“Thank you so much for saying that. I really appreciate it, because to be totally transparent with you, some days I feel like I’m just blocked. It’s really frustrating if you can’t communicate fully. My story about how I learned Italian is quite interesting. My grandfather was originally from Rome and he had a house out in Tuscany. I grew up summering with him and he would speak to me in a mix of languages, Italian being one of them. So I grew up with the ear of it, but I didn’t speak Italian conversationally. However, for some reason I’ve always known in my soul that I’d live in Italy eventually.

During my time at university, I minored in Italian. When I graduated, I took classes to maintain it and then I met my husband. Still, I didn’t feel like I was fluent. Back when we lived in Rome, I took an intensive immersive Italian course. It was eight hours a day, five days a week. I didn’t have a job, so might as well spend my time wisely, right?

I also learned a lot through Emilio’s family. He was travelling for work often, and when he was away, I’d spend lots of time with his family who’s from Calabria, in the South of Italy. I’d find myself trying to explain myself, describing things I didn’t know how to say, and making many mistakes along the way. Nowadays, sometimes it’s the other way around! I’ll come up with a word in Italian first, and then in English! Since I’m spending more of my time speaking Italian again, I notice that certain words are dormant in my brain in English.”