Le zanzare (2)
February 11th, 2011
Ein überarbeiteter Blogartikel. Ziel war es, das Original auf etwa 2000 Zeichen zu kürzen. Wenn jemand das Original und die überarbeitete Version vergleichen und mir ein Feedback geben möchte, so würde mich das freuen.
Gewisse italienische Wörter lerne ich hier in Florenz so, dass ich sie garantiert nie mehr vergesse.
So drehe ich zum Beispiel meine Runden in einem Supermarkt kurz vor dessen Schliessung und finde ein bestimmtes Produkt einfach nicht. Ich bin kurz vor dem Aufgeben, als eine Angestellte des Supermarkts daherkommt. “Entschuldigen Sie mein Italienisch, aber…”, beginne ich zögernd. “Dimmi”, lächelt sie freundlich. Nun gibt es kein Zurück mehr.
“Wie heissen die Tiere, die in der Nacht…. bsss, piek!”, frage ich und führe mit den Fingern einen kurvenreichen Landeanflug auf eine freie Hautfläche aus. Ich suche Mückenmittel und sie versteht das sofort.
“Le zanzare. Komm mit!”, sagt sie und eilt schnurstracks zu einem Regal zwischen Kakteen und Kartoffeln. “Sie heissen le zanzare”, sagt sie nochmals lachend, während ich mir Mühe gebe Schritt zu halten. Das Produkt sei leider ausverkauft, sagt sie und zeigt auf ein leeres Regal. Meine Frage, ob es denn bald wieder verfügbar sei, verneint sie mit der Bemerkung, das sei eben ein saisonales Produkt.
“Aber bei mir zuhause hat es immer noch Mücken”, erkläre ich meinen nicht saisongerechten Wunsch. “Bei mir auch, aber ich habe mich daran gewöhnt!”, lacht sie, als gäbe es keinen schöneren Gedanken. Ich bedanke mich und steuere auf eine Kasse zu, wo die Verkäuferin mit verschränkten Armen sitzt und offenbar nichts zu tun hat. „Diese Kasse ist geschlossen“, murrt sie, als ich meine Produkte auf das Förderband lege.
“Mach’s trotzdem”, ruft in dem Moment die fröhliche Dame von vorhin, und die Verkäuferin nimmt widerwillig ihre Arbeit wieder auf. Zu meinem Vergnügen stellt sich noch eine andere Kundin an die selbe Kasse.
Wie auf Befehl vertreibt in der folgenden Nacht ein frischer Wind das lästige Insekt und Kälte kriecht über die Toskana. Jeder Gedanke an Mücken erübrigt sich, und wie sie vom Wind vertrieben wurden, vertilgt die Zeit jene Worte aus meinem Vokabular, die mir zu selten über die Lippen kommen.
Nur das Wort für Mücken trotzt dem Vergessen wie die schwungvolle Angestellte der herrschenden Trägheit.
3 CommentsElla Fitzgerald – Summertime
July 5th, 2010
As I’m in the midst of the exams (or ‘in mezzo ai guai’, in a not-so-literal translation in italian) blogging will continue to be sparse over the next weeks. I have yet to figure out what exactly I’ll do with this blog when my stay here in Florence is over.
I have, however, a couple of jewels in store for you, mostly music and pictures I’ve found on the web but never got around to post here. So do come back from time to time.
And enjoy summertime!
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March 16th, 2010
We could have died in the fire that erupted last night in our building.
Do you know where the emergency exits in your building are? Can you handle a fire extinguisher?
My flatmate was awake at 3 a.m. when he noticed a particularly pungent stench. He checked all the rooms in our apartment only to realize that the stench was coming from the hallway. One of his first thoughts was that an apartment could have taken fire. While talking to the police on his mobile phone he went looking for the source. He went down eight flights of stairs checking every apartment door until he got to the entrance. The smoke made it hard to see and breathe.
We didn’t die and I’m still blogging. The boring truth is that my other flatmate and I slept like babies, while he saw that the fire was located at the main door and managed to put it out.
My flatmates had left while I was asleep this morning, so I was completely uninformed. About to go to university, I was amazed and slightly amused by the fact that I didn’t have to open the entrance door because there was none. A part of the carpet was charred and the surrounding ceiling had changed from white to blackish. I quickly took some pictures and asked the portiere about what happened. He told me that my flatmate had put out the fire. I continued my journey to the lecture that for some reason didn’t take place. When I got home my flatmate gave me his account of the night:
The police had arrived quite subito and the firefighters came running some 20 minutes after the alarm. When they saw that the fire had already been put out they turned around and left without even wanting to make a guess about how it could have initiated. Neither did the police, telling my flatmate that we would have to accuse someone if we wanted them to conduct an investigation. Then they left, too. Now the administration of the building will have the entrance cleaned up and the door and carpet replaced and nobody will know what set the door on fire. Except the guys who did it.
The entrance to the building
I have a friend who once filmed his neighbour’s house burning down. When the police asked him to testify a couple of days later he showed them his video, complete with some dramatic movie soundtrack, as he later recounted with a big grin on his face. I played around with some imaging software to make the photograph look more frightening, but I failed and so I’m showing the original.
I guess what could have been a pretty dramatic story in the end amounts to nothing much and therefore joins the many news articles with that same fate. Remember what Chesterton said: Journalism largely consists of saying ‘Lord Jones is Dead’ to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive.
Just make sure you know where the emergency exits in your building are.
5 CommentsVisit to the Uffizi and the Corridoio Vasariano
November 2nd, 2009
Saturday was very exciting: The exchange students at my faculty were invited to visit the Galleria degli Uffizi and the Corridoio Vasariano. While the Galleria degli Uffizi – one of the most famous museums of the world – is of course open to the public, the Corridoio Vasariano is not. I consider myself very lucky to have visited it. In a month or so restoration will begin, so in the next couple of years even those who for some reason would have the privilege to visit it – like a handful of lucky exchange students – won’t be able to.
We had a very competent guide and even though we were a little short on time, she managed to get across a huge number of interesting facts about the paintings. Now that my curiosity has been awakened, I’m sure I will go back to the Uffizi to spend an additional couple of hours there.
What is the Galleria degli Uffizi?
The Galleria degli Uffizi is an art museum that hosts some of the most famous paintings of the world, mostly Renaissance. According to Wikipedia, it was visited by 1.5 million people (on average 4100 a day) in 2008. If you want to visit (and you should), it is preferable to book in advance and arrive early in the morning. If you don’t, waiting times can be up to 5 hours.
Among the paintings are works of famous masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Dürer, Michelangelo and Rembrandt, to cite only the most famous.
What is the Corridoio Vasariano?
The Corridoio Vasariano is a corridor that leads from the Palazzo della Signoria (aka Palazzo Vecchio) to the Palazzo Pitti. Its purpose was to allow the members of the Medici family to move freely between the two palazzi avoiding contact with the population. In case of an unrest it would also have provided a quick way to exit the city, as the Palazzo Pitti was near the borders while the Palazzo della Signoria was right in the heart of it. The Corridoio Vasariano is over 1km long.
Today the Corridoio Vasariano is closed to the public and only guided tours are allowed (in 2009 from the 30th of september to the 18th of december). It hosts among other paintings a large collection of self-portraits.
This one is a self-portrait by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun (Paris 1755, Louveciennes 1842). As our guide explained, self-portraits are a way for an artist to present himself as he wants to be seen and are therefore often used to show off their accomplishments. Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun was called to create a portrait of Marie-Antoinette at the age of 23, and the queen was so impressed that she was soon asked to paint a number of other members of the royal family. She must have been very proud of this, and if I understood correctly, this self-portrait shows her working on a portrait of Marie-Antoinette. It was painted in Florence in 1790, where she was in exile during the French revolution.
The Corridoio Vasariano also hosts a painting by Marc Chagall, whom I like very much, but unfortunately I haven’t been able to find it on the Internet. This may not be surprising, as it is forbidden to photograph the paintings.
I haven’t always been interested in art, but I find it very exciting to stand in front of a picture someone drew a couple of hundred years ago and try to understand what it means and what the painter must have thought while drawing it. Of course then there is the problem of knowing whether our interpretation is correct, but that is another story…
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