through the lit streets in the evening.

Last day we were told by our Air B&B host that we should do the Secret Itinerary Tour offered at the Doge's palace. She said that the kids would probably find it fascinating. I will now recommend to you NOT to bother. Very long and not that interesting. Definitely would not torture my children with it again. Speaking of torture... we saw many prison cells, and this room where they tortured their inmates for information. They tied their hands behind their backs to this rope and then lifted them from it. Our guide offered a lot of details that I assumed would go right past my children. I don't know why I thought that because four hours later Arya asked me, "Mom, did you hear that when they tortured the people sometimes they went to far and separated their ribs wide open?" I'm still hoping she has no idea what dismemberment is. The best part of the Doge's palace were the rooms on the regular tour. So ornate and massive, no pictures could ever do justice to grandiosity. Just go and see it yourself.

I'll end with my favorite photo of the trip. Dave took this our first evening at sunset. If you ever visit us once we get back to the States, you'll probably find this one framed on my wall! Arrivederci!

New Year's Eve

There were lots of fireworks in Italy for New Year's Eve. We started off our night by walking around Lucca and going ice skating for a half an hour. The four of us all skated and the ice was little too slippery for my taste. I had a fun time skating and I liked that I'm getting better at skating because we've been practicing a lot.

On the way home after skating, we asked some people to use their lighter for our sparklers. It was really funny because we got two packets. One said age 14+ and one said 4+. Ashley and I tried out the 4+ and Mom and Dad tried out the 14+, but it turned out that the younger age ones weren't any different than the older age ones!

After that we came home and Ashley made stove-warmed-up Nutella fondue for a little snack. It's like fondue, but since we don't have a microwave here, Ashely heated it up on the stove. We dipped breadsticks and apple slices in the Nutella. It was really yummy!

We also put up a bunch of streamers all over the house (trashed upstairs)!

Closer and closer to midnight, we went out to the wall and we saw lots and lots of fireworks while the new year struck. We also popped party poppers at midnight.

(If you're looking on a mobile device, there is a video of some of the fireworks here that may not play for you. Try looking on a computer.)

After that we walked to one of the piazzas and people were lighting off big fireworks and lanterns. The lanterns looked like floating candles with a sack over them, but when they were in the air they looked spectacular. If you've seen the movie Tangled they're like the lanterns that the king and queen set off.

(This is a video of the candle lantern. Again, try a browser on a computer if it's not showing on your mobile device.)

They were playing music and there was a gigantic crowd (but not as many people as Time's Square)! We watched the fireworks and lanterns for awhile and danced a little bit. When we were all getting tired, we decided it was time to go home.

New Year's Eve in Italy was very different and fun!