2 - A Visit to Modena, Italy (English version)

Today I will take you along with me on my visit to the enchanting Italian city of Modena. This is the English version of the Italian episode (2 - Una Visita a Modena). 

Transcript

 Hello and welcome to the English version of the Italian episode that I recorded before. I wrote the original in Italian and because I realized that translating from English is just not really quite as fun. And so this time I'm just going to, as I read the Italian, switch it to English and we'll see how that goes.

This episode is a visit to Modena. Um, an extract from my journal as journaling and telling little stories is nice to just have a little record of your life and to find the beautiful moments on our, in our day to day lives. I think it's, you know, it's a, it's a wonderful exercise in many different ways.

And when you study language. And you talk about what you do day in and day out, then that's fluency. Like, you know, we can all talk about it like encyclopedic things, but the things you talk about from day to day, if you're not talking about those things, then how, how are you going to describe your life when you talk to people?

So, hi, thank you for being here today. I want to tell you about some wonderful moments that I had in Modena from my journal of July, January 22nd. I went to Modena yesterday to see the city and to do a tasting of balsamic vinegar. I had done a little bit of research only the night before, reading a few travel blogs that talked about mostly food above all, and I arrived in the train.

It only took 25 minutes and it only cost four euro. I had not booked anything because the trains just leave so often from Bologna to Modena. Uh, where I am staying is Bologna, and I will stay there in, and I'm staying there as I record this in the original version. I'm now back in Ottawa. Sadly. So I walked from the station of Modena towards the historical center.

It was raining a little bit. It was a rather dark and gray day, but it made things even more beautiful. The first thing I arrived at was the Piazza della Torre. The Tower Square. Square of the Tower. Um, the piazza was beautiful and it made me think of another piazza that I had seen before in Florence that had a similar church.

Of course, I was impressed by the Torre della Ghirlandina, whose imposing but beautiful and white presence impressed me. And as I move closer towards the base of the tower, I noticed that there was an homage to all of the fallen citizens who had fought as Partigiani or partisans against Nazi fascists during World War II and that had lost their lives doing so.

And it was really quite moving. And there were all of their names and their photos there. And this made me think about their courage. I thought about how much things have changed, but at the same time, how precious and how precarious the peace that many of us have become so accustomed to is I continued on to the Piazza Grande on the other side of the Duomo, which is the Italian word for a cathedral, and I walked until I arrived at my first stop, which was the Albinelli historical market It is a very very charming market at the center of it, there's a beautiful fountain and there's a statue of a young girl who's carrying a woven basket Of what?

I'm not sure, but I think it must be some type of food product that she's bringing to or from the market. Unfortunately, I was distracted and didn't make it close enough to read the sign on the statue. My attention was immediately grabbed by the colors. The colors of the different products grabbed my attention.

There were stands all over that had various shades of red and green apples, as well as so many other things that would take too long to describe them all. Unfortunately, I really had to go to the bathroom and there was no bathroom in the market, neither in the market nor in the piazza 20 of September, which is beside the market.

And that's where the florist had told me that I should go look for the bathrooms. Those bathrooms were there, but they were closed. I had to go all the way to another piazza where I did find one that was open, but I did not have coins to pay the entrance and they wouldn't let me tap my credit card. I Then went into a gelateria where I thought I would take advantage, uh, buy something and take advantage of the bathroom.

And there's worse things than having to go into a gelateria, and this is just the part of the fun of travel. I bought a special type of cappuccino with pistachio flavor, and I took a few minutes just to relax and enjoy the moment. Then I, when I returned to the market, I knew exactly where I wanted to go.

The blog of the, uh, tour group offering food tours per excellence in Modena and Bologna that I had read the night before described the food there and that you could, the food you could find there as well as the famous The famous sandwiches of Bar Chiavonni that you can find beside the market. They described that Bar Chiavonni was like a panino paradise.

And that often there's a huge line out the door just to be able to order a sandwich. And thank goodness it was January because there was no line and I was able to order immediately. I chose the exact same panini from the blog, which is il panino de Cotechino, which is a type of regional meat that is cooked for a very long time, if I'm not mistaken, along with a salsa verde, which I thought was a pesto, but I Don't want to come down hard on that.

I decided to pair this with a nice glass of Lambrusco Which is a local wine. It possibly was the best sandwich that I've ever tasted in my life It was amazing. It was buonissimo, and it made me think a little bit, but only a little bit about Montreal smoked meat sandwiches from Montreal And after that, I returned back to the Torre della Ghirlandina to go up it, but unfortunately it was closed until 2: 30 and I had to leave in order to make it to my balsamic vinegar tasting that I had already reserved. I did have time, though, to take a little look or a peek into a bookstore that was in the piazza because I wanted to buy some Italian books. So, in summary, Modena, it was, I really liked Modena, it's hard to switch from Modena mi è piaciuta moltissimo, which is basically, Modena was so pleasing to me, uh, to the other way around, which is, I really liked Modena, it was very charming. It's just a beautiful little city that is full of history and culture. Even though it was a bit of a cold and gray day, it was not enough to stop the beauty of the, of the city.

And I only wish I could have had more time to really, uh, experience the city. Thank you so much. And until the next time. And I will read what I wrote for the after show, um, to summarize very quickly, but, um. I did want to do the after show, um, by ear, play it by ear, um, or to do it improvised, which we would say a rota libera or either a or al volo, which like by flying in Italian.

But I realized as I was doing it, that I was just really not, my Italian is not at the point where I can just be talking freely and sound good. So in order to give people something that is worth their time, I decided to read what I'd written. I talked about the verb, the construction of 'metterci' which is basically like it took that much time, but it's in a much more specific sense of it, whereas there's another term, which is in general, like it takes in general an hour to get to Bologna from Modena, as opposed to it took me one hour. So I would use 'volerci' in the general sense. But in the specific sense, 'it took me' or 'it took this time on the train', I would use 'metterci' in Italian.

And otherwise, I talked about a few other words. The word for stall in Italian is la bancarella, which is important because there's lots of little cute places you can go and you will see le bancarelle. Okay, well, thank you so much for listening and until next time, bye!