Remembering February 2014: colds, carnevale, and congiuntivo

February was a month of multiple colds for both of us, meaning we didn't do any traveling outside of Perugia, or much of anything else other than going to class (20 hours a week plus homework is enough to keep us occupied, especially since we also had to binge watch House of Cards and True Detective!)  We spent much of February studying the four forms of congiuntivo and compound pronouns, my two least favorite parts of grammar!  Necessary, though, unfortunately.

One day, for Cultura di Italia, the teacher took the class on a walk around Perugia.  Since it was raining and my cold was at its worst, I didn't go on the walk, but Tom did and took many photos.

It was raining as the class left the University .  Taku (left) and Natasha (with striped umbrella) don't seem to mind a little rain.  .  Giuliana and Mohammed are under the yellow umbrella.

Of course no tour of Perugia is complete without a stop at Piazza Maggiore.  Pei (red coat) is the best student in our class, with a memoria di ferro (iron memory)  Anna Ignone, the professoressa, is wearing a black coat with her red hair peeking out from under the hood.

Our apartment was en route so they stopped and rang the bell.  I leaned out the window for a chat with the class.

The walk also included two of the gates to the city which we visited previously, and the Porta Sant Angelo, a third gate that we hadn't visited:

Of course the. tour included the ancient walls, the Rocca Paolina, and several churches and municipal buildings.

at the Rocca Paolina, the remains of a medieval prison

Tom's birthday present, a new camera, had to be ordered from a camera shop and didn't arrive until the first of March.  On his way home from the shop, he met the two Russian brothers from our class (called Nikita 1 and Nikita 2 by the professore), who obligingly posed for a picture on Piazza Maggiore so Tom could try out his new camera.

Tom has been enjoying taking various landscape pictures to try out the new camera.  The Umbrian countryside is beautiful, even in the March rain.

View of centro storico di Perugia--we live in one of the apartments on the hill

Of course February is also Carnevale time in Italy, and most towns have some form of celebration.  The most well known are in Venice and Viareggio--hopefully next year we will make it to Viareggio, this year we were in class and even missed the Perugia parade.  There were a number of other small events though, and people in costume could often be seen on the street.  Costumes in Perugia are not elaborate, there is more of a do it yourself aspect in  keeping with the traditional Umbrian pride in being rustic and self sufficient.  The symbol of carnevale for Perugia is Il Bartoccio, an old farmer from the Tiber River valley.  Il Bartoccio dates back to the 1600s and is described as "tozzo, ma sagace, giovale e saggio."  ( uncourth, but shrewd, jovial and wise).  Bartoccio is claimed to be the first to instigate satirical attacks against the wealthy and ruling class.  In the 1700s, Bartoccio's attacks on the Pope caused problems for Perugia with the Papacy--part of a long Perugian tradition of being at odds with the Vatican (remember, they eat unsalted bread to this day because they refused to pay the Pope's salt tax in medieval times).  Below is a picture of Bartoccio on 'our' street, Via Ulisse Rocche.

The colds and flu that have been decimating the class have also afflicted our professors, so we have had a substitute, Franco Romano, for 6 classes of "conversazione" and a week of "lingua."  Everyone wishes we could have him for all of our classes all of the time.  He is hilarious and a complete ham.  He sings, tells stories with great animation, acts out the definitions to words, and has silly nicknames for every student except Tom--I think Tom is the only name he remembers.  However, whenever he calls on Tom he pinches his (Tom's) cheeks and says "Ohh, bambino, mangia tutti," which is apparently Italian baby talk for you are such a good eater!  I am Hilary (for Hilary Clinton) because I objected to being called Nancy Reagan.  He keeps the previously silent chinese girls in giggles, calling them Giga 1, Giga 2 and Giga 3, moglie (wife) 1, 2 and 3, and principessa 27 and 52 (lots of Chinese students in our class).    With all the antics, we still learn far more than in any other class, he has great exercises, explains things very clearly, and gets   everyone talking. Sadly Sabrina, our regular conversation teacher, does all the talking herself.  She is very nice, but the point of the class is to be in a smaller group so the students can practice speaking,  not listen to Sabrina talk about Carnevale.  I took a quick picture of Franco in class today, as well as a short video of him acting out how Italians decide who is going to pay for drinks at a bar.  Tomorrow I will ask if it is OK to take a video the next time he sings--I didn't want to be too intrusive.

Franco begging a chinese student to speak"con forte" (louder--they all speak very very softly).  Anna, from Switzerland, is cracking up in the background

Finally, Peter (from Holland) and Franco demonstrate how to offer to pick up a tab: