Author: julianapina

I am back in South Bend and I am truly glad to be here. First, because it’s my home, and second because my whole trip was great, and I’m coming back changed, refreshed and better as a person. Of all the things I love about traveling solo, the total independence in making decisions is my favorite and I think you learn a lot about yourself when you act on your desires and needs. Italy has given me so many things, it’s hard to name them all, but I think in the end I will remember the most simple things. Gestures of tenderness or words of love, secrets of a delicious recipe in a minute, fragments of ancient history hidden in a facade, and stories of life, of lives that are nothing like mine.

My last day in Italy was spent on a train. I had traveled to the south of the country and needed to make it to Rome to catch my flight home. The trip would be long, but I would have time to make one last passeggiata through the city at sunset, eat my last carbonara and buy some souvenirs. However, things did not go as I had hoped. The first train I was supposed to take was canceled and I had to take a bus to Naples, and from there take a new train to Rome. This change made me about three hours late, but I would still have time for that delicious dinner and maybe some quick shopping. But things didn’t work out that way. My train left from Naples but no sooner had it made one station than it stopped because a distant fire would not let it move forward. We had to get off the train and wait for hours for a solution.  

During those hours I talked to everyone. I met people from all over Italy who spoke different variations of the language and I had to sharpen my ear to understand what they were saying. It was one of the most linguistically challenging experiences of my entire stay in Italy. In every case, I would politely ask to speak slower or paraphrase a sentence. People were anxious and worried, so they talked and talked. I started to take part in the chiacchierata  as well, and just like that time went by until a new train came to our rescue.

Finally, I didn’t get to eat that last carbonara and I arrived so late that all the restaurants were closed. I had to settle for ordering Chinese food which was delicious and then went out for a gelato at Fassi, a traditional Roman ice cream shop. I felt exhausted but tremendously grateful for every event of the day. In the end, things happen as they are meant to happen, and taking them as they come, leaving all our expectations aside, is the best lesson a trip can teach us.

Would I recommend studying a language abroad? Absolutely yes. Especially if you are determined to make the most out of your experience. Every day was different and somehow challenging, even if I was having a lot of fun I was out of my comfort zone. I am beyond grateful for everything that this opportunity that The Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures gave me, and all the assistance and help I received from the Staff. I will never get tired of saying how valuable this Summer Language Abroad opportunity was to me. Good Bye, Italy. We will meet again soon.

As the weeks go by, I gain more and more confidence in the use of the language and can express more complex ideas. It becomes easy to restate the context and repeat the usual formula such as sitting down in a restaurant for dinner or going to the grocery store to buy some fruit. But everything changes when somebody asks you a personal question and you have to combine emotional aspects with linguistic ones.

It seems that the heat wave in Europe, and particularly in Italy, is nothing like the previous ones. People say that June is too early to be between 34°C and 36°C with no change and they express some concern over some regions where there has been no rain for weeks. And then they ask me what it is like in my country, what people do in summer and finally, if I don’t miss home. These questions are more difficult to answer because every time I think of different things, I try to say them in Italian, or speak while thinking.

On the other hand, these days I have been reflecting a lot on how people are never indifferent to the culture of other countries. Is it possible not to compare, not to express an opinion, not to evaluate or qualify other cultural aspects? I believe that doing so is inevitable and yet I also believe that we do not dwell enough on the similarities, which are much greater than the particularities.

I still can’t get over the amazement I had when I visited the Parco Archeologico Pompeii in southern Italy. Ever since I saw an exhibition at the Moesgard Museum in Denmark a few years ago I fantasized about visiting it. Luckily, in Italy, it is very easy to access from Napoli or even from Roma with the “treno veloce” thanks to which you can go and come back in a day. In the year 79 a nearby volcano, Vesuvius, flooded the city with lava and ashes, preserving it for the next 2,000 years. It is one of the most famous and spectacular archaeological sites in the world.

Pompeii was a city where many wealthy Romans built their homes, enjoying the climate on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The only drawback of the area was the volcano, but its inhabitants had never seen it erupt. Although there were some earth tremors in the years leading up to the catastrophe, the people of Pompeii ignored them and went on with their lives. After the explosion, the city was buried in ashes and lava. Once these volcanic remains solidified, they sealed the city, which was buried and then forgotten, until other people found its remains in the future.

Today, about three-quarters of the city has been unearthed and a visit can give you an idea of what daily life was like in Pompeii. The buildings have been restored, with reconstructed roofs, and scientists have identified and preserved seeds of many plants and replanted the gardens enjoyed by the Pompeians. It is a unique place to discover how many similarities we have with the Romans from 2000 years ago.

The crosswalks so as not to sink one’s feet where the water used to flow are almost identical to our current pedestrian paths. The artistic decorations of the houses, the beautiful fountains in the inner courtyards, the paintings on the street walls with the name of the political candidate, the taverns where people socialized, and the temples to venerate deities. All signs that the former practices are essentially the same as those of today, there and here.

I think that was the most surprising point for me. I expected to discover different ways of life in a distant city, but I ended up recognizing my own. The visit to Pompeii is a summary of a feeling that accompanied me for a good part of my trip to Italy and with which I want to stay.

In the morning I go to school.  I walk to the metropolitana station, make five stops on the train, get off and head towards the school, which is right in the city center. As suggested by my classmate Patrizia, I take a break of no more than ten minutes to have a “caffè e cornetto” in a bar and then, with renewed happiness, I make the last walk to the school.

Early in the morning, I have grammar class. Then there is a break in which we all go downstairs to socialize by a “nasone”, one of the 2,500 drinking water fountains distributed throughout the city, which are a relief in the midst of temperatures close to 40° Celsius. They are called “nasoni” because the shape of the metal tube emulates that of a nose, and although they were installed in the 19th century, the water is brought to us thanks to the aqueducts built by the ancient Romans. It is clear that Rome has a particular connection with water, which can also be seen in the monumental fountains and in the ancient thermal baths.

During the break, the conversation is joyful, gentle and a bit laborious because we always chat in Italian. I usually talk with the German girls, Andrea and Patrizia, and with “i fratelli”, Gibbi and Don. I discovered that there are those who go to school for the sole pleasure of studying languages and spending their vacations abroad while others, like my religious classmates, have to finish the B1 level to be able to begin their superior studies in Rome. It is significant how many religious persons from all over the world come to the Roman universities to pursue their higher studies in religion, not without first passing through the Italian language schools. I have learned a lot during this time and thanks to them, I was able to appreciate some visits to Roman churches and basilicas.

Then, I have the conversation class with professor Augusto, a very talented instructor. In his class, we make plans with the other classmates, organize lunches in the area and learn a lot about Roman and Italian culture. After this class, the individual lessons begin, although not all classmates take them. After these three classes, there is not so much time left to visit museums and attractions, but there is plenty of time to have an ice cream or take a walk downtown. The more substantial activities are left for the weekend. With Andrea, for example, we went to the beach in Santa Marinella by train. We decided to buy a very nice light orange umbrella because the beach was full of people, and we stayed there until late. On the way back, we went to eat in Trastevere, a neighborhood where everyone is at night because of the number of restaurants, bars, and live music. I have been to this area several times, it is one of my favorite spots in the city.

One of the objectives of this trip was to visit all the places where there were remains of ancient thermal baths to learn all about these wonderful sites linked to health, because in ancient times the contact between water and skin was a health issue. First of all, I visited the thermal baths of Caracalla, where you can rent virtual reality glasses that superimpose a more or less reliable recreation of how this space looked in the past. Truthfully, it wasn’t that interesting a visit although I would like to go back to attend the Teatro dell’Opera there at these baths. On the other hand, I was impressed by the baths of Emperor Diocleziano. The place is absolutely fantastic and very well preserved. The enclosure was truly immense, it could hold up to 3000 people. In fact, around the 4th century d.C., when they were built, they were the largest baths in all of Rome. As there are still enclosures called “Aula” it is possible to imagine that the water was accumulated there and then passed into the pool. All the time I had a strange feeling of being submerged under water, I could not explain why.

One last note about the thermal baths. After my visit to the Pantheon, as I was going around the outside of the building, I came across the sight of the remains of an ancient building, almost like a rock, protruding from the facade of some houses. I asked the waiter on the corner who told me that these were the remains of Agrippa’s baths built around the first century BC, the first in Rome. I had to confirm this information later because I thought the man was joking with me. But he wasn’t.

During my first week in Rome, I only slept a few hours each night. I was everywhere, tasted every type of pasta in the region and talked to every available person. In some places, like the Colosseum, I was there several times, at different times of the day. I think that is one of my favorite places in Rome. I was also in Trastevere several times and in the Jewish ghetto, where I would go to eat “Carciofi alla giudìa”. I must say that despite being in one of the most irrigated hearts of Italy, the amount of tourism, in general, is such that it is not always easy to encounter Italians, especially when you go to monumental places. But being this the first week, and my first time in Rome, I allowed myself to participate in these hotbeds of tourists while learning a little about the reasons that bring people from all over the world to Rome.

However, in the midst of the bustle of multilingualism, I could identify this word that the Romans said to each other from time to time: “schialla”. Soon after, Augusto, my conversation teacher at the Italian school, would explain to me that this expression means something like “relax”. I quickly adopted it and began to use it mostly for myself whenever I had to wait for the bus not knowing at what time it would come. A surprise for me was that, according to the Romans, I was very lucky to be hosted in an apartment that was a twenty-minute walk from a “metropolitana” station. To go to school, I have no possibility but to take the metro every day as the buses don’t run frequently. But this walk in the middle of the suffocating heat is not pleasant for me in the afternoons. I see that young people use bicycles and city scooters, although I realize that in order to use them you have to know the traffic rules very well and pay a lot of attention. I prefer to use my time and attention to get to know the city better. To deal with the hot weather when I return home after a “passeggiata” I usually have a delicious Roman gelato. My favorite flavor is pistacchio.

One of the grammatical aspects of Italian that I had to absorb quickly was the difference between the informal second person “tu” and the formal second person “Lei”. During my lessons at Notre Dame with my wonderful professor Patrick Vivirito, I practiced this difference but it wasn’t until I was here that I understood the importance of handling the shift between one form and the other in a fluent and natural way. On the metro, for example, I pay attention to the form Romans use before saying “schendo” to indicate that they are getting off at the next station. There are those who always use the formal expression to ask permission and say: “Scusi, schendo” and others who sometimes use the informal expression when their counterpart is young: “Scusa, schendo”. In the metro I was addressed in both ways and I began to think about which one I should use. I started to do the same in cafés and restaurants, when ordering a carbonara, for example. One aspect of communication that I really appreciate about the Romans is that they always answer me in Italian even though they can easily see that I am a foreigner. They never switch to English if I choose to use their language, and I think they appreciate that.

In the next post I will tell about the school, the friends I made, and the most beautiful places I visited.

I had been lucky enough to make most of the arrangements for my trip during the end of the spring semester before I had to devote myself only to finals. Everything was going very well. All I needed to do was pack my suitcase and plan a few must-sees in the Eternal City. However, one sunny morning in a silent and almost dessert-like South Bend, shortly after opening my eyes and feeling thirsty, I received an email from the Italian language school where I had enrolled. In a few but concise words, they told me that they had not been able to gather the minimum number of people to open the course I was supposed to take, but that they were offering to cover the same amount of hours with individual lessons. In short, I was offered almost 100 hours of being alone with an Italian teacher. Nothing like what I had expected. Picture this, less than a week before I was about to get on the plane! I’m not going to say that I kept my calm and decided to fix myself a healthy breakfast. I’ll just say that I panicked slightly and sent an email or two or six. Luckily for me, Mary Davis was able to ease my mind and help me solve the problem.

Finally, everything turned out for the best. I found another school that offered the course I needed, which was also located closer to my future lodging, although it was impossible for me to find a school that would start that same Monday. I ended up with a better educational option, a week of 100% vacation for me, and an extension of my stay to complete those hours of instruction that I would be missing. 

The arrival was exceptional, just as I had been told it would be, with trains from Rome’s main airport to the city canceled, and people moving nervously in the station from one platform to the other. A man explained to me what would happen to my train, in crystal clear Italian.  I could understand everything from his description of the current situation to future actions. 

I arrived at Roma Termini station at night. I knew my hostess would not be home, but her mother – who spoke only Italian – would be waiting up for me. It was already late. So I ate a trancio di pizza at the station and got into a cab. The driver was just as he should be. An absolutely charming man and a clever cab driver. He immediately began to explain to me how I had to make an extensive detour that would cost me a few extra euros because of some repairs in the Colosseo area. He also told me that passengers sit in the front seat, next to the driver, to facilitate conversation, a detail that was sweeter than factual. I told him that since the detour was unavoidable, he should show me around the city at night. He took me all over, and never stopped talking, but also never stopped listening to me generously and patiently, and even giving me some grammatical corrections. The lighting was perfect for observing the monuments and historical sites. He offered to park and take some pictures of me, but my hostess’s mother was waiting for me. Later on, when I approached these crowded places, I would regret a bit not having enjoyed them in solitude.

In the end, we arrived at my new home and the conversation was so lively, that the cab driver charged me almost nothing for the ride. That was my first contact with the city. The next day, I would see the touristy, bustling, lively, and picturesque Rome. A completely different city about which I have a lot to tell.