9/09/11 Arrival at Maria’s

I had become used to not finding our destinations on the first or second try.  In the true Italian way many addresses are incomplete to say the least.  Mom and dad were insistent that we’d be able to find most places by memory.  This resulted in many u-turns on narrow roads where the driving style is more kamikaze than Young Drivers of Italia.

Maria, my mother’s cousin, gave us a royal welcome and proceeded to force feed us just as my mom said she would.  Maria is a big woman with a big heart, a big voice, big gestures and big love for my mother.  They grew up under similar difficult circumstances and the attachment remains.  After taking our bags from the car and getting settled into one of the apartments that Maria and her husband Rocco rent out for the summer, we took a tour of the property where I picked pomegranates, prickly pears (fichi d’India), blackberries, and the odd cucumber since the ones in my garden back home are most certainly finished.  Ah, cucumbers.  I hardly knew thee (two years in a row).  I could get used to this picking and grazing.  For a guy who loves his garden, Maria’s back yard was a paradise.  Yet it was in stark contrast to the rest of Locri; more on that later.

Speaking of stark contrasts, our arrival in Calabria signalled the switch to a different dialect.  It’s difficult to appreciate how different they are until you experience them.  And while both my parents speak Italian, they are both more comfortable with their regional dialects; Furlan for my father, Calabrese for my mother.  However; the advantage goes to my mother since she also speaks my father’s dialect quite well, a skill which has helped her over the years when northerners attempt to keep secrets or gossip in her presence.  Silly Friulani, mom has you in the palm of her hand.

Example of the differences in dialects:

Verb – prendere (to take)

Second person singular (you take)

Italian – Prendi – pronounced “pren-dee”
Calabrese – Pigghi – pronounced “pid-yee”
Furlan – Chappis – pronounced “cha-piece”