Thanks to my efforts to learn Italian before heading to Venice back in 2007 (with the help of software, tutors and CDs), I arrived in Venice this summer able to buy my boat tickets into the city without having to resort to using any English. Since those first few days, I have continued to pick up bits and pieces of the language here and there. In particular, WordReference has been a useful resource. I wish I could carry it around with me everywhere!

I think my language-learning efforts are starting to pay off. I certainly won’t be fluent by summer’s end, and I still brace myself whenever I know I’ll have to say something in Italian, practicing it in my head several times before I utter it aloud. But maybe I don’t have anything to worry about. Several Venetians have complimented me on my ability to speak Italian, and recently, all in Italian, I’ve asked to buy postage stamps for France and Canada, inquired as to whether reservations were required at one concert and whether the rain would force another to be cancelled, visited Venice’s City Hall to see about getting a copy of the Festa del Redentore poster (they were all out), and even spent an entire afternoon in conversation with Luigino Vianello, who definitely doesn’t speak any English.

I made a comment to Andrea Tassinari about how it’s good practice for me to be around Luigino because he forces me to speak to him entirely in Italian. Andrea replied that he doesn’t think Luigino actually speaks any Italian, either – only Venetian! And so, with the help of Luigino, Alberto and others, I have begun to pick up bits of the Venetian dialect here and there, too. It seems to be a matter of softening the hard C’s (vecchio becomes vecio), slurring sets of double letters (Castello becomes Casteo, etc.), and omitting final vowels (bene becomes ben). It’s to the point that I can definitely now recognize when a conversation is being carried on in Venetian.

My ability to respond, of course, is another matter!