YOUR LETTERS

After a lengthy wait, one reader has finally secured a house swap with a family from Sicily.

Students at the Atrium language school in le Marche.

®via the internet and then visiting (if possible for long enough to start getting a feel for the area and to understand how it works), and be prepared to consider different areas. Tourist areas, for example, often have English-speaking policemen, doctors and so on and cater to foreigners, whereas a few kilometres away can seem like a million miles (not to mention in another time zone; say the 19th century!). But if you don’t give it a go, you’ll never know. Ailhlin Clark Via email

Thank you, Ailhlin, for taking the time to write and share your experiences with our readers. Any advice that will help other readers with their move to Italy is always welcome. So, if any other readers have similar experiences they’d like to share, we promise to feature them in these pages.

LA DOLCE VITA Whilst no longer intoxicated by the wine-tasting experience at La Dolce Vita show at Olympia but still intoxicated by the entire experience of the show itself, I felt an irresistible urge to write to you. I’m sure that, like most of your readers, the opportunity to practise speaking Italian arises only on those all too limited trips to Italy itself and a day trip to Italy is neither practicable nor economical, sadly. The La Dolce Vita show, however, gave me an opportunity to be in Italy for a day, to sample its wines, its food, its fashions, its cars and so on – and, as most of the exhibitors were Italian, that allimportant opportunity to practise speaking Italian. While the best place to learn to speak Italian is naturally Italy, there are numerous language schools to choose from in different regions and cities. I was faced with this dilemma ten years ago and opted to go to a little-known school in a region that, at that time at least, was not too well known either. I made this choice because my experience of places such as Florence and Siena was that my initial feeble attempts at speaking Italian in the shops and bars was greeted with replies in English which were much better than my Italian. I wanted to go to a place where the locals did not speak English and

where I would be forced to persevere with my fledgling Italian. I found such a place in Cagli, in the le Marche region, at a language school called Atrium. I was delighted to find that the school had a stand at the show and listening to the talk that was given on the stage promoting the benefits of the school almost made me want to start off learning all over again. The school does, however, cater for all level of speakers and outside of the school the Cagliesi people are more than willing to continue your learning experience – which is where you really begin to learn. As I have no connection with the school itself I thought that your readers might like to have an impartial recommendation of a language school when there are so many to choose from. Colin Causier Barnsley

We can’t encourage our readers enough to learn to speak Italian. Difficult as it may be to learn a new language later in life, it’s a richly rewarding experience when – eventually – you feel comfortable enough with your language skills to converse in Italian for the first time.

ON THE MOVE In the January 2005 issue of Italia! you kindly published my letter Teaching our Young. As a follow-up I am writing to let you know that we have finally managed to arrange a house-swap. We are exchanging for eight months from August this year with a family from Sicily. Our children are going to attend the local school in Sicily, while the children of the exchange family will attend our local school here. It seems too good to be true! I would be very happy to write an account of our experiences for your magazine, especially about how we and the children pick up the language – if you are interested, of course! Colin Causier Barnsley

I’m glad you managed to find a family willing to do a house swap with you – and yes, I would be interested in commissioning a write up to run in Italia!as I’ve had many enquiries about house swapping. I shall be in touch shortly!

10 ITALIA! June 2006