REX COMES TO TREVISO

Can you see the similarity...?

Discovered a banquet of free food.

 

All attention on the roof garden.

Quick Exhibition

Formula 1 at home

VENICE

Il Duommo opposite the station.

Re-enactment of 'The Tourist'

The salary of a Gondolier is absurdly high. Cash in Hand. It's the uniform that deceives you.

Private dinner for 1 

Sandra and I on Ponte di Rialto

Casino Royale...

COFFEE

This machine was my worst nightmare in the first week. It did everything I didn't want it to... Truthfully, it was just me pressing any button to get some liquid to come out. 

It was not just a simple 'Americano' or 'Cappuccino' as I hoped, but an everlasting list of different types of coffee. 

Schiuma (with chocolate) - for the bambini, looks more impressive than any of the drinks made.

Macchiato
Macchiatione
Macchiato Freddo
Latte Macchiato 
Americano
Cappuccino (some with or without 'schiuma')
Caffe Baileys
Caffe Orzo - I pronounce 'Orso' which means bear, and then spend the next couple of seconds trying to get Lorena to help me, who is just watching in hysterics!
Caffe Affogato


Then of course, just a normal coffee. This is about a sips worth of coffee in a miniature tea-cup. Simple I thought...HOWEVER, why not just give it more than one name, it would be like that lucky child who gets baptised with about 4 middle-names.

So we have:

caffe
caffe lungho
caffe restretto
cafe leche
cafe normale

Take your pick. 

So you can imagine me in the first week, having only been taught 'caffe' thinking, this is pretty simple until someone rapidly asks for one of the above minus the word caffe before it...

All this said, it is now pretty satisfying making that perfect coffee. I'm yet to perfect this sort of thing....

but when I do, you'll know. 

INTRODUCE YOURSELF

Meeting people is probably one of the biggest challenges I think anyone is faced with on their year abroad. I mean, it's a bit like starting school, university or work. But in a different language...with a different culture.

If you didn't choose to go to uni, it's inevitable that you're going to have to make a bigger effort to get some mates. In my case, a gigantic effort...as my apartment is on a main road, close to a residential area, and in order to get to town it takes 10 minutes by car or 18 by bike, that is, if you pedal as frantically as me. However, due to the town being small, the autobus stops at 8pm. Take into account I'm used to the frequency of the tube/night bus in London. You could possible compare the difference in transport to jet lag from London to America. Just a little over-exaggerated.

So the question is: how do I meet people? 

If there was an immediate answer I wouldn't be writing this. Yes of course I can join clubs/courses/sports but first I've got to find these things. So in the meantime I need people. 

What did I do.. I took myself into town an ordered a Spritz (speciality drink: Prosecco, Aperol and fizzy water) in the main piazza 

and just took in my surrounds and I kid you not, within 10 minutes this Italian ragazzo, Andrea, comes and joins my table... we get chatting and then he introduces his 2 other friends. They've all just finish school, which happens when your 19, and ones going to study in Venice. Two drinks later and I've been invited to a party with them. Talk about luck. They pick me up as one of them is the segregated driver, and that led to an amusing night out. 

Idiot. Spontaneous. Careless. Fun. Dangerous... Risky. 

And this it the thing when it comes to meeting people. In order to get to know someone I've got to take risks...Right. I did give some of their contact details to Sandra and Carlotta before... so not completely ignorant. But hey, I met some people.

Question still remains, is it ok to be approached at a bar and make friends that way, with a stranger... No matter what, everyone is a stranger to me here!

To finish, thought you should know that I've signed myself up on a weekly 'Pittura a olio' course in Treviso... the outcome of the paintings should be entertaining. 

VILLORBA, TREVISO

Before you read any further, I'd like to make it so transparently clear that I have never written a blog and definitely do not see myself as the new Alexa Chung, let alone J.K Rowling... This is an insight on my year abroad as we all know how hard it is to stay in contact with absolutely.every.single.person, it may be seen as an easy way out of copious amounts of skype calls, but it really isn't. (PLEASE keep the skyping coming...don't know what I'd do without you.)

Despite having told everyone that I was going on my year abroad to Venice, I actually meant the town I  would be living in was near Venice... This was because no one (not even my second year Italian Oral Examiner) had heard of Treviso, let alone Villorba . 

Once arriving, I had a bit of a shock, the weather was that of the South of France. 34 degrees at its peak. I had packed for -0 temperatures. 

Anyway, the Lovat family of whom I work for, are probably one of the most generous Italian families I have ever met. Even though they are not paying me to work, they have given me my own apartment 'gratis' and invite me round for dinner at least twice a week. 

In brief: 

The mother, Carlotta, is, as Sandra (Nicolo's(the son), Dutch girlfriend) would say,an Octopus, cooking while she cleans, as well as sparking conversation meanwhile playing with the dogs. It is something that just amazes me.  The rest of the family are lovely, Lorris, the husband, Nicolo, 26, and Tomasso, who is 14. 

Sandra moved out here to live with Nicolo about a year ago and to be honest, I wouldn't have been able to manage the first two weeks here, had she not been around. She understood exactly how I was feeling, especially as I was isolated in my apartment, and as sad as it sounds, gave me the friendship I needed. This started with our joint love for the Twilight series...yes, I'm being serious. By the end of the first week we had watch the first film and were planning the next movie night (to Nicolo's disgust).

Centro Biblioteche, Libreria Lovat is where I work. Making coffee, serving customers, getting free lunch (big plus), stuttering over the pronunciation of apricot in Italian 'AL-BI-CO-CA' and, of course, speaking Italian. It's a fun atmosphere when it is busy, and it also helps that I work with a girl my age called Lorena

 and a lovely lady called Cinzia, both of whom constantly repeat, 'Stai tranquilla'... in translation, 'Don't panic', which as you all know is my key in life.

So you could say that I've settled in, however the word 'lonely' never escapes my mind.... but I've still got four months to go, so I'm just going to man up and take it with a pinch of salt.