When we moved to Lancaster in
July 2007 everything was charming and new.
The ochre stone buildings, the cobbled lanes, bright flowers in pots and
gardens. And the weather was not so
bad, no fog, and even sunny from time to time!
I came from Rome; I was born
there. Rome is a city with both positive
and negative sides. The overall
impression it had left me is of a shabby, ancient place, sometimes attractive,
sometimes stressful and disappointing.
Six of us moved here: myself,
my husband, who was attending a PGCE course at the University of Cumbria to be
a Maths teacher, two teenage children, who were going to attend a boarding
school in Keswick, and two more children, one in a Primary, the other in a
Special school.
I knew I had to orchestrate
the whole lot, without their being aware of it.
What about my own job or activities?
In Italy I was an English
teacher, which would not work here. To be honest I had hardly had the energy to
work in the rough secondary schools of the suburbs of Rome since we had adopted
my youngest child, Valentina. When she arrived in Rome from Ukraine in June
2002 she was a tiny, two-year-old blond child. At first we thought that her
strange, challenging behaviour was a matter of a few months of adaptation, but
it lasted years. All we knew on leaving
Italy was that she had severe deafness and she hadn’t learned to speak Italian
in five years of speech therapy.
In England they suggested a
school for hearing-impaired children with special needs, and I was very glad of
it. I knew my other children could
manage by themselves with a little help but Valentina had been so demanding I
felt exhausted. I needed extra help. After a few assessments we found out she was
autistic as well and we could get respite care.
My job became a marginal
problem. I wished to enjoy England,
though, especially the North West of England.
I realized it was not like London, Devon or Cornwall, where we had spent
holidays once, let alone Wales or Scotland, which we had also visited for a few
weeks. This was the North West, our
family divided between Cumbria and Lancashire, and we had to cope with it.
I must say I coped very
well. I started to take some art classes
- painting and drawing being my passion since I was a child - at Lancaster Uni,
and creative writing classes at the Adult College. I met friends with whom I am still in
contact. I learned new techniques in
painting using not only brushes - as I had always done in Italy - but also
sticks, cards, feathers and sponges. I
learned to mix different media. I had come from a casual country with
classical background and all this was new, stimulating and extraordinary for
me. Creative courses everywhere: I could
take my pick.
The following year, 2008,
everything became tighter because of the credit crunch. Less funding, less courses. I started to teach Italian in an Adult
College in Cumbria once a week and went there for my art classes as well. I discovered a wonderful opportunity, absent
in Italy: the open mic. I grabbed the
chance in a flash. I was deadly scared
to face an audience at first but I learned confidence when I realized people
liked my pieces. Now I often read at
Spotlight in Lancaster and at the Brewery in Kendal.
Food has never been a problem
for me as I am not used to eating a lot and can adapt easily to all kinds of
food, except raw fish and raw meat. Being the one in charge of supermarket
shopping I realized soon there were plenty of Italian products everywhere, and
also Indian, Mexican and Arabic. Always
a wide choice: and of course there was English food too.
I mixed a bit of Italian, a
bit of English and some Mexican. My
children would not let me try Indian; they said it was too spicy. A typical dinner could be pasta alla
carbonara and Cumberland sausages, chicken and roasted potatoes plus apple pie
with cream, risotto with fish and chips, or fajitas and pasta e fagioli (bean
soup). It was not easy at first,
especially for my husband, so used to his Mum’s home-made food and whose palate
and stomach are so sensitive to any little change. The children complained a bit about the abundance of ‘healthy food’ they had at the
boarding school: vegetables even in pasta! they said. I love spaghetti with courgettes and penne
with aubergines but they don’t care a fig so I don’t make them. They love fish and chips, sausages, egg and
bacon, toast and delicious English cream with trifle. I drown in tea, strong and hot, two sugars,
to keep my mind working.
In the centre of Lancaster we
saw a lot of Italian restaurants. They
were highly recognizable not only
because of the names on the signs but also because of the colours of the
Italian flag. We are not used to seeing
this in Italy! We tried some of
them. The food was good, sometimes
excellent. It followed the rules of
traditional Italian cooking. Unlike one
time in France, when they had served us spaghetti alla carbonara full of
chopped onions, with an uncooked egg in the middle.
Pizza Hut was a surprise:
family atmosphere and tasty pizzas. In
Rome we are used to thin pizzas, which sometimes can be mistaken for a sheet of
crisp pastry, with tomato sauce and mozzarella.
It is a different story in Naples where making pizza is a talent. Once we chanced on a special Italian pizzeria
in London, where we had spent a week last Easter. They served us real pizza Napoletana and it
was outstanding.
Shopping was a new
experience. My teenage daughter came
back from the boarding school at weekends and her favourite hobby was going
shopping with mum. We became familiar
with all the clothes and accessories shops in the centre of Lancaster, Fisher
Gate in Preston and from time to time we went further afield, to Manchester
shopping centres and Liverpool 1. Every
now and then I also found something I needed for special occasions. My daughter always found what she was looking
for, a new hat, top or jumper she could match with what she already had and
make a new look.
I usually take care that my
shoes and bag don’t jar too much with my clothes. Now I have realized how much
accessories matter: belts, bracelets, hair slides and hair bands, rings and
necklaces, scarves, shawls and purses, let alone handbags. Also, they should team with each other in
some unique, indefinable way. I have
learned a lot.
My daughter has taken on an
utterly English style, plain with hints of extravagance. She has forgotten all the good teaching of
Italian classical style, which my mum
had taught me without success, where you have to match the colours exactly,
wear wool in winter and cotton in summer.
Wildly boring!
As I have already said, I
attend poetry readings but also other literary and musical events like the
Litfest week in October, music in pubs and performances at the Dukes
Theatre. Sometimes I write reviews of
the events I attend for Lancaster4u and the Lunecy Review websites. I am having a great time. I was not used to going out in Rome, because
there were no opportunities and because we usually met only relatives or close
friends. What a change.
During our first year in
Lancaster we were so busy settling down that we had no time to see any tourist
site, monument or museum. My children
were very happy about it. They said they
had been on a monument spree in the past, in Italy, and they had had enough.
As soon as I got my breath
back, I scheduled some unmissable sightseeing in the area and persuaded the
children to attend, promising a game, cinema tickets or extra pocket money.
We managed to see Lancaster
Castle and the Priory, the Roman Bath House, Ashton Memorial, the City Museum,
Morecambe Bay and its traditional villages. We saw something of Manchester and
Liverpool as well. That’s all. We should do more but the children have other
pastimes at the moment, especially the two teenagers. It's understandable; I was the same at their
age.
Despite the children, I was
at Dove Cottage and at the Tate in Liverpool on my own, both fulfilling
experiences. Never mind, there is time
for everything and we can savour Cumbrian amenities and Lancashire treasures a
drop at a time. We are going to stay
here now that we have bought a house.
All in all, it has been a
positive move from Rome to Lancaster. We
have found a pleasant town with interesting Georgian buildings, Italian food,
good music and an old-fashioned English atmosphere, which is no bad thing at
all.
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