You Sure This Isn't a Vacation?

Greetings from Verbania! I arrived here two days ago and have been adjusting to the relaxed pace of life here since. This small town of about 30,000 will be my temporary home as I study Italian for a month, with my "study" consisting mainly of three hours a day of one-on-one grammar and conversation with a tutor. I am one of only two New Men at the NAC to be learning Italian in this locale, although there are several Second Year men that have also come to Verbania to improve their Italian skills as well.

Located in the foothills of the Alps on the western shore of Lago Maggiore, and about 100 km northwest of Milan, Verbania was created by the merger in the '30s of two smaller towns. It is now mostly a tourist destination for Italians, Germans, and the Dutch, especially in the summer when the lake and the cooler mountain air attract those that live in hotter environs. Indeed, it is a bit difficult sometimes to remind myself that I am at school/work with an important task ahead of me. Our accommodations are a 3-star hotel (with a fine restaurant attached, where we have our meals each day) that seems to cater mostly to elderly Italian women who come in droves and for several weeks at a time. They don't seem to do much, mind you, other than eat, sit and talk in the garden or the lobby, and play bingo and '40s big band records. The place feels a bit like a swanky retirement home, to be honest. As I mentioned, class is only for a few hours each morning so the afternoons and evenings are generally free to ourselves. So much free time, coupled with the generally relaxed and jovial atmosphere of the place, not to mention the magnificent lake and mountain scenery that surrounds us -- perhaps you can understand why I'm continually trying to convince myself that I'm not on vacation.

This is quite an important month for us, especially for a New Man like myself, since it's the only immersion-like experience we'll have until at least next summer. Although we'll study some more Italian at the NAC when we return in August and although our classes at the Gregorian will be in Italian, there will be no requirement to necessarily speak or use Italian outside of classes themselves. In contrast, the teachers and residents here at Verbania know virtually no English and thus we're forced to really dig deep and attempt to, you know, learn the language. It's amazing what you can learn after only a few hours of being forced to speak and communicate in Italian, and although I'm just getting started, I can definitely see how true it seems to be that you can't really learn a language in a classroom alone.

Aside from the challenge of learning something new, and the language of the land at that, the real motivating factor for us New Men is the Italian language proficiency exam which we'll have to take in October. The pontifical universities, and the Gregorian especially, want to gauge exactly how much Italian their students know before beginning theology studies, and I can't say I really blame them. For now, though, I'm trying not to worry too much about the upcoming test but just absorb everything that I can and hope that it sticks.

The internet isn't quite as immediately accessible here in Verbania as it was in Rome, so my communiqués may be a little less frequent here than there. Still, I hope to do a bit of traveling and sightseeing before heading south again next month, and as always, I'll be sure to keep my camera handy. Ciao!