When Nutmeg Met Basil

A few new words!

Orecchiabile: Catchy (describing a song.)  Orecchio means ear.  Cute, no?

Per eccellenza: the creme de la creme…when something is the very best.  Examples: Firenze e` la citta` d’arte italiana per eccellenza.  Chianti e` il vino italiano per eccellenza.

Viene giu` il mondo: It’s raining so hard that the world is coming down!  Which it was in Florence and Bologna on Monday morning…

My frenetic one-night, 60-euro round-trip to Florence Sunday was not in vain: my ticket was successfully changed, and only with the promised $50 fee.  Happily, the trip gave me the chance to catch up with some old friends, spend a few more hours in Florence (unfortunately quite rainy), revisit Fiesole, and eat a pizza–with anchovies (acciughe…my first time ever.)

This morning, it was back to the grind…making use of the free wifi (only until Mar 31) aboard my snazzy FrecciaRossa train from Florence to Bologna (leaving every hour on the hour, you get there is just half an hour, and the video screen on the train even tells you what platform your connecting train will be on.)

Sadly, now that my return date is set for April 19, I have to confront the reality of going home, and the fact that I’ve come to like it here in Parma, even though it took me a while to understand that it could never repeat the experience I had in Florence.

What will the future bring?

Here in Parma, they say either “validissimo” (super-valid) or “tanta roba” (so much stuff!).

Just in case there is anyone else out there in my position, I thought I would offer a brief review of the drama associated with my Italy-America travel plans.

First of all, in the name of full disclosure, I have to admit I exude negative airline energy.  It began back in summer of 2009, the first time I bought an airline ticket on my own.  Planning to visit my friend Dallas for a week, I bought a ticket several months in advance from JetBlue.  A few weeks before departure, I double-checked the ticket.  I had booked it for the wrong week.  I have no idea how, but changing the ticket to the date I wanted doubled its price.  Lesson learned: don’t buy tickets when sleep-deprived and/or after midnight.  Double-check flight confirmation as soon as you get it.

Then, there was my trip to visit my grandma in Las Vegas in March 2010, when I packed a duffel bag to carry on the plane with me.  My flight from Burlington to Chicago was pretty small, so once I got on the plane, the flight attendants offered to check my bag for me.  Or so I thought.  I didn’t realize that I was supposed to wait at our arrival gate in Chicago for them to bring the bag up from under the plane.  The bag didn’t have my name on it, and the flight attendant didn’t give me any receipt for the bag, so I went over to my connecting flight.  I realized, somewhere over Colorado, that I should have picked the bag up.  Too late.  A visit to the lost luggage department and many phone calls and emails to United Airlines later, plus a shopping trip to Kmart to buy some clothes I needed for the week, and the bag was safely delivered to me free of charge.  About 2 months after the trip.  Lesson learned: label my bags.  Pick up my bags from underneath the plane at arrival gate.

So that brings us to the most recent drama, which has been occupying most of my time in the past week.

Way back in Oct 2010, when I decided to become an au pair, I bought my ticket through STA Travel.  I paid about $1000 round-trip from Rochester, NY to Florence.  I wanted to fly into Florence, which is 2 hours by train from where I am, because I wanted to greet my old host family and friends there before I met my new family in Parma.  I bought a round-trip ticket, even though i didn’t know when I was coming back, because it was supposed to be cheaper–STA offers a $50 flat first-time change fee.  So I arbitrarily chose June 1.  And, against my better judgment, I flew Lufthansa.

Fast-forward to a week ago:  I call STA to change my return ticket to late April.  They reply that Lufthansa has reclaimed the ticket due to a flight change.  I wrack my brain to remember that back in November, United Airlines cancelled the first flight of my journey, from Rochester to Chicago, and Lufthansa rebooked me on an earlier but identical flight.  Apparently, this caused Lufthansa to reissue the ticket and reclaim the itinerary, meaning that STA can no longer make any changes.  They told me to call Lufthansa.

When I called Lufthansa, I spoke with a very rude woman named Sharon who insisted that she would have to charge me the $250 change fee as per Lufthansa policy.

STA then told me to call Lufthansa with my ticket number.

Lufthansa told me they could charge me the $50 fee, but because there are no seats left in my “fare class,” which is the cheapest available, they’ll have to charge me the fare difference.

I called STA.  After a few days, the travel agent working on my case told me I have to go to the Florence airport to speak with the ticket counter.

And so, I’m off to Florence today, hoping for the best…

That’s an expression that D’s second-grade class learned in a recent English lesson.  For reasons unfathomable to me, the only responses they learned were the following:

• It’s sunny.
• It’s cloudy.
• It’s rainy.
• It’s snowy.
• It’s changeable wind.

Okay the first three are fine, but I’ve never described the weather as “changeable wind” in my life.  Is it a British thing?

Anyway, speaking of weather, here in Sant’Ilario the weather is perking up.  In other words, it’s getting HOT.  Like 70 degrees Fahrenheit.  I don’t have very many spring clothes with me, since it was hard to fit them into my suitcase on top of all the scarves, long underwear, and winter jackets.  But I did some shopping (not surprisingly, easy to do in Italy), and bought myself some spring clothes–including two pairs of open-toed flat sandals yesterday.

I bought the shoes at Pittarello, which is exactly the kind of store I once believed could not exist in Italy.  It’s basically a DSW with only Italian-made shoes at unbelievable prices.  Does it look a little like how I imagine heaven?  More than a little.  They have a huge selection of gorgeous elegant spring high heels, but I went practical since I don’t have any sandals with me.

So, this morning, I walked into D’s second-grade glass wearing a sundress over a short-sleeved T-shirt and my sandals.

A sampling of reactions from the 7-year-olds and their teacher:

• You look like you’re in Hawaii!
• What a nice dress!
• Aren’t you cold?
• Aren’t your feet cold?
• You’re even wearing sunglasses!  Can I try them on?

The fact is, this isn’t the first time that Italian elementary-school children have reprimanded me for dressing inappropriately.  Whether, I’m not wearing my jacket outside on a warm(ish) day, or riding my bike without a hat, they’ve let me know their concern.  This is the first time that I hazarded bare feet.  It was definitely worth it.

But it leaves me asking myself: Is Italy truly an alternate universe?  You know, one in which kids tell me how to dress–and not the other way around?

Here’s your next Italian lesson.

“incavolarsi“: to screw up, get confused.  It’s an extension of the popular replacement of the swear word ca**o with “cavolo” (cabbage), equivalent to saying “darn it” or “oh, sugar” in English.  Except Italians are saying, “What the cabbage are you doing?”  (Che cavolo fai?).

Mi incavolo is something that the kids I work with say a lot to express frustration with a certain task, for example, playing pingpong or sewing.  I just crack up inside though, as I hear them saying “I in-cabbage myself,” and imagine them transforming into a cabbage.

Example:

Non mi piace mica cucire, e` troppo difficile e poi mi incavolo. I don’t like sewing at all, it’s too hard and I mess up.

…and I still feel beachy!  In five days I saw Naples, Pompei, Sorrento, Capri, Amalfi, Atrani, Ravello, and Positano, with two of my closest friends.  I’m exhausted but exhilarated.  The South was just as welcoming as I remembered and their desserts were just as good!  I’ll be getting some photos and lots of reviews up in the next few days.  Stay tuned!

After my brief time inside the chapel (made short by my urgent need to see a restroom after over an hour in line, I departed on an hour long walk from Ile de la Cite to Gaelle’s office right next to the Arch de Triomphe.  Suddenly, I wasn’t cold anymore.  I was walking in the sun, and by contrast to the last time I was in Paris, when it was Christmas, now it was definitely springtime.

along the champs-elysees

i love their metro signs!

My friend Tommaso taught me this one.  It’s not technically Italian, it’s dialect.

A scrocco: for free.

Example

Quando viaggio, resto sempre con gli amici a scrocco. When I travel, I always stay with my friends for free.

Since I’ve been back in Italy, I’ve learned a few new words and expressions in Italian.  Some of them aren’t exactly new– they’re just colloquial expressions that are frequently used here in Sant’Ilario.

In this new series, I’ll teach you one expression or new word per post!

The first:

“Ma, secondo te, …”

The phrase secondo te literally means “According to you.”  You can use secondo in front of other pronouns too.  Examples:

Secondo lei, dobbiamo scendere alla prossima fermata. In her opinion (according to her), we must get off at the next stop.

Secondo me e` scemo. I think he’s an idiot.

Here in Sant’Ilario, though, I hear people say ma secondo te all the time.  From what I’ve deduced, linguistics detective that I am, it’s a rhetorical question used for emphasis.

Examples:

I teach English at the elementary school of the little girl I take care of (D.)  When I first came to school, D’s English teacher introduced me to another teacher, who remarked that it was lucky for the kids to have a mother-tongue instructor like me visiting.  D’s English teacher responded, “Ma, secondo te, un’opportunita` come questa, la perderei?” (In your opinion, would I let an opportunity like this pass me by?”

When one of the kids suggests doing something that’s out of the question, their mom responds, “Ma, secondo te???” which I take to mean, “Are you kidding me?”

D’s grandmother frequently uses the phrase to express her disapproval over the behavior of others.  For example, the other day she recounted to me a situation in which a woman the next town over cheated on her husband with his brother.  Shaking her head, Grandma said in disgust, “Ma, secondo te?!”