Verona, Prepositions and Other Miscellaneous Items…

Ciao,

Come stai? This week I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and not so much doing really but here’s a quick summary…

Verona: I’m going to Verona next weekend with some friends. I can’t wait! I flew into Verona earlier in the year and got the coach straight out to start a cruise in Venice, so it’ll be nice to see it at a slightly slower pace. I’ve done a bit of research on things to see and do, or rather, I have printed out some information from Wikipedia, so not “done” as such quite yet.

Italian:  My Italian (language…) is coming along nicely – it’s nice to have a holiday in mind to focus the mind a bit. Last week my Italian teacher was trying to explain “prepositions”.  Let me tell you about Italian prepositions (for info, our prepositions are things like, “with”, “in”, “a” etc.) – there is little to no logic involved. There are some rules but there are so many exceptions that it’s hardly worth bothering with.  I think one must simply “rote” learn them. Anyway, I’m used to a few by now so I didn’t do too badly.  A new guy at work speaks Italian. It’s nice when you come across someone else to talk to in a language you’re learning, it makes it feel less like you’re a kid learning a secret code.

Boyfriend: I’ll just sneak this one in here. My boyfriend (also known as Lee / Fabrizio in the blog) and I split up two months ago. The Italian plan remains but tweaked so I don’t end up an old spinster with many cats living in the middle of nowhere. It’s all about being an old spinster with many cats living near a town now…

Camerino vs Camerano: Remember that language school I was talking about last time? Centro Cultur (I would just like to point out that the missing e is deliberate – from my perspective at least)? Well, I was mildly confused when I looked up the area – the town was solidly in the middle of Le Marche. The write up said that it was a 10 minute walk from the coast. I didn’t think too hard about it but on reflection – if the town was where I thought it was, one would have to walk I think 100 miles an hour. That town would be CamerIno. CamerAno is, well, 10 minutes from the Coast. Note to self: look at a map next time. Still, I’m pleased with new actual location!!!

Airports: CamerAno is a pain to get to for anyone that doesn’t live in North London. You have to go on Ryanair <involuntary shudder> from London Stanstead. Or you can go from Heathrow on Alitalia (Alitalia goes from London City Airport too) or Lufthansa but I think they might be more money. Though to be honest, I suspect once you’ve added “going up in the air” tax, “taking up a whole seat” tax, “using the airport terminal” tax etc. the 1p Ryanair flight might actually come to several hundred anyway. So, in summary, for anyone wishing to visit me, I recommend you drive down (with some of my stuff).

Stuff: Oh my there’s a lot. Who knew?! I’m preparing an inventory of things that will stay here when I leave and a separate list of things to come with me and things to get rid of. I’ve also created a “don’t know what to do with this stuff” list which is longer than the others put together.

That about sums up my recent activity on the Italian front. Tune in in a couple of weeks for an epic on Verona.

Ciao xxx