An Interview With… Yours Truly

I don’t like to put all my eggs in one basket. My cappuccino in one cup. My pici in one pot. You see what I’m saying, right?

Anyways, I enjoy this whole blogging and writing thing. Really, I do. So periodically I do a bit of writing elsewhere – other blogs, other websites, etc. I even have a couple of articles that should be coming out in print (in print!) in a magazine in two days’ time. Exciting!

But what I’m excited about today, readers, is the publication of my interview with a great website for expats: Expats Blog – An Experience Shared. 

This website contains all sorts of entertaining blogs, articles and interviews from people who have lived or who are currently living the expat experience somewhere in the world. So if you’re interested in reading more about my expat experience in Italy, click on the following link and read what I had to say to Expats Blog. Be sure to leave a comment – I love when readers do that!

Canadian Expat Living In Italy – Interview With Sarah

Italy Envy: What I Miss About Living In Italia

Today marks un anno (one year) since I moved home to Canada from Italy. It’s been a day of reflection for me as the many things I miss about living in Italy have crossed my mind at one point or another.

They are (in no specific order):

1. Speaking Italian all day, every day. (Brings a smile to my face every time.)

1a. Speaking Italian with a Siennese accent all day, every day. (Sounding like a local=even bigger smile.)

2. Flavourful, wholesome Italian food at each meal. (It cut down on my junk food cravings big time.)

Tuscan Pici

3. Living in the most beautiful city – Siena. (I’ll never get tired of looking at the Palazzo Pubblico. Ever.)

Siena

4. Spending time in the piazza. (Need I say more?)

5. Aperitivo at my favourite hangout. (And Sunday lunch there, and dinner there, and midnight snacks there…)

6. Walking (almost) everywhere I go. (Helped me stay in shape after all that pasta and wine.)

7. Learning something new – a word, a custom, an historical tidbit – each day.

Art Gallery

8. The sense of independence, pride and accomplishment I felt at being so at home in my second language and country.

9. My colleagues at my crazy job. (Mi avete salvato la vita!)

10. That “closer to life” feeling I’ve written about before.

Now that the sappy part is over, here are a few things I do not miss about living in Italy:

1. The lack of a clothes dryer. (Sheets and clothing dried in the Tuscan sun? Inviting. Towels dried in the Tuscan sun? Stiff as a board. Also, drying time in colder temperatures? DAYS. Also, risking your life by hanging out your window to get to the clothesline? Not ideal.)

Hanging clothes out to dry.

2. The 110 stairs I had to climb to get to my apartment. (Made me think twice about running back up to get something I’d forgotten. Unfortunately also made people think twice about coming to visit me.)

110 Steps To The Top

3. The general lack of availability of foods that are not Italian. (By the end of my stay in Siena however, an Indian place had opened up right across the street from my apartment. There were only 110 stairs and a cobblestone street separating me from curry!)

4.  The fact that my family and most of my friends-the two most important groups of people in my life-were half a world away. (But it was great when some of them came to visit!)

But in spite of all that… Italia, mi manchi!

Dolcetto o Scherzetto? Halloween, Italian Style

La Maestra Maldestra

 

Halloween (L’halloween, my Italian friends called it, pronounced lahl-oh-ween) is not a very Italian festa (holiday) at all, but that has not stopped gli italiani (the Italians) from jumping on the Jack-o-Lantern bandwagon in the last few years and celebrating in style. The famous phrase, “trick or treat?” has even been translated to “dolcetto o scherzetto?“ in Italian to help the holiday along.

Last year, I spent Halloween in Italy. If you’re a regular reader/follower/subscriber to this blog, you’ll know that during my time living in Siena, I hung out a lot at one particular little osteria and got to be good friends with all the staff there. As Halloween approached, they approached me and asked for ideas for the Festa dell’Halloween (Halloween party) they wanted to throw at the osteria.

I suggested that they order proper orange pumpkins from their fruit and veg supplier (there was nary an orange pumpkin to be found in Siena’s supermercati, just very un-festive yellow ones) and I buzzed around town looking for some goulish decorations to spruce the place up a bit. I helped get the Halloween posters printed so that the fantasma (ghost) came out just right, and spent time trying to get the wording right in both English and Italian for the ads we put up. “Gradita la prezenza in maschera“, for those of you who speak Italian, is how we translated “costumes welcome.“

On Halloween afternoon, the boys closed the place early to set up for the big festa. After they assured me that they could certainly carve two pumpkins (something they’d never done before) without loosing any fingers or blood in the process, I left them alone to put the finishing touches on the party preparations and worried about how the pumpkins would look when I got back. When I swung back by later, I was greeted by these two lovely “Giacomo-Lanterns“ (the Italian version of Jack-o-Lanterns, apparently) which drew crowds to the festa all night:

I like to think they were the only two carved pumpkins in all of Siena last year! The festa was a huge success (went on till 4 a.m., they tell me) and all night people could be seen taking pictures with our unique pumpkins. Please note the Italian touches of vino rosso (red wine) and castagne (chestnuts) alongside our Giacomo Lanterns!

Happy Halloween to all!