Buongiorno!
Welcome to my first post in my {Life in Italy} series about our adventures here in Italy. Here I will share my raw and truthful account of adjusting to a different culture and a few lessons learned so far.
Disclaimer: I am merely sharing what has proven to be true for me in the area of Italy where I am living. I cannot and don’t pretend to speak for an entire country or its lovely people.
Well, we’ve been in Italy for nearly a week. It has been a whirlwind. Just as with the time leading up to our departure from home, it has been filled with highs and lows. As one would expect, there is quite a learning curve when it comes to settling in to life in a foreign country. We are in for an adventure! The day we arrived, we hopped off the plane at around 9am local time, 3am at home. Needless to say, our bodies weren’t quite sure what time it was, but we were excited to get started exploring. After some minor confusion when it came to check in at our apartment. (We had an appointment, although that didn’t seem to get us very far.) A little while later with the help of the gentlemen who drove us from the airport, we were able to gesture and say just enough words to him so he could call the landlady and have her let us in. Ah. Making progress. Apparently our apartment that we’ve been renting (paying for) since June 1st was occupied when we arrived, so we had to spend our first five days in a temporary apartment until ours was vacated. (Don’t ask me why, they wouldn’t tell me. Not that I would have understood them anyway.)
After we dropped our bags at the temporary apartment, we weren’t feeling jet lag quite yet, and we wouldn’t be getting our car until the next day, so we set out on foot to explore the immediate vicinity. First stop: The Illy coffee and pastry shop where Michael had a coffee and a fruit tart and I had a Nutella pastry. Italy was delicious already and we had only been here for an hour. We were able to buy some ciabatta at the bread shop, and shampoo and soap from a store that is like a Walgreen’s but without the pharmacy inside. We also found a very well-stocked little shop full of kitchen gadgets where we bought a set of mini tart pans so that I can make Michael some fruit tarts like had had at the coffee shop. Then we stopped at the market, “supermercati”, to pick up some of the basics to stock our fridge and pantry for a meal or two. Fortunately I already know quite a few of the food-related vocabulary, and with the assistance of Google Translate, we were pretty confident in our choices. Some were just no-brainers: LavAzza coffee, Coca-Cola Light, prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, pasta, butter, parmesan, etc… Buying bananas was where we goofed up. Now we know that in order to purchase produce from the grocery stores in Italy, you must put on a pair of vinyl gloves before you touch anything, and then put your selection in a plastic bag. Some markets you have to also weigh and print a bar code label to stick on the bag. Needless to say, that was a bit beyond the scope of our research prior to entering the grocery store on no sleep. Fortunately the cashier was pretty nice when she realized that we did not understand, and she went and got the label for us. Now we know, and I got my produce all bagged and labeled by myself the next day. It wasn’t until my second visit to the market that I was able to locate the eggs, or "uova". (Not to be confused with "uva", which are grapes.) Here, the eggs are fresh. Like really fresh, which means they’re not refrigerated. They’re sold in cartons of 6 on a regular shelf in the grocery aisle. Now I know where to find them, but I still keep them in the fridge when I bring them home. I can’t just completely abandon my American food-safety mentality all in one fell swoop, you know? I’m a die hard Eggland’s Best fan, and always will be, but these seem pretty good too.
On day two, Michael was at his first day of work, so it was time for my next lesson: household appliances… Everything is just different enough to make you second guess yourself. Loading a dishwasher is second nature to most of you, I’m sure. I however, don’t have a dishwasher, so I definitely needed to study the buttons and compartments for the detergent and whatnot. Before too long, it was humming away, so I must have done something right.
The washing machine, however, took a little more effort. I loaded the front-loader in our temporary apartment with a couple of shirts and socks and whatnot and proceeded to put one of the two laundry tablets we were provided with into the slide-out detergent compartment. Simple enough. I selected my desired temperature and cycle, and pressed start….Shouldn’t it be doing something? I opened and closed the washer door a few times, turned the machine off then back on. Still nothing. Oh dear. Now what? I dug around until I found the manual and proceeded to translate the entire operating instructions section into English, which was of no help. I figured I would wait until my engineer husband came home and we could figure it out together. When he got home, I explained and demonstrated what I had done and that it still wasn’t working, except I happened to give the door an extra hefty nudge, and all of a sudden it began to fill with water! (Reminds me of cars and teeth: they never misbehave when you need them to in front of the professional, only when you’re alone on the brink of insanity.) No dryers here, just line dry, so that’s all I needed to know for laundry. Some things aren’t a complication due to language barrier, like needing to give the washer door an extra nudge. That’s a universal thing. I just assumed I was missing something because of my incompetence.
It was high time we got out and did some exploring of the non-grocery shopping variety. We made our way into downtown Treviso on Friday night to have a little date. The weather was gorgeously scorching hot, even at 8pm when we arrived. We managed to navigate our way there from our apartment without any trouble, thanks to our trusty Garmin with the Europe maps card. Best money spent ever. Ever. Ever.
In Treviso, we strolled through the little streets and alleys, and had dinner on the piazza. Pizza on the piazza. I could get used to this. The nice thing about Treviso is that it’s a bit bigger than Martellago, where we live, so they’re more accustomed to English-speaking visitors. The waitress even swapped out our menu for and English one, which we didn’t need, but did appreciate. After dinner, we wandered some more, and then we each got a gelato. I had stracciatella (vanilla with chocolate shavings), and Michael had caffe (coffee) flavor. Both were incredible.
Day three was Saturday, so Michael and I could spend the day together. We decided to figure out how to take the bus from Martellago to Venice. Our landlady had drawn us a map and told us very specific instructions as to a specific bar to go to where you can buy your bus tickets for a lower price than buying them on the bus. Saturday morning we walked to the bar, went in, and politely asked for “two round-trip bus tickets to Venice, please” in Italian. The whirlwind response from both shop owners at one time made us think that we were given bad information. Okay, now for plan B. Hmm, what’s plan B? We wandered back and forth a bit near the bus stop, hoping to something would jump out at us. Eventually we saw a lady with a bus pass in her hand. Michael got her attention and we were able to sort of understand her gestures and a few Italian words than we needed to walk a few meters the other way and look for something related to newspaper, or "giornale”, the only Italian word that I caught from her instructions. Off we went, with only 5 minutes until the bus left. Michael popped into a little tobacco shop to try and ask, and I walked a few shops further and found a newspaper stand. That must be it! I repeated y rehearsed “Due andata I ritorno i bigletti per Venezia per favore.” and it worked! I gave him my 10 Euros and we were ready to run to the bus stop and get on with our day in Venice.
Venice is beautiful. It’s this incredible enchanting place that to me, reminded me of Disney World. Everything is bright and colorful, there are people everywhere, and so much to eat you’ll never go hungry. It sort of amazed me how different the two faces of Venice were. There was the ground level, with all the shops and restaurants that were more commercialized and modernized to appeal to tourists, etc. Then there was the Venice that started at the second floor of all of the buildings. Incredible buildings with architecture that takes you back in time, if you can ignore that there is a McDonald’s and a Disney store nearby.
Until you visit Venice, you only know what you read of Venice and see in the movies and on tv. It was different than I had imagined, but not in a bad way. It was so much fun to see, and I don’t care what some people say, I never noticed a smell. I loved the canals, the gondolas, all of the scenery you have come to see. Everywhere you look there’s something fun to admire. The window-shopping is pretty amazing…a huge variety, from Venetian masks to Murano glass to pastries, you name it. I took way too many pictures for one day of a ninety-five day adventure. I can’t wait to go back, and now that I know where to buy my ticket, it’ll be easy!
On Sunday we had to make a trip to Ikea. It’s only 25 minutes from our apartment, and let’s just say “fully-furnished” was somewhat lost in translation. I felt like I planned for the bare minimum to be furnished, but even I was surprised at some of the things that weren’t available. If you know me, you know I’m always up for a trip to Ikea though. Too bad we have to fly all of our purchases home with us, or I could have filled up our VW Passat wagon with no problem.
Sunday night, we needed to stop waffling around about how and where we are supposed to take out the trash and figure it out once and for all. There are several dumpsters with various labels for disposing of certain materials in each bin. The only instructions I could get from the landlady was: “Bring divided trash to the trash cans around the corner” accompanied by a rudimentary map with a red line showing the trail to the dumpsters. By “divided”, does that mean food and non-food? Paper and plastic? Trash and recyclable? The trash can in our apartment had two compartments, which led me to believe that there were two categories of trash. Upon further inspection, there were about 7 different types of dumpsters, one of which indicated that you had to insert a card in order for it to open. You wouldn’t have believed the conversations we had over the course of two days trying to figure out how to take out the trash. We knew we had hit rock bottom when we seriously considered putting a credit card into the card slot to see if you just had to pay to throw your trash away. We have to pay $5 for each pickup at our house in Michigan, so why wouldn’t we need to do the same here? Well, we finally figured it out, and not a moment too soon. We successfully sorted our trash into the appropriate categories: Paper, plastic containers/bottles, cardboard, yard waste, and general waste. No credit card needed. Good grief. We felt like fools. Fools who were awesome at emptying the trash.
Monday was moving day. I was told to be ready at noon to move from the temporary apartment to our permanent home for the next few months. Noon came and went, still no key. Eventually, two cleaning ladies came to my door and handed me a key, and gave me a long list of directions in Italian. We had to get the somewhat English-speaking landlady on the phone to translate. A short while later, I had hauled all of our stuff down the hall to our new, smaller apartment. It may be smaller, but we both like it much better than the first one. (Don't get me started on the creepy picture of the goat above the bed.) This one even has a freezer! It’s the simple things sometimes that make life so much easier. I knew that Europeans don’t put ice in their drinks, so I brought ice trays from home. After all, it’s in the 90’s here and a girl gets thirsty! The only downside to the new apartment: the stove didn’t work for the first two days, and the internet only works if you have the front door wide open. Go figure. The front door is nearly 5 inches thick, lined with metal, and has 5 bars that slide out when you lock it. It’s basically a bank vault. I presume it’s not very useful if left wide open, but what is a blogger to do without internet? (Have you seen the episode of Seinfeld where Jerry's apartment gets robbed because Kramer left the door wide open?) Since we couldn’t make dinner without the stove, we got a pizza for Michael and a calzone for me, and then tried out the gelato shop near our apartment. Much to our surprise, both of the people working in the gelato shop were about our age and they both spoke English! It was bliss. Plus the Nutella gelato was completely amazing, and it’s super inexpensive. I plan on visiting there nightly.
Today is Tuesday, and it has been a good day. We are completely unpacked in our new apartment. I figured out the dishwasher and washing machine this morning (different than the ones in the temporary apartment, of course). The two cleaning ladies showed up at the door earlier and were able figure out how to turn the gas on to the apartment so now our stove works. I got my groceries, and Hubby came home and ate lunch with me. Although he really came home for coffee, since the stove wasn’t working this morning and he needed to curb his caffeine-withdrawal headache. I spent the remainder of the day working on my Italian lessons on Rosetta Stone. Someday I will speak Italian. It would be nice if that day is before I leave Italy.
Who knows what I’ll be up to in the next few days (hopefully getting my hands on a bicycle), but I’ll check in again soon, and share a new recipe too. (Now that I’ve got a functional stove!) Until then, Spaghetti alla Carbonara is for dinner tonight. Ciao!
Ashley Anderson-varney
Oh Mandy thank you so much for sharing this. You make it feel like we are there. So glad you & your hubby are able to share this experience together . Can't think of any couple who deserves it more. When you were in the states I looked forward to your daily post & am so happy you can continue from Italy. Praying for you....love you.
Ashley
Mandy
Thanks so much, Ashley. You always say the sweetest things. Love, Mandy
Cristina
Hi, Mandy! I came upon your blog while surfing the net! I so enjoyed reading your post! What a wonderful experience to live in Italy...and Venice at that! My in-laws were from the Veneto Region and we spent many wonderful summers there. They lived about a half hour or so away from Treviso so going there was almost a daily occurrence. In looking at your pictures, I knew exactly where you were and it brought back many happy memories!
Venice is also one of my favorite cities. It's true that you can read all about it, but it's so different when your there in person. I hope you'll get a chance to visit the islands of Murano and Burano. In Murano you can visit a glass factory and watch some very amazing glass blowing. Burano is known as the Colored Island of Lace. All the homes there are painted in very vibrant colors, and the lace work is magnificent!
I look forward to reading more about your Italian adventures! Buon divertimento!! (Have fun!)
Ciao, Cristina
Mandy
Ciao Cristina!
I am so excited that you recommended to visit Murano and Burano, since I am going there on Monday!
I will be sure to post some pictures, hopefully you'll recognize the places and enjoy some memories. I sure wish you were here to be my touring buddy, since it sounds like you know your way around this area!
Thanks so much for reading! Stay in touch!
bakeaffairs
Ciao Mandy, I realy enjoy to read your posts and the inspiring and delicious recipes. I look forward for your next post. Tanti saluti dalla Svizzera.
Mandy
Ciao bakeaffairs! Thanks so much for visiting! I have always wanted to visit Switzerland. Have a lovely weekend!