I’ve just read my 42nd book in Italian right in time for my 42nd birthday – Anna Maria Ortese’s collection of short stories and essays Il mare non bagna Napoli. This isn’t a big number since I’ve been keeping this list of books since 2009, so that means 42 books in Italian in 12 years. But it’s still pretty neat and it’s making me think about birthdays, milestones and reading in Italian. As I’m looking…
This past Monday, I fulfilled the biggest dream of my life and became an Italian citizen. As some of you may already know, I applied online for citizenship back in December 2016 when we were still living in London. (You can read more about the process here and about the most recent update that shortened the wait times back to two years here. ) I’ll give you a brief time line, so you can get…
Woo-hoo! Today is the first day of phase 2 in Italy – meaning that the lockdown is being slowly, gradually, cautiously lifted. We are finally allowed to leave our house to go for a solitary walk and to visit our family members. Up until this point, I had only left the house 3 times in 56 days – twice to walk into town to get money out of the cash point and once to the…
UPDATE: 12.3.2020 Conte announced that further restrictions have been put in place and all shops and businesses are now closed except for grocery stores, pharmacies, banks, tobacco shops and newspaper stands. I’ve updated the rules down below. Things in Italy are changing day by day and my post today could very likely be obsolete by tomorrow, but I still want to document this very strange and surreal time and give you an update about Italy,…
During my long convalescence from surgery in December, I’ve been spending a lot of time studying Italian and I’ve discovered a wonderful group of Italian teachers through Instagram. These are great teachers to follow because they share a bit of their Italian selves giving you a chance to understand the great varieties of Italian culture throughout the regions and practice Italian along the way. They are very generous in giving lots of authentic content and…
At the moment, as I’m going through a heavy bureaucratic period in my life, I’ve been thinking about how much Italy has changed me. I had major surgery in Naples back in December and I’m now dealing with the aftermath of doctor visits and further tests. That part is straightforward, but along with that comes the bureaucratic mayhem of getting referrals and prescriptions, filling out forms, and navigating the labyrinthine system of requesting hospital records.…
