Varenna, and my current level of Italian

I have been up to il Lago di Como before (to the towns of Como and Brunate, with Aislin, see here).  However, the onset of hot weather in Milan, combined with a rather busy week and the then-oncoming Greek elections with the potential for work to skyrocket as a result of the Eurozone crisis, lead to me to take advantage of a free weekend to go to Varenna for the weekend.  I just about managed to get a hotel booked around 11.30pm on a Friday (Villa Toretta, hello!).

 I arrived around 11am on Saturday morning.  Varenna is just over an hour's train journey from Milano Centrale, so extremely conveniently located...

I deliberately spent a little more money on my last-minute room booking so as to have a lake view and a terrace.  This was the view from my bed:

And this was what I spent most of my time doing. 

Literally spent the whole time sat outside, either in the shade or in the heat (it was the same temperature as Milan, approximately 30 degrees, but far less humid and with occasional lovely breezes off the lake).  All whilst wearing suncream, of course - as I told one of the associates at work, I am a Delicate Flower and will burn, but I have got far far better at dealing with hot weather and also my hair will lighten!

Yey for Kindles, yey for Italian books on the Kindle (even if I don't really understand most of it!  Must download Italian dictionary for Kindle), yey for English law cases and being a geek, yey for just sitting, listening to music and chilling out.  Very much required.

I did, of course, explore the town a little.  Beautiful.  I even found a little shop which I forgot to go back to (probably for the best...).

Loved this lettering.  1920s = beautiful.

Apart from exploring a little and reading (a lot), I sat on the lakeside and ate and drank.

With views like the below, and the setting sun behind the mountains, thoroughly recommended, despite the slightly too-touristy level of Varenna (I think they did, however, appreciate my somewhat broken Italian).

As for how the Italian is progressing... well, it's progressing.  It's been a tough week on the speaking front (or at least until mid-week).  I have been entrusted with a number of Italian-to-English translations, including a client briefing.  And I attended a very spontaneous team finance dinner, which was lovely and which I did contribute to the conversation a little!

I think the most frustrating thing, for me, is not being able to talk anywhere near as much as I'm used to.  In English I talk a lot (in case you hadn't noticed), I have some quite strong opinions, I love discussing strong opinions and the opinions of others (even, especially, when they disagree with me!), I speak quickly and I'm quite quick.  Italian slows me down, as I have to focus on understanding and to think about what I want to say.

My understanding is, however, improving.  So it's not all bad.  Given that my aim was to come back from secondment and be able to have a small conversation with someone who only spoke Italian, I think I've achieved that. My tutor tells me that we can start a new book soon which is aimed at level B1/B2.  I don't know what this means, but it sounds good.  Obviously, the more I learn, the more I realise how bad my own Italian is.  But this is as a result of being very harsh on myself.  Ultimately I started learning Italian in January of this year, have had 50 hours of (yes, one-on-one) tuition and lived here for only 3 months.  Given that, I should be pleased with the level obtained thus far.

ANYWAY a dopo!!