lynneinpadova

 

I am an Australian living in Padua, Italy, with my husband and daughter. He is an academic doing research into Italian baroque vocal music, and this is our third time here – we were here for five months 2012 – 2013, then again in 2014, and we’re now here for two months.

As well as undertaking a gargantuan struggle with Italian grammar (mostly the grammar wins) we have visited a lot of churches, grand villas, art galleries, the usual, as well as some of the great Italian gardens in this region (I am a keen but so far at least completely amateur gardener). We’ve eaten too much pasta and drunk too many cappuccios and macchiatones, and I’m not even mentioning the gelato, or at least not yet. And we have got to know Italy and the Italians, helped by our Italian teachers and through our daughter’s experience at the local Italian school.

A disclaimer – this blog is quite likely to contain rash generalisations and almost certain to be a bit woolly on statistics. I find it annoying when English speaking people who live in Italy sprinkle what they write with Italian words and expressions, and I realise that I just did it myself! I will try to keep it to a minimum. Sometimes though, only an Italian word will do.