My experience au-pairing in Telgate (a small village in Northern Italy) opened my eyes to a realm of cultural differences you just can’t learn from a text book. The family I stayed with welcomed me as one of their own, taking me on day trips to the gorgeous Lake Gada and on a holiday in the Alps. Anywhere they went, 'la inglese' went too. Even friends of the family would not hesitate to invite me to their pool parties, baptisms and days of motocross racing! Being Italian, every occasion (and conversation) revolved around food, and during one particular meal I met a girl my age who invited me to go clubbing. Having experienced the madness of a Spanish botellon the previous summer, I was very intrigued as to what an Italian night out would entail. I just didn’t anticipate how different it would be…
The first surprise came when I found out that Giovanna’s mum was not just giving us a lift to the club but also picking us up - at an agreed time! When I asked if she minded having a curfew on every night out, she explained that no-one dreamed of paying for a taxi in this village as even the shortest of journeys cost an extortionate amount. My suggestion to walk home was met with a look of complete horror; I might as well have proposed swimming with sharks.
More and more friends got involved in the plans, all very keen to meet this tourist from Liverpool, and Giovanna was very excited to tell me that one of them had a car. I couldn’t understand the relevance of this- surely it was more dangerous to drink drive than to walk home in the dark! But wait a minute, who said anything about drinking? My cultural ignorance had led me to assume that we’d be ‘predrinking’ – after all, where I’m from this is such a normal concept that even my Nan is familiar with it now. As an English girl, the thought of arriving at a club without having drunk so much as a pint to loosen my senses was, well, ludicrous. I had made that mistake once before and with a 20/20 vision that could (regrettably) see every detail of the floor, I had vowed never to attempt another sober night out.
let's go to la
mum
discoteca,
GEORGIA JONES