Carl discovers the world

One of our neighbours here in Spain has been very kind and spoke to his Spanish teacher about taking on a couple of novices with the result being that next weekend we hopefully get our first lesson.

Spanish like any other language is best learned in a total immersion manner, we have proof of this, for a couple of years now we've been trying to learn Italian with a book and CD, and honestly if I was speak to an Italian they'd probably ask me to revert to English since they might understand me better.

Before we arrived in Germany we had done the same thing, try to learn from a book and CD, problem is, the dialect spoken by the older people in Düsseldorf is nothing like the standard German being taught, and the same thing when we were in Berlin. Basically what ended up happening is family and friends had to try hard to understand us, but after a while things got a lot easier because we were exposed to the language and could emulate local pronunciation, we can even understand Bavarians when we see them on TV, but we had to be there to really learn the language. Read More

Last night we decided to treat ourselves to an evening of Pizza and Italian music, and to make it molto authentico we set a small table with a red and white check tablecloth, a small vase with a single red rose, a bottle of chianti and a couple of candles.

I remember the last time I was in Rome eating Pizza outside a small cafe down a small side street not too far from the Piazza Navona and I wanted to try and recreate that moment.

We put on our favorite Andrea Bocelli album, Romanza, and settled down to a home-made pizza with loads of salami and mozzarella, and on her half, loads of vegetables - yuck!

Afterwards came the surprise, she didn't know I'd managed to buy the collectors edition of Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn, her second favorite film of all time. Luckier still the soundtrack could be played in English or Italian, needless to say we chose Italian to complete the evening. I wonder if any of my basic Italian phrases will be in the movie. Buonanenotte.

Last night we found ourselves sitting glued to the TV eagerly waiting for Jamie Oliver's travels around Italy, and I'm really glad we didn't miss it. The island of Marettimo looks absolutely stunning, actually reminded me of a small greek island (Simi) I visited many years ago. It's hard to believe a small rock in the ocean can be so beautiful.

A friend from Italy had been telling me about these little three wheeler vehicles that are apparently as ubiquitous as the trusty vespa but I'd never seen one, and I couldn't really imagine what it would look like, well, seeing the little three wheeler parked outside Giovanni’s Bar La Scaletti, and then the watching Jamie push start it and unceremoniously hop onto the back with the dog as Giovanni speeds down to the harbour to collect the fish was just priceless. You know Jamie was right about one thing, most English chef's wouldn't have the balls to do what he did. Now I can't wait to visit Sicily! Read More

I was watching Jamie Oliver touring Italy last night in his Kombi, actually this was the first episode so we only saw him arrive in Palermo, and cook some fish at a street grill.

What really made an impression on me however wasn't Palermo, although that was interesting. The thing that really impressed me was the farmland and hillsides around Palermo.

Every other time we've seen pictures of Sicily it has looked very rugged and rocky, but the scenery Jamie drove through was different. Altogether very green. Made me realise that touring Sicily could end up being one of the highlights of our time in Italy. But on the other hand, we've also heard wonderful things about Sardinia, and I still remember travelling through the boot of Italy and it was all gorgeous - maybe Italy is just all beautiful.

Another funny thing occurred to us as we listened to Jamie talking to people on the street in Palermo. We understood their accents more clearly than when we watch something filmed in Rome. We haven't been able to work out the difference because we didn't record the show, but if any native English speakers have an opinion on Italian accents we would be interested in hearing from you. Actually when we think of it, we understood many of the characters in Montalbano more than other shows we're watched recently like "Commesse 2", the shop girls, which was also filmed in Rome.