Discussion: Well, that sounds wonderful...

Well, that sounds wonderful, good on you for doing it and making the connections. Pretty nice to be so good at Italian that such things are possible. Very cool.

What an impressive connection with the local residents. My admiration for your outreach.

I think even in Italy, it is called 'schmoozing.' And I too am impressed with Charlie's ability to use his basic Italian and make friends wherever he goes over there...even to the point of charmed black-clad widows cooking him meals!

Having watched my Finn wife, I would imagine that kind of conversational interaction is becoming the reason for the trip, more than the O. After months in the US, Sari becomes very anxious to speak Finnish. Don't think most Americans understand the pleasures of multi-lingualism; Europeans seem to dote on it.

Charlie's Italian is well beyond basic.

While I met a few black-clad widows, the lunch was courtesy of Lina’s colorfully clad cousin Maria, for whom it was her 38th wedding anniversary. Her husband was away in the pasture with their sheep.

This would not be an easy place for a monolingual American to get around, and it certainly challenges my ability in Italian. Maria and I had a chat about the difficulty of standard Italian. For her, native speaker of dialect and lifetime speaker of standard Italian, the verbs are the most difficult, and she says people who have studied in college do better with them. For me the greater difficulty is listening and understanding. I suspect that the older Irma was speaking dialect, which made it very difficult for me.

Everyplace else I’ve been in Italy it was easy to find people whose English is better than my Italian. Here I’ve spoken only Italian.

This area is quite a bit more rural than anyplace in Connecticut.

I should add, Peter, that your fame extends to these parts. Cousin Maria knew all about you and your mother.

Your log reminds me that these types of adventures are available worldwide, but only to those who have the persistence to seek them out. Thanks for taking the time to share them.