The Enchanted April

Have I titled one of my blogposts with this same name?  I believe so...I digress.

The family arrives in just hours, and I'm busy making preparations.  All very Emma Recchi of me hustling from here to there, although scrubbing the shower and floor, would probably be below her.  My apartment's as shiny as the top of the Chrysler Building!  I hope to spend our time together like in the book The Enchanted April, under wisteria (see above), climbing endless hills, exploring towns (hopefully) less traveled, and nibbling on fegato.

The weather report seems more optomistic than previously reported and if I have anything to do with it, will surely prove to be gorgeous!

I''ll see you all in a few weeks, loaded down with photos and stories of vineyards, ancient monasteries, and white sneakers.  Now I'm off to make that Bolognese, need to feed the creatures something!

It's a luxury to be understood

Where in the world have you been?!  Don't you care about us anymore!?

Of course I do and even if I wish I spent this last (gulp) month in the room above, I was in reality just busy with work studying and daily life.  I also recieved about 400 bills in five days, so it was touch and go for a bit.  Enough about me...How are you!!?

Wouldn't you love to lock yourself in the room above for a month with a steady supply of tea and see what happens?  I'm sure you'd discover some spectacular things.

This past month I haven't read so much as I've been tryingto finish my first Italian book cover to cover.  When I finished it on the train yesterday I was ready I was ready for a marching band to go off, but alas! no such thing happened.  I also discovered Gianricco Carofiglio isn't my favorite writter (of the "gialli" or mystery varietal) and found myself learning how to say things like 'ooze' 'stab' 'gash' etc etc, but it feels like an accomplishment nonetheless.

My parents, sister, brother, aunt and uncle are all coming next week and I'm so excited I can't even breath.  We're going to Tuscany and as I haven't really explored the country I've been living in for six months now, I'm even more thrilled!

Have you ever read a book in another language?  Could you understand all of it?  Was there a technique you used whilst reading it?  I'm so curious!!



O'Mast

O'MAST from Kid Dandy on Vimeo.

When I have to test my students and I can see they are so nervous they look like they're about to pass out, I like to ask where their favorite place is in Italy, and to describe it to me.  Answers of course vary greatly, but many say Naples.  Yet Naples is like Venice, some people love it and some absolutely hate it, and if I'm testing two at once, it's happened where a great debate over it's pros and cons transpires.

In my opinion it seems like a fascinating place, I've heard you can walk down one street and feel like you're in the Middle East and the next a boulevard of Paris.  The Neapolitans are definitely the friendliest, funniest (they never want to speak English during lessons) and all miss their home city terribly.

I found this clip, from the documentary O'Mast about tailors of Naples by Gianluca Migliarotti, a few weeks back at the lovely Fox and Flyte blog and it has me yearning for a trip down the coast.  And not to sound too Milanese, but I really can barely understand what they are saying.  Let's go this summer, shall we?

Be the ocean, where I unravel

I'm sure all ten of you loyal readers are wondering where I've been, and I can tell you it's pained me to be separated from you!  My neighbor who's wi-fi I've been using for the last five months seemed to have discovered my clandestine activity and restricted his 'donation' of service so I had to go and get my own internet set-up...and since this is Italy, a month has gone by!  Quelle nightmare!

I believe where I left you I was freezing to death, wondering where the next meal would come from and dying of TB?  Thankfully all is better now, and I've just returned from a lovely trip to visit friends in Belgium.  I've read a few books, two of which are totally out of my normal reading radar but wonderful nonetheless.  Things Fall Apart is the Nigerian masterpiece by Chinua Achebe, a portrayal of tribal life at the time when the missionary's first arrived in Africa.  A tragic pageturner.  I found A Thousand Splendid Suns in my school library and picked it up rather half-heartedly...The next thing I new I was missing trainstops left and right, not answering my phone, and coming this close to calling out of work!  Gorgeous!  And I had a good cry on the plane to Brussels, not even caring that the man next to me was incredibly uncomfortable!

I must say I love Belgium!  After six months in noisy, chaotic and confusing Italy, it was a pleasant change to visit tranquil, well-designed and clean Belgium.  Everyone's house looks like it belongs in a design magazine and the food is amazing. There is also a strong vibe of melancholia with its grey sky and Gothic architecture which was just what I needed.  Being there you can really see why Dries van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester, Raf Simons and Axel Vervoordt are such creative geniuses.

We also went to the sea, something I haven't seen in five months.  As someone who, grew up seeing it about five or six times a day, it has been torture to be separated.  When we reunited my chest was pounding, my heart was soaring, tears were streaming (maybe from the wind)...I was all verklempt!

Maybe the Romantic surrounds overtook us, but my friend Lydia took a series of photos in a 10th Century Cathedral that came out down-right spectral...below a sample:



Miss Hargreaves

Some people make things up and then end up believing them.  My older brother is one.  Some can will something to happen, and within a short period of time, it happens.  A few times it's happened to me although I don't really believe I had anything to do with it.  Other people make up crazy stories and as the actions are created in their mind, they are happening in front of their eyes.  Such is the case with Norman.

Norman is the protagonist of the novel Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker, and along with his friend Henry creates an older lady named Miss Hargreaves.  The two of them were on vacation in Ulster and created her in the spur of the moment to pull the leg of a sexton.  Many details were added to their 'little' lie, and much to their surprise, along came Miss Hargreaves in the flesh to their town.

A little bit Pygmalion, a little bit Frankenstein, with a splash of  magical realism, this book was so much better than I'd expected!  I had heard of it several times from Simon at Stuck in a Book, and actually bought the book more than a year ago, but it wasn't until I moved here, and brought it along in one of my steamtrunks that I took the time to read it.  Something I regret now!  In his review he mentions there isn't a dull moment and he's absolutely write.  When you think of the premise, you wonder how will this excite me for 317 pages, but excite me it did!  I was moved, felt agony, happiness, sorrow and wanted more.  It begs the question: What would happen if one of your false stories came true?

I also love a good story about someone not quite on their rocker.  Look at the only five films I brought with me over here, films I can watch over and over again:  The Hours, Bright Young Things, Amelie, Grey Gardens and Strangers with Candy...if you have a similar love of people who find it difficult to make a distinct line between the real and the immaginary, I think you will love this book as much as I did.

And how about a clip, one that never gets old, that I like to watch at least once a month?

Como, Siberian-style

I have an American friend, who's married to an Italian and strategically lives in Como.  When both of us feel that need to speak with our own kind we seek each other out.  She lived in Vermont and was born in Long Island so we're practically kin!  We get together, drop our R's, say things like 'dude' (not really), and complain.  It's a lot of fun!  The fact that she's 50-something makes it even better!  I digress...

I went to visit her on Friday and Como was also in Dr. Zhivago-mode.  Stunning!  It didn't even look like the same place I visited a few weeks earlier.  I was ready for Laura to whip around a corner in a sleigh any second!

Milan, Siberian-style

We're in the middle of a weather system that has brought wind, freezing temperatures and snow from Siberia.  I couldn't be happier!  The past few days have beeen lovely with a constant light snow.  Today Milan was especially beautiful, blanketed in a few inches of fresh snow as the sun decided to peak out.  I almost always forget my camera but have been making an effort to bring it along always...so I can catch moments like this of the snow-line Santa Maria delle Grazie, the gorgeous 15th century church that houses Da Vinci's 'Last Supper' and the stereotypical Milanese on his phone.