Two years ago my husband Garry and I travelled to Italy from Australia to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. My sister Sue and her husband Paul, as well as our friends Phil and Paula, joined us for this amazing experience. The highlight of our holiday was definitely our stay in Tuscany. We spent one week in Panzano staying at Il Palagio, and Monia was our wonderful host.

There are so many stories to tell.........like the day we visited the walled village of Monteriggioni and dressed up like Roman Gladiators, trying our hardest to look ferocious and intimidating for a photo but failing miserably.......the time Garry went to the barbers in Panzano and the barber, assuming he was Italian, handed him the local Italian newspaper. My sister Sue was trying to take a sneaky photo of Garry getting his hair cut but as soon as the barber spotted her she was immediately invited in to get a better picture (with the barber himself being the star!).........the cooking class we did at our Villa and eating our wonderful meal under the fan - from which my brother-in-law's underwear was hanging to dry.......walking into Panzano early most mornings for a caffé in the Piazza and picking and eating cherries straight off the tree on our walk in..........the boys spending 116 euros on meat for a BBQ one night, which sadly they burnt after consuming too much birra and local vino............eating dinner out late at night like the locals, with me trying to practice the limited Italian I had attempted to learn at home prior to our trip........

However the one memory that stands out the most, and has been shared around many dinner tables since we have come home, was our visit to the local Sunday markets in Panzano. When we travel we like to try and live like the locals, so we decided to buy our fresh produce for the week from the market. After standing at the stall for quite some time, someone finally realized that we needed to take a number to be served. That was fine, however our number was 32 and my limited Italian only gave me knowledge of numbers up to 20. By this time there was quite a large crowd at the market. A lovely elderly man standing next to me told me how to say 32 in Italian (I stood there repeating it under my breath so I would recognise it when our number was called). An equally lovely lady standing next to Sue told her that there were five people waiting to be served before it would be our turn. By now the young Italian man running the stall realized what was going on and was laughing with us, reassuring us with many hand gestures that he would not forget our turn .Finally he turned to us with arms outstretched wide and said "trentadue" (which I recognised because I was still repeating it under my breath!) Sue and I cheered and everyone started laughing and clapping.. The staff serving us understood our requests very well (lots of pointing and head nodding or shaking) and they even threw in some complimentary herbs. Time for another photo shot which again had the crowd laughing. Everyone was so welcoming and friendly.

We loved it so much we are returning to Tuscany again in a couple of months, taking different friends with us this time, and are looking forward to creating many more wonderful memories. At the moment however, I am busy trying to learn more Italian numbers in readiness for our next visit to the markets!

Author

  Karen M.

Location

  Panzano in Chianti

Category

  Funny Moments

Publication Date

02 Apr 2014 - 10:22:53

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