Cardinals, Cupolas and Caravans - a week learning italian in Rome.
Mar 10th, 2013, 06:52 AM
#41
from now on I won't go into detail about the morning lessons at the language school - the followed the familiar pattern of checking home-work, conversation on a chosen topic, etc, etc. Half way through this morning they decided to move me [not I think because I'd been naughty, but you never know] and I found myself in a class with what might be described as an interesting dynamic. as well as a couple of students I'd come across earlier in the week there was a mother and son in the group; the son spent most of his time sparring with the teacher, and the mother spent most of her time grumbling at the son. As this was carried out mostly in Italian, [the rest was in a mixture of english and russian, that being the mother's mother tongue] it was instructive as well as entertaining, though what the korean priest who was also in the group made of it I'm not sure.
work in this class was more difficult and i was quite grateful when lunchtime arrived and i met up with all the others in our group which was scheduled today to explore the centro storico, ending up at the parco borghese. at least the kids were scheduled to do this, we adults had already decided that at some point we would head off and do our own thing. Bus tickets obtained from our usual tabacchi, we jumped on the 527 bus, vaildated our tickets and kept our eyes peeled for the right stop along the corso vittorio emmanuele for the campo dei fiori. no, no, no, YES! phew - is everyone off? [it's harder than you might think to get 13 people off the bus at the same time, especially when most of them have no idea of where they are going, and even fewer of them are paying attention!]
First stop the campo dei fiori market and while some of us shopped, the others came to terms with the weird way that the shops that sell pizza by the slice operate. the one we ended up at required you first of all to choose the type and size of slice you wanted, then to be given a ticket, which you take to the cash till on the other side of the shop [thus crossing the stream of people trying to get to the bakery part of the shop at the back] then pay, then crossing the same stream of people, to present the receipt in return for your pizza. What a palaver. the idea apparently is to prevent the pizza cooks and cutters from having to handle money, but there must be easier ways. still, when in Rome...and the pizza was excellent.
After the mandatory shopping, [the cheese prices were very keen we thought] we managed to shepherd all our charges across the corso, and following the signs for the Piazza Navona, we managed to find it without too frequent recourse to the map. Despite all the picture sellers, the hawkers, the mime artists, the levitating priest, and the rest of the tourist crud, it is still extremely impressive, particularly the fountain of the four rivers in the middle, which our young photographed from every possible angle.
Sadly I must leave you now, as England are about to play Italy at rugby, so I'm afraid on that cliff-hanger I will have to depart - hopefully for not as long as last time!
spero che ci vediamo subito!
see you soon!
work in this class was more difficult and i was quite grateful when lunchtime arrived and i met up with all the others in our group which was scheduled today to explore the centro storico, ending up at the parco borghese. at least the kids were scheduled to do this, we adults had already decided that at some point we would head off and do our own thing. Bus tickets obtained from our usual tabacchi, we jumped on the 527 bus, vaildated our tickets and kept our eyes peeled for the right stop along the corso vittorio emmanuele for the campo dei fiori. no, no, no, YES! phew - is everyone off? [it's harder than you might think to get 13 people off the bus at the same time, especially when most of them have no idea of where they are going, and even fewer of them are paying attention!]
First stop the campo dei fiori market and while some of us shopped, the others came to terms with the weird way that the shops that sell pizza by the slice operate. the one we ended up at required you first of all to choose the type and size of slice you wanted, then to be given a ticket, which you take to the cash till on the other side of the shop [thus crossing the stream of people trying to get to the bakery part of the shop at the back] then pay, then crossing the same stream of people, to present the receipt in return for your pizza. What a palaver. the idea apparently is to prevent the pizza cooks and cutters from having to handle money, but there must be easier ways. still, when in Rome...and the pizza was excellent.
After the mandatory shopping, [the cheese prices were very keen we thought] we managed to shepherd all our charges across the corso, and following the signs for the Piazza Navona, we managed to find it without too frequent recourse to the map. Despite all the picture sellers, the hawkers, the mime artists, the levitating priest, and the rest of the tourist crud, it is still extremely impressive, particularly the fountain of the four rivers in the middle, which our young photographed from every possible angle.
Sadly I must leave you now, as England are about to play Italy at rugby, so I'm afraid on that cliff-hanger I will have to depart - hopefully for not as long as last time!
spero che ci vediamo subito!
see you soon!
Mar 10th, 2013, 10:29 AM
#42
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"asking a random person I might come across where there was a good restaurant is not something that i would do at home - how do you know if their advice is going to be reliable? "
Because they're Roman. And because, except round St Peter's, Staz Termini and a couple of massive tourist traps, there's no such thing as a bad Roman restaurant anyway
It doesn't work in touristy areas where you're likely to be asking an Australian, which would make the blind leading the blind sound positively rational. The same tactic works in Lyons.
Because they're Roman. And because, except round St Peter's, Staz Termini and a couple of massive tourist traps, there's no such thing as a bad Roman restaurant anyway
It doesn't work in touristy areas where you're likely to be asking an Australian, which would make the blind leading the blind sound positively rational. The same tactic works in Lyons.
Mar 10th, 2013, 10:44 AM
#43
"asking a random person I might come across where there was a good restaurant is not something that i would do at home - how do you know if their advice is going to be reliable? "
Because they're Roman.>>
strangely flanner, none of the people that DT accosted had "I'm roman" tatooed on their forehead. perhaps she could tell they were local by their shoes? it was really the cultural differences that I was commenting on, which I came across last time i did an italian language course and went out with the teacher - the italian obsession with food means that if you manage to locate a local, they WILL know the best restaurants and this is something which as an italian, you know that you can rely upon.
Because they're Roman.>>
strangely flanner, none of the people that DT accosted had "I'm roman" tatooed on their forehead. perhaps she could tell they were local by their shoes? it was really the cultural differences that I was commenting on, which I came across last time i did an italian language course and went out with the teacher - the italian obsession with food means that if you manage to locate a local, they WILL know the best restaurants and this is something which as an italian, you know that you can rely upon.
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