Our Italian Regional Experiment

Parlo un po italiano. So far, Italy has been pretty (Lake Como and Cinque Terre) and ugly (Genova). Yet the stories and adventures have begun.

First, we discovered that when hiking up a mountain, wear more than summer clothes and bring a snack. The three of us forgot that it gets colder and colder at higher altitudes. Our 7 hour hike was without food, so we ended up being famished, cold, and tired. My hands swelled and become red and frozen. It was so cold at one point that we had snow. But the sun returned and we overall enjoyed the hike. The view of Lago di Como was incredible.

Importantly, we have learned a smattering of broken Italian, thanks to the phrase books. We can now order cheese by the kilogram and generally will be enjoying local wines. The markets are useful, though we must come well-prepared with carefully memorized phrases until we have completely caught onto the grammar rules. All my Spanish is returning, which is not helpful. Definitely think that the brain has a certain region that is activated for language...