Submitted by Mia Natale on the 2016 winter session program in Siena, Italy sponsored by the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures…
Well, we have officially arrived in Siena and are now (mostly) happily living with our host families. There were some issues with some students with wifi and food preferences, but luckily, I arrived on Saturday at the home of Ana and Marcello, and found the most perfect, charming place I could imagine. It was more than daunting to get into Ana’s car after being dropped off at the bus station in Siena, only to realize that she didn’t speak a single bit of English. My roommate, Lizzy, and I completely freaked out, coming to understand that all communication would have to be in Italian, the language we were coming to Siena to continue to learn. Let’s just say that it was trial by fire. Everything, including rules of the house, descriptions of meals, and instructions were in Italian, and a single misinterpretation could result in very big issues. At dinner, communication was difficult for the first few days, with a few mostly silent meals, but by about the third night, we found ourselves having a routine of eating with little talking, followed by at least 45 minutes of straight conversation. What was wild to me was that it was two-way. Lizzy and I were able to maintain an active conversation, delving into topics like the news, our families at home and the cities we had visited in Italy so far. The most impact-full conversation for me was the night we talked about World War II, and how it affected Italy.
I personally have a very deep connection to World War II in Italy, as my grandfather grew up during it, suffering as the Nazis took over his small mountaintop village near Naples. I have been hearing stories for years about how he was hidden during the day from the Nazis because they would have taken him away, and then at night he would go from rooftop to rooftop to get around the village to steal food to feed his whole family. I also heard stories of the Allied bombardment of Montecassino, a monastery not too far from his village, that years later, my great great uncle was the lead architect during its rebuilding, with my grandfather helping him with its construction. Last year because of all of these connections, I wrote a 10 page research paper about the bombardment and reconstruction for my class about wars throughout history. One night sitting around the dinner table this week, somehow we came upon the topic of World War II. All of a sudden I realized I was fully conversing with Ana and Marcello about the famine, the Italian division of support and the whole story of the bombing of Montecassino, all completely in Italian. I was absolutely shocked. I wasn’t just speaking in basic sentences about my family or school, but I had just maintained a very deep conversation about a war, using different tenses, new vocabulary and constructing complex sentences. I could understand my Italian parents and they could understand me. Not just the basics, but everyone completely understood every intricate detail of which the other was speaking. It was an incredible moment and I walked away from the table astounded with what I had just accomplished. In just a few days, I went from barely being able to understand what was being spoken to me to being able to maintain a full conversation at length.
Torre D’Mangia in the Piazza da Campo in Siena