It's a small world.

Freaked out a bit.

There's a shop at the end of the street that I've wanted to go into for a while, but that I have been avoiding until I've felt that my Italian is at a more "acceptable" level.  It's a typical corner shop, that I imagined would need a better level of Italian to really get my meaning across, rather than the half-English/half-Italian sprawl that has served me well for the past few months.


I went there today.  I have a lovely American living with me at the moment (for the next 3 months) so I plucked up courage to go check the shop out, with her in tow.  There were the usual groceries that you'd expect to find in any local shop, whatever country you live, but with just a little more variety in the kinds of pasta, and a delicatessen with cheese, meat, bread etc (missing in your typical Spar shop).

I blunder through getting some Ricotta (apparently the sheep kind, pecora, is better for pasta dishes), some cooked ham (prosciutto cotto) and also some hard cheese (no idea what type I got, it was the right colour and consistency for what I needed).  There was even my favourite cheese: gorgonzola and marscapone, together!  I love that cheese but managed to resist as it wasn't on my list.

I head to the cashier, passing my housemate who's having trouble negotiating the various types of canned tuna.  Of course, I didn't have enough cash on me and the shop didn't have a card machine.  Here starts an awful attempt to convey what I wanted to do in Italian...that I will leave my goods there, get cash and return.  I was surprised when the cashier said "Speak English".  Alleluia!  My hands are raised up to the heavens and I explained what I wanted to do.  My housemate overheard though and ended up lending me some money so it all worked out to be a lot easier than I initially thought.

After paying, the cashier inquired where I was from.  Depending on the age of the person and how well they speak English I judge whether to say either London or the Isle of Wight.  This time I went for the island.
"There's a song about the Isle of Wight." he says.  "Yes, I know about that song." I return with a tone of, "Please don't go on about it, I know about it."  He laughed, totally getting my sarcasm.  Turns out he lived in Hammersmith.  At this point my housemate asked me to ask him what the shops opening hours were...
"Err...you can do it, he speaks English." was my reply, sometimes I do wonder!

So we leave the shop and I explain to my housemate how I've been avoiding the shop for ages because I didn't feel confident with my Italian, only to discover that someone speaks English there.  Typical.  And it is pretty cheap.

Anyway.  We got some veg from the veg market, fish from the fish man, then headed to the "home" shop where my housemate got some washing powder, you know, usual stuff.  On the way back I remembered IO needed pasta so we popped back into the shop from earlier.  This is where I got a bit freaked out.

I pay for my pasta.
"Newport." says the cashier.
"What?" I explain, a bit confused, wondering why this random Italian is trying to talk to me about a city in Wales.
"The Isle of Wight.  Newport...and it's near Portsmouth."  His pronunciation was a bit amiss but....there are people who LIVE in England who can't be that specific. 
"Erm...yep. That's the place."  My face is a picture.  I am totally in shock that someone who works in a local shop, just round the corner from my house, in Pescara is able to locate where I am from. It's not exactly the global capital of the world.  My mind goes into overdrive, I've got a stalker on my hands who's looked up the place on internet in the time it took me to buy vegetables.

All became clear when he attempted to say "Pompey".  Of course, a football fan, that makes sense!




Oh, and in case you're interested, my family managed to get the hint of this post: Skype.  There was a definite improvement on this Wednesday's Skype update with the mother and grandma....I could see their face and everything.


Comments

Popular Posts