A Peek Into an Italian Family

One of my favorite aspects of my time in Siena so far has been my homestay family. Being in a homestay was extremely important in my decision process for study abroad, and one of the main reasons I chose CET was because they offer a homestay option. I couldn’t be more happy with my choice – I live with a wonderful woman named Stella, who cooks amazing Italian food for my roommate, Rachel, and me every night, shares different aspects of Italian culture with us, and helps us tremendously in our Italian.

However, the best part of the homestay, in my opinion, is the chance to see an Italian family up close and personal. Stella technically lives alone, but her son, Francesco, lives in the apartment upstairs with his girlfriend, Natascia, and their son, Cosimo, and Natascia’s daughter Marta, so they are in Stella’s apartment every couple of days. Moreover, Stella’s ex-husband, Lino, often comes over for dinner, and there are about 5 other various people that come over fairly frequently. This means that people are constantly in and out of the apartment, which I love.

I see Cosimo, Stella’s 18-month-old grandson, almost every day, as Stella is very kind to Francesco and Natascia, and watches Cosimo in the afternoons most days of the week. He’s a bounding, bubbly little ball of energy, shouting, “CHICHA!” (his collective name for Rachel and me) as soon as he arrives at the apartment, and he is possibly the cutest child in existence.

But besides my daily interactions with the family, I’ve gotten to experience a real deal Italian birthday party, since Lino’s 60^th birthday was a couple of weeks ago, and Stella took me along to the big party the family had for him. I was more than a little intimidated to meet about 20 non-English-speaking Italians, since I can speak Italian about as well as a toddler, but the overall experience at the party completely made up for any language awkwardness. Do you know the stereotype about Italian families being huge and noisy and fun? It turns out that that stereotype is pretty accurate – this party was big and noisy and lots and lots of fun, with more food than I could eat. Even though most of the family couldn’t speak English, they got a kick out of coming up to me and telling me any English they happened to know, whether that was, “coffee!” or, “thank you!” or, my favorite, “Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away.”

I think it is so wonderful that I have the privilege of glimpsing into the intricacies of Italian family life, whether that involves watching Stella pretty much feed the entire planet, or playing with an adorable toddler every day, or going to family events. This family has welcomed me (literally) with open arms, and I’m having a blast.

Faith Bradham, Student Correspondent Spring 2012