4062 Brescian Brit

Hello everyone,
I left Barnet for Lake Garda more than 20 years ago. All I can say to anyone who wants to move is ... GO FOR IT!

- don't be disheartened by any horror stories you might read. You could just as easily read the same sort of things about your own home town in the UK.
- do be prepared for bouts of linguistic depression and feeling alien even after a few years. After all,it IS a foreign country and culture.
- don't EXPECT to lose the accent (you might, but that'll be a bonus)
- being an ex-pat gives you an unusual viewpoint on both your old and new homes. You find yourself being detached and critical of everyone "back there" putting up with (insert current point of political or social interest), and at the same time moan about differences in Italy and how much better it is "back there".

Here's a site which is a good focal point where wannabes, new arrivals and old hands get together. They even organise group evenings and stuff in some of the larger cities.
[url]http://groups.msn.com/expatsinItaly/[/url]

I wrote a couple of things there a year or so back that might be of interest here too:
[url]http://www.curiousgame.com/write_expat.php[/url]

Once you're over here this site will come in handy for those little things you can't find at the local supermercato:
[url]www.expatessentials.co.uk[/url]

To close, cheer yourself up with these.
[url]http://www.lifeinitaly.com/flash[/url]
[url]http://www.lifeinitaly.com/flash/jokes.asp[/url]
You may have seen them before, but they still raise a smile...

I'll get round to adding my bit to some of the other threads just as soon as work will allow (plus I'm off to Blighty on Friday with the boys for a holiday with the "nonni inglesi").

Category
Introduce Yourself - Piacere Conoscerti

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 06/28/2006 - 06:40

Gardamac, you live in a wonderful part of Italy, Salo is lovely.

I have a Funny story of when we were staying in Gardone on holiday 2 years ago.
We decided to go to Brescia for the day on the local bus, got the return tix at the Tabacchi shop in the morning, spent a glorious day in the Wonderful City of Brescia (folks, i thoroughly recommend the place), went back to the bus station and promptly noticed that a bus for Gardone V.T was pulling out, jumped on said bus, punched our tix and settled down for the return journey to Gardone Riviera.

Seemed a bit strange that we were returning a different route and i started to get a bit panicky when we passed the Baretta Gun Factory about 1/2 an hour later, Huh?

Next thing the driver say's Terminus......middle of Hicksville, IT; now we're Crapping ourselves.

What transpired was that Gardone Val Trompia is a completely different place up in the hills and nothing to do with Gardone Riviera on Lago di Garda.

It was Monday afternoon so the Tabacchi was 1/2 day closed, i'm getting the theme tune to Dueling Banjo's in my head as no-one could understand Christine's Italian, turns out they have their own Dialect.

Upshot is, we walked back aways for a couple of Kilometres, found a Tabacchi open where we could get tix back to Brescia so that we could get the PROPER bus back to Gardone Riviera.

Moral of story; you're not in Britain now, always double check things:-)

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 06/28/2006 - 06:58

Hi GardaMac, and welcome to ItalyMag. Thanks for the links - I will bookmark these and have a read later.

Brama - I have had similar experiences to yours and have learned very quickly that just because a town name sounds similar it doesn't mean it is anywhere near to where you want to be. Can be fun getting lost though...

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 06/28/2006 - 07:00

[LEFT]
Welcome GardaMac. Sounds like you might have a wealth of knowledge to offer the forum! Stick around.

Taking my mum to the Lake Garda area in August for a few days [and the kids to Gardaland :( ]. She was there 15 years ago and still talks about it.

Cheers,
[/LEFT]

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 06/28/2006 - 07:19

Brama, you discovered Valle Trompia !!
:p :D :eek:
I speak the local dialect but as is normally the case in Italy, "local" takes on a whole new meaning. Metropolitan Brescian is different from what I speak and even on Garda, moving from the Salò area to Maderno there's an immediately audible difference.
Dialects in Italy aren't just a matter of accent. Numbers, verbs and grammar can all change dramatically in the space of 40 km. Up in the Valle Trompia they even have a pronounced "h" sound that doesn't exist in Italian.

I did exactly the opposite the second year I was here. Had to take someone to their hotel in Gardone. Drove around Gardone Riviera for 2 hours before someone asked if we were sure we didn't have to fo to V.T. :rolleyes:

DerekL,
Gardaland in August !
Good luck, mate!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 06/28/2006 - 07:51

Heh Heh, VT was an experience Mac, i would'nt have changed it for the world.
Love your piece you did about living in Italy, it's not on the cards for us yet but our dream would be to retire there, somewhere around Garda would be great.

When we were in Gardone we were self catering, great going to the market, knowing how to get the price for the veg using their scale and code print system, little things like that.

Wot's wrong with 70's Prog by the way? P.F.M were great:-)

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 06/28/2006 - 09:59

[QUOTE=Brama Sole]Wot's wrong with 70's Prog by the way? P.F.M were great:-)[/QUOTE]
There are both Brescian and personal links with PFM too. Mauro Pagani, who played with them and gave them their name, is Brescian and I worked for a company in Chiari whose owners, 5 brothers, had grown up with him.
Naturally he was a local hero and even the punks and disco fans worshipped Mauro...
The Forneria Marconi really was the name of the local baker's shop.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 06/28/2006 - 10:43

[QUOTE=Brama Sole]Love your piece you did about living in Italy, it's not on the cards for us yet but our dream would be to retire there, somewhere around Garda would be great.[/QUOTE]

In my opinion (and being on the Brescian side I'm biased) the best areas around Garda are the Valtenesi (around the towns of Puegnago, Polpenazze, Manerba and Moniga) to the South of Salò or the area around and above Gardone Riviera and Toscolano/Maderno (lots of little hamlets and isolated villas).
Unfortunately the Valtenesi has been massively developed in the last 10 years so you have to hunt out the bargains unless you want a flat in a block that will be empty from September to June and will then fill up with loud Milanese.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 06/28/2006 - 11:57

Heh, i'll keep that in mind mate.
Nice link you have with P.F.M.