ITALIAN mums out there - franca etc

[eastend]

DS is sick, what would a good Italian mum cook for him? First time he is properly sick, I need to cook him something, even if he might not eat it...

Its festa here so papa has got dd and hopefully she is napping in the park. I read my first Lorenzo Licalzi ( no so) in the UK . My mums Italian class were reading it. They are light-hearted and not hard reading . I am not a great fan of anything in depth in Italian as I find I don't concentrate enough to take in what I am reading !! If that makes sense.

yes it makes sense a lot, I still have it with english books. Yesterday I started greene's the honorary consul and I really had to concentrate. I find PG Wodehouse (one of my favourite) very difficult to read, for instance.

We get them every year, when the wheather changes for the summer.

We called my friend and he took them away but we still have a few trying to build another nest (b***s). The last 2 years they swarmed in the chimney (had to kill those unfortunately, no way to get them out!)

No school today or yesterday. In town there was the Quad festaval and the boat festival so we had a walk round town.

I'm supposed to be sorting myself out for the week but can't contentrate. I'm the same with books in Italian, Still reading George's marvelous medicine in Italian and I started at Christmas AND I know the story!

it's true, it's the 1st of may! (franca starts remembering her youth, when it was spirngtime and we all went to manifestazioni, skipping school and making professori mad because it was interrogazioni time...)

There's definately back, we must have 1000 now. Don't think we got the queen. bum.

!

bloody hell... I forgot about the 1st of May! what a shame!! ah the manifestazioni, gli scioperi del sabato con il sole per andare al lago... ah youth!

thanks girls for all your suggestions. They might be not too contemporary but Lucarelli I have never read or Sandro Veronesi ne Ferito a Morte di Raffaele di Capria. bene vi faro' sapere!
shame I couldn't join in this morning.

going to PG on sunday and back on friday. can't wait to take DD to la citta' della domenica!! for me is the best place ever, beats all the disneyworlds (surely DD will disagree when she grow up)! I can't wait to take her to pinocchio's village and the casette dei 7 nani etc...

PS: franca I meant to say: great about DH wanting to move back. what has brought this change of mind?

Never been to la citta' della domenica, I went to perugia only once in gita scolastica!
Well, I don't know. Going back to Italy wouldn't be the best move career-wise for him. Not to mention the fact that getting a job is virtually impossible. Family-wise, we sort of agreed that it'd be a good move. Closer to our families (our parent aren't getting any younger, and I'd also would like to help with my very old grandmother), closer to our friends and giving the children a real sense of belonging, which I don't feel I can provide here. Life in Italy is not easy, there are so many things I dislike, but I have a community of like-minded people to share it with, and here I always have this underlying feeling of being a "stranger", a bit emarginated, which I don't want to pass on to the children... iyswim... end of part one.
have a lovely time in italy pippi.

Franca I know so much what you mean about 'that feeling' I feel just the same. No matter what you do, say, wear etc you still feel that bit straniero. I love it here but I love the UK and feel that it can offer my dd so much more ..like a park to run round in for starters ours is full of dog poo and 4 swings for all the children in Venice do not go very far. When dd gets to school age the schools are average. After school clubs are 1 school of danza. judo/ karate/football/1 gymnastics and thats it. When I see what my neices are doing it makes me green.
Well So much for our week away ( now putting Costa crociere brochures in the bin)Dh has to work on Mon and Tues so bu**er that . but he has said that I can come to the UK early July hurrah so thats 2 months with i nonni who are getting on a bit .
Pippi -Perugia how wonderful I forgot about citta della domenica I went many years ago when I was in MOntepulciano. Have fun . Hope the weather is good its a bit grey and rainly today.
Mary pop any more bees ???

Rosa, oh no, you were so looking forward to going on holiday! but it's good news you can come here for two long months! (anywhere near devon by any chance?)
I totally understand you, even if for me it's the other way around ! It is a question of "belonging" and the fact that, for instance, you can navigate the school system much better here, as it is what you know and have experienced as a child. It's a question of what is more familiar, I suppose.
Althugh I suppose that if we really went back to Italy I'd start moaning about how much better things are done here in England!!!

I can understand what you two are saying but I cannot share it. I can't say I feel 'english'... far from it but I do feel like i belong, much more than I did at home. Of course it is great to be home and feel like it is 'home' but it's in the past. I'd find it so so difficult to adjust.
I don't know maybe it is London, where no one really belongs therefore everybody does IYSWIM.
And I'm also quite happy about the novely in navigating the school system. It is all new for me too, not just my DD and keeps me young and curious. I don't know... I become very melancolic when I go home and see the kids sui motorini outside schools, or in tennis clubs, or walking 'al corso' on a saturday evening for example.

and I do understand you too pippi! I think that moving from a very provincial Italian town to a cosmopolitan city like London must feel incredibly liberating. I'm not missing Italy "per se". I'm missing my friends, and my family. Both dh and I are Italian, which I think feels a bit different than being in a couple where one is english and the other is Italian, as we are both wondering where we should put our roots. We also feel we have some responsibility towards our parents, who, again, are getting older.
I don't really know what to do.

Well Franca now that you mention it I will not be that far from you .I will be in Cornwall ! I am just looking at prices and combinatons as I need to fly to LGW and then onwards to Newquay. With an active dd am trying for the less hassle timings possible but we seem to miss the good connections ! I do not fancy driving 4 hrs plus stops on my own the most dd is used to is about an hour in her carseat.
Going back to the straniero thing. I came to Italy at 18 and then spent seasons here there all over so when I settled in VE it was like putting down roots. I suppose the grass is always greener on the otherside.My Dh -Italian loves the Uk as well but I just don't think he has the courage to settle in another place.Plus he has not got a trade that can be moved !Oh the things you do for love.

Well how could you not miss cornwall!? It's one of the most beautiful places in the world! (I went to penzance twice as a teenager, to "learn" English)
Have you checked easyjet? It flies form venice to bristol. But then again, you'd have a long drive ahead... It's difficult to reach this side of the UK! (it always takes us nearly 8 hours from door to door!)

never been to cornwall although I really want to.

been to swansea and dover to 'learn' english too in my teens...

The problem with the Bristol flight is that it arrives at 22.30 into the UK. It used to be around 18.30 which was better as with a 2-3 hr drive onwards it was ok. BUt with a little one and just checking in will be past her bed time also nonni are not young and its not fair to get them to drive 5 hrs round trip to get us. When dh is with me then we do drive from LGW but as I will be coming earlier its not a good idea. Think only option is 4 hrs at gatwick but 2 of those will be with luggage and pushchair as can't check in until 2 hrs before for air south west ! That is the part that worries me. Am now looking into left luggage for a couple of hours....

yes, that part would worry me too rosa. I'd probably leave the luggage, pop dd in the pushchair and walk around the airport, in the hope that she falls asleep!

Hi, problems with my internet connections, working again though. Bees are still with us all 'bee' it diminished (about 50 now). I'm sure Dh will get rid when he comes home. Thursday had to do an emergency trip to England, back tonight.

I know what you mean about the stranieri thing however as a child from an immigrant family (Irish) can't say I haven't felt that before. My kids I think are even more confused than I was given that are living in Italy but were born in London. They are part of a family whose mother is second generation Irish and father has a half Indian Grandmother (who speaks English but also hindustani). Plus my Dad also speaks Hindu from living there for many years. Talk about mixed heritage!

That's quite impressive marypop! . so, how do you like it in, whree are you actually, near fano?

aren't bees a protected species like in england? you wouldn't be allowed to kill them here and the council will come and rehomed them for you. of course if they are wasps is another story (poor wasps!).

I have been packing... cannot wait. DD will get baptised as well... DH a bit upset he won't be there (not because of church but because he'll miss seing his princess all cute and fluffy )

We're just outside a village nr Fano. Yes they are but when the 3000 on a bank holiday and your bee keeper friend says bump em off you do as your told. Nobody will know either way, I know because when we had a car accident on the road the police couldn't find so I don't think there's much hope for anybody else without directions.

Pippi how cute, I love all that dressing up stuff. My DD is doing her catecisms and I'm looking forward to that party.

It's not fair my DH has a bank holiday tomorrow and I've gotta work.

Fano! (nostalgia sets in). The first year at Liceo I had to repeat greek in september so I went to fano (from Marotta) twice a week to see a fantastic professore who was brilliant, and after that I never had a problem with greek. There also used to be a great gelateria....
what job do you have marypop?
Pippi have a great time in Italy, did you buy a white fluffy dress for your dd?

I teach English in a school in Pesaro. Do you mean the Pino bar where is the gelateria?

Where do you live now Franca?

I've always lived in Milano, until 1999 when I moved (per amore) to ... Exeter!
You know I don't remember the name of the gelateria, I think it was somewhere off the via principale... (it's been 20 yrs now!).