LIFE WITH AN ITALIAN FAMILY

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32553, 12 March 1971, Page 5

LIFE WITH AN ITALIAN FAMILY

Three months studying Italian and living with an Italian family was “the most precious three months of our two years abroad,” Mrs Charles Martin said at a meeting of the Canterbury Travel Club yesterday morning.

Mr and Mrs Martin studied at a university in Perugia, Italy, which caters for foreigners wishing to learn Italian. The head of their Italian family was a retired architect who was refurbishing an old fort, just outside the old city wall. It had been in the family for 300 years.

Both the study, and the family living, proved to be a unique experience, and both ventures were inspired by former Travel Club talks.

The experiences of Mr and Mrs A. West Watson, who travelled abroad in a sleeping van, and the advice of Mrs Doreen Grant to “have a smattering of some foreign languages before travelling,” impressed Mrs Martin. For two years she learnt German and Spanish, and polished up her French. Mr Martin studied Italian. And they bought a van in which they lived for their first month in the ancient city of Perugia. FREE ENTRY

“We got our tuition at the

university for $lO a month,” said Mrs Martin. "We were allowed free entry to all museums and art galleries in Italy, and concerts—everything from the Moscow Symphony to Yehudi Menuhincost us no more than a $l. As well, we were taken on conducted tours of all the ancient cities.”

The couple’s aptitude in the language took different directions. “When we arrived I knew no Italian, but after a while was managing to talk fairly fluently because I didn’t worry about my grammar. My husband was so careful with his pronouns he could read and write very well, but never learned to converse.

It was a source of amusement to Mrs Martin that Catrina, their Italian hostess, thought it nothing out of the ordinary that she had learnt to speak Italian, but greatly admired Mr Martin’s theoretical abiilty.

Their lecture room contained every nationality except Russian Arabs, Greeks. Australians, Americans. The lecturer spoke only Italian, and initially taught by miming and class repetition. From the start he “terrified” Mrs Martin, but liked Mr Martin. After six weeks of intensive teaching, Mrs Martin moved into a conversation class. TOO GOOD “There the professor liked me too much and threw questions at me in Italian for an hour, until the sweat was running down my back,” she laughed. In despair she sought shelter and obscurity for the next lecture. “A group of Arabs tucked me away among their ranks, and the professor transferred his attention to an Australian girl.” Race, colour, creed, or politics had no place among the students. “And to our astonishment the top student was a young man named Joseph, from Ghana. He was coal black, and within one month he could beat us all. The professor would say: •Joseph, you warm my heart. Come, shake hands with me.’ And Joseph would give a great, gurgling laugh,” said Mrs Martin. She found the studies exacting. “I’ve never worked so hard in my life. The young ones soaked it up like a spounge, but at my age you learn every word. And the mistakes. We had to do a project in Italian, about our country. “Mine had a good deal about the countryside. The professor commented that I was obviously interested in the country, and I meant to say in reply that my father was a farmer. But it came out as: ‘My father was a cow.’ That was when I decided to transfer to the conversation classes.” It was almost by mischance they met their Italian family. They had never taken in paying lodgers, but agreed to rent them a bedroom, kitchen and bathroom (with breakfast included) for $l4 a week.

It was not long before Mr and Mrs Martin were part of the Italian-speaking family, and ate most of their meals with them. When Mrs Martin became ill with influenza, her hostess nursed her “devotedly” for a fort-

night. Soon they became adjusted to Italian food—mostly spaghetti, soup, pastas, and chicken. Meat was very expensive. "Marcello, our Italian host, and my husband shared a love of music. In the afternoons they would sit in the huge salon, furnished with antiques and with a marble floor as in all the rooms, and listen to opera on the hi-fi set.

"Marcello would bring out his flute and join in the music. Often I would put my head around the door and find one or the other conducting,” said Mrs Martin. CHRISTMAS The Martins were urged to join the entire familymore than 20—for Christmas. Mrs Martin decided she must make a Christmas cake. "In Italy they don’t bake cakes like ours, and everyone was very excited. “They could not imagine what I would do with all the ingredients, most of which were difficult to obtain in Perugia. I still don’t know what I mixed it in—something from the bedroom—but I know I scalded it very well,” she said. Eventually the cake, which had to survive a constant opening of the oven by incredulous Italians, formed the last course of Christmas dinner—served with champagne. “It was really a precious time,” said Mrs Martin. Mrs Martin now lives in Hakataramea Valley, and studied at the University of Otago, and Dunedin Teachers’ College, later specialising in teaching reading. She has been a member of the Canterbury Travel Club for many years.