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Cardinals, Cupolas and Caravans - a week learning italian in Rome.

Cardinals, Cupolas and Caravans - a week learning italian in Rome.

Old Feb 27th, 2013, 01:51 PM
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Cardinals, Cupolas and Caravans - a week learning italian in Rome.

First for the boring background bits. [please feel free to skip and go directly to go where you may collect your €200 and proceed to Rome] After several years of increasing frustration whenever I visited Italy [which when the kids were growing up was at least once a year] I decided that I wanted to learn Italian. I’d played with the idea previously, but never done it at all seriously. So about 5 years ago I signed up at our local further education college for an italian GCSE course [which is the exam english kids take in various subjects at age 16] and set off on my journey to get to grips with this beautiful language. Next stop was AS level, but unfortunately our local night school does not offer A level so from there I have moved into a conversation class with others of round about the same standard, though not everyone has done formal exams.

About 18 months ago I went by myself to a language school in the south of Tuscany http://www.linguaterramare.com/ and had a great time there, so when our italian teacher suggested that we could join in the trip to Rome being run by the college for their 16-17 year old students, which would include mornings at a language school, I jumped at the chance, along with 4 other adult learners.

So at stupid o’clock on a February Sunday morning, about a dozen of us, both grown-ups and 16-17 olds, plus our italian teacher, crowded onto a minibus and set off at a sedate pace [we are cornish after all] for Bristol airport and about 8 hours later, we were in ROMA. After what seemed like a pell-mell drive through the streets of the Eternal City, we arrived at our hotel, the Gravina: http://www.hotelgravinasanpietro.it/en/. No more than a 10 minute walk from St. Peter’s in the unfashionable and relatively untouristy area south of the Vatican, the hotel is very modern and quite swish, with monsoon showers and flat-screen TVs, though a bit more storage space wouldn’t have come amiss. We also had an amusing few minutes sorting out the rooms as those of us who were sharing had been given double beds, and those who were on their own, twins. But we got there in the end and by 7.30 pm, we were all gathering in reception for our first roman supper.

As we were all pretty tired we didn’t want to go far, and the hotel recommended we go to the trattoria just up the road, in fact less than a stone’s throw away, the wonderfully named Trattoria Vongole e Farina [clams and flour!] http://www.ristorantevongoleefarina.it/. Indeed they booked our table for us, so when 13 people turned up at the door, they weren’t too surprised. Water and wine arrived quickly [only for the adults, it’s a college rule that the students don’t drink on college trips] and shortly afterwards the kids’ pizzas arrived too - the restaurant has a wood-fired oven which was able to produce the typical thin roman pizza very quickly. The rest of us took more time, both to order and to eat; my fiori fritti [stuffed courgette flowers which are battered and deep-fried] were delicious, as was my spaghetti alla vongole [vongole = clams] and others had calzone, saltimbocca [veal with prosciutto and sage] grilled vegetables, and other local specialities. If you are one of those who worry about being expected to eat their way through every course on an italian menu, I’ve one word to say - don’t; nowhere that we ate did anyone care whether we had 3 courses or one. And they were very happy to explain dishes, in fact they respect you more if you question how dishes are made and what the best dish of the day is.

One thing we did have to do [not so much at this restaurant but at some others] was to scrutinise the bill very thoroughly. We would have done this anyway as we all wanted to pay separately, but we never found a bill that had been compiled or added up correctly. Trying to be generous, we put this down to the difficulties of serving 13 people, and it must be said that the mistakes were corrected with good grace and very quickly, though the time that they were €50 out did stretch our credulity somewhat!

After supper we were all too excited to go straight to bed, especially the kids, so we all walked over to St. Peter’s for the first look that some of us had ever had at the Basilica. Though cold, it was a lovely bright evening and the way they light the cupola at night is stunning and it was great to see the excitement that the kids showed - they were so enthusiastic! However we had lessons in the morning, so sadly there was no time for sneaking off to a bar for a beer or something stronger, and by 11 pm we were all in bed.

Tomorrow-some of us go back to school.
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Old Feb 27th, 2013, 03:17 PM
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Oh, I do like annhig trip reports. Looking forward to more!
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Old Feb 27th, 2013, 03:41 PM
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I'd love to go back to Rome again and especially to take a language course. Looking forward to reading more.
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Old Feb 27th, 2013, 04:37 PM
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Waiting for more!
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Old Feb 27th, 2013, 04:54 PM
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More please, Anne
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Old Feb 27th, 2013, 05:47 PM
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Oooh, looking forward to more. Much kudos on the language learning! (I take it you passed the GCSE = O levels in my day, right?)
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Old Feb 27th, 2013, 09:36 PM
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Hopping on
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Old Feb 27th, 2013, 09:54 PM
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Oh goody! I would love to do this one day ann!
I am starting up my Italian lessons again this weekend but it would be wonderful to do it in Italy.
My mouth is watering reading about your meal.

Waiting for more!!
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Old Feb 28th, 2013, 12:48 AM
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Wonderful, I look forward to reading more.
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Old Feb 28th, 2013, 01:47 AM
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Looking forward to more!!!!
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Old Feb 28th, 2013, 05:49 AM
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Pazientavi. Tornerò sta sera.

[be patient. I shall return this evening - or words to that effect].
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Old Feb 28th, 2013, 06:01 AM
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>>Pazientavi. Tornerò sta sera.
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Old Feb 28th, 2013, 06:36 AM
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Can't wait to find out more about your language, food & cultural experiences in Rome, Ann!
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Old Feb 28th, 2013, 07:02 AM
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I remember being impressed when you passed your AS level. I was away for ours, thus saving face, but heard that it was VERY difficult.
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Old Feb 28th, 2013, 08:41 AM
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I always enjoy reading your trip reports annhig and this one (to my favorite Italian city!) is no different. Can't wait to read more!
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Old Feb 28th, 2013, 03:00 PM
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Phew, I'm back. thank you all for your interest and [for those of you who posted them] kind words.

I'm planning now to post a section about the language school itself, rather than to deal with it on a daily basis. That means that people who are largely reading this to learn about the experience of being at a language school can do so early on, and the rest of you can read or skip it as you please.

this is the school we attended:http://www.languageinitaly.com/EN/index.php

like the hotel it was about 10 mins walk from St. Peter's and it took about 5 mins to walk between the two if them [more like 10 on the first morning as we got lost!] it's on the first floor of a modern building and I suppose that there were about 6 classrooms; while we were there there were 3 classes in operation every morning, ranging from more or less beginners to a level which was [just about] suitable for me. lessons were 3 hours long, [9.30 -12.30] and they followed a familiar pattern - initial conversation about a topic, reading and discussing a text, doing some grammar exercises, etc. etc. half way through the morning, we went to a local bar for a coffee and cornetto or other pasticceria. it was VERY civilised, [and cheap!] and we carried on speaking italian to each other and to the staff who were very good about correcting our italian and not speaking english either.

half-way through the week i got moved up a class, but I still had probably done more italian than the others in my new group; unfortunately there wan't a class above that for me to move into. when going to a language school you might to check that when you are going, as well as your class there will be others that you can move into - either up OR down.

IMO the standard of the teaching was very good; italians are proud of their culture and language and take the teaching of italian very seriously; they also expect their students to be serious about it and expect homework to be done, lessons to be attended on time, etc. etc. That said, our teachers went to a lot of trouble to make the lessons interesting and fun, especially for the college students, who apart from the 2nd morning when they were being difficult, entered fully into the spirit of things.

unless you are a complete beginner most schools will carry out a test on the first morning to see how much italian you have and which class to put you into, Classes are normally between 4-8/9 people; more than that and you are unlikely to get as much individual attention as you might like. we had a wide range of other people in our classes - a young man from libya, a russian woman, a korean priest and a colombian diplomat were in my class, and the beginners were with an american girl on her gap year, a dutch chap who wanted to learn italian for business reasons, and two polish priests. As well as having varied reasons to learn italian, their approaches and abilities can vary to, but by and large they were pretty enthusiastic and willing to learn.

Most schools, and this one was no different, put on various activities in the afternoon and/or evening. it wasn't so important for us as we had our group, but this is great particularly if you are attending by yourself as it gives you a social life where you can carry on practising at the same time.

Sadly we only had a week; two weeks would have been a great deal better. I certainly felt a great deal more confident by the 4th day and had I been able to stay on for another week, I believe that I would have made a lot more progress. our teacher is talking about us going to Florence next year - I can hardly wait!
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Old Feb 28th, 2013, 07:15 PM
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I'd love to learn Italian this way! Looking forward to more.
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Old Mar 1st, 2013, 12:17 AM
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I think I will move to Cornwall.
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Old Mar 1st, 2013, 02:11 AM
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what's stopping you, tarquin?

ok, on with the trip:

Monday morning - queues, what queues?

We were all down to breakfast for 8am, [yes, even the teenagers] and were generally pleasantly surprised by what we found - a choice of juices, cereals, fruit and yoghurt, rolls and cold meats, and a selection of pasticcierie - cornetti etc. plus as much coffee/tea as you wanted including freshly made cappuccini, espressi, etc. i noticed that our italian teacher [shall i just call her DT as in dear teacher?] started with a cappuccino, and finished with an espresso - very italian!

Then we gathered at about 9am to walk to the school, allegedly about 5 mins away. We did well shepherding the kids across the busy road we had to cross [generally even roman drivers stop at red lights] and then after a left and a right found ourselves in the correct road, but then the fun started, as there was no pavement and the cars and buses were coming at us pretty fast. Single file only please! Even finding the right building was difficult, and then the right part of the building, but we eventually made it with minutes to spare.

I found myself in a class with one other adult and the AS level students, and though they struggled a little, I really enjoyed the 3 hours, probably because it was too easy for me. [not boasting, getting the right level so that you are stretched, but not too much, is really important]. the adult beginners, who by and large had been learning italian for only 6 months, were placed in a so called beginners' class which had started the week before, but had some people in it who had been doing italian for a LOT longer than that. They emerged 3 hours later looking shell-shocked and muttering words of rebellion, but by the end of the week they had progressed an enormous amount and were happily talking to people in shops, ordering things in restaurants, and were generally far more confident than they had been on the monday morning.

Whilst we were in the class, DT had set about organising our afternoon excursion, and by chance, rather than the walking tour of the centro storico that she had originally planned, she had swapped that with the wednesday Vatican museum and St. Peter's tour. What a stroke of genius that was - a miracle perhaps - as on that Monday, there were no queues to get into the Vatican museums or st. Peter's. At all. So we simply walked round the endless vatican walls to the museum entrance, picked up our tickets, and we were in!

Last time i went to the vatican museums, we spent about 5 hours in there, mainly because we made the big mistake of trying to see everything AND got lost round the egyptian rooms, which we saw twice! This time I was much more discerning, and wandered very slowly round the rooms that interested me most which was a real joy. Of them all I best liked the map room - which in reality is a very long corridor - lined with C17 maps of Italy and the world beyond as it was known at that time. Also I think that they must have changed things, as it is now possible to by-pass quite a lot of the museum [the Raphael rooms in particular] to get to the Sistine chapel; I didn't do this but it does now mean that the rest of the museum is not clogged up with people who have really only gone there for one thing!

There is also a cafeteria just before the S/Chapel which could make a very useful meeting point if you get separated from your party, and want a place to meet up before the exit.

As ever, the chapel was heaving, but we managed to find places to sit around the edge and to shut out at least some of the noise. Having seen it before I was less overwhelmed than some of my companions, but the enthusiasm of the kids was infectious, and we spent quite a long time trying to spot different aspects of the work that they had read about; it was nice to see it through their eyes. But after about 30 mins we'd had enough, and seeing it was open, we took the "group exit" door at the back of the chapel on the right, and going down the stairs exited the museums and headed for St. Peter's.

For those who are not familiar with this door, standing with your back to the altar it is at the rear of the chapel in the far right -hand corner, and it bypasses the long and largely uninteresting trek back to the museum exit, and the walk back around the vatican walls, AND the security check [and queue] to get into St. Peter's; the only reason for not using it might be if you wanted to use the audio-guide which has to be returned to the desk by the entrance. We had deliberately not taken the audio-guides for that very reason, and our feet were very grateful!

The sheer size of St. Peter's cannot fail to impress no matter how many times you've been, and the richness and bustle of the interior can be quite overwhelming. despite being secured behind glass, the Pietà transcends it all though, and i spent a long time looking at her. The rest of it is not really to my taste, and i was certainly ready to leave by the time DT had finished her tour round the building with the kids.

Hardly able to believe our good luck in having got into the vatican museums AND St. Peter's without having to queue at all, we walked back to the hotel ready for a rest before dinner, and in my case, a cup of tea, which sadly I knew I wasn't going to be able to have - no kettles were provided in our hotel, I'm afraid to say.

Next - no cardinals, but we still got a good dinner!
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Old Mar 1st, 2013, 04:43 AM
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Greatreport! (I remember your reort about the Italian school you attended awhile back.) I loved your "stupid o'clock" comment.

Looking forwrd to the rest of the story!
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