TREASURING LITTLE HUNTS

The Italian word of the day is SENAPE = MUSTARD (eng),  MOSTAZA (sp),  SAVORA (arg urban)

The question of the week is LEI CAPISCE L'INGLESE? = DO YOU UNDERSTAND ENGLISH? (eng)

I think this was the smoothest international travel experience that I have ever had.  Everything went like clockwork from getting to the Logan bus to arriving in Milan.  There was just one small but fun delay at security in Boston.  My leather motorcycle coat and my treasured boots went through the x-ray device in a bin and came out minus one boot.  As I stood on one foot like a crane a Ben Affleck look-a-like (with a touch of Latino thrown in) searched inside and out of the machine looking for it.  It was nowhere. "But it can't just disappear." I said. " It has to be somewhere.  It would really stink to travel all day with one shoe."

He seemed quite perplexed until one young girl that I had been chatting with earlier told me that it had fallen out before the bin went through and the boot was on the floor.  I called to Ben Guapo and he rescued it.  "Here it comes.  I am sending it through.  I thought I was going crazy."   My reply was, "You do know that you look like Ben Affleck don't you?"  He smiled wide and said that someone had told him that just yesterday. "Well I hope they got their shoes back too."

Fast forward to Milan...  Smooth sailing halted and things got off-plan - but no hurry worry.  I purchased a new chip for my cell phone and the clerk and I could not get it working.  She even resorted to putting it in her own personal phone and it worked fine.  We concluded that it was the phone unit itself.  Oh well.  While the chip was in her phone I sent a text to my host in Verona who was to pick me up in a few hours notifying him that I had arrived, that I was not using my own phone as I needed a new one, that he could not contact me and that I would be by the exit near customs waiting."  I wandered the terminal looking for a phone store but none existed. I sat patiently waiting for my ride. And then... "HEY PATT FIND A PHONE!"  My intuition yelled in my ear. 

I found a pay phone and called him.  Sure enough there was a big glitch.  He was tied up at work in meetings and could not drive the two hours to come and get me.  Time for Plan B.  I went back to the lovely phone clerk who also sells the bus tickets to Milan (and thinks my castellano is fantastic) and purchased one.  I took a bus into the city for 40 minutes and then an hour and a half train to Verona thanking myself all the way for being a flexible and seasoned traveler.  I wasn't ruffled a bit by any of the changes because I know how and will ask for help.  I learned a phrase in Italian before embarking on this journey.  It will most likely become my most useful phrase during this three month visit. "Scusi, Lei capisce l'inglese?"  Excuse me, do you understand English?  This is one of those golden questions because the reply so far has been at the very least "Un po" (a little).

My host met me at the train station and we went for sushi.  I was sleep and food deprived and my body had no clue as to what time of day it was.  Back at the apartment we chatted.  I talked of a fantastic Pinor Noir at my farewell dinner in the USA (Laetittia) and was sent to bed to take a nap.  While I snoozed he went out and returned with a bottle of Bardolino and created a lovely dinner. Soon after I crashed.  I had the keys and a map for exploring this morning but I missed the morning. I am still a bit jet-lagged and it has been pouring rain.  I figure the art waited to show itself to me for a few hundred years, it can wait another day.

Stefano is teaching today so I was left to make my own coffee and raid the frig for lunch fixings.  Such a fun treasure hunt deciphering the jar labels.  Interestingly enough part of my brain searches in English and another part hunts in Castellano and often it is just my eyes and nose that figures it out.  What a wild mix in my brain!   I pulled a few treasures out of the frig and while finishing my second cup of coffee I started to write this blog post but.....my host has just arrived home with leftovers from his cooking students.  A cooking instructor - in Italy?  YA - BE ENVIOUS - BE VERY ENVIOUS.  I must go and eat now...

Buon Appetito !