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August 29, 2000-Bronwen
We are now in Italy, which we have really enjoyed so
far. The people are very friendly, and of course the food is very good.
We haven't had a bad meal here yet. The pastas are very good and the
pizzas are very thin, un-cheesy, un-American, and delicious. The people
here speak very little English and seem to expect us to know Italian.
They will just rattle on in Italian while we haven't got a clue about
most of what they are saying. Then we catch the occasional word which is
sometimes enough. I actually kind of like it. Our first Italian meal on
Sicily was a real struggle though. They didn't have any English on the
menu and the waitress spoke not a word of English; she just talked on and
on in Italian. She came out to ask something like how did we want the
swordfish cooked, and we thought she was telling us that they had no
swordfish. After a lot of confusion we ended up with mussels and no
swordfish! It is a big change from all of the countries we have been to
recently where they all speak some English. We are learning a bit of the
language for once. It is a relief to get to a Latin based language
though, now we can actually read it, and lots of the words are similar to
either Spanish or English. It is possible for us communicate things like
'bus finished?', which is quite an accomplishment. Even here though, when
we really need it we can normally find someone that talks English.
Yesterday we went to Naples. We took a train, which
was so crowded that we just had to stand up in the entrance way. It was
also incredibly hot, the hottest that I had been in a really long time.
All I could think of was how hot I was, with sweat actually trickling
down me while I was standing still! We wandered around Naples for an hour
or so, getting exhausted. It was so dirty, quiet, and rundown that we
decided that the city public workers were probably cut in the last
budget. Then, absolutely exhausted, we did finally find an area that we
liked. It had a plaza that was not in the process of getting a subway
put in like every other one we had found. It also had a fountain, an old
royal palace, and a beautiful big white building with columns of course
and a big dome. It was a great scene, lots of people sitting around
enjoying the evening. We found it quite scenic. Throughout Naples the
buildings were tall, old and solid. There were many narrow, dark
alleyways with washing strung between balconies. They were in fact so
dark that we couldn't take pictures of them. We had a very good dinner of
pizza, and then rushed off to catch our train. We waited in line for
tickets and then just as we got to the front, after elbowing the people
trying to cut out of the way, the man said that he was closing the
window! Mom and Dad talked him into selling us tickets though, luckily,
because we were getting late. We needn't have worried because the train
arrived ten minutes late. Then, on and off for the whole ride, the train kept
slowing to almost a walking pace and stopping. By the time we got to the
station we had missed our bus, the last one of the night. Typical Italian
trains.
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