On my last day in Sorrento, I find myself reminiscing about my time here. It has been an incredible experience in terms of the development of my linguistic and cultural skills, but also by enabling personal growth. At the start, when my tentative attempts at Italian were met with English, I would sometimes bow to the pressure and use English. Now, when people hear me responding in confident Italian, I hardly get any English responses – I get ‘wow, your Italian is really good!’ instead. During my trip, I have also developed my resilience and patience: when things get stressful or frustrating, I respond in a more productive way, allowing me to retain mental clarity and not get as overwhelmed.
When thinking about my favorite memories from this trip, one that comes to mind is Sant’Anna Day, dedicating to celebrating Saint Anna. The town sets off fireworks intermittently throughout the day – which I have to say is a little disconcerting when it is midday and you hear a loud banging noise all of a sudden – and they have a celebration in the Marina Grande in the evening. They had stalls lining the street selling candy, toys, jewellery – lots of different types of small things to honor Sant’Anna. In the evening, I went down to the Marina with my friend where we wandered past the stalls to ‘Soul and Fish,’ a restaurant on the edge of the water (100% recommend). There, we had the most incredible dinner: we sipped complementary Prosecco whilst we browsed the menu, then ordered our food. As we were waiting for our food, we were served a delicious, small, breaded fishcake. Then, before we knew it, our food had arrived: sea bass with zucchini and pesto with a side of lemon risotto. Again, it was incredible! After eating the plate clean, we ordered tiramisu for dessert which did not disappoint. It was a great way to finish the meal! We left the restaurant feeling extremely content and wandered to the beach just in front, where we dropped our things then headed into the sea for a late evening/night swim; by this time, it was dark out. From the water, we could see the lights of the decorations, the bustling street with the stalls, people enjoying meals at the surrounding restaurants and even fire performers! It was amazing to be present for a local celebration and experience their traditions and joy but there was something even more beautiful about watching it slightly from afar in the sea. As we floated in the gulf of Naples, we watched marching bands go past in their traditional outfits, playing Italian folk songs, children watching magicians and dancers performing – it was magical! My takeaway from this was that, although it’s important to get involved in other cultural experiences, there is also value in taking a step back and observing from a distance so as not to disturb their cultural flow.