Italian in the Park
I’ve had the great pleasure of coming across an Italian conversation group since I arrived in Aix. I stumbled across it on “Meetup” and without hesitation I decided to join. Here, I met Rosario. This lovely Italian guy who had decided to start an Italian group, for free, and help people with their language skills. What a brilliant idea and such a nice way to help a few of us get through this isolating confinement.
I missed the first class, because I was unable to open Skype. Afterwards, Rosario offered to meet me privately (online) to talk and decide which level would be a good fit for me. We made a new appointment to meet the next day at 10:00. Well, I almost missed that, too. I still haven’t told him, but that first meeting, I literally jumped out of bed, threw on a shirt, left my pyjama bottoms on and sat there in front of the screen trying not to look like I’d just opened my eyes. How embarrassing. This covid routine had gotten the best of me. I had developed a bad habit of waking up in the middle of the night and falling back to sleep at around 7:00 in the morning. I usually woke up at 10 or so. With nothing to wake up for, it was too easy to stay in bed. So, after talking for about 30 minutes, Rosario decided that I would fit right in with the intermediate group. Really? I was very surprised. That week, I joined the group and was happy to discover that it was, actually a nice level for me. There was another American guy and a French woman. Just enough of us to converse and too few of us to feel intimidated.
I’ve been joining the class for 2 months now and the other day Rosario asked me if I’d be interested in doing an exchange. 50/50 English and Italian. Again, how could I say no? This was a perfect arrangement. I now had 3 days of Italian. Pinch! His English is so much better than my Italian but I think we manage to help each other. He has a lot of patience to sit and listen to me grabbing words out of thin air that are almost always in the wrong tense or said incorrectly. I think I’m speaking a mix of Italian and French most of the time.
Today, Rosario came to Aix to meet me for a walk and a talk. It was very nice to meet him in person. We both wore our masks and enjoyed a long walk through Aix where we made our way over to the Park. Once there, we spotted a bench which had a little spot of sun inviting us to sit down. Of course, the Italian jumped for it. He was freezing, in his down jacket and wool hat. For me, it felt like Spring and I was just happy to be outside and have a little company. I hadn’t seen another adult in weeks.
He told me about his life in Sicily and we swapped stories about how we’d ended up in France. It was so interesting to hear about the culture and understand more about local life in his home town. He shared stories about living in a place that was completely run by the mafia. We hear about it but I don’t think we realize just how much control they really have over everything that goes on there. In fact, this is what forced hime to leave. He told me how he’d decided to come to France because he felt that there is more opportunity here. He loves Italy and goes back often but doesn’t want to live there anymore.
He explained all of this in English and Italian. Surprisingly, I understood most of what he said in Italian and I tried, with great difficulty, to speak a bit in his beautiful language. It worked!
This was a nice day and I really enjoyed spending time with Rosario. I am looking forward to more days like this and let’s hope that when we are finally out of the Covid crisis, we can all get to know each other even better and see each other more often.
A beautiful day in Aix. A nice meeting and it reminded me a bit of a “meet cute”. I love this expression. Just a sweet moment with a new person.
La Dolce Vita.