[ 2007-07-12 13:14 ]
Ciao, Bella
After four trains and a wrong turn in Florence, I was in Siena, Italy, carrying too much luggage and struggling for words I didn't know. It was November, and I was going by myself to a city with tones so unusually rich, a color is named for it.
The family I was to stay with, a relatively elderly mother and her twice-my-age son, didn't speak a word of English and weren't expected to. I was the one who was supposed to learn a language; I was to go to Italian class three hours a day for the next month. But the day I got there, all I knew was "Non parlo italiano," and I said it all the time.
The family was short with me at first, and I understood enough to figure out the words for "that's the thing with Americans, they don't know how to speak." But it would be they who would teach me most of the Italian I learned there—and a few added lessons along the way.
I went to Siena for a few good reasons. I left Chicago for a million more. I had just quit a job to go to graduate school, and the people there resented me for it. I had just quit a boyfriend. And I had quit an apartment where the landlord was a little too friendly. I was tired of quitting things; I was ready for big, shining starts.
I picked Italy for its art, and Siena was full of it. It was just so old. The town hall was built in the 12th century, and all the other buildings weren't much younger. A thick high wall circled the town as if the whole thing had been thrown like a discus into the Tuscan hills. The Duomo was made of ancient striped marble, and St. Catherine's skull was in a church named for her, where it's been for 600 years. Everything was medieval and preserved, and nothing was like where I came from.
The first morning of class, my host-mother, Signora Franci, escorted me on the bus so I wouldn't get lost. She was
My class was a stray collection of 21-year-old Australian girls. I took them on as my friends; we'd circle through the city after class every day, then sit in the town square, dodging pigeons and eating gelato.
But I suddenly wasn't good at having friends. Something from the month before had made me shy. I wasn't very happy
And my boyfriend had been tricky. Yes, we broke up before I left, but the actual night before I got on the plane, he gave me presents and talked
I went to Rome to look at the Sistine Chapel, and I called him from a pay phone in front of St. Peter's to describe every detail. He screamed things back to me: "What are you doing there without me?" "When are you coming home?" And it rained the whole time and some guy grabbed my butt right there in Vatican City, but I didn't care. I felt filled up with Michelangelo and a boy and bringing worlds together.
But all that rain wasn't good for me. Back in Siena, I woke up the next morning and I couldn't stand up. Being sick is the one thing that can make you feel completely alone; and that was a feeling I didn't need reinforced. When I wasn't up for school, Signora Franci came into my dark, blue room. "Io sento malo," I told her. I felt bad. She immediately started rushing around, yelling at her son to call the doctor. I understood that much, but events were out of my hands. I lay in bed and she brought things to me: a hot water bottle, tea, soup.
I wondered how she could be so concerned, not knowing me, not even knowing my words. But I was so far away from home, I never needed taking care of so badly. I stared at that ceiling, and thought
Hours later, Signora Franci came in again, this time with green velvet slippers she had bought because I always walked around in socks. She said something I equated as: Of course you're going to get sick if you have cold feet all the time—warm them. "Mille grazie," I said. But a day later, when I was feeling better much sooner than I thought I would, I wanted to thank her more.
It was three weeks into the trip, and she had made me realize why I came to Italy. It wasn't just to see art—though I saw it, and it made me feel creative and part of history and enriched. And it wasn't just to get away. What I needed, and what I never got from sweet Australians or kind teachers, was the returned belief in basic human kindness. Signora Franci didn't take care of me because of anything else but basic human concern: Someone is sick, she's away from her home, make her better. I was 25 years old, I had just started seeing more bad in people than good—and I needed to see that kindness in action.
In my last week in Siena, I just took in the medieval walls, the green narrow hills and the wet, wet air. My Italian class performed a terrible spoken version of "Don Giovanni" for the whole school. I rode to other hill towns on huge buses with my Aussie friends, and the last night we drank wine and wandered through the streets yelling phrase-book
Days before I went home, I knew I'd be ready for it. There were people to get back to, and I knew who they were. People, in general, could be terrible and wonderful. Sad that I had to go to Italy to realize that. Amazing that I could.
相关单词：relatively
relatively解释：adv.比较...地，相对地
relatively例句：
The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。
相关单词：skull
skull解释：n.头骨；颅骨
skull例句：
The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。
相关单词：oblivious
oblivious解释：adj.易忘的，遗忘的，忘却的，健忘的
oblivious例句：
Mother has become quite oblivious after the illness.这次病后，妈妈变得特别健忘。
He was quite oblivious of the danger.他完全没有察觉到危险。
相关单词：dodging
dodging解释：n.避开，闪过，音调改变v.闪躲( dodge的现在分词 )；回避
dodging例句：
He ran across the road, dodging the traffic. 他躲开来往的车辆跑过马路。
I crossed the highway, dodging the traffic. 我避开车流穿过了公路。 来自辞典例句
相关单词：bristled
bristled解释：adj. 直立的，多刺毛的 动词bristle的过去式和过去分词
bristled例句：
They bristled at his denigrating de
All of us bristled at the lawyer's speech insulting our forefathers. 听到那个律师在讲演中污蔑我们的祖先，大家都气得怒发冲冠。
相关单词：weird
weird解释：adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的
weird例句：
From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。
相关单词：tricky
tricky解释：adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的
tricky例句：
I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。
相关单词：chapel
chapel解释：n.小教堂，殡仪馆
chapel例句：
The nimble hero,skipped into a chapel that stood near.敏捷的英雄跳进近旁的一座小教堂里。
She was on the peak that Sunday afternoon when she played in chapel.那个星期天的下午，她在小教堂的演出，可以说是登峰造极。
相关单词：butt
butt解释：n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶
butt例句：
The water butt catches the overflow from this pipe.大水桶盛接管子里流出的东西。
He was the butt of their jokes.他是他们的笑柄。
相关单词：velvet
velvet解释：n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的
velvet例句：
This material feels like velvet.这料子摸起来像丝绒。
The new settlers wore the finest silk and velvet clothing.新来的移民穿着最华丽的丝绸和天鹅绒衣服。
相关单词：slippers
slippers解释：n. 拖鞋
slippers例句：
a pair of slippers 一双拖鞋
He kicked his slippers off and dropped on to the bed. 他踢掉了拖鞋，倒在床上。
相关单词：equated
equated解释：adj.换算的v.认为某事物（与另一事物）相等或相仿( equate的过去式和过去分词 )；相当于；等于；把（一事物） 和（另一事物）等同看待
equated例句：
Production costs for the movie equated to around 30% of income. 这部电影的制作成本相当于收益的30%。
Politics cannot be equated with art. 政治不能同艺术等同起来。
