living in italy – Page 3 – JenandAlsbigItalianadventure

March 26, 2020

So glad you could join us

Benvenuti a Lockdown!

When I was thinking about writing this week’s blog I was conscious that the likelihood was by the time I came to write it lockdown would be a reality for the UK too. Comparing the numbers of Corona Virus cases from Italy two weeks before the UK, it seemed a similar story was emerging. I am sorry it had to come to this, but I think it’s in everyone’s interests. Hopefully they are finding, so far, it’s ok. A great many kind people, organisations and businesses are offering services for free or on reduced rates for us to do/use while we are at home. However, as I said last week, we shouldn’t try to do too much. We are in strange days and there is a mental aspect to this as much as a physical restriction. No doubt your thoughts and feelings about being in lockdown have changed and will change. Make sure you look for and hold onto the positives of which there are many.

A change in the weather

Last week we had balmy 20 degree days. You might remember my photo of the garden, glass of wine in hand. I want to make as much use of the garden as possible at this time and I was worried for my pale blue Celtic skin so I put in an Amazon order for sun cream. The supermarket we can walk too does not have a lot of choice available as it’s not a big store. I thought getting an order would be better than travelling out to a bigger store and potentially encountering more people even if social distancing is practiced here. This week has rewarded us with a wind warning and days barely reaching the 10s so it hasn’t been garden weather, although it has been sunny. However, this morning we were greeted by snow!!! Snow and it was settling, which we were not expecting at all. A quick check of the weather forecast confirms the 20 degree days will return by Sunday, which is good because my sun cream has not arrived yet.

Learning new skills and being bored

This week I learned to use a new online teaching platform as well as how to set up and use groups on Skype. My lessons are spread out over the week a couple of hours, usually not more than 3, at a time. A lot of the day feels like waiting for lessons and other activities are fitted around lessons and prep. I think I pulled a muscle in my stomach doing Yoga, so I’ve been laying off that and I caution those who are planning a vigorous exercise regime during this time not to over do it. Al has been bored because he doesn’t have any work to give structure, however I will mention that tonight I will be eating a chicken pie with handmade puff pastry. The chicken filling was also several processes and days in the making. We’ve also had homemade pasta and bread this week.

Last thoughts for this post

We are a couple of weeks ahead of the UK in this weird netherworld of lockdown. There is a stoicism that says just keep going which is good and helpful but, its ok to admit this is frightening. We have never seen the like of this in our lifetimes. We have no reference data to tell us how to feel and what to do. We are in an event we have only read about in post-apocalyptic books and seen in disaster movies. By staying in and minimising our contact with others less people will die, but that’s still pretty stark. There’s a part of you that feels like this is a holiday, a part that feels like this is an inconvenience and a part of you that is terrified and it’s all correct and OK to feel. We don’t know what is going to happen, which is always true, but is scarier now because we didn’t really think this would happen. One day this week I said to Al that I had a lot of work to do but I just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. I’m not always sleeping and I’m imagining symptoms (luckily a fever can’t be psychosomatically generated) on a consistent basis because, hey, that’s the kind of girl I am. Turns out, it’s perfectly natural. Everyone is doing it, because it’s part of a natural human reaction. Allow yourself to have these moments. It will be ok and we will get through this, but if we have the occasional tremble, or just need to pull the duvet over our heads today, so be it. Be kind to everyone, but especially yourself. We can choose what elements of this experience we hold onto and take forward and which elements of our old life we want to let go of and leave behind.

March 5, 2020

Carnevale and an Exhibition

Carnevale

Although I was aware of the Venice carnival, I was not aware of its connection to Lent or the fact that not only was this an Italian wide festival, but also quite a lot of the rest of Europe too. For around two weeks, certainly in Italy, there are Carnevale events culminating in a parade of some kind on Shrove Tuesday or Fat Tuesday as it is known in other places e.g. Mardi Gras in Spanish, Martedì Grosso in Italian. I had noticed carnival masks and coloured streamers going up in shops, seen signs for Carnevale as well as event specific delicacies in the Pasticceria windows. However, I was not sure what the celebration was for as it seemed too early for Easter. I asked someone who told me it was the festival before Lent. This information turned our Shrove Tuesday into the limpest of pancakes. WARNING! This is my understanding of Carnevale almost certainly containing wild inaccuracies, baseless assumptions and misunderstandings. Anyway, Carnevale is understood to be from the Italian word for meat Carne and vale which means without. This makes sense as a description for Lent or any other type of fasting. The English word Carnival is derived from this. There is something reassuringly human about that fact that around the world, in all cultures, any period of organised fast start and end with a bit of gluttony.

We had looked online and Bologna was holding its Carnevale dei Bambini (Carnival for children) parade on Sunday at 2.30, which was fortunate as Al had the day off. We decided to go and headed out with a plan to grab a slice of pizza or a piadina to eat while watching the parade. When we arrived, we noticed that there was a lot of confetti and streamers on the ground and we worried that we had somehow missed it. We walked up to where the parade was supposed to be and although there were loads of families with dressed up kids walking around no one seemed to be massing for an event or waiting for one or getting a good spot or any of the usual signs of imminent events happening. We walked the length of the road and at 2.15, having seen no sign of parade or parade watchers, we decided we must have made a mistake about the time and decided to get some lunch.

Lunch in the Mercato Delle erbe – Polpette e Crescentine

It can be difficult to get lunch after 2.00pm because many restaurants close at 3 or don’t open on Sundays. I had a mild cold so I was keen to sit down if we weren’t going to get a parade. We were close to Mercato Delle Erbe (The herb market). This usually has vegetable stalls in the centre with cafes, shops and bars around the edge. Because the market itself and many of the restaurants do not open on Sundays, those that do can extend into the unused space of neighbouring restaurants for the day.

Polpette e Crescentine is one such restaurant that doubles in size on a Sunday. It is often very busy so you might want to think about booking, which you can do through their website on this link. The staff are very friendly and the menu is available in English if you need that kind of thing. The menu also lists their suppliers and the traditional nature of the food. For the uninitiated Polpette (meatballs) and Crescentine (small roughly square bread pieces fried so they puff up and can be stuffed) are local specialities.

We ate here when we were newly arrived in Bologna and they introduced us to the delights of Friggione a local dish of tomato and onions that is usually served at room temperature. I’m not one for side dishes but I will make an exception for this, it is fabulous. More recently we had our first Crescentine here which for some reason we had not eaten before, although they are Bolognese. We had decided to start with a selection of local cooked and cured meats called Affettati misti (mixed slices) and to have the Crescentine with it. A colander of freshly fried Crescentine arrived with our meats and the idea is you break into the puffs and fill them with bits of meat, refolding them into bite sized pieces. They smell and taste similar to a savoury doughnut and were a delicious accompaniment. It was a fantastic discovery and something you probably can’t enjoy outside Bologna.

AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN and – MamBO temporary exhibition

After lunch, and disappointed that we had missed the parade, we went to an exhibition we wanted to see. This temporary exhibition is at the Bologna Museum of Modern Art (Mambo) and was part of Bologna Art Week, which I have written about previously. It was curated from the work of multiple international artists, but by far the stand out piece for me was “Bonjour 2015” by Ragnar Kjartansson. I was about to describe it and then I remembered I have the power of photos so here it is.

Yes, those are two real life people in the “set” who perform the same set of actions on a five-minute circuit. It is both beautiful and terrifyingly nihilistic at the same time. You are able to walk around the whole set, so the “performers” can be seen at all times. I have to be honest I admired their commitment to the performance although I was distracted by wondering how many hours they performed this for.

When we left the museum, we were disappointed to see even more confetti and streamers littering the place and it became clear that we had missed the Carnevale festivities for a second time in one day! I thought I might try and catch the Fat Tuesday events before work instead but this was not to be as unfortunately, even the lavish festivities of the Venice Carnevale were cancelled due to the sudden spread into Italy of the Corona Virus. Although Venice itself had no cases, it was deemed wise to avoid mass gatherings of people. The central and regional Italian governments took a robust approach to containment with Emilia Romagna, where Bologna is situated, deciding to close all schools, museums, churches and cinemas for a week as a precaution. This meant that there was no Carnevale parade on Fat Tuesday and MamBO, along with other museums, galleries and cinemas, was closed to the public too although they have made the exhibition available on a streamed service.

February 22, 2020

Bologna Art Week

What is art week?

As Bologna is a city with a lot of galleries and art events I was pleasantly surprised to find there was a dedicated Bologna Art Week too. It was from 17^th to the 26^th January and was a collaboration between a number of organisations including the Municipality of Bologna, MamBO (Modern Art Museum Bologna) and Arte Fiera. This year was the 8^th Art week and saw more than 57,000 pieces exhibited[1].

There were hundreds of events across a wide variety of galleries, non-profit, artist run and unconventional spaces and included a “White night” on January 26^th. Usually, in Italian, a white night means a night where you are not able to sleep. However, happily this “White night” is where galleries and museums were open until midnight. This was to allow people who struggle to get to galleries and museums during traditional opening hours a chance to go. I think this is a great idea and I don’t know how many galleries or museums do this, in other places, but I will definitely be keeping my eye out.

Bologna Welcome

To find out what was happening in Art Week, we turned to our trusty friend the Bologna Welcome site. As we had limited time when we were both free we wanted to maximise the bang for our buck. So, rather then go to several different events in separate locations we decided to go to one big event at Bologna Fiera, which is a massive conference centre on the outskirts of Bologna.

At the end of last year we decided to get Bologna Welcome cards. This is a card provided by the Bologna Welcome centre and with it you can access many galleries, exhibitions and attractions either for free or at a discount. We bought annual cards but they also do short term cards for tourists and visitors. Check out their site for full details (link above). We were expecting to get a discount at Bologna Fiera, but on the day we were ushered through for free just by flashing the cards.

Arte Fiera

We drove to the exhibition because we knew it was on the other side of town, but when we arrived we discovered there was a free shuttle bus from the centre, which we should have researched better. However, we arrived at the venue in time for a spot of lunch at the Eataly pop up and then went into the exhibition. There were two enormous halls hosting this exhibition so to begin with we were a little overwhelmed and unsure where to start. Both halls had exhibition spaces organised by Gallery with a sign to indicate the gallery name and location. There was a mixture of Italian and International galleries. I will shush now and let the art do the talking. As usual terrible photos by me, good ones “borrowed” from Al.

To get more info and photos check out their site Arte Fiera

Art Week Bologna 2021

It looks like its all systems go for the 9^th Bologna Art week in 2021 and I would recommend checking it out if your visit coincides with Art Week or if you are lucky enough to plan your trips around art events.

[1] ‘ART CITY Bologna 2020 – Bologna Agenda Cultura’ (Agenda.comune.bologna.it, 2020) <http://agenda.comune.bologna.it/cultura/artcity> accessed 21 February 2020

September 29, 2019

A place of our own

Given everything that we have learned about Italy and how things work here it was probably inevitable that finding somewhere more permanent to live would not come from the shoe leather pounded on the streets as we went from rental agency to rental agency, or from being in the Facebook group for people looking for/offering rentals (which has become an increasingly desperate place and is very one sided) or replying to every new apartment listed for rent on an online portal as soon as the advert goes up. It would come from knowing someone, who knew someone. So it came to pass that I was sitting in a park, relaxing with two English teachers* I know and, as usual, lamenting the apartment problem in Bologna when one of them mentioned she had just looked at a place that might suit us that her friend was going to be renting out. She hadn’t taken it because she felt it was “too far out” being just outside the porta San Mamalo and she prefers to be in the centre, cue an immediate flurry of Whatsapp message exchanges and introductions and an agreement that we would meet up with the homeowners when they returned from their honeymoon.

In a further typical Italian fashion the homeowners, who are a lovely couple, wanted to ensure that both of them met both of us which given that they work more 9 to 5 weekdays and we work evenings and weekends was a little bit tricky. In the end we went there to see the place and meet them on a Sunday about a week after they returned. We felt nervous, as if we were going on a date. With this kind of thing are we wrong to feel there is an element of popularity contest about it?

The apartment was lovely. The entrance hall/lounge provided access to two double bedrooms and bathroom (with bath) or right into the kitchen. It was a big, airy kitchen (and utility space) which opened onto an amazing garden, part decked and with sun sails to keep the direct sun off when required. The apartment was also at ground floor level at the back with enormous windows so you could get a car (or van in our case) right up to the 2nd bedroom window, which would be useful for moving in and bulky shopping items.

From the garden you could see into the hills and the apartment building backed onto a private park. Apparently wild boar and deer had been seen from the windows. Obviously, we loved it. We went through why they were looking to rent it out and how long for as well as why we were in Italy and what our goals were. They loved that we were making such a big change and as they had previously lived abroad they understood the challenges. We were given advice on language courses and local festivals. We were told the price and, unbelievably, it was in our budget, at the top, but still in it. The fly in the ointment? There were 5 other interested people and they had not even advertised on the internet.

News of these other interested parties was a blow but did not come as a surprise to us because we had first-hand experience of how tough it is to get a place in Bologna, nevermind one as lovely as this. We ended the visit with them telling us they would put us down as one of the people interested in the apartment and let us know once they had shown it to everyone. We were a little down cast as we felt sure that other people, who were Italian, or had permanent contracts, or who they knew better or all three, would certainly be interested and would be preferable to us. We tried not to get our hopes up, but this was as close as we had come to getting an apartment.

We exchanged a few messages with the homeowners during the week, as follow ups to some of the other things we had discussed and then received a message to say that they were hoping to make a decision after the weekend. On the Sunday we received a further message to say that two of the viewers had, had to delay their visit and so could we be patient until the following Friday? I wrote back that of course we could, but we hoped they would not like it as much as us and then I hit send. I was immediately filled with remorse and thought that this could come across very badly, but it was done now so there was nothing I could do. When Al called I confessed to him and he said “Good, I think that was a perfect response”, he was calling to tell me that he had the rest of the day off. We decided to head into town and see what was happening. The centre of Bologna in the afternoon and evening is very chilled out and there are always plenty of people around, just soaking up the pleasant atmosphere. We had a little mooch around the shops and had a drink in a bar.

When we were in the bar contemplating what to do for dinner we received another message from the homeowners. They had been offered more money by two students who also wanted to use the kitchenware, bedding etc. We were their favourites, but could we go slightly higher? We discussed this whilst continuing to enjoy our drinks and while my phone buzzed with additional messages from them. As we finished I responded to say we had considered the issue and agreed we could. They said they would cancel the future viewing and start to put together the contract and would let us know what they needed from us and when. They also suggested that we get together for a toast!

On one of Al’s next days off we found ourselves on the decking of the apartment, with the homeowner, enjoying apertivo while he talked through the contract. He was very keen to explain how these things worked in Italy, not just for this transaction, but also for any future transactions we might make. He also wanted to ensure we had time to read and translate the contract so we could ask him any questions or get any advice we might need. He sent us everything by email and we were able to translate and understand it. Two days later we met up again in Al’s break to sign everything.

After 5 moves in 6 months we are finally in an apartment we can call home. Everything has been put away and has a place to live. Eagle eyed readers will recognise the San Mamalo location as the same area we stayed in at our first air B&B when we arrived. The apartment building’s back exit opens onto the same road that the original apartment was on, so we have walked past it a few times now. We are only a 15 minute walk from the centre and there is a good bus service, albeit in the number of buses not their adherence to the timetable, so you can be in the centre in 5 to 10 minutes traffic depending. My work is now only 30 mins walk away although Al’s journey is taking a little longer.

As we have a contract for the apartment we were able to register for residency here, which means we have an official address. A quick recap on how residency works in Italy, we need an address at which we are registered so we can get health cards, insurance, post, contract mobile phones, a whole multitude of seemingly normal things. This means that we will fully enter into the world of Italian bureaucracy but, given that we have been living without a recognised address for six months, this seems like a small price to pay…watch this space to find out how long that lasts.

A butterfly (silver washed fritillary, apparently) in the Park near our apartment

*As in usually qualified teachers who teach English as a subject to English speaking children at the international school, rather than the likes of me with my internet qualification**, teaching English as a foreign language to adults. I am not sure why I think it is important to stress this distinction, but I do.

** At the time of writing the internet qualification has been completed but the certificate has not yet been received and the online portal is both showing my course as being 76% completed and not displaying my final grade, so am I qualified?

June 22, 2019

Air B&B Life

So far in our Italian adventure we have not been able to get a permanent apartment. Like many other cities in Europe the rate of house building has not kept pace with the rise in population. Although work can be found, accommodation can be more difficult. Also like many other European cities the supply available to rent to ordinary workers and residents has been hit by air B&B and other holiday let websites. This means we find ourselves in a paradox, using the available holiday apartments to rent for short periods on a strictly no residency basis, while we search to secure a permanent apartment from which to base ourselves. The holiday apartments are more expensive than ordinary rentals and we can’t afford to keep staying in them forever. Add to this the fact that we have no official residency, because we don’t have an address. The address is an incredibly important part of your Italian identify not least as it enables to have post delivered to you. We are not able to have post or parcels delivered, buy a car, moped, get phone contracts, unlimited wifi etc. Many people find renting with Air B&B favourable because as well as the increase in rental value presumably the legislative requirements for holiday rentals, if they are declared, are considerably less than those required for residences, and if they are not declared, fairly non-existent.

Everyone here is looking for an apartment, or that’s what it feels like. Agencies rarely have rentals in the windows because they go too quickly. We have been told you have to call as soon as you get the notification to your mailbox. We have personally visited multiple agencies who have never contacted us and had nothing to show us when we were in their offices. We have seen notices pasted to lamp posts by people also searching for apartments. We have joined Facebook groups and watched other people posting adverts almost identical to ours. We have told everyone that we have met that we are looking for apartments and they have promised to let us know if they hear anything. Some people have told us we will not be able to rent while we are on temporary contracts, but initial temporary contracts are standard for new jobs in Italy. Others have said we will not be able to rent without references; how will we be able to get references when we can’t rent. Still we are searching.

In the meantime, we have lived in 3 very different air B&B in 3 beautiful parts of Bologna. The first was just outside of porta San Malmalo. It had a good-sized entrance hall, a reasonable sized double bedroom with lots of built in storage. The living space was nicely separated into kitchen dining and lounge zones. We had a set of French doors leading onto some private outdoor tiled space. It was smaller than we were used to but, in all honesty, there are only two of us and we need to be more disciplined about use of space so it was encouraging us into good (tidier) habits. The apartment was only 30 minutes walk from the centre of Bologna (as are most places). The only downside of this apartment was that there was no guaranteed parking and we were using a public car park nearby which charged by the day. However, it became apparent that a month would not be enough time to secure a permanent apartment. We could not extend the apartment we were in as they had another booking, so we looked for another air B&B. We found a place that had a 50% discount for booking for a month and we took it.

Apartment San Mamalo

The new apartment was considerably bigger than the first and this one had loads of storage. It had two large bedrooms and two bathrooms. It was on the 7^th floor and offered incredible views of the city. The floors were marble everywhere except the bedrooms which were wooden parquet. The kitchen was in a separate room and there was a separate study. We were certainly living in luxury and the apartment included a garage under the apartment building. We had a balcony that could be accessed by the French doors in either the lounge or dining room areas of the open plan living space. This apartment was close to the portes of Santo Stefano or Maggiore in the Murri district, a very popular residential spot, so we had alternative walks into the city each with their own pros and cons. Maggiore, for my money, was the prettiest walk in and led directly into the main high street in Bologna. It has porticos almost the whole way along it’s length so from where we joined the road from the apartment all the way into the centre of the city. Santo Stefano has porticos from the porta into the centre and the shops were more interesting. The end of this route brought you through the square of the 7 churches or if you preferred onto the designer stores of Piazza Cavore and via Farini. We loved the area here and the walk was a similar 30 minutes in. There were more shops near to our apartment, so we were spoilt for convenience. This is a very leafy area with tree lined avenues, and it’s close to the Giardini Margherita. Sadly, as we realised that we would not be moving into a permanent home any time soon we also had to leave this apartment, knowing we would probably never live anywhere so luxurious again.

The third and current Air B&B is in a very exclusive location. Located outside the porta Castiglione, which is between San Mamalo and San Stefano. The area is known as Colli, which means hills, and the road to San Luca (an important local site) runs up from porta Castiglione. The apartment buildings here are generally old and can be entirely private homes. I like to see how many mailbox names are listed as this indicates the number of households’ resident in the building. All the apartment buildings here are accessed by gates, usually automated. It is leafy and private. The apartment building, we are in has 7 households in the main building accessed through an imposing front door. We are down the gravel track around the back of the building in an apartment next to the garages. Many apartment buildings here include a custodian flat where the custodian’s family would live, looking after the maintenance of the building and grounds. We believe our apartment is the converted custodian flat. We have beautiful big windows and high ceilings. The owner has converted it tastefully with carefully selected antique furniture and light fittings. We have a private outside seating area and look out over the garden of the apartment building which itself looks over the tennis court of a neighbouring building. It is small so we are back to self-discipline and space management, but it is a truly beautiful apartment and location. Once again, we are 30 minutes’ walk from the centre along a new route, with new shops and sights to learn. We have been incredibly lucky and there is virtually no chance that we will be able to find or afford an apartment in any of the locations that we have stayed in so far. We have been very privileged to be able to stay in these places and have these experiences and we are just trying to relax and enjoy them while we can.