In praise of idleness

For most of the year my weeks have been full of lessons, if I wasn’t teaching I was planning lessons.  If I wasn’t planning lessons I was going between lessons in school, in state schools, in companies or in student’s homes.  There wasn’t much time to catch up with friends and colleges.  If we could manage to synchronise our diaries for a coffee it was invariably a quick rushed affair before having to head off for the next lesson.  Over the last few weeks exams have started and courses have begun to end and we’ve found ourselves in the strange but not unpleasant situation of actually having time.  After months of running around like a blue arsed fly to suddenly find myself with free time is a welcome change.  Such is the novelty of time that I don’t quite know what to do with myself.  I have this constant feeling that I should be doing something or going somewhere but there is little to do and going anywhere generally requires forward planning and a bit of organisation. 

So how have I taken to filling my days?  Well for J and I coffee has become a long, leisurely and pretty much daily event.  At some point in the day one or other of us will send a message and a cafe or piazza chosen and a time appointed.  There over coffee in the warm sun we will spend a good amount of time shooting the breeze.  Despite speaking to each other practically every day we never seem to run out of conversation.  Sometimes T or J will join us but more often than not it’s just the two of us.  Together we talk about the past, plan our future endeavours, console each other when the trials of the Italian experience get to us and laugh – a lot. 

Coffee is often followed by galato, a stroll around the town and most dangerously shopping.  Now I have never considered shopping a pass time – it’s more of a necessary evil and I’ve always wondered how people can name shopping as an enjoyable activity but of late I have been alarmed to find myself enjoying the experience.  In our afternoon rambles J and I have tested perfumes, looked at clothes and bought make up together.   Just yesterday we made an unplanned purchase of sandals.  While it’s fun to have someone to indulge in girly pursuits (something I have never really allowed myself to do,) J and I often laugh about our afternoons.  How a world away they are from a few weeks ago and we wonder if we have begun to live up to the stereotype of ladies who lunch!  Ok we are more likely to shop in OVS (think Italian H&M) than Gucci but there is a definite shopping as entertainment vibe about us. 

So, long almost empty days, warm sun, good coffee in a picture postcard piazza, conversation, gelato and retail fun we really are living la dolce vita – I mean just substitute the Veneto for Tuscan setting and we could almost write the book about unsatisfied Anglos heading off to Italy, getting to grips with the different culture and learning the joys of life.  The only difference is we do have to worry about where the funds for all this are coming from and as much as I’m enjoying this I’m well aware it can’t go on forever and soon I’m going to have to put my head down and find something that will see me through the summer.  

NB This post is dedicated to J, a person who makes life in Italy so much better than it already is.