Month 4 | Vietri sul Mare, Italy
Where this month found me
Another very busy month running around with friends and family. We spent a few days visiting a new country with old friends, enjoyed the end of the summer heat by swimming as often as possible, and explored a few Italian towns that were new to us. It was chaotic, unstructured, and felt like the perfect chapter to close our Italian summer.
Language & learning
Learning Italian is continuing at a steady pace, I’m confident in expressing needs and wants and slowly creating more complex sentences. For example, where I used to go to the store and simply say “pane” (bread), I can now string it together to say, “Vorrei avere due ciabatte e duecento grami di mortadella” (I would like to have two ciabatta breads and two hundred grams of mortadella), and always followed by a “per favore.” Manners are key!
But hiccups still happen! One day I went to the shop senza Tyson (he threw his back out for the first time, poor guy!) and I was picking up sugar and butter, amongst a few other items. Imma, the lovely human that owns our favourite shop in town was making some simple conversation with me, and she said, “Ah, burro, zucchero, un gatto!”
Now, if you’re learning Italian on Duolingo, you might be familiar with these words. Burro = butter, zucchero = sugar, and un gatto = a cat…? Confused? So was I. I looked at her, said in Italian that I didn’t understand. She's talking with other customers looking for some word in English to translate… turns out she thought the French word “gateau” was English. As it turns out, she was not talking about a cat; she was trying to say I could bake a cake!
Side quests this month
This month, we explored! We started September with a quick four days in Dubrovnik, Croatia, which was incredible. The food, the views, the Adriatic Sea? All top tier. I cannot wait to return!
When we got back to Italy, we took advantage of the tourist crowds dying down and wandered beyond what we’d already seen. We went south for a day trip to the little town of Agropoli. A couple of days later, we took a four-hour bus ride over to the heel of Italy, spending a few days in Puglia, seeing Bari, Alberobello, and Locorotondo.
People & connection
We were once again flooded with visitors, plans, friends and family which made the duration of the summer breeze by in the blink of an eye. We were counting days in arrivals and departures – busy, but worth it.
We started off month number four with a weekend visit from two of our British friends, who we know from when they were living abroad in Canada. They stayed with us for two nights, both of which were spent staying up well into the wee hours of the night, catching up and laughing nonstop.
Next on the docket was Tyson’s cousin and her daughter. We helped them plan a few nights in Rome (check out the plan I sent them here) and then they came down to visit us in Vietri for five days. We showed them around Vietri, Salerno, and Maiori, then sent them to Amalfi for a day on their own – at this point in the season, we’ve been there four times and couldn’t handle the crowds anymore! We snuck in a trip to the all-you-can-eat sushi while they were here too… for a truly authentic Italian experience, of course.
After spending a few weeks being tour guides for our guests, we hopped our flights to Croatia where we met up with one of my oldest friends (we met in kindergarten!) and her partner. They’ve been living in Norway, where he’s from, for the past few years and it’s been so long since we got to spend more than a couple hours together, so this trip was long overdue and well enjoyed.
When we returned to Italy, we had two nights before my mom arrived. She’s been here since September 8th, and we’ve got another week to go. My mom and I came to Vietri together back in 2022, so this kind of feels like a full circle moment in a way. At this point in life my mom’s pretty used to me hopping flights, but this is the first time I’ve been so far away for so long, and it’s been nice having her around.
We also got together with our local friends for an end-of-summer bbq. Burgers, dips, and more non-Italian dishes were a welcome change of diet from the — albeit delicious — pasta we’ve been eating the past few months!
Small joys
I’m a low-key foodie, and trying new food is one of my favourite things to do. We had phenomenal bites in both Croatia and Bari, burek and octopus sandwiches, respectively. Top tier! Not to mention Bosnian food at the Taj Mahal, but I’ll share more on that in my Dubrovnik Guide.
Being only five feet tall, so on flights I typically get saddled with the middle seat. That’s fine and all, but on our flight to Dubrovnik, the plane was near empty — both Tys and I had rows to ourselves. Thank you, RyanAir! That’s not something you hear every day.
Life’s been moving pretty fast this month, and we’ve loved every second of it, but I’ve also been finding joy in the slow mornings — reading a book, enjoying a pistachio cornetto, sipping a cafe latte — and the ocean dips. Both are great opportunities to recentre and turn off my brain for a little while in the midst of hosting. “Me time” is always important to sneak in when you can.
The hard parts
I will say, trying to stay on budget while travelling and hosting has had its challenges, but we’ve balanced that with cooking at home most days. Taking advantage of the fresh, in-season ingredients available at the local shops? Perfetto!
Looking ahead
Next week is busy with travel plans while my mom is still in Italy, and then things are slowing down. I’m excited to settle into a little more of a daily routine, cultivate stronger relationships with the friends we’ve made here, and really dive into Italian studies.
Since moving abroad, I’ve had a lot of people ask how we managed visas, work, and housing logistics. We figured most of it out ourselves — but in hindsight, having support would’ve saved a lot of stress.
I’ve recently partnered with Languages Canada, who help Canadians apply for Youth Mobility Visas, find work, and get settled abroad. If you apply through them using my referral link, you’ll receive a $200 Air Canada voucher. I didn’t use this service personally, but something like this would’ve been so helpful during our planning stage.
If you’re in the “thinking about it” phase, this might be a good place to start.
