Una Passeggiata Bellissima

We have 4 or, on certain days, 5 hours of class for a whole stretch, with 15 minutes break in between. The number of hours per day seem small, but it’s pretty intense and quick-paced.

The stretch from 11 am – 2 pm is the worse of the two sections. By this time, your brain, stomach, and everything else either goes numb, or growls in protest.

It does not help that this section belongs to the ‘’geography-sea and rock formation-architectural terminology-mysterious passages’’ part of the lesson.

We have little time of casual chats in class. Sure, there are lots of discussion opportunities – on the definitions of crypts, apse, navel, presbytery, pulpit, promontory, bay, gulf, valley and peak (gosh – do I even use such words frequently in English?!), but little time else for other exchanges. During lunch at 1 or 2 pm we were so drained and famished, after the class plus the long queue at the canteen that we usually ate in silence!

So, it was nice that Ilker my classmate suggested that we went out for dinner yesterday evening. We went home, hurried through our homework, and then went out again. Actually, I didn’t get to finish our homework before we left, and had to get help from one of my roommates at 1 am when I returned! My roommates are from Serbia – they teach Italian in Belgrade and are here for a teacher’s course. While discussing frescos, oil paintings, still life paintings, water colours and mosaics as part of my homework, she told me the interesting history about the past Yugoslavia, which now has become Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia.

Ilker, Diammente, Efi and I met in town and had a simple meal of tortellini and white wine. As students we obviously were very cost conscious and took care to choose a humble looking eatery far from Il Campo.

It was not food but our conversation that was the highlight. We traded stories of about our countries, our life and why we studied Italian and how much we paid for this whole trip. Efi is a successful dentist in Greece who works 12 hour days and took up Italian lessons and paid a lot for this trip, as a ‘’gift’’ for herself. She is the only one who does not have the scholarship and is actually staying in a three star hotel for one whole month.

Ilker, although working, had to save up for 3 months (for 3 months he lived like a Spartan) just to be able to pay for the air ticket and living expenses here. It is his first trip outside of Turkey. He, like me, was helped by a scholarship (ie, school fees paid for, plus subsidized accommodation). Diammente is from Lithuania, a country smaller than Singapore, with a population of 3 million! What a thrill to find a country smaller than Singapore! She too, is on scholarship, but after this summer course, will have to go back to complete her university degree.

In our class, we all have our motives for this ‘’self torture’’. None of them is for work, more money or business! Except for 3 priests-to-be, from Africa. They have to know Italian, to be able to live and work in Rome.

While waiting for Efi to arrive at the bus stop, and during dinner, we snapped away happily like ‘’Japanese tourists’’ (according to Ilker) with our cameras. Back home I would probably find this rather childish, but hey, we are full time students again, and simple amusement and friendships like this is part of the sum of our carefree life.

Then we walked to Il Campo, and sat at the famous scallop shaped open field, like everyone else. Just chatting, people watching, and soaking in the pre-Palio atmosphere. And snapped more silly photos, of course. We exchanged email and facebook ids, and promised to post them online. We spoke Italian with our individual accents and probably with lots of mistakes too, but heck, we understood each other anyhow, with gestures, and a lot of ‘’er’’, ‘’ah’’ and ‘’urm’’, and correcting one another mutually.

It is the height of summer, and at 9 pm, it was still rather bright. Across the field we heard a chorus of male voices singing. Pause. Then on our side of the field, a chorus of female voices broke out in song too, in reply. This continued throughout the night, all spontaneously, and unrehearsed. Ah, what a nice way to spend an evening.

We heard that after 9.30 pm, there would be no more buses back to our residence, until 1 am. Yet 2 other schoolmates we met in town said there would be one at 10.40 pm. Ilker and I decided to walk back instead. Elfi and Diammente live nearby and walked back without problem. But for us, it was a much longer distance, and the two girls we met looked at us in horror when I suggested walking home. They reluctantly agreed, when they saw my determination not to spend on taxi.

And so, the 4 of us did a 40 minute nocturnal walk home. I am grateful for this little exercise. It can’t replace all the running that I miss so much back home, but it sure can help shed some of the fat I have accumulated from the panini and pasta that I have been eating!