Talk - An Evening in Italy

This Friday, at Caffe Nero, Ann Spruce is hosting an Evening in Italy event to explore Italian language, music, culture and customs. She believes it is in the interest of all travellers to know more about the places they plan to visit. She asks me if I’ve been to Italy. I tell her that when I was an au pair in Rome, I fell in love with the place. It’s sexy, flamboyant. Obsessed with all matters culinary. Great Piazzas, sculpture and architecture. Limited underground system (they kept running into Roman ruins when trying to dig tunnels) and anarchic traffic. Everyone ignored traffic lights when it rained. Bureaucracy was bonkers. The Caribinieri overlooked traffic offences so long as you agreed to go for a drink with them. I learned the language to some extent, but everyone apart from the two year old and the cook spoke English and laughed at my Italian, so I’m only confident at phrases like ‘seduto sul vasino’ (sit on your potty).
I’m not sure if these are entirely representative of the phrases and customs Ann will be discussing. The evening follows on from the Travel 2007 event she put on to celebrate cultural difference and promote responsible travel. Ann and her family accommodate foreign students from all over the world for immersion English and the opportunity to ‘live the local life’. She is developing a website of information and opportunities for local language and cultural learning, under the umbrella name of LCO (Language and Cultural Opportunities). EC