I set up various appointments to try vehicles out, with mixed results. One car, which had belonged to the sister of the former Mayor of Palermo (disgraced for corruption and mafia abetting), turned out to be just as dodgy as the Mayor had been; when I let go of the wheel, it veered to the side, so I steered clear of buying it. I found a good deal in the end, though my ability to haggle €150 off the price probably owed more to having watched rather a lot of The Apprentice Italia than to having a firm grasp of all the grammar tables. That said, given how liberally Sicilians use the passato remoto, it was useful to know that when he was using ‘andai’ in relation to the car, he was actually referring to the recent past rather than saying he had owned the car for decades. Memorable is also a good way to describe many of the things you’ll encounter when driving in Italy - whether it’s cars reversing down a dual carriageway at 25mph or Neapolitans beeping at those who don’t skip red lights…
4) What are you currently doing?
Working as a journalist for Wonkhe, a higher education policy and politics website. As a reporter, my role involves writing articles about universities, liveblogging from conferences, running our Twitter account and commissioning/editing articles from academics, student leaders and others in the higher education sector. As I’ve mentioned to Ruth Glynn and others in the department, we’re always looking for new submissions from academics… so any lecturers reading are welcome to drop me an email with an article idea. I also teach Italian one evening a week, which I may start to do more of in future.
5) What role has your degree in Italian played in this, if any?
Clearly I wouldn’t be teaching Italian if not for studying it. But my degree has also helped my journalistic pursuits considerably. Studying a language makes you think so much about the way you communicate in your own language and leads to so many improvements in your written - and spoken - English, which I've definitely found has been the case. My year studying in Italy gave me a good idea of how Italian universities work (or don’t work), which helps the analysis pieces I write about the university system in the UK and in other countries, and it's also meant I now have contacts in Italy to ask for quotes for articles etc. At time of writing, I’m about to go to a conference in Reggio Emilia, where I'm lucky enough to be on a panel alongside a candidate in the Partito Democratico leadership election, Romano Prodi’s niece, a local journalist and a former British MP, who I’ll be travelling out there with. With my level of Italian going in to university - A-level and a bit at home - I probably would have just about been able to organise the flights and trains, like I’ve had to do. But there’s no way that I would have been invited to join a panel like that, where I’ll be speaking in Italian about Italian politics and making comparisons with the situation over here.
6. Do you miss Bristol?
Yes, a bit, although I actually spent the whole summer there working for BBC magazines, so it's not long since I left.
7. If so, how?
Sure, the pace of life is hardly that of Palermo, but it's still a lot slower and more relaxed than London, where I've moved back to, and it's friendlier. I also appreciated its proximity to the countryside and the diverse range of areas - from Clifton to Stokes Croft to Easton - to spend time in.
8. What is your favourite Italian word?
Apericena - a hybrid of the famous "aperitivo", which is the traditional evening drink with something small to eat and "cena", the word for dinner.
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