Other than to speak to my mother, I had not spoken a word of English for nearly 18 days.
Yes, not only was I visiting family in Italy, but I was completely immersing myself in the Cerfignanese lifestyle, whether it meant going to the beach every morning, going out every night, most of the time to ‘Il Triangolo Azzurro’, having a minimum of two coffees in every day, lending a hand at the local food festival and not only speaking lots of Italian, but learning the local dialect, I can now say I have lived the small town life for two weeks and have enjoyed it thoroughly.
More on that in a second.
My most recent sejour in Italy, my fourth one in the past year, began not in Cerfignano, but in Milan, where I spent three and a half days visiting my Great Uncle Giovanni, my grandfathers’s cousin essentially. I had gone to visit him in November, and I was going to visit him once more before my eventual return to Canada in the very near future.
During my first day there, I even went into town and met up with a cousin if mine, Silvia, and she gave me a nice guided tour of all the nice churches in Milano, and of course once again I paused to admire the Duomo, which is always impressive to see, even though it was my third time in Milan this year.
The rest of the time in Milan was spent with Giovanni and his neighbors, I Signore e Signora Colombi (I don’t even really know their first names…). They are perhaps the kindest people you’ll ever meet, though admittedly the main purpose for our visit there was to eat. Signora Colombi does not take no for an answer when she invites you over for a meal, and when you’re there she does not take no for an answer when she places a plate full of food in front of you. The Sunday, the last day I was in Milan, we went over to visit the Colombis for lunch at 1 PM and we did not return to Giovanni’s house before 10 PM. Literally, we spent nine hours at their house, and I’ll try and give you a quick list of the innumerable amounts of food we ate…
Lunch began with a plate of pasta with shrimp. It was followed up with a very pretty looking plate of basically hamburger meat on top of some salad. Once I finished that plate, of course, Signora Colombi placed a second serving of the hamburger meat in front of me, saying her famous line: “È un bambino che cresce, deve mangiare.” Which, essentially, means that I am a growing boy and I NEED TO EAT.
Ok then. So following our meat dish came a plate full of cheese. Literally, a plate containing four pieces of Mozzarella di Buffala doused in olive oil, which was somewhat bland but I ate it anyways. At this point the F1 Grand Prix was starting, so us men directed ourselves toward the TV while Signora Colombi served us some delicious homemade Granita.
Then, fortunately, we had a circa 90-minute food break, however as soon as the race finished we were served an afternoon coffee with cookies and snacks. Shortly after came the plate of cold cuts with bread (a plate of cold cuts each, in case you were wondering). This was followed by another dish of meat, some salad and some pie. And then, finally, the fruit arrived, which I thought signified the end of the meal.
BUT NO. After eating FRUIT, Signora Colombi put a plate of pasta in front of me, saying she made it specifically for me. Needless to say after every bite I needed to walk a bite around the room because my body could not possibly stomach another bite of food.
It’s not Italy if you’re not at the point where you can’t eat another bite, right???
Luckily, however, during this sejour in Italy I did not get fat, though I certainly thought I would as I was leaving Milan. In fact, I felt myself being in such good shape that I had workout pains throughout my body, notably in my abs, my triceps and my thighs. Allow me to explain.
In the South of Italy, the days go somewhat like this: You wake up at around 10am, have some breakfast, which usually consists of a cappuccino or a caffe latte accompanied by something sweet, such as pastries, such as either cookies, croissants or Nutella. Following breakfast, the tendency is to go to the beach, and to remain there until about 1pm, at which point you return home and have some lunch. Lunch is usually a big meal, and once lunch has been eaten it is tendency to simply take a few hours, until around 5pm, to just rest and relax around the house. Some people use this time to nap, others to watch TV or others just simply to take some time to themselves, which is what I did, as I would go on my computer and watch some series, or I would simply go and watch the Olympics with Fausto in the living room.
Come 5pm, it’s once again coffee time, obviously at this hour it’s nearly forbidden in Italy to have anything other than a straight espresso shot, since mixed coffees are reserved for the morning. At this time, also, it’s time to prepare for the evening ahead. It’s time to prepare supper and eat, then it’s time to wash yourself because chances are, in the evening, you’re going out, usually until around 1am.
In fact, on our first night there we attended this party called ‘White Party,’ which was actually the party that my sister and cousin attended last year on their last night here, and it was my first night. Funny how things happen. This party was fun, but it was kind of weird that the entrance was ‘free’ but the exit cost 10 euros. Weird system…
Anyways, so alas here is a typical day of a young adult in small town southern Italy. Pleasant isn’t it?
Now, the beaches that people from my cousins’ town, Cerfignano, usually go to are called Porto Miggiano and 100 Scale. Both are rock beaches, though 100 Scale also features a tiny sand beach, and they are simply STUNNING. Seriously, it looks like it just came out of a postcard.
Of course, the entire coastline, which we visited, looks like it just came out of a postcard as well.
In all but three days we went to the beach, and damn was it worth our while. The water is amazing, warm and such a rich deep blue in colour that you can see the sea floor at all times, despite the water’s depth. I made it a habit to go for a swim every day, and not only to lounge around in the water like my cousins and their friends did. I liked to go for around half an hour, and this is probably why I had so many workout pains throughout my stay, literally give me an entire summer there and I’ve got a six pack!
Evenings were another experience altogether. Not one evening goes by where the gang does not see each other, and sometimes there are some quiet evenings in which everyone just meets up at the local bar and plays some pool or some bigliardini, and other nights are a bit crazier and involve clubbing. In fact, some nights were actually more cultural; we would go to food festivals in various nearby towns and there we would have the opportunity to taste some local specialties, such as snails, the ‘rustico,’ a savory pastry only found there, and we even hosted our own food festival in Cerfignano, called “Sagra degli antichi sapori” in which we featured a variety of ancient local dishes that can only be found in this Salentino region. Yes, Italy is a beacon of good food, and nobody can ever deny that.
In fact, at this food festival in Cerfignano, I personally lent a hand, both at setting up before the event and at helping out during the event. The first night I was designated translator for whatever foreign family would come to town (it turned out the only non-Italians to drop in was one French family who didn’t even try to speak Italian… rude), and so the second night I took it upon myself to work the cash, and I must say I know my euros pretty well.
It was a fun experience nevertheless. And all the food fairs were actually really fun to attend.
At the end of the day, above going to the beach and our fun nightly outings, I must stress that the most enriching part of my stay in Cerfignano was the relationships that I built and the relationships that I further built upon. In two weeks there, I got to know the friend groups of both Fausto and Rebecca (who are in the same friend group), and the friend group of Mario. Everybody is incredibly friendly and welcoming, and everybody instantly treats you like you’re part of the family, because it’s important to understand that relationships and friendships in these small towns work differently than they do in the big cities like Montreal or Madrid.
In these towns, everyone knows each other, and in the friend groups almost everyone is coupled up. This is just how it works, and even more, the ages are all mixed up, a friend group will not solely consist of 22 year olds, rather it would envelop people within four year of each other, for example Fausto, being 21, is in a friend group with people all between the ages of 18 and 21, with one person in the group even being 24. Furthermore, there are lots of couples just within this group, and these couples have been together for a long time, one of them as long as nine years, dating back to when the girl was 13 years old… But hey, they seem really happy and they seem to really be making it work.
Of course, most people there don’t really speak any other languages other than Italian, some do, like my cousin Paola, but most don’t, but to no fault of their own, as it’s understandable that it can be extremely difficult to learn a new language when you literally never practice it. Literally, if you don’t use it, you’re likely to lose it.
Hence my description of my trip there as being a complete and total immersion into the Salentino culture. For the first time in my life, during a two-week period of time I barely spoke a word of English; I was only speaking Italian. We were eating traditional Italian food every day, living the small town life, and what I liked about the food there is that it’s all 100% fresh, especially the fruits and vegetables that are usually grown in their own gardens. Of course, my cousins were not lying when they told me they ate pasta nearly every day, though I must say we changed up the type of pasta we ate so at least.
Oh and yes, we ate lots of pizza and gelato too.
Of course, being there meant taking in the local festivals and the local holidays. On the 10th of August, for example, in Italy they celebrate San Lorenzo, which is a day when everyone goes to the beach in the evening and goes swimming, then hangs out by the beach listening to music or just spending time together until the wee hours of the morning. We did just that, with all of Fausto and Rebecca’s friends, and there was even a good band putting on a good concert on the beach, though most of the music was Italian music that everyone (but me, obviously) knew. I was even so shocked because at one point he played Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer and NOBODY knew that song, except for me, whereas I’m used to hearing that song go on in clubs and having everyone know all the words to it. I guess they really do have a culture on their own!
In fact, this beach was at this town called Otranto, which is a little bigger than the small towns where my cousins live near, and it was quite stunning to look at!
At the end of the day, it was amazing. I fully immersed myself, something I was unsuccessful at doing in Spain because there was too much English around, and I enjoyed it. I loved taking in all the local culture, I loved attending all these various food festivals and even assisting at the one that we ourselves hosted, I loved learning about all the history in the area (this region had been occupied three times by foreign countries: the Greeks, the Turks and the Spanish!), I loved eating like a king and enjoying the freshest ingredients you can ever ask for, I loved going to the beach every day and just living my life tranquilly, I loved basking in the glamour that was the spectacular shore and cliffs of the Italian coast, stuff directly out of a postcard.
And most of all, I loved spending time with the people I was with. It’s been just my luck, this summer, as I have been surrounded by great people all along. And frankly, that’s what traveling, and that’s what life is all about, being surrounded by amazing people, cause if you’re in good company you’re never alone.
Grazie a tutti li a Cerfignano per un’esperienza di cui mai mi dimenticherò. Vi voglio tutti bene e ci vedremo molto presto!
Less than a week left in Europe…
Dan.
Studying Abroad in Madrid!! 