gio

Giordano (nickname Gio) has been our self appointed tour guide during our stay in Bologna. We met him through Yohann who goes to school with us. Several times now, Gio has organised something special and taken us along for the ride. The first weekend he drove us to the beach at Ravenna and last weekend he took us to a nearby river nestled in a valley, the scenery on the way there was stunning.

Driving with Gio is always terribly entertaining. Gio is your typical Italian, but better, funnier and without a trace of arrogance. He drives like a maniac for the first ten minutes until he notices someone flinch when he squeezes his car through a gap at least 50% too narrow. Then he laughs and says "Ahh I have stranieri in my car, I will drive properly" and he slows down. Occasionally he breaks into a very slow, relaxed, amusing diatribe on the 'Vecchi Bolognesi" ‑ the old people of Bologna. "Ahhh, questi vecchi Bolognesi, dico ohhh prego maaaa lui solo guarda, ahhh non mi ucchide! Si, si, e domenica, bah!" These old Bolognesi, I say "by all means, cross the road" and they just look at me and think "oohhhh don't kill me!" Yeah yeah, ok it's Sunday, bah!" His style of speaking is almost as though he forgets you're there, he just mumbles away to himself, calmly swearing and then laughing when he realises we are all in stitches listening to him. Quite the experience.

This coming weekend he is taking me to a lake near Verona, with one of his mates. They're into windsurfing and Gio tells me that he likes to teach, so it looks like I might be in for some free lessons. I'll tell you all about it next week!