With a me ciamo Peter ( my name is Peter )
Non parlo Italian ! parla Englashie? ( I don't speak Italian, do you speak English )
So most times with a head turned sideways saying Nhoooo or a poco, well we are off talking like we can both speak each other language. It's so much fun and it's amazing how much can be said with pointing and showing a map or a picture of where you are heading. Well there was the exception for the old guy that took us to the film set and not the 2 saints parade but hay we still may appear as extras in some Italian film. Sitting in a local Piazza so with a smile I will introduce myself and see where it goes.
In Venice one afternoon on our way home I looked up and saw an older lady hanging out her washing one floor up over our apartment so a bonasara ( good-afternoon ) . Well it was like we were long lost friends she was trying to tell us something very important aqua ... aqua... and before you knew it we were directed to a large blacken door and directed to come up stairs for a cuppa or vino, well I think that what she said. Destra, destra, sinestra, avanti, avanti , pronto, pronto. So have you got that ....right, right, left, forward, forward, fast, fast. Well the directions worked cause as soon as we got to the big black door at street level we hear a click and we can let ourselves in, so it's the correct entrance than, we followed the marble stairs to her oh so very Venice-eion, beautifully decorated apartment with furniture that one would think you should only ever find in the best museums.
Aaaaaamazing!!!! So thats what's behind some of these very old and grotty looking doorways in Venice. It was a grand first floor apartment with view the same as ours directly over the Grand Canal but out of flood level for the next few hundred years or so. The floors were a mix of bright greenish coloured stone chips highly polished with stunning ancient rugs. It turns out that she was 80 but seriously still Italian hot for her age, lost her husband at 52 and with no children. So she rattled off for an hour or so plying us with loose wine from the same wine shop we were getting ours from just around the corner in the little local piazza.
She had so much to tell us but it was all in Italian and if we didn't understand well she thought that perhaps we were deaf and spoke much slower and LOUDER...
Hmmmm note to-self talking louder doesn't actually work!!!!
So the long and short of the conversation over more vino was that the Aqua... Lasts nights rain had come in and flooded a corner of her apartment and she was concerned if we had water damage or that we may have got wet in our bed last night. Right got that I will have a look and ring the people we are renting from if we have a problem. Yep a bit of water but no biggie as our apartment was a stairwell less in width so most of the water had made its way to the Grand Canal with out stressing us.
Today I was chatting to this guy on his bike and he was giving everyone ( tourist ) direction to this amazing hill top town of Montemerano google it it's is truly amazing, only 20 people still live there and it is only accessible for tourist by foot.
He was so cute and kept on saying no he didn't speak English. But in perfect English he rattles off the directions and told us where to park the car as down the hill the parking was much dearer, he even pulled out pictures of the hill top town in winter with the fog making it look like it was floating on a cloud.
So I asked him could I have my picture with him, he said no and smiled to reveal he only had a couple of teeth ... so I said please, if I don't smile either can we have a picture and with a huge smile he said OK.
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