Dreaming In Italian

Razor! Doesn’t seem like an interesting subject but in this case there is a bit of learning of how things work in Italy in a totally different sense. The story begins with my electric razor. It’s one of those Norelco things with three rotating heads. I don’t shave very often either here or in California because I’m a little lazy and usually don’t have anyone to impress during the week. Also in Italy you see a lot of people who are not too diligent about shaving. Of course it’s probably different in Milan where everyone hopes to be a fashion model or something. Anyway one day I noticed that one of the heads of my razor was misaligned. No problem, I know how to fix that; open the razor, remove the restraint that keeps the head attached to the razor and adjust the offending head. Simple. However the drain to the lavandino (bathroom sink) not to be confused with the lavello (kitchen sink) was not functioning properly and so was not in place. Before I knew it, three pieces of my razor had fallen in to the drain. Hoo boy, now what?

It’s a pedestal sink and the sink rests on a pedestal and is attached to the wall. At first I thought that I would need to loosen the bolts connecting the sink to the wall so that I could move the pedestal so that it still supported the sink but would allow my access to that u-shaped pipe under every sink. That would be a major task and neither Cesarina or her husband Roberto had the tools for the job. After I looked more closely I saw that the Italian system had anticipated this problem and there was a plug in that u-shaped pipe. I just needed to remove that and I could extract the razor parts.

But the plot thickens. There were no pliers (pinze) in the house. So I went of to the hardware store to buy the garden variety, regular household pliers that are so common in the U.S. Well, surprise, these DO NOT EXIST in Italy. In fact I checked an Italian website for every variety of tools with the same result. So I bought a pair of pliers designated as plumbers pliers and now all is right with the world.

Paolo, my friend the orthodontist, is partners in small plane – and I do mean small. If it were any smaller it would not be able to accommodate two people. Let’s just say that you should both take a shower before taking off. Getting into the plane is something of a contortionist endeavor. First grasp the door opening with your right hand (if passenger), then insert your left foot (you have to clear the stick in the middle, then you insert your head and lift yourself into the seat and finally bring the other leg in. You reverse the process getting out. I had a fair amount of practice since we stopped at three other little airports during the flight.

As you can see, there is a very interesting arrangement in the hanger. Paolo’s plane is on a lift. So first he pulls it out just a little bit to clear the wing of another plane, the lowers it to clear the opening of the hanger. Then he pulls it all of the way out. Next the cover is removed and stowed somewhere and finally it is lowered to the ground and the plane is pulled off. Of course being a prudent pilot, he checks a variety of things, the oil, the control system, etc, etc. Finally we got in and he taxied to the gas pumps where he filled the plane and we took off.

I kept an eye on the altimeter and we were never more at an altitude of more than 1600 meters which, as you can see from the photos, is not very high. Also we were never going faster than160 km per hour, about 100 miles per hour. Within a few minutes of the flight, Paolo said that the oil temperature was too high so we landed at a small airport perhaps 30-40 km away from the home base. There are a couple of straps around the oil cooler which are good for winter but not so good on a warm day so Paolo removed one of them. By the way, all of the 3 other airports where we stopped had grass runways rather than asphalt.

The scenery was, frankly, pretty boring. The Po Valley is prime farmland, similar perhaps to the central valley in California. Very flat and almost nothing but farms. There is the Po River, which is the longest river in Italy – I saw the same river (smaller of course) in Torino. There are also a lot of canals that are used both for drinking water and irrigation.

At the second airport somewhere somewhat northeast of Ferrara, we stopped and went to lunch with some friends of Paolo. We stopped at a place that they knew which is on houseboats in the river. They said that they’ve never changed even a letter of the menu in 40 years and that we would eat really well and pay little. Unfortunately it was not to be since there were a couple of tour buses in the parking lot and the place was packed – probably Italians and/or Germans. So we went to a buffet that was chinese run. The price was modest and so was the food – often the chinese way unfortunately.

Back in the air we followed his friends to another small airport. During the lunch and the stop at the second airport I listed to a lot of talk about flight, flying, planes, airports, places to visit in Puglia, Sardinia, Sicily, Germany, Austria – well you get the picture. It was good for my Italian but I was hard pressed to enter into the conversation.

Still it was a really fun day. Perhaps I’ll get to do it again someday and go somewhere a bit more interesting.

Yesterday I received an email with no title and the sender was “Елена Савка” and an attachment. At first I thought to simply erase it without opening it. It seems that lots of viruses come from Russia. When I looked at the email preview all became clear. It was from Elena,  a fellow student in one of my classes that left two weeks ago. This was one of the rare cases when a fellow student, regardless of country of origin spoke no english. So the only means of communication was Italian. As is usually the case when a new student enters the class there is a round of introductions. In this case I was the new student in the class. When it came to Elena, she said that she is from somewhere in Siberia and now lives, I think, in Saint Petersburg. After her “normal” education she spent 9 years in two conservatories studying voice and sings opera. She is tall, beautiful and always somehow managed to dress elegantly. She extended her stay for two weeks and so was in the same class for a month. On the last day of class we asked her to sing for us. After much coaxing she said, “OK but I can’t sing for very long because my voice is not warmed up.” She was seated next to me and stood up and asked that we close the window. She stood up and started to sing. I have gone to several operas and enjoy them but never have I been in the same room, much less 3 feet from an opera singer of any sort. She is a soprano and is VERY good (at least to my ear). It’s hard to describe the clarity and the FORCE of her voice. I thought of that commercial where a singer , Ella Fitzgerald I think, broke a glass with her voice. I doubt that she could compare with the sheer volume of Elena’s voice. It was absolutely incredible! I am so glad that I had that experience.

Back to the email. On that last day that Elena was at school I had forgotten to bring my camera and the iPhone is pretty useless as a camera. However Elena had a very nice camera and someone else took a picture of us. She took down my email address and promised to send it to me. She delivered.