Italian: okay

American: okay uh so hi my name is f c five nine p two uh please call stella ask her to bring these things with her from the store six spoons of fresh snow peas five thick slabs of blue cheese and maybe a snack for her brother bob we also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids uh she can scoop the things into three red bags and we will go meet her wednesday at the train station now

Italian: okay so that's me

American: yeah yeah

Italian: uh so

American: it's you

Italian: i i am f c fifty nine p one and please call stella ask her to bring these things with her from the store six spoons of fresh snow peas five thick slabs of blue cheese and maybe a snack for her brother bob we also need a small plastic snake and bi and a big toy frog for the kids she can scoop these things into three red bags and we will go meet her wednesday at the train station there you go

American: great great okay uh i like your accent you have a uh a british accent

Italian: really actually i think my accent changed a lot throughout the years because at first i was studying in english in the university and so i felt that was my best moment in in <laugh> english and then when i went back to living uh uh home you know i'm surrounded by native speakers of my own language and so i i feel like my eng my english actually has worsened a lot so <laugh> thank you

American: <laugh>

Italian: um yeah you know but i still try to watch lot of movies in all the languages i speak so that i try to keep it up you know because i'm always worried you know that i know it it's so easy i think to forget a language and so you always have to try to keep it going on somehow so i just watch a lot of netflix i guess <laugh>

American: yeah a and do you do you speaks with mm other people in english

Italian: no not at all like not at all it's just you know sometimes i text my friends like international friends from the uni or whatever and so that that is the only time i get to speak english or maybe when i'm traveling but that's not very often nowadays um so yeah but i yeah this is why uh i'm not practicing as much as i would like to and so just persevering so there's that

American: i see

Italian: um

American: a and wh didn't you you said you you went to malta uh

Italian: yes yes

American: for holidays

Italian: yes

American: when when was it last last month

Italian: i think so i think it was last month it was in yeah it was in may now it's in june so like yeah roughly last month but it was lovely and there people spoke perfect english like and even though that that's not their first language i think their first language is ma maltese like it's a weird combination of arab and and like and italian and and spanish so that's a weird language but they they do speak very nice english so it was very nice have you gone on holiday anywhere recently

American: uh no <laugh> not recently

Italian: <laugh>

American: i think the last

Italian: yeah

American: time i went i went on holiday was in two thousand nineteen

Italian: no

American: well i i i went i went to i went to the beach in two thousand twenty but it's just for a day and you know i haven't i haven't been on holiday uh so when when you

Italian: that's bad we can go somewhere together

American: yeah we we we can arrange it um when you when you went to malta did they ask you for a vaccination passport or or anything like that

Italian: mm mm i think like one month ago it was yes you had to mm you had not you have to compile like a file which is i don't remember the name but it's a thing that you have to do every time you travel anywhere in the european union stating like what is the state the the state of your vaccination and and saying how it work <breath> like where are you going basically so just to track you down which is not super nice if you think about it but anyway um

American: <cough>

Italian: and then and then to go on the plane actually you had to be vaccinated but that's not a thing anymore i'm not sure now i'm pretty sure you don't have to wear a mask on the plane anymore so there's that but i'm not sure what's like the if you have to be vaccinated to fly or something i have no idea of anything anymore

American: so it is this form that you have to to fill in is it uh is it an online form

Italian: yeah it's an online form it's it's from the website of the european union and it's called something like a passenger yeah passenger location form that's the name and like i if you're going anywhere in the european union you just may fill this thing up and and that's just for the european union to know like where you are and what's your vaccination stat status i think i think i'm not sure

American: okay but um do you did they don't ask you they don't ask you to uh a proof of of this form when you board the plane or when you have to buy the ticket

Italian: no they don't ask

American: they are two separate things

Italian: there are two you have to do this thing uh i don't know why they tell you like if you go on on the website of the plane of the plane company they tell you please fill this form at this link ta da da but no one check this but even in the worst period of covid uh like you had to fill so many forms but no one checked anything i remember so when covid hit i i i was living abroad and i had to go back home and a and i had to fill when when i took the plane to go home i had to fill so many forms so many like i had so much paperwork and no one checked anything at all nothing and it is just like and and i remember like here in the worst time of covid every ti every time we went out you had to go out with the paper stating the the reason why you were going out but it never happened to me a single time to be checked on those papers just paper waste if you ask me

American: <laugh>

Italian: but anyway

American: yeah um so whe where would you like to go uh next in vacation on vacation

Italian: uh i saw a seventy one euros flight to baleares mm so there's that <laugh> you want to come with me

American: you s you saw or you you bought

Italian: a flight no i just saw it i haven't bought it yet because the thing is all the oh and i was like seventy euros baleares i mean but all the hotels are fucking ex uh sorry oh <laugh> the language uh all the hotels <laugh> are so expensive extremely expensive

American: is it in sp is it in spain

Italian: yeah it's like the baleares islands yeah not the ones in the in the atlantic ocean the one in the mediterranean um

American: mm hmm

Italian: yeah i i think they're under like barcelona or something yeah in that area between anyways spa spain and and morocco and and this is and this seems to be pretty but like the hotels are really really really expensive and so what's the point of spending just seventy euros for the flight but then you're gonna spend too much i'm talking six hundred euros for the shittiest oh for a very bad hostel so that's a lot

American: what

Italian: um

American: for how how many how many nights how many nights

Italian: like like okay one week but that's like six hundred euros for a bad hostel i mean

American: wow

Italian: i'm not spending that kind of money to sleep

American: <laugh>

Italian: with with other six people i can do that for free you know what i'm saying <laugh> anyway so um yeah i'm low key looking for a different <overlap>

American: no i don't know what you mean what what what what

Italian: yeah i'm feeling um just a stupid way

American: <laugh>

Italian: <laugh> oh my anyway um yeah

American: yeah

Italian: so that's that's i i i was and and then actually my sister god bless her like and i was like oh you know i saw this crazy cheap flight i wanna buy it and she was like yeah but check the hotels first they're they're gonna be so expensive it's baleares in july and i was like naaaah and i go check the hotels and i was like ooh and it's bad so yeah

American: <laugh>

Italian: <laugh> i'm still looking at the flight and i actually i low key moved a work thing i had to do because so badly i wanted to take the flight so now the work thing is moved and i still haven't found a hotel and so i don't know

American: yeah do you have a do you have an exhibition

Italian: no i i have a workshop i'm making like a cycle of workshop actually tonight already i have the first workshop and then every saturday for like five weeks i'm making one in yeah so doing that

American: oh nice so yeah how many people are in this workshop

Italian: tonight

American: and so are you are you are you hosting the work workshop

Italian: yeah yeah yeah not in my not in my place but i i'm gonna be a guest in in a shop and in this actually this is the place where i did my uh uh my exhibition and so i will be uh a guest and i will hold the workshop at their place and and then you know i just talk about you know teach things and talk about work and today it's three people so we are low key hoping for bigger numbers but you know i'm doing something

American: ho ho how many people

Italian: i mean we were aiming for like seven eight so

American: mm hmm

Italian: a actually last week the the fir the very first workshop was actually last week but it got canceled because there were not enough actually there were two people and i said i was gonna do it but then one of the two people bailed and so it was the only one person and yeah

American: <laugh>

Italian: but they didn't this the one person

American: but how but ho how how did they pro how did they promote this event

Italian: eh on social media at their shop but i mean i think um these people i don't know they are also getting the thing is i'm collaborating for work with a lot of people that are starting just like me and so a and so it the the thing that is hard with this thing is that we're all trying to get each other visibility but this is not how it work in order to get visibility you have to be like a known person

American: mm hmm

Italian: but these other people also are still relatively unknown so if three pages i don't know on instagram with one thousand follower each promote each other it's still three thousand followers which is not a lot and you know you have in in social media you need big numbers in order to achieve i don't know real engagement because because like if if three thousand people sees that like ev like it's a very small percentage of the people that follow you that are actually interested but like actively interested like i'm gonna buy this i'm gonna do that and that's very low percentage and so yeah you need you need people with higher follower count like for example recently i've done a collaboration with an artist and she has fifty k and that's nice but even from the and i did this collaboration with this artist specifically because of her high follower count because yes i wanted to do the collaboration but the collaboration has to happen because i want to have some visibility you know with them um and so but even from this lady who has fifty k followers on instagram i only got a couple of hundreds of follower more on my page so yeah that's very low percentage of engagement and this is something i'm struggling with honestly

American: i see

Italian: i don't know and it's annoying to be struggling about these things because they are not important things you know what i'm saying like having to worry about a follower count is just something sterile it's not something you know that's just <breath> boring and uh uh uh but it it but the thing is it actually change thing in the work because if the majority of your work comes from instagram like having a a high follower count actually will change something in your work and that's yeah that's just the way it works

American: i see um when i was living in florence i i was um um i was working for for a restaurant that um they used to do uh cooking courses

Italian: ah ah

American: so so they they used uh uh airbnb to promote to promote this course

Italian: okay airbnb

American: yes because in airbn on airbnb there's a section called experiences

Italian: uh huh

American: so also the house can or can organize these events and then you know can can do v very different things for for example uh guided tours or cooking classes or wine tasting and they're very they're very popular especially because the the target of these uh the of the airbnb is local people who are traveling in the location so you can promote your uh your business uh in in in the local area so it's not uh it's not just uh um let's say uh like instagram deletes i don't know it uh people from other countries can can see your w what you do but also for for pe for local people who are in that

Italian: yeah yeah the tourists

American: yeah people that are that are interested in in things to do in that area so uh i mean i'm talking about the workshops maybe you can can think about also that channel i don't know if they probably charge you a percentage of uh how much you charge so i mean

Italian: mm hmm mm hmm mm hmm

American: yeah but it's just a it's just a way to to have you know some um i don't know some reviews or any anyway just people that come to your workshop and um yeah some something like that that could be an idea also couch surfing uh

Italian: couch surfing also

American: couch surfing yeah you can promote like an event or an event

Italian: but but i think actually airbnb works best because the kind of tourism that is developing in my area right now i don't think it's couch surfing tourism i think right now we're having a lot of like um um you know i'm not supposed to say the name of the countries but neighboring countries you know what those are and like the richer ones okay and and so and this is like a spec a sp like sport kind of tourism people who come here to do with you know bi the bike the bike tourism is exploding right now here and and so like these are people with like also older people you know what i'm saying like fi in their fifties sixties so i think actually i i will look into airbnb because it's a great idea because i've been looking for ways to promote my workshops

American: mm hmm

Italian: and that's actually very interesting but maybe now i will also check that one too because actually i've been working also with the tourism office uh but honestly they've been kind of useless so yeah

American: yeah

Italian: yeah the thing i learned is that if you want to promote something like go to the authorities because like you have to do that but don't expect them to actually do something because ninety percent of the time the authorities the official channels or whatever they are gonna be useless i don't know what what they are paying them for but anyway so like but like working with private organizations these people are what those who get things done yeah definitely but yeah so airbnb seems sounds like a very interesting idea thank you

American: uh yeah you're welcome um so what else

Italian: <laugh>

American: oh and yesterday was my sister birthday party so we had pizza and um our uh grandmas came over and we had dinner and i oh did i oh this is a tragical news did i told you and i think i told you i'm lactose intolerant

Italian: what what does it mean

American: i cannot eat mozzarella anymore

Italian: uh wha ho how do you know

American: oh because i was feeling sick every time i ate cheese and but actually i didn't know right it took a lot of time because at first i thought it was just a stressful period and you know some people you know when they are stressed they ha have headaches and and i always was the kind of person when he's stressed gets a little bit sick in the stomach but then this thing kept going and so i was like okay maybe i should see try different things uh and see if there is something specifical that makes me sick right

Italian: yeah

American: and so i realized that it was the cheese and so i cannot eat any more cheese or uh or or milk and that's a hassle because like mm like you cannot imagine no one has lactose free mozzarella like all the supermarkets have it they all have it it's super common but the restaurants do not so like you're gonna go to a restaurant and you're like oh do you have lactose free mozzarella and they're gonna be like uh they're gonna look at you like you asked if if and i know if if you have unicorns meat or something yeah and they're like i'm sorry i do not have

Italian: well i don't like cheese

American: unicorn meat

Italian: so it's not wouldn't be a problem for me

American: you just don't eat mozzarella i i

Italian: uh i i i don't like cheese but i i do eat pizza i like pizza but i don't i don't

American: with mozzarella

Italian: uh the regular one i don't but i don't yes i don't i don't eat cheese i don't eat parmesan cheese i only eat other other kind of cheese i don't just like it

American: that's that's always confusing to me because i'm if you remember uh when i first met you you were in your i think vegan phase so i i <laugh> and so i just kind of got used to the idea of you were vegan and then several years later you were like no actually i eat meat and then i feel like i can never keep track of what

Italian: yeah because it change i because i change i i change my habits

American: i know it you told me

Italian: yeah

American: and then and then now like i learn that you don't eat cheese but it's just

Italian: no it's just i don't like i don't like cheese that's

American: yeah but it's still crazy because like how do you like cheese <laugh> anyway

Italian: i just uh um i just said goodbye to my uncle he came from uh from the country i was born

American: mm hmm

Italian: uh yeah he left i think he left today

American: okay

Italian: he came here with with my aunt and they came here in egypt because my my grand daddy is not very is not very well and so they wanted

American: yeah you told me

Italian: uh yeah and so they they want to say goodbye to him and then um yeah and i i grew up with with him i well i didn't grow up i i stayed with him for about a year when i was when i was uh seven

American: okay

Italian: yeah so we spent a lot of time with him he taught me how to play chess

American: okay

Italian: and yeah it was a a bit sad to uh to say goodbye he's he's a very nice person

American: okay

Italian: he's a yeah he's um he's a painter and also a teacher

American: a painter

Italian: yeah

American: oh i never knew that what does he paint

Italian: uh he paints uh um mostly surrealistic things

American: okay

Italian: uh but the the main thing is um the erotic scenes

American: okay okay

Italian: but no not erotic just uh not no not erotic just uh uh he paints a lot of uh mm women but

American: okay

Italian: just the the shape or or you know it's not it's not very detailed face

American: okay okay okay

Italian: yeah

American: but that's interesting actually that's that's very

Italian: yeah

American: uh i i i then from what you're telling me that's i i would like to see his work it's it sounds very interesting but does he actually sell the paintings and everything like he does he just earn something of it or is it just for fun

Italian: no no he he he sells his paintings yeah

American: okay

Italian: and like he also teaches uh at the university

American: ah the university

Italian: in my hometown yes

American: ah (())

Italian: um no i no actually i think he's uh some kind of director of of studies at the university i don't know

American: okay

Italian: um yeah but he was here he's he's been active for i don't know how many years

American: okay wow mad respect fellow artist i like that

Italian: uh yeah

American: okay

Italian: um yeah so my also my another aunt is coming is coming soon

American: okay okay

Italian: probably for the same reason

American: okay

Italian: yeah

American: well that's a bit sad though i'm so i i'm sorry about your grandpa though

Italian: oh it's it's okay he's uh he's being taken care of um

American: okay that's good to hear

Italian: yeah my mom is taking care of him

American: mm hmm mm hmm

Italian: and what about your grandparents

American: oh well well yeah uh i i'll still have only my two grandmothers actually um but um basically uh like my grandma she's very funny because every year she will say this is the last year i am alive this time around it's gonna get me you know it's i'm going and we're like no grandma that's not true and she's been saying this for like fifteen years so you know <laugh> so and she's like oh i just want to live one more year so and like you can insert i don't know life event i don't know i just want to see this person graduation uh i would just be so happy if i could live one year so that i can see this and that wedding i i just have to see their wedding and then i can die but it's been this she she keeps going strong so <cough>

Italian: how how old is she

American: i think she's eighty nine she's yeah she's eighty nine at this point so oh no yeah eighty nine in in two months actually so and then she started saying uh i just want to live until i'm ninety and uh and with i'm pretty sure she's gonna make to a a hundred and ten at least at least and she's still uh she's the thing is she's still cheeky you know like she has a lot of you know pain and back pain and she doesn't walk very well but she has a ongoing fight with her neighbor and like every time we mention her neighbor she starts cussing it's crazy like she says she's so candid about you know her opinion and everything she will say she she she really has no filter she says whatever because like she doesn't give yeah yeah she doesn't care she doesn't care at all and um and then like for example yesterday my father and mother they wanted to go on their they were supposed to go on a weekend away right and they didn't know and they go in the car and didn't know if they wanted to leave yesterday evening after my sister's birthday or if they wanted to go in early in the morning but eventually my father was like no no let's let's go in the evening that's better so like we already waking up you know where we are so okay and then my grandma was like no but you have to drive in the evening um and so afterwards so my grandma leaves and when she's leaving she's she's like to my father ha you didn't behave very well and we were like huh why grandma why did you say this like you're not listening to me i said you were supposed to leave in the morning and you're not listening you're still leaving in the evening <laugh> so you know she expressed her opinion very strongly and that's actually it's fine because she will say like i mean this is just a a a a fun example but she's she will say things and that you totally do not expect and she will say them like super simultaneously and and it's very fun to see so yeah

Italian: yeah um have you been to edinburgh

American: actually i've never been there

Italian: yeah it's very beautiful i've been there for about a week no it's not one week for a few for a few days

American: okay

Italian: and it was it was really nice i mean the weather is is very is not very good but i was lucky i i we had a sunny day

American: okay

Italian: and we went on a hike on a moun on a hill called uh arthur's seat

American: okay

Italian: i think it's named after king arthur i believe and um i'm not sure

American: okay

Italian: and from that point you could you could see well the whole city you could see um you could also see the uh i think the sea or i i think the sea or or the river and it and it's very beautiful and it's um it's a very uh i don't know it's a it it it it's um it's you can i mean you can see the the the whole uh landscape it's uh um

American: okay

Italian: it it's i think it's a very um i don't know i i remember i have this feeling of like wilderness and and and and and the city altogether because you know this there's this massive uh rock they call the arthur's seat and it's uh i mean the the view from there was nice and it was a very sunny day it was the only sunny day we had the rest of the time was just raining all the time

American: okay

Italian: but the city itself is very beautiful it's uh the buildings are are very beautiful and um yeah it was um it was very very nice um all right um

American: did we hit the number the the word number like the the time number

Italian: sorry

American: uh like i think it of uh how long have you our are we supposed to speak i think like i don't remember if it's twenty minutes or thirty at this time

Italian: oh it's it's thirty minutes but i think we s

American: ah

Italian: we started we started uh i think two minutes where i probably we're almost thirty minutes into the recording because i i started

American: okay okay

Italian: the recording i think probably two minutes after

American: oh we can still we can talk two minutes more but and about edinburgh actually uh edinburgh i think edinburgh edinburgh

Italian: yeah edinburgh yeah

American: yeah this is a very weird pronunciation but actually a friend of mine has been to scotland and i this is the thing i actually heard very like different things about scotland like some people have been there like and they told me just like you said the nature is amazing and like told me amazing things but like i and and this friend of mine who actually felt extremely negative ne negatively of scotland because she w she was like there with her family and and the and the she said it like all the the pla like the eating places closed very very early and like she's a late dinner like she she she usually dine at nine p m which i think it's very late even from our country

Italian: yeah

American: and and and like and she complain that like it they always close like like their restaurant they would just close but like everything at eight p m and like

Italian: really

American: and yeah i don't know this is what she told me so i don't know

Italian: well i don't know

American: and

Italian: i don't know maybe it depe depends on did she say edinburgh or it was another town

American: gen gen generally scotland because she's been traveling around scotland that that's one holiday that many years ago okay that's when when she was like probably like thirteen or twelve so and she's my age so we're talking about like yeah uh i don't know how old i am uh yeah well fifteen years ago so that's but like this is i remember there was like this one very strong negative opinion about scotland like and like and everyone c everything closed so early and and she she and she couldn't eat and also the thing is that she had she no i think she actually was already eighteen so we're talking maybe eight ten years ago but the thing is her sister she has a younger sister and this sister was like twelve at the time and she couldn't go into pubs because the pub have like uh an age limit you know you can you have to be eighteen or more and so the only open places were the pubs but since the sister couldn't get in no one could get in of course in the family and and so several times they actually like just couldn't get dinner or they had they had to get dinner at like some you know fast food like uh yeah just uh something very quick because they couldn't eat so and and she said this is why she didn't like scotland but other people actually told me that it's like solo travelers and actually all the actually this is the thing all the solo travelers that have been to scotland they told me very positive things so so there's that maybe

Italian: yeah

American: it's not the frie friendly place i don't know

Italian: uh i don't know pr i don't remember that they closes so early because i remember i met a i met a friend at um at the bar i guess was a bar

American: okay

Italian: and it was late at night and she she's a best pastry chef oh she oh i don't know she's still living in edinburgh but she was a pastry chef and so after

American: okay

Italian: work they went to this uh to this uh club and then we get in very late after they finish work so probably after after twelve i i assume that they they were there and there you know there was still a lot of people and yeah but i

American: but it is a bar that's not a restaurant the thing is the problem is the restaurants

Italian: oh okay

American: like not bars or pu like of course bars and pubs are okay but not the restaurants this is what i was told by my friend at least so i do i i this is not my firsthand opinion so i don't know

Italian: okay okay um i think we can we can stop the recording now

American: okay

Italian: okay

American: okay

Italian: um all right so let me let me stop this okay

American: yes