There is a park up the hill behind my apartment building. It's on the grounds of the old fort that was originally built by the Greeks or the Germans or the English or someone up on the cliffs above the sea to guard the port from marauding hordes or barbarians. Anyway, now it's a park with hiking trails all through it. Think an Italian version of Forest Park in Portland but smaller and with ruins that are a few hundred years old throughout it instead of crazy dogs on twelve foot leashes stretched across the trails. It's a beautiful park way up on the cliffs with amazing views of the Adriatic ocean on one side and of the city on the other.Saturday morning before going to the park, I went grocery shopping at the store in my building. The entire store is about the size of a very large 7-11 and Saturday is my favorite day to shop because it's the busiest day of the week and this tiny space is completely jammed. There are lines at the deli counter. Lines at the meat counter. You're supposed to take a number and wait to be called. The clerks don't use the number machine (it has been on 84 since the first time I went there two weeks ago) but everyone takes a number and then pushes their way in to get the attention of a clerk to get service. In the produce section, you put your vegetables in a bag and then put the bag on an electric scale and select the picture of whatever is in the bag from the big menu. The machine spits out a bar code with the cost on a sticker. You put the sticker on the bag and the checker uses that to ring you up at the register. Well in this store there is just a single scale and everyone is trying to get at it with no concept of lines or waiting your turn. It's a fantastic melee. I love it.
After shopping I headed to the park. This was the first chance I had had to get out and explore a bit and I spent about three hours just hiking around all the trails and exploring the ruins.
After, I came back to my apartment and gave it a good cleaning as I expect my other two roommates to come back sometime during the weekend and wanted them to come home to a clean house. Then I studied my Italian lessons for a couple hours, had some dinner, watched Ocean's 12 in Italian (not really as interesting when you don't know the language) and went to bed. Sunday morning I was woke up to my alarm clock at 9:33. I couldn't turn it off and was wondering why I had set an alarm for 9:33 when I realized it was my phone ringing. My phone hasn't rung but once before so you can understand my confusion. It was Lothar inviting me to spend the day with him and Shazia at the sea and going shopping. Downstairs I met their 3-week old daughter Isabel for the first time and we headed out. We drove about 20 miles south down the coast to the town of Numana. It's right next to another town called Sirolo and is a very popular tourist destination.
The beach is lined with bars and restaurants stretching for kilometres and in the summer they all have umbrellas and chairs set-up all the way to the water. But this is the off season and there was hardly anyone around, quiet and beautiful. The weather was perfect again. The beach is not sand, it's small rocks typical of the area.
We spent some time in the water before going to one of the seaside restaurants for lunch. The menu was all local seafood. I had linguine with a red sauce and local mussels. They bring the saute pan to your table for self-service. We also had a carafe of the local white wine that was dangerously good. After lunch we drove back to Ancona and went to Carrefour to shop. This is a huge and popular grocery store in the suburbs. The actual size was about the same as an average Fred Meyer but after my dinky 7-11 I was loving it. They have an international aisle with Heinz ketchup and French's mustard and even salsa messicanna and taco chips. It's a wonderful place except for check-out where there were 26 check-out aisles and only one was open for a busy Sunday afternoon.
With shopping done, we headed back to Ancona where we met Lothar's friends Alesandro and Georgina for coffee at their apartment so they could meet Isabel. The apartment belongs to Georgina's mother and has been in their family for three generations. It's one of the most amazing places I have ever been in. It looks more like a museum than an apartment. Every space on every wall is covered with original art. There was a hand-made wood chest from the 17th century with a hidden compartment that was given as payment by Queen Margaret or someone to one of their ancestors who was a surgeon and had performed an operation to remove a wart or sew back on a finger or something. The details may have been slightly confused in the translation. The entire apartment is full of similar types of pieces. It's a very unique place to call home. While I was sitting on the couch I couldn't help but feel I'd illegally crossed a velvet rope and was sitting on an exhibition.
The Italian woman's volleyball team won the European championship tonight by beating the Dutch 3-0. You'll probably see the highlights on SportsCenter tonight.
I learned my most important Italian word today - Boh! It loosely means I don't know. I'm going to use it constantly in class tomorrow. My favorite word so far is Noioso because it sounds cool and is fun to say. It means boring so not much occasion to use it these days. I was able to use my few words and phrases of Italian today when I was introduced to Alesandro and Georgina. I could say my name and where I was from and that I was pleased to meet them; it was just like I had practiced in class. I even asked Georgina where the bathroom was. I didn't have to go but it's a sentence I am confident I know how to say and I wanted to use it.
I wonder what Heinrich is doing right now?
No comments:
Post a Comment