Monday, July 12, 2004
Another lapse, and it's hard to give a reason. Nevertheless, I shall try. Firstly, the sun came out and the siren call of the sea called me. In my not so many spare hours I ventured forth with factors in hand and lay garnering Vitamin D.
Secondly, I'm just nicely back from Florence. It was the desire for superb summer sales that made me jump on a train north. In that respect I failed dismally, as there was nothing to buy. HOwever, it was lovely to be out of Naples for a weekend.
It's a toss up, though. Admittedly there was no rubbish in the streets and no Albanian children trying to rob you at every turn, but there were so many Americans, English and assorted Anglophones that Italian has become the second language of the city. I was forced to escape to Le Cascine, the park to the west of the city, to listen to any Italian being spoken and avoiding conversations such as the following in a large bookshop.
Woman (American) to daughter...: You should buy a book, a story... I read Anna Karina when I was at college, and I rebought it. Anna Kareena, its a book.
Daughter: You could buy 'An Italian in America'
Woman: I could not. I could write it!
Me: Muffled snorts and guffaws of laughter at idea of loud American being able to write anything when the title of her favourite book escapes her.
Woman to bilingual shop assistant: Where is the book about Michelangelo?
B SA - Which one madam?
Woman: The one with Charlton Heston, The Agony and Ecstasy (To my mind a book about overdosing)
BSA: It's in historical fiction.
Woman: Why? Why isn't it in autobiography?
BSA: Because it's fiction madam
Woman: It is not.... etc etc ad nauseam and I leave the shop.
One reason why Naples holds its strange allure for me.
On top of all this I am trying to find a new flat, and its very tedious. I dont want much: two rooms, possibly a terrace, light and dry. Its like trying to find someone who admitted to voting for Berlusconi. I buy the property magazines and make endless pointless phone calls. The only flat I have seen thus far was a '2 bedroomed, light and airy flat'. It had two rooms, admittedly. The toilet was installed. The shower was the kitchen sink, and dated from pre-cholera days. I veer from desperation to a acceptance of something perhaps happening in the fullness of time. Perhaps I have been in Naples too long.
Secondly, I'm just nicely back from Florence. It was the desire for superb summer sales that made me jump on a train north. In that respect I failed dismally, as there was nothing to buy. HOwever, it was lovely to be out of Naples for a weekend.
It's a toss up, though. Admittedly there was no rubbish in the streets and no Albanian children trying to rob you at every turn, but there were so many Americans, English and assorted Anglophones that Italian has become the second language of the city. I was forced to escape to Le Cascine, the park to the west of the city, to listen to any Italian being spoken and avoiding conversations such as the following in a large bookshop.
Woman (American) to daughter...: You should buy a book, a story... I read Anna Karina when I was at college, and I rebought it. Anna Kareena, its a book.
Daughter: You could buy 'An Italian in America'
Woman: I could not. I could write it!
Me: Muffled snorts and guffaws of laughter at idea of loud American being able to write anything when the title of her favourite book escapes her.
Woman to bilingual shop assistant: Where is the book about Michelangelo?
B SA - Which one madam?
Woman: The one with Charlton Heston, The Agony and Ecstasy (To my mind a book about overdosing)
BSA: It's in historical fiction.
Woman: Why? Why isn't it in autobiography?
BSA: Because it's fiction madam
Woman: It is not.... etc etc ad nauseam and I leave the shop.
One reason why Naples holds its strange allure for me.
On top of all this I am trying to find a new flat, and its very tedious. I dont want much: two rooms, possibly a terrace, light and dry. Its like trying to find someone who admitted to voting for Berlusconi. I buy the property magazines and make endless pointless phone calls. The only flat I have seen thus far was a '2 bedroomed, light and airy flat'. It had two rooms, admittedly. The toilet was installed. The shower was the kitchen sink, and dated from pre-cholera days. I veer from desperation to a acceptance of something perhaps happening in the fullness of time. Perhaps I have been in Naples too long.
Comments:
Post a Comment
Online Degrees