4 April - Italiano....

I started the day with a run around the city wall on a bright and pleasantly mild day.  As I plodded round in my shorts and t-shirt it became clear that I would never pass as a local.  The occasional runner that passed me in the opposite direction was dressed up as if for a winter run with hats and puffer jackets to keep out what to them must have been the cold of the spring morning.

School was the usual eclectic mix of nationals: we met Americans a Mexican, Germans and a Dane as we sat in a small group in one of the classrooms waiting to be called out for an individual 'chat' to determine our level.  After this Lorraine and I headed off for a coffee with one of our foreign colleagues in the hour or so we had while the school worked out who would go where.  When we returned we were unsurprised to hear that we were not in the same class but Lorraine's hard work has paid off because she is not in the beginner's class either.

The Lucca school, like other language schools, uses Italian from the moment you walk in the door.  The teachers are good at making themselves understood but if you don't understand, an explanation will made in Italian of the thing you failed to grasp and if that too escapes you then the explanation of the explanation of the thing you can't understand will also be made in the same Italian you are having trouble with.  Jesting aside, this intensive approach does help you learn but when Lorraine and met up at the end of the school day we both had throbbing heads.  Nevertheless we had agreed we would go back later for a guided walk of the city with one of the teachers and we knew this too would be in Italian.  Even on day one it felt as if our brains were being pumped to the point of bursting.

Basilica of Saint Frediano

The walk was informative and helped add to our growing awareness of this lovely city and the Italian was not as challenging as it could have been.  Conveniently we finished up right beneath our flat.  A drink in the nearby piazza with one of our English classmates and then Lorraine and I headed off for our
first pizza in a quiet restaurant where the waitress took great delight in our efforts to speak Italian and chatted to us at length about learning languages.  It was surprising just how much of it we both understood and we have promised to go back there in two weeks’ time to show her how much we have improved!