Carl discovers the world

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.

Boungiorno, my partner and I have decided to start seriously learning Italian, and after months of watching any Italian tv programs we could find, we now feel ready to embrace language study.

We bought a language pack, the Hugo Italian in 3 months course, a couple of dictionaries and a software program for Windows that teaches Italian using short sound bytes.

So now that we've started, we plan to spend about half an hour a day going through new exercises, and as often as possible we're going to speak Italian to each other. Read More