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Monday 19 November 2007

Reported conversations No. 2

November 19, 2007 : One degree at 8am, frosty and still. The sky is shrouded in pleated cotton wool.

Ezio Geninazzi, lifelong Carmine Superiore resident, 74 going on 24, with a strength and agility that always astound me, and a memory for dates, numbers and Italian World Cup performances that puts mine to shame.

Mama (in execrable Italian as usual) : "Do you think it'll snow?"
Ezio (looking at the sky and in perfect Italian) : "A little, but on the mountains a lot."
Mama (in even worse Italian) : "How do you know?"
Ezio (in very concise Italian) : "Sky".

I am filled with neo-Romantic admiration for my neighbour's ability to predict the weather by looking at the sky, when I realise he didn't say cielo, but Sky, and my neo-Romantic bubble bursts in a sprinkling of soggy snow flakes.

3 comments:

MsTypo said...

Cielo... Is it wrong that i think that word just sounds romantic. Even more than teh french which is almost the same word: ciel.

Cielo.. :)

Dash said...

its always astounding when people break it down so simply for us isn't it? ;) thanks for the laugh.

Louise | Italy said...

@Cairo Typ0 : I agree, its a lovely word. I remember a church anthem we used to sing in Latin at Christmas about the skies being full of angels "Pleni sunt coeli..." It's frustrating becauseI can only remember those three words!

Monday 19 November 2007

Reported conversations No. 2

November 19, 2007 : One degree at 8am, frosty and still. The sky is shrouded in pleated cotton wool.

Ezio Geninazzi, lifelong Carmine Superiore resident, 74 going on 24, with a strength and agility that always astound me, and a memory for dates, numbers and Italian World Cup performances that puts mine to shame.

Mama (in execrable Italian as usual) : "Do you think it'll snow?"
Ezio (looking at the sky and in perfect Italian) : "A little, but on the mountains a lot."
Mama (in even worse Italian) : "How do you know?"
Ezio (in very concise Italian) : "Sky".

I am filled with neo-Romantic admiration for my neighbour's ability to predict the weather by looking at the sky, when I realise he didn't say cielo, but Sky, and my neo-Romantic bubble bursts in a sprinkling of soggy snow flakes.

3 comments:

MsTypo said...

Cielo... Is it wrong that i think that word just sounds romantic. Even more than teh french which is almost the same word: ciel.

Cielo.. :)

Dash said...

its always astounding when people break it down so simply for us isn't it? ;) thanks for the laugh.

Louise | Italy said...

@Cairo Typ0 : I agree, its a lovely word. I remember a church anthem we used to sing in Latin at Christmas about the skies being full of angels "Pleni sunt coeli..." It's frustrating becauseI can only remember those three words!