Saturday, October 29, 2011

My Normal Day in Manorola, Italy

Another picture-less blog. Once I get to Livorno, I will get the other blogs posted. Now that I have been here 4 days, I have gotten into a routine that looks similar to the locals:

8:00 am or so - Get up, clean up as best I can and take Seymour for a walk.

8:30 - walk into town (only about 5 minutes away down hill) and stop into the Panetteria/Bar and get one or two croissants to take home. Sometimes I stay and also get a cappuccino - and once splurged on eggs. Actually I had a cappuccino and ham and eggs and sat at a table and it only cost me 5 euro. I think that since I have made some donations to the Monterosso efforts, the shop keepers remember me and have been more welcoming. I found that the woman who works in the bar's uncle owns one of the grocery stores. One lady who works in the grocery store actually greeted me with "ciao" this morning, which is the familiar way of saying hi.

I stop in one (or both) of the little grocery stores and get my small amount of food. No one buys that much at one time. The frig is small and I also think that there is socialization involved in talking to people when you are out, so people are out often. I buy my milk for my coffee in 500 ml containers, which is probably close to a pint. I usually get one "piccolo pane" (small bread) and possibly a can of dog food for Seymour - oh and maybe some cookies :) You also are encouraged to bring your own bags, probably more so than even in the USA. They will often charge you for a plastic bag if you don't bring your own. I am so glad I brought my small nylon bag with me - I use it all the time!

9:00 - 9:30 - Head back to the apartment. Most cities here have large trash cans along the streets labeled for glass, plastic, paper, and regular trash. So I try to bring my trash out and divide it into the various containers.

In the apartment I feed Seymour and make coffee using the small coffee maker/percolator most homes have. I turn on the TV and try to get some info from the gibberish - I mean Italian news stations. I recently found CNN is on in English for part of the day, so I have started watching a little of that.

10:00 - 10:30 - Clean the dishes, try to check email or write the blog. Just sort of goof off. Since I've been here I've made a number of friends I keep in touch with by email, a few quite regularly. It's nice to share experiences with other people doing the same thing.

11:00 - Head to the train station to either buy a ticket or find out what is going on with the train problems. I don't think the 2 villages will be open to the public for awhile but from the TV I see that they are getting a lot done with cleaning up the mud and destruction. Last night I watched all of the men coming back from volunteering - covered in mud. Since they can only get there by boat, I watched the small boats being lifted from the water on a large crane. I will try to get a picture, because it is pretty amazing how effortless it looks!

The rest of the afternoon is taken up by either heading out on the train or taking walks down to the ocean, possibly getting something to eat in a restaurant or making something at the apartment.

Dinner is earlier than the people here eat. I usually make my pasta and pesto by about 6 pm.

Then it is back out for a walk with Seymour just after dark. I love seeing the lights over the city.

Usually I am tired and am in bed by 9:30 pm, reading.

What a simple life, huh?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

2 comments:

  1. Hey! I can post a comment! There was some sort of sign up thing for adampost or something like that but I didn't join it, thank goodness. Anyway, your blogs have been great even without the pictures. It helps us to learn what everyday life is like in the small towns of Italy. When do you head to your next location? Art says Buon Giorno (or some such spelling!). Love, Sharon and Art

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  2. I hope to leave here Monday but today most of the trains were cancelled both ways. Then I'm back to Livorno for 3 days. I haven't figured out where I am right after that. Good job with your Italian! Glad you can finally post again.

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