Italy at Easter

Several years ago I learned an Italian saying, "Natale con i tuoi, Pasqua con chi vuoi." This roughly translates to “Christmas with your family, Easter with whomever you like." I take this idea seriously. I wouldn't dream of missing Christmas with my children and grandchildren, but whenever possible I spend Easter in Italy, sharing the holiday with friends. 

This year marks my third Italian Easter; one of my favorite times to visit. I love marking the change of seasons in Italy, watching as Tuscany slowly moves from winter to spring. When I arrived at the beginning of March, Lucca had quiet streets, bare trees and vines, and brisk weather (including my first Italian snowfall).

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March remained mostly cold and rainy, but slowly, over the past week, spring has started to tiptoe in. On one of the first warmer days outdoor seating suddenly spilled into the squares from cafes. 

Overnight, the atmosphere in town changed. People filled the streets and cafes, beautifully decorated Easter window displays appeared, outdoor vendors set up stands to sell sweets and balloons, the walls surrounding Lucca began to buzz with activity, and the first tentative spring blossoms surfaced. It seems Lucca has awakened from its winter rest.  

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The last week of March was Holy Week - the week leading up to Easter. It began with Palm Sunday events, including the blessing of palms and olive branches and services in many of the local churches. Venerdì Santo (Good Friday) saw the traditional procession in Lucca in which a heavy wooden crucifix is carried through the streets by black-robed and barefoot members of the Misericordia. This is a solemn event made even more dramatic by the backdrop of Lucca’s Medieval streetscapes. I always find the procession moving, meaningful, and uniquely Italian.

Good Friday was also celebrated with an evening concert at the Cattedrale di San Michele in which a small symphony played the Stabat Mater, with lyrics (in Latin) from the 13th century and music composed by Boccherini (who was born in Lucca in 1743). The church was full, the soprano sang beautifully, and the music was (no pun intended) divine. 

Today is Easter. I’ll walk through town this morning to a favorite pasticceria to pick up a desert for today’s lunch (perhaps a pretty cake like the one pictured here) and then I’ll get busy cooking for the friends who are coming for lunch this afternoon. We'll be enjoying “Pasqua con chi vuoi."

Buona Pasqua.  Happy Easter to all who celebrate it - and happy Passover and Happy Spring too! 

-post by JMB

The Easter flower market in Lucca

Parla Italiano?

Spending time in Lucca encourages me to speak Italian.

Parla Italiano? Do you speak Italian? I always hem and haw when asked that question. I often answer with, “Well, I do speak some, but not very well; I’m nowhere near fluent, I forget more words than I remember, I’m at a very beginning level." Always with the excuses! 

I often think of a conversation I overheard once in the small town of Barga. A visitor said to a Scottish woman who was living year-round in Italy, “So you must speak fluent Italian now." Her answer was something like this: “Oh dear no, I STUDY Italian, I don’t speak it." I can relate.

And yet, I do speak Italian, even if imperfectly and nowhere near fluently. I’ve made progress during the past few years of study; my comprehension has grown and my accent has improved. I am able to negotiate daily life – grocery shopping, purchasing train tickets, making reservations, etc.  I’ve come a long way from the first time I walked into my favorite panificio (bread bakery) in Lucca to buy some focaccia and totally froze – prompting the man behind the counter to gesture grandly and slowly say, “Vorrei” (I would like) … just to get me started. These days I have no trouble buying my focaccia, explaining in Italian that I want the morbida (soft) type rather than the rustica (thinner and crispier). Progress! All my growth is thanks to spending more time in Italy and studying at Lucca Italian School (though my errors and limitations are not the school's fault – they remain all my own).

Giacomo Puccini - I practice my Italian on him and he listens most patiently.

But I am still a hesitant speaker when outside my comfort zone of the vocabulary of everyday life. I find this is a common frustration for those of us trying to learn a new language. So what’s our problem? In large part it’s fear of making mistakes (and sounding foolish). It's also that the process of mentally translating from our native language into Italian makes us slow (and we might sound foolish), and that we forget words, even ones we just learned yesterday, and that makes us feel … foolish. Do you see a common theme here? Probably the biggest lesson I’ve learned is to stop worrying about sounding foolish and just get on with it – start speaking! Yes, there will be mistakes, and I’ll need to throw in an English word now and again when I can’t think of the Italian one, and I often have to find a round-about way to describe something using the words I know to compensate for the ones I don’t.  But, the majority of the time I can make myself understood. Plus, when I talk, I often catch my own mistakes and learn from that too.

Perhaps most important, the Italians I’ve met appreciate attempts to speak their language. When I explain that I am in Lucca to study Italian (sono qui per studiare la linqua), they are incredibly patient and every interaction in a shop, restaurant, bar or bookstore turns into a mini language lesson for me. As a bonus, I sometimes find myself giving directions, in Italian, to Italian tourists visiting Lucca. That makes my day!

I've tried several ways to keep up on speaking Italian when not in Italy. I’ve taken classes at home and participated in conversation groups. Both are helpful but sometimes a challenge to schedule. I study grammar and vocabulary on my own – each helps my comprehension, but neither encourages me to speak. I go to Italian movies and listen to Italian radio.

I’ve recently started trying some new things in an attempt to increase my comfort with speaking. First, I’m reading aloud. I realized that one reason I am timido ( timid) when I need to speak in Italian is that I am not used to hearing my own voice in Italian, which makes me overly attentive to every syllable. To get past this, I’m searching out articles and books in Italian and reading them a voce alto (out loud). This helps with the rhythm and flow of speech (and pronunciations) but mostly I hope it will make me stop getting caught up in worrying about how I sound.

For reading aloud,  I like the monthly Gazzetta articles in Italia magazine (a good use for all my back issues). Another good read-aloud source is the book “In Other Words," by Jhumpa Lahiri.  Both the magazine and the book provide Italian passages with English translations, so they also help with comprehension and vocabulary. 

I’m also trying to spend more time listening to spoken Italian. I particularly like News in Slow Italian, a weekly discussion of current events delivered at a slowed pace. Each episode comes with a written transcript, making it possible to read along with the broadcast, and a “click to translate” feature that helps build vocabulary. News in Slow Italian is available as an app in both a free version and an expanded paid version.

Then there are my morning shower conversations - where I talk out loud about what I plan to do that day, or what happened the day before. It's a bit like singing in the shower, all performance and no audience!

I’m back in Italy, and will take more classes at Lucca Italian School. Here’s hoping that my reading aloud and listening activities  help me transition more easily to speaking Italian.  -post by JMB

Walking in the Italian Rain

The first time I came to Italy for an extended vacation, it rained nearly every day for four weeks. It was April and unseasonably cold and wet that year - and yet I loved it. I quickly learned to always carry an umbrella, to duck into a bar for a coffee when a sudden rain hit, to eat meals indoors during the hardest rains, and to take advantage of every break in the storm to be out and about. I often walked in the rain and enjoyed seeing the city reflected in puddles. Maybe it's because I live most of the year in a place that gets little moisture, but I seemed to thrive on the wet weather that year in Italy.

A group of tourists out and about despite the rain.  

 I've never had quite such a long rainy spell on my return visits. April is usually beautiful, cool to warm with only scattered showers. Last year's spring brought a perfect mix of warm and sunny days along with cooler days with a little rain. Only a few times did the rain last for even a half day. There was one morning though that was cloudy with several hours of steady rain - making it the perfect time for a walk through Lucca, ombrello (umbrella) in hand, enjoying the wet weather. 

Rainy days bring out lots of color as umbrellas brighten the dark skies. 

Bicycles, a common form of transportation, don't stop for the rain.  

And the flower market continues under ombrellones (big umbrellas).

Italians look stylish, even in raingear.

The city reflected in a wet street.  

Eventually the rain stopped, the skies turned blue, and the sun came out. I enjoyed the sun, but I'll look forward to the next rainy day, perhaps this month when I return to spend an Italian spring in Lucca.  -post by JB

Portovenere: Beauty Along the Italian Coast

About this time in February every year, I begin to tire of winter’s darkness and start to long for days with many more hours of sunlight – preferably Mediterranean sunlight. I think of the coastline along western Italy, of the small towns where houses perch on cliffsides along the Amalfi Coast in the south of Italy or the Italian Riviera in the north.

Portovenere in Liguria, Italy

Lately, I have been picturing Portovenere, which sits just south of the more tourist-attracting Cinque Terre villages of Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. Portovenere draws visitors but not nearly as many as those five towns that dot the rugged Ligurian coast.

Spectacular views are to be had from Portovenere.

Like its more popular neighbors, Portovenere is home to bright buildings that mimic the colors of the area: bright yellows like the sun, dark oranges like the land. Its promontory kisses the Ligurian Sea, which flows into the Bay of Poets. Portovenere is one of three communities in the bay and which, along with the Cinque Terre villages, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Lord Byron was one of the poets who loved this area and, as the dedication indicates, swam in the sea here.

Portovenere was originally known as Portus Veneris because of an ancient temple dedicated to Venus, the Roman goddess of love, beauty and fertility. It’s an apt name as Portovenere is charming, beautiful and romantic. The views it offers of the sea are expansive. On a visit last year, the rays of the warm Mediterranean sun sparkled like diamonds on the bright blue water. The atmosphere was one of pure relaxation.

Yet there are also historic sites to see in Portovenere, quaint shops to peruse and restaurants to visit for delicious dishes. The colorful narrow buildings that house apartments and businesses are part of the architectural wonder of the town: They essentially form a protective barrier between the harborfront and the rest of the village. The ruins of Doria Castle offer some of the most stunning vistas of the sea of any place along the Ligurian coast. The castle was built in 1161 for the prominent Doria family. It is an imposing structure even today.

The Doria Castle

Portovenere is an easy day trip from the Cinque Terre villages or from Lucca in Tuscany. On my most recent trip I rented a car and, along with my companions, drove from Lucca to Portovenere for a lovely lunch, an afternoon stroll, a visit to the castle, a gelato and a bit of shopping. Staying for a long weekend would be a perfect way to shake off winter and welcome spring.

-post by JG

Balcony Views in Verona

Juliet's legendary balcony is far from the only one in fair Verona. The city, perhaps known best for being the setting of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," has balconies around every corner, many dripping with greenery or filled with colorful flowers.

While Juliet's balcony is small (and not even really a Juliet balcony - more on that in a moment), some of Verona's apartment extensions (which is how I view balconies) are rather large. Most, however, are narrow, which is typical in Italy. Below is a gallery of just a few of the lovely balconies seen during a recent visit to Verona. I love how plant life often is the decorative element on the balconies.

A Juliet balcony (but not THE Juliet balcony)

The word balcony appropriately comes from the Italian word balcone. Those that extend from a dwelling are traditionally called Maltese balconies while those that do not project out from a building are called Juliet balconies (picture just a metal railing across a doorway on an upper-level floor of a building and you'll get the image of these balconies).

You can see from the photo below that Verona's popular landmark, Juliet's balcony, is clearly not a true Juliet balcony. It's charming nonetheless and overlooks a small courtyard.

Juliet's balcony (which is actually a Maltese-type balcony) in Verona.

While I would find any balcony in Verona appealing, the most coveted would be one overlooking Piazza delle Erbe, which was Verona's forum during the time of the Roman Empire. This large, historic and lively piazza is beautiful. Fading frescoes and flower-filled balconies adorn the walls of the Mazzanti Houses, which face the piazza on its northeastern side. Across the piazza to the south are more apartments, many with pretty balconies of their own.

The Mazzanti Houses are covered with old (15th or 16th century) frescoes and lined with charming flower filled-balconies.

Imagine being able to gaze at this beautiful piazza everyday from your apartment balcony. Some lucky people get to do just that.

-post by JG

Children in Verona have an enviable view from a small balcony that overlooks Piazza delle Erbe.