Comments on: A Night at the Non-Opera

By: Jennifer Margulis

Jennifer Margulis — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:26:49 +0000

Sounds so Italian! I’ve never seen people scream at each other at top volume and be best friends the next moment anywhere else in the world…

By: Donna Hull

Donna Hull — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:34:26 +0000

What a lovely story, told with your usual dash of humor. I live with an antenna perpetually turned on inside my head. I don’t mean to eavesdrop, I really don’t. But every conversation in the restaurant reaches my antenna, where I process the bits of discussion along with the loving conversation I’m having with my husband. When my eyes go glassy, he knows. “Earth to Donna,” he says. Thank goodness I’m not picking it up in Italian.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:46:46 +0000

Would love to know where you stay in Milan. We have relatives so we stay in a spare flat of theirs, but some visit, it would be oh so nice to have a real place of our own, beholden to no one. That sounds so awful, but our evenings are never our own.

We stayed at the Hotel Regina, which was nice. I do find hotel-staying to be easier, too.

By: Barbara @ Hole In The Donut Travels

Barbara @ Hole In The Donut Travels — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 03:29:31 +0000

Hi Ruth!
Oooohhh – Italy. All I’m doing is hiking in the North Carolina mountains in search of waterfalls. Hope you are having a wonderful time. Just for fun, and because I love reading your blog I’ve decided to give you a Splash Award. Go see for yourself at: http://holeinthedonut.com/2009.....-splashed/
Barbara

Thank you, Barbara!

By: (Steph) Ms Bubblefish

(Steph) Ms Bubblefish — Sun, 31 May 2009 23:51:40 +0000

I adore this Ruth! What a wonderful tale.
My ‘second’ language was school girl French then after 3 years living in Indonesia in the mid-eighties, street level Bahasa Indonesian. A trip to Paris in 1998 had my brain supplying the ‘right’ item of missing French vocabulary only it seemed that it was Indonesian. My brain knew that the words had to be different and didn’t seem at all concerned as long as it wasn’t English!

Thanks! It’s always struck me that my brain has a foreign language section that doesn’t distinguish individual languages too well. Also, it’s not getting better with age.

By: Duchess

Duchess — Sun, 31 May 2009 21:33:29 +0000

I always love your stories.

And I always eavesdrop, whatever the language. I am among the few (apparently) who would never ban cell phones on trains or buses. Overheard conversations are often the best entertainment on offer.

But my advice is, do not learn a few words of Italian and then practice them on the natives! Unlike the French, Italians love it if you try out their language. Your tentative syllables will be answered with whole paragraphs, delivered with great speed and preternatural optimism.

Next thing you know you’re exchanging lockets with the wrong lover.

We did our best. Think the Italians are very friendly, though, even if no one’s given me a locket yet. Now we’re in Slovenia, where the language is even more completely unintelligible.

By: JCK

JCK — Sun, 31 May 2009 21:24:25 +0000

OH…you’ve set up a window seat for me in Italy. How delightful! Please do continue to sort of eavesdrop so that we may hear what happened in the saga of Carolina.

It’s still a mystery. Might have been arrivederci.

By: Kate

Kate — Sun, 31 May 2009 19:08:00 +0000

Love this post; got me thinking about how often we are left to wonder about the ending of a story we witness unfolding but not to completion. How odd to do so in another language which makes it all the more rich in possibility. At once curious, at once empty (and full) in possibility.

Also funny how guilt-free it is to eavesdrop in another language — like it doesn’t really count.