After a particularly warm day in April, spent sightseeing all over the Italian city of Naples, my three friends and I explored the nightlife of the Quartieri Spagnoli in the much cooler evening air. As we ventured off the busy main streets we stumbled onto an old, cobbled lane.
The left hand side was lined with market stalls selling everything from bright fresh food to decorative handmade ornaments to massive pieces of wooden furniture. Above our heads were a few giant stone bridges that carried the busy traffic into the city centre. The underside of the archways were covered in lights, lanterns and a few neon signs advertising nearby bars. The right hand side was crowded with groups of people at tables as far as the eye could see and everyone sitting there was enjoying a large glass of a bright orange drink. We filed down the open space in the middle of the street taking in the colours, smells and friendly faces. After a few minutes of walking, the lane opened up into a piazza. The large square terrace, like the street, also appeared dotted with orange orbs. Everyone seemed to be drinking the same thing, which made us very curious. It looked so refreshing and we were beginning to feel a little left out, so we grabbed a table under the shade of a palm tree at the nearest bar. It seemed like a student sports bar because of the younger crowd and sports jersey decor inside.
Perhaps it is just me, but as someone who has learned to speak a foreign language, I can say that it is frustrating and embarrassing making mistakes in a language that you should be able to speak. In Italy, this was not the case. I had a kind of weird confidence because I did not speak any Italian, and therefore, I did not feel any pressure in trying to communicate with the locals. So I felt more than happy to go the bar to order our drinks.
The bartenders were two young guys and a girl, but unfortunately, even between them, their English was very limited. Combine that with the fact that I also have a Scottish accent, and we were a bit stuck to say the least when it came to communicating.
One of the guys smiled and shakily said "Hello and where are you from?"
"Scotland" I replied, smiling.
He looked puzzled.
"Ecosse...Escocia...Scot-land." I tried, slowly and clearly.
Then, as if a light bulb had clicked on, he smiled and went and picked up a small item from the other end of the bar. A Tennent's coaster. Scottish beer. I grinned and nodded as he gave me the coaster. Then he turned to the other bartenders and, I assume, explained in Italian. The other guy seemed very happy and pointed at one of the many footballs lying around.
"Rangers o Celtic?" he asked in a heavy Italian accent.
I laughed out loud at the fact that in a small bar in Naples, there was a Scottish football fan.
He held up an empty glass and asked me a question in Italian, clearly trying to get my drink order. I tried pointing at the many people with the orange drink outside. He looked a little unsure. So I pointed to the orange football behind the bar and said "Orange".
He looked, paused for a moment and then repeated me: "Orange."
I pointed back to the people with the drinks outside and I nodded and said "Yes, orange".
A smile came across his face.
"Spritz?" he asked.
I wasn't sure, but that sounded like a drink at least, so I said "Yes. Orange spritz. Four?"
I held up four fingers. He gave me the thumbs up and within five minutes I had four large glasses of Aperol Spritz for me and my friends. I googled the drink as soon as I got back to the table to find out the name and ingredients. Looking back, I wonder why I couldn't have done that to start with. I guess I subconsciously wanted to do this by myself.
I have always been interested in how we humans learn to communicate. No one is born fluent in any language and we all have to learn from scratch. No one is incapable of learning a new language either. You just need to be in the right situation to do so, whether that is for school, travel or simply ordering a drink at a bar. Furthermore, I think it's perfectly natural for humans to be able to communicate despite such seemingly impossible barriers such as a different language. Sometimes we just need a little motivation and the benefits of this are unparalleled. I will always remember this conversation as one of the most interesting and most human moments of my travels. The night I spent in Naples drinking like one of the locals introduced me to my favourite cocktail, helped me make new friends and created a lasting memory...and of course the free pint of Tennent's I got wasn't bad either.
Comments