My Month In Italy - The Basics

Right. I've been staying with this Italian family for five days now. My original intention to keep a travel blog of my stay here has proved difficult as I am only able to access the internet at the place where I am currently sat: the legal offices of the couple with whom I am staying (they are lawyers).

The wireless has decided to be a prick and hate my laptop, meaning I have been unable to upload any of my photos or get on to Skype due to the fact that this is Alessia's computer. I may add pictures to this post later or feature them in subsequent blogs if I have any success with my laptop. If there are any grammatical errors, I blame the Italian keyboard.

Right so I'll keep it concise because, frankly, to mention everything I have done over the last 5 days would waste a lot of time which I should be making the most of.

The Family


Alessia and Michele - The adults of the family; both Lawyers. They have a passion for art, especially the modern and interesting sort, and their houses are decorated accordingly.
Umberto - Their 6 year old son.

Locations


Rovigo
This is the town where the family have their permanent house in which they live all year round. Rovigo is a modest little town in the Veneto province of North East Italy; the same province in which the city of Venize is found. Their house is quite simply amazing, with art everywhere and interesting furniture. I wish I could upload pictures of it but hopefully I will get my laptop working soon. If not, I'm sure you can wait a month.
During the day here, Umberto is at Animazione, a kind of summer school for kids of his age. While he is there and the parents are at work I have the day to myself, giving me lots of time to explore; such as yesterday when I went to visit Bologna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of the country. I collect Umberto at around 5.30 PM and we then go home where I look after him until his parents get home at around 7.00 PM. His parents want me to teach him a bit of English when it's just me and him together.

Pietrasanta/Forte dei Marmi
Pietrasanta is the small town in Tuscany where we go to stay on the weekends. It is a city known for its art and due to being located near abundant sources of marble, features lots of the gorgeous white rock in its architecture. In fact, Michelangelo even stayed in the town at one point, in a building which is now a bar; fittingly named Bar di Michelangelo.
During the day we head to the beach at Forte dei Marmi. On the beach there is a swimming pool resort with a bar where we often sit and swim when we are not on the beach itself. This place is for the elite sectors of Italian society and some of the people I have had pointed out to me there are the president of Inter Milan and the Italian national footballer, Andrea Pirlo; who I have so far seen everyday I have been there. When we get back from the beach, some time after 7.00 PM, if Alessia and Michele want to go out, their Italian babysitter Patrizia comes over. Me, Umberto and Patrizia then have some dinner, either in the apartment or at a restaurant, and then me and Patrizia sit in the Piazza keeping an eye on Umberto while he plays with the other kids. On Saturday nights there are performances in the piazza, the only act I have seen so far being a man juggling fire on a giant unicycle.



Well that's all I really have time to write now. As I've said, I don't want to be wasting my days stuck in on the computer. Tonight, in Rovigo, there is the weekly event of Notte Rosa (Pink Night) where the shops stay open until late and there are shows in the piazzas.

Next time I blog, I will write up the positives and negatives so far of being here, trying to keep it to a concise and general nature like this, rather than rambling on about specific stories which will take ages to tell. If I get my laptop up and running then I'll be able blog in a bit more detail, WITH PICTURES!