La scala sancta

I went today with a guy from school to visit the scala sancta. As one would expect, in Rome there are many theological students, and Homero from Brazil is one of them. He stays at the scala sancta where he will begin his studies in October, and in the mean time he is studying Italian with me.

The scala sancta are believed to be the steps which Jesus Christ stood on during his passion on the way to trial. The steps were brought to Rome many years ago and are now a place for christians to worship. They are now covered in wood and it is only allowed to go up them on ones knees. I wasnt up for it so I took the stairs on the side!


Homero gave me the tour of the buildings where he lices and studies including their massive flatscreen tv (yes thats where your collection money in church is going people) and I got a pretty cool aerial view (right) of the opposite church, the Basilica of San Giovanni. Its actually the oldest church, and also most important in Rome. Next to the church is housed all the vatican documents for the whole of Italy.

Gianicolo

I took a long and sweaty walk up a hill today to check out the view of Rome from above....rather impressive I must say, have a look at this picture.....

In the middle of the picture is the pantheon. While I was up there the noon gun was fired, something I didn't even know existed in Rome. I took a video of it....




Thats all for today....

I am back in Rome!

So I am back in Rome - not much has changed in the last 3 months or so...except that its super hot here at the moment! The family I am staying with (same one as before) is well, and its nice to be back here.

I went to try register at school today because it starts tomorrow, but as is typical in Italy the offices are closed until the actual day of opening. So no doubt its going to be chaos tomorrow!


On the way I passed a movie set. They are adapting the book Eat, Pray, Love into a movie. Those of you who have read it will know that the Eat part of the book is based in Rome. I believe Julia Roberts is playing the lead so I guess its big budget! I walked right through the set, but didnt see anyone famous nor were they shooting at the time, so you wont see me when the film is released!

My last day in Rome....for now

Today is my last day in Rome for a while. My 3 months as agreed through Geovisions and the family was up this week, and as I had arranged a while back I am leaving to meet up with my parents for a holiday. However the family has asked me to return for the rest of the year, which is great news. I will return towards the end of August, because in June I am on holiday and in July the kids are attending a summer camp. Then in August, as is customary in Italy, the family will be going away on holiday.

So I will return at the end of August. Until then I wont be updating this blog....have a good summer (or winter depending which hemisphere you are in) holiday!

Music Festival

Last night we had a music festival at our home. There was about 120 people invited to come and listen to various musicians play. The highlight of the evening was a gentleman called Robert McDuffie. He was actually nominated for a grammy some years ago! There was also a great guitarist, a couple of piano players and even an oprah singer! It was a great evening. Unfortunately with the dim lighting I wasnt able to take any decent pictures.

Rome Master Tennis

Today I was lucky enough to go to the final of the Rome Masters Tennis. The mother of the family had arranged some complimentary tickets through her work. The final was contested between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. The first set went to a tie breaker, which Nadal won, and then the second set started promising before Djokovic seemed to loose it a bit mentally and Nadal took it 6-2. It was the first time I have seen any tennis on clay, and it was great to see the long rally's!

The kids go back to school tomorow, so I will have the days free for the next 2 weeks before I leave Rome.

This week we are having a Music party at the house. The father knows a famous american violinist, who has agreed to play at our house, and so he has arranged for some other musicians to come along too. Its quite a production, we are expecting 120 guests! I have my doubts as to whether the house can handle that many people, time will tell! Last week the father came home from a trip to Florence where he went to a wine farm of someone he knew and bought some wine - 300 bottles!! Its all stored in the kitchen now, it looks cool!

School finished!

Today was the last day of school for April. We wrote our final exam - it didn't go too great, I don't know if I passed it! Doesn't matter though, I never came to Italy to write exams! I have found learning the italian language challenging to say the least. I think its a combination of the speed at which we learn things, and the fact that its so different from english. In the last 2 months of school we have learnt various tenses - present, past, future and the imperative, as well as the pronouns, prepositions and possessive words. The encouraging part of it all is that I understand everything they have taught us, its just that there are so many rules and exceptions to the rules that I have a massive "checklist" in my brain that I need to run through prior to trying to say anything! And every week the checklist seems to get longer! So the challenge is to not sound stupid by talking too slowly! I guess over time it will come a bit more naturally. I wont be attending school this month, as I leave Rome on the 15th. If all goes according to plan I am looking to return to school in September. This should hopefully give me a good opportunity to work on what I have learnt and too practice this with my Italian speaking family up north.

The children return from Sicily today, and they are on holiday for the rest of the week, so I am hoping we might squeeze in a trip to the beach if the weather is good.

Pompei

Today was the school trip to Pompei. Pompei was destroyed by an eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius in AD79 when it was completely covered by 60 feet of ash, and was forgotten about. It was then rediscovered in 1748 (by accident I believe) and the excavation works began. The city has been well preserved and gives a good idea of what a typical Roman city looked like at the height of the Roman empire - at the time of the eruption the Colosseum was already under construction in Rome.

A teacher from my Italian school gave us a tour of the ruins, and had some interesting stories to tell. It was obviously all in Italian, so we had to concentrate hard! A few that I will share - the picture below shows 3 large stones placed in the middle of the road - this was an ancient "zebra crossing" that people used to cross the road when there was heavy rains, so as not to get their feet wet (again this shows how the Romans were pretty smart with water).

The next shows a roadsign. As Pompei was a busy town close to the port, they would have lots of visitors, who in turn, had "needs"! Since this as AD79 there clearly weren't any neon signs giving directions, and so this was a subtle way of pointing the patrons in the right direction....

This last one shows the main square with a view of Vesuvius on the background. We were told Vesuvius used to be double the height!


Overall I enjoyed the trip. It was nice to have a knowledgeable tour guide, however sightseeing with 50 people does waste a lot of time, always waiting for people to catch up who have stopped to take pictures etc. On the way home we stopped in Caserta, to have a look at the Palace there. The palace was constructed in the eighteenth century for the king of Naples. It is another World heritage sight. We visited some of the 1200 rooms inside the palace! Here is a picture of one, they all pretty much looked the same, paintings on the ceilings and lots of gold!


So that brings to an end the week long cultural week in Italy. It was a fantastic opportunity to visit so many sights at no charge! If I am still in Italy next time they have another cultural week I will be sure too take advantage again!

Tivoli

I went with my friends to Tivoli today. It is a town outside of Rome, with the main attractions being ancient villa's. The most famous of which is Villa d'Este. It is a Unesco world heritage site, and in fact was awarded the European Best Park award in 2007.

There is a very clever use of water in the gardens, with over 500 water jets in fountains and pools, and multiple water troughs. The river was actually rerouted about a kilometer to provide water for the fountains. Unfortunately pictures can't convey effectively the beauty of the gardens. Apart from the water features, there is also plenty of flowers, fruit trees and other sculptures. This is the row of fountains, there are over 100 fountains in this row alone!

This is a view of the main fountain - I forget the name....


After Villa d'este we walked through the town of Tivoli to the other side and visited Villa Gregoriana. This was a fantastic park with both natural and man made waterfalls. We took a long walk through the forest and got some fantastic views of the waterfalls.


Tomorrow its off to Pompei..

Ostia Antica

Last night was the Ben Harper concert for earth day. There were some support acts and then Ben Harper....although it was good music, it was a bit of a disaster from an organization point of view - there was no real crowd control and it didnt really feel so safe the whole time! But it was free, so cant complain. After the concert I went with my friend to a place called Giolitti - a 19th century cafe that is famous for its Gelati (ice cream). I had limoncello flavour....it was excellent!

Today Tara, my Australian friend and myself tried to go to the Galleria Borghese, but unfortunately its entrance with reservation only, I guess because its not only very popular but also small. So we decided to head off to Ostia Antica on the outskirts of Roma. It is the ancient port city of Rome, where goods that came in via ships were transported up the river on barges to supply central Rome with supplies. However over the last 2000 years the sea has retreated several kilometers and the river has changed direction! Apparently it died completely as an inhabited area some 1000 years ago. For me the highlight was that there were no real restriction as to where one could walk, and so we could meander as we pleased. I particularly enjoyed taking in some sun on the theatre.

If you look carefully you may see me in the picture! The kids have gone off to Sicily to spend some time with their grandparents, so I have some time off for the next week or so...

Cultural week in Italia

This week it is cultural week in Italy - every year they decide on a week to try and encourage people to have cultural experiences in their cities. To do this they make the majority of museums and attractions free of charge. Excellent!

Yesterday I went inside The Colosseum. I had visited it before in 2003, and so I wasnt planning on going in again, but hey, its free, so why not! If anything I was more impressed this time round.



This morning I met some classmates at 09:00 and we went to visit Castel Sant'Angelo before school. Another impressive structure - it is possible to get onto the roof which provides some pretty cool panorama's of the city, and of St Peters specifically.



And then this afternoon I took a walk around the Roman forum. Its a bit of mess, structures falling down all over the place, but you get a good idea of how it all started for the earlier inhabitants of Rome.



So tomorrow morning I am meeting up again with classmates to go have a look at the Musei Capitolini, then Saturday morning we will head half an hour out of Rome to Tivoli, apparently there are fantastic gardens there. And Sunday I am off to Pompei with my class from school - really looking forward to that!

So its a busy week for me! Will try write again later this week to let you know how it goes - it wont be Wednesday night because I am off to a free concert in Piazza del Popolo - Ben Harper is playing in an earth day concert.

South Africans living abroad voting Day

I went along to cast my vote today. I was concerned my name may not be on the list as I had received no confirmations, but when I arrived all was in order. Had a bit of a chat with the electoral officers (all staff of the South African embassy in Italy, which has its headquarters in Rome). I was about the 25th person to vote that day. They took my details as they have added me to the South Africans living abroad database - important for when disasters such as the earthquake last week happen, so that they can account for everyone, and if necessary provide some assistance. Also they have invited me to some freedom day celebrations! This will be held at the Ambassadors house here in Rome, and they will forward me the details soon. So if it suits me I will go along - have a beer and some South African style food on the governments expense...why not??!! Oh, and those South Africans reading this who may be interested to see what kind of offices your tax money is buying here in Rome, have a look at the picture - its fantastic offices, in a pretty good location!

Pasquetta in Frascati

Today as is traditional for Romans on Pasquetta (Easter Monday) I went into the countryside, and visited Frascati, a small town 24km south east of central rome. It is located on a hill which provides distant views of Rome. Its also famous for its white wine, naturally called Frascati.

The town centre has the average small Italian town feel, just the way I like it! It was great to get out of Rome for a couple of hours. I went with a friend who has just returned from a trip to Cairo, Egypt and Istanbul, Turkey so it was great to hear his stories, and those are definatly two locations I will add to my travel wishlist!

Oh, and had my first proper sit down meal since I arrived in Rome - I am after all an unemployed student! Had an amazing pizza and a bottle of the local Frascati white wine (would be wrong not too). It was a good wine, probably even better when the weather gets even hotter.

Tre metri sopra il cielo

I went out with some friends from school last night. We went to a rather fancy cocktail bar first, and sat outside in some comfy loungers (the weather is now warm enough to comfortably sit outside at night). Then we met up with some local's that a friend of mine had met when we had been out for my birthday. They took us to a pretty cool bar where we had a couple of drinks. We asked them if there was anything off the beaten track that they recommend us seeing - and they told us the story of the padlocks at the Ponte Milvio (a Ponte is a bridge)

If I understood correctly it goes like this - a book was written in which two lovers lock a padlock to the bridge and throw the keys into the river, as a sign of their neverending love. The book is called tre metri sopra il cielo (three meters above the sky) - and was recently made into a film, and so began the urban legend. That if you place a padlock on the ponte milvio and throw the keys into the river the lovers will spend their lives together forever.

So they took us to see this, and there are literally thousands of these padlocks attached to some railings (apparently purpose built - previously lovers would attach these padlocks to a lampost, but it fell down under the weight!). A friend took photo's so as soon as I get them I will post them on this blog.

Tomorrow is Easter, so happy easter to you all. Hopefully the city quietens down a bit after Monday, its been a bit crazy with holy week.....

Il Terremoto!

So just as I was saying things weren't so exciting, we have an earthquake! Well it wasn't quite in Roma, it was mostly situated in the town of L'aquila in the province of Abruzzo. However I was woken up in the early hours of Monday morning from tremors here in Roma. It lasted about 10-15 seconds and had enough force to shake my cupboard doors open! I must say, I never even realised Italia was in an earthquake zone, so at first I wasn't quite sure what had happened.

We have had another couple of tremor's since, none quite as big, but it is rather concerning. Hopefully it stops soon!

Nothing interesting

So I haven't written for over a week – no real excuses, its not like I don't have the time!

I guess its because nothing of any great interest happened. I am in a bit of a routine at the moment : school on weekdays, and relaxation on the weekends. Things are progressing slowly at school, I am into my second month, which meant an exit exam for the first month, and a new teacher for the second month. As it turned out I have ended up in a small class of 7 people, with all the students who I completed month 1 with. I am happy with this because firstly the class is small in size, and secondly we have all studied month 1 together so we are roughly at the same level.

Things with my host family are good too – in my opinion the kids seem to be improving, and also remembering what I teach them which is encouraging. I cant believe it is almost 2 months since I arrived! The weather is warming up nicely, and today was the first day I could comfortably go out in shorts and a t-shirt.

Nothing exciting planned for this week either, the routine continues for the time being! 3 more weeks of classes, and then I will have 2 weeks off school before I fly to London for a couple of days, and then to Zurich, Switzerland to meet up with my parents.

Gelato Heaven!

One of the girls from the school showed me an ice cream shop nearby my house - well its more of an ice cream supermarket, selling many flavours of ice cream, available in small cones or 5 litre take home containers. Wednesday is half price day, so for only 75 cents I got three flavours in a small cup. I finally tried the rice flavoured ice cream that my cousin had mentioned to me previously - its pretty good if you ever get a chance try it out!

On Friday my Italian language course finishes for March, and we have a final exam. We then restart on Wednesday 1st of April, so it will be nice to have 2 days off. If the weather plays its part we might go spend a day at the beach - its about an hour from my home and only costs one euro on the train.

The younger kid, Matteo, got some good results in an English test he did, so the parents were pleased about that. I never specifically helped him prepare for the test, but hopefully him just having daily conversations with me is what helped him do well.

Its my birthday!

So it's my birthday today! I went out last night with some friends from my language lessons, it got a bit messy, and I believe I shouted to a bus full of italian strangers : Dov'e il gatto (where is the cat - we had been learning prepositions in class that day at school). Needless to say I woke up with a bit of a hangover.

I dragged myself off to the post office to collect a parcel my mother sent me, although I was cursing ever so slightly when I took my ticket at the door and realised there were 79 people in front of me! I waited over an hour and then gave up and went home....hopefully better luck on Monday. Nothing much else planned for the weekend, tomorrow perhaps some bowling with the kids.....

A visit from a friendly face

The kids had the day of school today because of a strike - which was happening in France but since they go to a French school these teachers decided to join in....see its not only South Africa where teachers go on strike!

My Dads cousin from Torino is down in Rome at the moment, so we met up tonight for a coffee. It was great to see a familiar face. I met him at a pizzeria where he was having dinner with his work colleagues and then after we took a walk around Piazza Navona. I must definatly go back at night there with my camera, it has the most amazing lighting on the fountains.

Just another day....

I got asked to accompany the younger kid, Matteo to his football practice today. Not one of the activities I am expected to do on a daily basis, but it was good. It gave us the journey there and back to work on his English. He gave me all the directions and explained some of the landmarks along the way. Their school is a french school based in the Villa Borghese, the Hyde Park/Central Park of Rome - really is a great setting.

My school is going well by the way - its not going to be easy but I am understanding everything and the teacher is great...its just going to take a while. I am going out just now for aperitivo and drinks with some friends from school and we will try to speak Italian the whole night!

Week 5 in Roma

On Wednesday night I went out with two friends from school to watch the Roma v Arsenal football game. We chose a pretty cool bar near to the school, and managed to cash in on the free aperitivo from 7 till 9 - they pretty much put out various types of finger/snack foods on the bar counter and you eat for free so long as you buy drinks. There was pasta, some quiche, garlic breads, salami, cheeses and olives - a decent spread!

Well Roma did what was necessary to take the game to extra time and then to penalties, but unfortunately lost at that stage! But an enjoyable night out, so I think we will be back to that bar sometime soon.

On the way home we had to take night buses - as would have everyone who was watching the game away from home as the penalties took the game past metro closure time! Anyway the Roman fans were kind enough NOT to let the Arsenal fans on these buses....they had to take taxis - hahaha!

Looking ahead to this week its just going to be school and thats about it - but who knows really!

Great weekend in Rome!

So the weather report was accurate (unlike the UK weather report!). A great weekend, probably reached 18 degrees today and I was outside in the park in shorts and a t-shirt.

I met up with two of my classmates yesterday, Pietro (Korean) and Gabriella (Mexican). We met at The Colosseum, and then went on a walk to Trastevere. What a great part of Rome! Lots of small windy streets, plenty of bars, restaurants and small piazzas, and mostly pedestrianized. Before going I was told of the most photographed laundry in the world....so when I saw it I took a photo!!

We picked up some pizza at one of the many places where you can select which slices you prefer (and how big the slice should be) and then they weigh it and charge you accordingly. We then followed the river along to San Pietro. The Korean, Pietro, is a priest who is in Rome furthering his theological studies. He is a pretty cool guy, although I dont think i can count on him for any late nights or big parties! He has only been in Rome for just over a week and the jet lag had knocked him the last week so he hadnt been there yet, so it was cool for him.

After that we grabbed some ice cream in Piazza Navona and then I headed home.

The children had friends here pretty much the whole weekend, so that kept them busy. Played a bit of monopoly with them earlier, which was good as I pretended not to know the game and so they explained the rules to me in english.

Cant believe tomorrow I will have been here for 4 weeks! Time goes a lot quicker when you happy...

Week 1 of school completed!

I finished up week 1 of school today. Its gone well, things settled down after the first 2 days where classes were split and new students arrived late. My class has 11 people in it which is a good number. We are doing the pre-beginners course, and the teacher, Roberta, is great. An interesting mix of people too in my class, some who have relocated to Italy and need to learn the language, 2 who are in Rome as diplomats, and a couple of au pairs.

Daily schedule : wake up from the noise of the kids leaving for school and the parents heading off to gym at about 8:00. I then go down to breakfast, followed by getting ready for school. I have 2 options for getting to school, bus or underground metro. I have being favouring the bus in the morning as I listen to the radio (another way I can perhaps improve my italian) and then the metro home (normally because I am hungry and want to get home ASAP to eat!). The kids get home anytime between 3 and 5 and get on with their homework. Anything in english I help with, otherwise I leave them to it. When they done we watch english television or play some games, all the time working on their english language...dinner anytime between 7:30 and 8:15 or so, and then I am free to do as I please.

Anyway the weather report promises good weather this weekend, so I have plans to meet up with some classmates Saturday...

Started at Scuola Dante Alighieri today

I started school today. My class has 12 people in it, from all nationalities - I havent spoken with all of them yet, but there are 2 Koreans, Mexican, Brazilian, Honduran (?someone from Honduras), Senegalese and someone from the Dominican Republic! I am sure over time I will get to know them better (I will be with them every day for the next month). Also it appears the school organises day trips on the weekend, so perhaps I might join one of those. School is daily from 11:00 till 14:00 - no early morning rushhour for me!! Although i did catch the "return from lunch break back to work rush" just before 15:00!!

On that note, transport here seems to work well - better than London. There are only 2 metro (tube) lines, that cross at one point, Termini. I live on top of a station pretty much, and it is 1 stop to Termini. The rest of the city is covered by buses and trams. I got a monthly pass to use all 3 modes, and it cost me only 30 euros - pretty cheap in any currency really. And the metro hasnt stopped for unknown signal failures in the 3 weeks I have been using it, so I am happy. They also have televisions showing an Italian version of funniest home videos on the metro! Keeps you entertained, not that its necessary with the amount of buskers that are free to roam on the carriages playing all kinds of instruments. The other day a couple got on with a trolley contraption which had a small amplifier and car battery - while the man played the accordion the woman sang into a microphone - and then of course the child wanders around looking for donations from the public!

Today conversation with the kids was mostly around football - one kid supports Roma and the other Milan - Milan lost and Roma drew this past weekend, so they complained about the decisions, moaned about the opposition etc etc....it amazes me the passion these kids have for football and the teams they support!

School starts tomorrow!

Saturday was an awesome weather day, but the kids weren't keen to do much, preferring to play playstation! So I went for a little wander myself, just up the road to Santa Maria Maggiore, a church. It was rather impressive I must say, lots of gold, and amazing paintings on the ceilings and in the domes. I tried to take some pictures with my point and click digital camera, but struggled due to the low light - the best I have uploaded below, but soon as my Sony comes back from repairs will probably wander on down and take some better ones - unlike the UK its free to come and go in the churches as often as you want!

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/vermontia/20090228SantaMariaMaggiore?authkey=Gv1sRgCI7B187CsvXknAE&feat=directlink

And then today I met up with two girls I have made friends with through the company that placed me on this program. Both French, and both calle Aurelie!! One is from Paris and the other from Rennes which is in Brittany, France. So we made plans to go to Trastevere which I was quite keen to visit, as the book I just finished reading, The Food of Love is based there - by the way I recomend this book to all, my cousin lent me it as I left London, and it certainly is a great read. Written by Anthony Capella.....check out the website :

http://www.anthonycapella.com/pages/books/food_of_love/synopsis.asp

Anyways Trastevere, which means across the Tiber (Romes main river), is supposedly the Bohemian neighbourhood, and I was looking forward to walking around it....but we took a detour to a market first, and then the rain came down!! So we never made it and I am saving it for another day. The one interesting thing I noticed while walking along the river is the width of the river, and the height above the river everything is positioned. I believe there has been some pretty bad floods here before, and I saw evidence of that where a pier had been completely destroyed...

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/vermontia/20090301WalkInRoma?authkey=Gv1sRgCN3Tqu3Txa3bLw&feat=directlink

So tomorrow I start my lessons. Really looking forward to that. The kids return to school also, so we will be back to a normal schedule - they come home from school about 16:00, get on with their homework, if they have any english homework I oversee that, and then perhaps we play some games or just generally chat in english until dinner is ready.

The Family returns

My host family returned from their ski trip today - they had been gone since last Friday, so it was just me and the housekeeper at home for the week. It appears a good time was had by them, although they (well at least the parents) are a bit drained from the long trip home - 3 trains, a plane, and then a train! But its nice to have lots of activity in the house after a very quiet week.

I had a chat with the kids in english, and we discussed their holiday - what they did, where they stayed, what they ate etc, simple stuff but I doubt they spoke any english on their holiday so a nice way to just ease them back into speaking english. Next week they are back to school, so no doubt there will be some structure to their week, and of course some english homework I can help them with.

Who knows what the weekend will bring, the kids seem to change their minds quite often about what they want do, but hopefully we get out the house - perhaps go bowling again. Otherwise on Sunday I have an invite to go to Trastevere (an area in Rome across the river where there is apparently a decent food market) from one of the Au Pairs I met through the company that placed me on the conversation corps program.

Blogging/Picasa/My Heritage

I have set up a Picasa account, which I will be using to link too from here for my photos - seems like a decent site, its google owned (I think it is, it certainly integrates well with my google account) and has some good features. So as a first link, here are some pictures I took when i first arrived 2 weeks ago of the house where I am staying. It really is a fantastic home, in an excellent location.

http://picasaweb.google.com/vermontia/2009212RomeHouse?feat=directlink

I also continued with something I started end of 2008 - documenting my own Geneaology. I am using a cool piece of software called My Heritage Family tree builder. The oldest family member I have is the birth of my great great grandmother in 1868. Hopefully when my Italian is a bit better I can perhaps research a bit more!

I had a potato omelette for lunch. Strange for me as I have not eaten anything like that before, but it was awesome!

Tomorrow a friend of the family arrives from Paris, as well as the family returning from their ski trip, so it will be cool to have everyone back, although I imagine its going to be chaotic!

Text Books + Sun

So I went out today to get my text books - when I left the house Enya (the housekeeper) and Lilly (the housecleaner!?) were busy dimantling the kitchen and cleaning every corner of it. I guess they taking the opportunity while the family is away skiing.

I got the text books no problem, and paid using my bancomat - it was the first time I have used it, so I am glad it worked ok. Afterwards I took a walk around some of the streets nearby, got a bit lost because I had left my map at home (thanks to google maps on my mobile I got myself to the metro stop)

It was a great day today weather wise, I can definatly feel the summer slowly arriving....must have been about 15 degrees, clear skies and no wind....didnt get that too often in London...

So when I returned this evening, Enya tells me she is sorry but there is no meat for dinner, only spaghetti with a tomato based sauce and tuna - fine by me I say, a 300gram steak every night I am sure isnt great for the pipes. I tuck into my spaghetti, finish it and get up to clean the table - she then informs me, no, Malika (Alessandro's mothers housekeeper who lives down the road) is bringing some meat for me!! Seems they feel that a healthy bowl of pasta is an inadequate meal....never going to loose weight this way! The crumbed chicken was awesome though...

More football tonight, and its on the local terrestrial channels, so I can watch in my room....Chelsea v Juventus - hopefully Juve can get some points away from home.....

Signed up at school!

So I have decided to start a blog - although I have been here over 2 weeks already! So maybe one day I will write about those 2 weeks, but for now I am moving forward!

I registered for italian school today - I will start next week at the Dante Alighieri School. At this stage I have enrolled for a 1 month course, going for 3 hours a day (11:00 till 14:00) 5 days a week, for the month of March. Really looking forward to it - its the reason why I am here, to learn the language! Hopefully its also a way to meet new people.

Tomorrow I need to go buy the text books.....but for tonight its football, champions league on so time to watch that!