La Bella Lingua arrives finally!

Some months ago now I discovered a brilliant blog about the Italian Language written by Diana Hales who has a passion for all things Italian. I am so delighted that she decided to share this passion with the world.

http://becomingitalianwordbyword.typepad.com/becomingitalian/

As I continue to struggle to try to learn more of this beautiful language I have found that this blog has encouraged me tremendously. Every few days or so a Blog is posted on a specific topic along with relevant words and phrases so one is able to learn a little more about the culture of this beautiful country we are lucky enough to live in whilst expanding my vocabulary.

When I discovered that Diana Hales had recently published a book entitled ‘La Bella Lingua’ in which she writes about the evolution of the Italian language I just had to order my own copy.

  http://www.becomingitalian.com/                                  

I decided that I could not wait until Christmas so I treated myself and ordered a copy from Amazon on October 22^nd which finally arrived last week! Maybe I should have waited for Christmas after all?  The fact is that it took Amazon two attempts at mailing before my copy was delivered. The first parcel was sent out promptly but I only discovered it had been returned to Amazon by the courier SDA when the estimated delivery date passed by and I made enquiries. Tracking was available online and despite the courier claiming he had been unable to find the property I do not think the parcel had been anywhere near Viterbo! When I investigated and tracked the package online it had been handled distribution centres in Terni and Carpiano. These places are nowhere near us, so it is no wonder the courier claimed he could not find us and had the parcel retuned to Amazon.

Over the years we have had many experiences of courier deliveries and if you live in a rural location in Italy it is quite normal for a courier to phone and arrange to meet you in a local bar, such places seem quite used to these arrangements. In fact when our Wii arrived we arranged to meet the courier at a bar in Vetralla, by the time we arrived he had already left. We have also had loads of parcels, particularly books delivered successfully to our new address by Poste Italiane; I was therefore pleased when the second copy of La Bella Lingua to be sent out by Amazon was via Deutsche Poste and the Italian postal services and it arrived very quickly.

So far I have only dipped into La Bella Lingua, but I know already that I will enjoy  it, now saving it to read on a forthcoming journey.