Sunday 17 February 2013

the waiting game

After spending an amazingly beautiful, fun-filled yet cold week in Gothenburg and Stockholm with Hugo, I found myself at Copenhagen airport waiting for exactly seven hours between flights. With a Camera and a Kindle on low battery, a phone soon to be heading that way and no laptop, I desperately wondered how would be the best way to pass the time without these things to hand.

After doing several laps of the inside of the airport, I rushed inside the stationary shop and bought myself a big black notebook and some felt-tip pens (stationary being weirdly difficult to get hold of in Italy). I sat down and began scribbling away, first not really sure what I'd fill the pages with, but then all of a sudden forgetting my terrible artistic skills and the fact I've not needed to write much nowadays and began to sketch out silly little stories.

I quickly made myself comfortable at the coffee place with a view out onto the runway (to catch the few hours of sunlight I was going to get to see), huddled over my notebook, put pen to paper and watched those seven hours pass like they were seven minutes.



It's odd to think how reliant most of us are on technology nowadays. How it's this which shapes and controls our life now, so I felt refreshed feeling like I'd escaped it (half by force) for such a long period of time.

Tuesday 5 February 2013

recent travels

As much as I'm finally starting to love Parma for all its little quirks and traditions, its winding backstreets, extremely fashionable inhabitants and constantly terrible weather (though let's not dwell on that as I'm currently staring out my window and seeing beautiful blue skies and sunshine), there's nothing quite like escaping the City.

Armed with my amazing friend Meg and a different handful of people each trip, we managed to fit in three visits to three very diverse cities over the past week and a bit.


Torino



Having started out our three-hour train journey with blue skies and sunshine shining promisingly through our window, when we actually got to Torino that had all gone... We were left with some seriously huge and grand pieces of architecture placed on wide streets with every single building towering above us.

The place itself seemed lovely, but we didn't get to see too much of it. We were too busy savouring the Piedmontese cuisine and wondering how on earth we were supposed to get into the Gardens (which we eventually worked out were closed for the winter...)

We did get to ride up in a lift and see the (extremely foggy) view of the entire city.


After several treats of tasty panini and some gorgeous Venchi ice-cream, we left Turin feeling happy and exhausted.

Milano

Having already spent two days and a night in the city, and all four of us travellers having already been there before, we were determined to do something a bit different in Milan that none of us had done before. We climbed up to the top of the Duomo and explored the gothic spires and the strange walkways on the roof and admired the view over the Piazza del Duomo - seeing hundreds of tourists being conned and pigeons flying about left, right and centre.




From there, upon my very very eager request, we had a wee explore round the city, ate a spot of lunch in the least touristy-looking place we could find (good Milanese food, and we were spoken to only in Italian!) and then headed off to the Museo La Scala. 

A €4 entry and if you're lucky, like we were that day, we got a good sneak peek at the dress rehearsal of Verdi's Nabucco happening right on stage before our very eyes. I was grinning from ear to ear!


After another wander, we entered the Pinacoteca di Brera, exiting only 20 minutes later feeling totally robbed of the €7 euros we had spent to go in (our friend remaining happy with the fact he'd got to see a Correggio) and wondering if we'd missed a bit...


Too shy to go back in and check, we headed home, via Mcdonalds for a cheeky cheeseburger - after all we'd spent the whole day being sophisticated and cultured!!

Cremona



The home of Stradivarius the famous violin-maker, this old city was full to brim with proud mentions of his name, beautiful old buildings and some very brilliant sunshine and warm weather for a change!



We only really managed to do one main thing aside from generally walking around, as we'd only come to the city for the afternoon, which was climb the big tower next to the Duomo.



We finished climbing the 500 or so steps with hardly any breath left in us and just in time to see the start to a spectacular sunset.



Feeling like we'd achieved something with our day (which had originally been intended as a hangover day), we found ourselves a cosy café where we had our afternoon treat of Chai tea and hot chocolate and then caught the train home.

Having written this post, though the places are so different, it's dawned on me that it's very difficult to visit a place in Italy and not want to climb up to the highest possible point and gaze over your surroundings. My legs will thank me for it later...







Friday 1 February 2013

what am I doing here?

Getting accustomed to a new place is often very difficult. Going somewhere new and learning how things are done in ways that perhaps would differ from your own is hard not to get stressed about. This happens enough in our own countries but when moving across seas and countries and settling yourself in a foreign land, the changes are met with much more trepidation.

After almost six months to the day I moved out to Italy, I still feel a little up in the air sometimes. Having only started learning the language the day I moved here, my Italian is certainly more confident than the first day, but nowhere near perfect.

In a classroom situation (of which I am subject many here), any normal student would spend at least 50% actually listening and the rest moving in and out of concentration, wondering what's for tea, why the teacher's eating a pizza during the middle of the lesson (though that may just be here) and so on and so forth. But here, in order to understand 50% of what's happening, your brain has to be focused 100% of the time.

A two hour lesson on a specific subject with specific vocabulary can often leave you very very confused...

But I like to dwell on the positives. I am being given a corker of an education here with barely a moment to breathe (my own choice):

Monday: Arte Scenica a six hour lesson spread over the day half of it covering History of Opera, Costumes, Libretto, the other half dedicated to Opera workshops.
Pianoforte does what it says on the tin. Piano lesson.

Tuesday: Musica da Camera chamber music - working with an accompanist on Debussy, Verdi and other such delights.
Lettura Prima Vista a whole hour and a half of sight-reading practice with the teacher as the accompanist. Who slows down and waits patiently as the students struggle desperately to hit the right notes...

Wednesday: Madrigali possibly my favourite. An hour and a half of five of us singing five part madrigals. Though sometimes old Italian is even too much for the natives to understand!
Coro as it's Verdi's and Wagner's Bicentenary this year, we're working towards a concert in May of both of their works.

Thursday: is so far a mystery to me... maybe sometime soon I'll be starting a lesson on Poetry in dramatic music, but need to ask someone!

Friday: Metodo Feldenkrais much like alexander technique, it's basically a posture lesson. Today we learnt to wiggle our toes independently. Aside from this, it's essentially yoga and always leaves me feeling great. This plus the fact that when the majority of the lesson is spent lying on the floor, you can't look around to see if you're doing it right... it also means I've learnt a lot of vocabulary relating to body parts!
Teoria dell'Armonia the scariest of all my lessons. 2 hours of harmony which I'm very much accustomed to learning, but unfortunately all the note names, chord descriptions and intentions of the music are all diverse in Italian. ie si bemolle maggiore = Bb Major. It is nevertheless very fun getting my teeth into a bit of Liszt and some Rach 2.

Saturday: Canto yes that's right. Lessons on a Saturday! This one's my actual singing lesson. Where the majority of technique learning happens. I'm currently singing anything which falls under the title of Italian Opera from the 17th-18th Century.
Musica Vocale da Camera another lesson where I'm learning alongside the accompanist. Together we're working on Bellini Chamber music and a bit of Dvorak. I frequently leave this lesson completely exhausted but finally understanding how real singing can be achieved. Which always puts me in a good mood for my one-day weekend!

Sundays are my day I put aside to travel or to rest depending on how well the week went!

And it is here I find myself very nearly settled in Italy. Perhaps when the weather perks up, a long day will be easier to deal with.