The Hills Are Alive

This is an outdated photo - from a trip I took to the hills outside Bologna about a month ago - but I never got the chance to put it up. The Bolognese hills are beautiful and there are lots of different public parks for residents. On warm days, everyone packs a blanket and leaves the city. The weird thing about the photo above is that you can see an open laptop, which often implies that there's some kind of internet connection available. I cannot possibly believe this, as internet at home is still very much a luxury here. It would be wonderfully ironic if wireless was available in the hills outside Bologna when it's barely found within people's homes.

Here are some more photos from Florence:


This is the view from the top of the cathedral. And below is the view from inside the dome.


I learn new things all the time about the way Italian culture relates to Catholicism. Obviously religion is very important here. This weekend, 7 days before Easter, stores are changing their hours so that shoppers can have as much time to get things done before (apparently) the city shuts down. From the chaos in the supermarket you'd think that the apocalypse was coming. (Not joking.) However, the entertaining thing is that sometimes people make religion-related comments that seem incredibly bizarre.

On Wednesday I was in the car with a coworker, going to another office. To make conversation, he asked me which men I found attractive at Coop. (This may seem inappropriate, but compared to most of the conversation topics that take place there, it's absolutely benign.) After stalling for a bit, I named a guy named Nicola, who's generally known to be the only good-looking man in the entire company. (Nicola's daughter is named Emma, which is proof that he's smart AND good-looking.)

Anyway, my coworker's nonchalant response: Yes, women find Nicola handsome because he looks like Jesus.
Uh, I don't think that Nicola looks like Jesus at all. I mean, I don't actually know what Jesus looks like - but the Jesus depicted in Italian paintings does not resemble Nicola. According to my coworker, he used to have long hair, which made him even more Jesus-like. I was sort of stunned throughout this part of the conversation. Is Jesus the ideal of some beauty standard that I don't know about? I would be very interested to find out.

And as always Andrea has something surprising to add during his English lesson. He's a big fan of a comedian named Beppe Grillo, who is very anti-establishment. One of Beppe Grillo's many accomplishments is that he has pressured the European Union to pressure the Italian government into lowering cell phone fees here. Beppe Grillo is also a big fan of environmental conservation. Apparently Andrea's mind was blown a few weeks ago at a show in which Beppe Grillo introduced the Italian people to this little innovation. Imagine someone trying to explain what the cup is without having the language skills to do so. Well, eventually we figured out what Andrea was trying to tell me about and I informed him that I know lots of people who use it (which is true). The final frontier of environmental awareness! Andrea's girlfriend plans to join the club. So much education takes place during Andrea's English lessons!

Here's a photo of Rosa and me during my family's visit.

Castles and Comics

What could be more lovely than a week spent traveling with the Gilmore family? We saw many beautiful things: the golden baptistery ceiling in Florence, a castle with a real moat in Ferrara, carvings of professors’ tombs in Bologna. We sampled all kinds of gelato, pizza, and pasta – the most Italian food I’d eaten since arriving here. My poor jetlagged parents and sister managed to stay on their feet every day, supplemented by caffeine. As it also happened to be a week in which my roommates were going through domestic troubles, I was extra grateful for their presence.



The baptistery in Florence.


A building in Ferrara.



Last Friday I went to the Jewish Museum in Bologna and saw a presentation by Rutu Modan, one of Israel’s few female graphic novelists. She made it clear during her interview that she’s all about empowering women through comics and not about political propaganda.
I went with my friend, Felix, who quite rightly smirked at me halfway through the presentation and whispered, “You love her, don’t you?” I do! She was articulate, funny, and signed my book with a picture of a fairy balancing on a skyscraper. Here’s the book, which I read in Italian and now can’t wait to read (and understand better) in English, under the title Exit Wounds. It’s really good. And I've heard that graphic novels are good for learning a language - hope it's true, because Italy is full of them.

Gilmore Girls, and Parents too

There has been a lapse in blogging because my family visited me in Bologna. Actually, it's sort of strange to write that here, because my family (I think) are my most consistent blog readers. But anyway, I wasn't blogging because I was with them, and now that I'm blogging again, they can read about why I didn't blog when I was with them.

We did some traveling and saw Ferrara and Florence, which are both beautiful, though very different. And we ate a lot. Unfortunately I haven't uploaded any of the photos yet, but they'll be here eventually.

And here's a photo of my choir.



Last night, after rehearsal, some of us were hungry and wanted to get dinner together. Elio, one of the most charismatic members (he toasted my mother and tried to feed her breadsticks when she came to rehearsal) tricked us into going to a community center with him. Where there was an all-male billiards tournament taking place. (It was some weird kind of billiards with little chalky game pieces in the center of the table.) There was absolute silence as the teams played. I was glared at in a very disturbing and bizarre manner, as was the other female who came with us. Needless to say, we left.

And just a quick note about my student, Andrea, and his infinite wisdom - on Thursday he told me that southern Italy is in the southern hemisphere. Because it's less wealthy than northern Italy. Yes.

Going for a Ride

On Friday I had my first ever ride on a scooter. (Massimo and Lucia's. Not a Vespa, but equally amazing in every way.) It was soooooooo exciting. I think that riding on the back of an Italian scooter, in Italy, must be a completely unique experience. For one thing, the traffic and the general Italian driving methods are very original, not always in a positive way. Plus, since everyone else is riding a scooter, it feels like a very community-like thing to do. And now that it's getting warm, it's really nice to speed along with the air rushing past.

The context of the ride was that my choir was giving a concert at a school outside Bologna. I was running late and in a state of anxiety because the trip required switching buses and knowing neighborhoods and being generally very Bologna-savvy in a way that I am not.

So, Massimo took pity on me and gave me a ride. Which was amazing. When I arrived at choir, I told everyone about my adventure. I received, in return, various offers to buy stolen scooters. You have to appreciate Italy for that. Bologna especially. Everything with wheels is stolen.


This is the garden at Lucia's apartment in Venice. (Can you spot the little cat face?)

This is a school that I visited in Pisa. It's breathtaking. If you're interested, it's a special training school for secondary school teachers.


The fish was one of my favorites. But it was covered with so many different pictures that it was difficult to choose just one.