Living in San Giorgio di Pesaro and Kingston

A lovely dinner (again) with Elizabeth from Cabarnardi. She had also invited Mike and Carla who moved to the Marche 15 years ago and their son Martin who has recently come to live in Italy. During the conversation he mentioned going dancing the last couple of weekends. He went to Fabriano but here in San Giorgio there are a number of local discos/dance venues. A famous one in this area is Tris. Tris means three and the name reflects that there are three dance floors in the club – a floor for ballroom, a floor for latin and a floor for modern music.

Tris also has a tea dance on a Sunday afternoon and according to local sources i.e. people in my English class the tea dance is frequented by large numbers of “badantes” from Albania, Romania etc. A badante is a hired carer much used by families who have an old and infirm person at home. The badante lives in and the salary is made up from a contribution from the state and the remainder from the family. They normally get one day off a week. So if the day off happens to be a Sunday then it is off to Tris for a bit of relaxation and the chance to meet the Italian man of their dreams.

Rumours about Cafe Centrale being changed into a book shop have turned out to be true. A new bookshop has opened and a cafe is being added. So in Senigallia there are two bookshops almost opposite each other and a third bookshop on the street running parallel. . The new bookshop is part of the “Mondadori”change and so competition with the independent bookshop may be fierce. Not sure there is enough space for all three bookshops. The limited size of the Italian market means that books are very expensive. An average paperback can be 15 to 18 euros. The supermarkets also sell the bestsellers at a discount and so bookshops have an even more uphill task. Certainly if my young students are example of the future of reading then the bookshops are in problems. Of the 5 teenagers I currently teach not one of them reads beyond their school books. They find say they find reading boring.

Recently in Italy there has been a lot of anger over a site on Facebook which called for children with Downs Syndrome to be used for target practice. The site was removed and when the author of the site who is being treated for severe psychiatric problems was identified.

On a less serious note I was searching on facebook for “San Giorgio di Pesaro” and was surprised to discover only a couple of  items relating to San Giorgio including a group called “Io odio San Giorgio” – “I hate San Giorgio”. The group says that it is the duty of everyone living in the surrounding villages and who hate San Giorgio to join the group. It’s a comfort to see that only 23 people have opted to join the group and there are no recent posts. So perhaps San Giorgio isn’t so “hatable” after all.

Abbandoned dogs are a problem in Italy. According to an Animal Defence Organisation 500 dogs were abandoned over a long weekend in June last year. The abandoned dogs are not puppies bought as presents at Christmas but dogs between 5 and 7 years old who have become too costly due to the current economic crisis.

The abbandoned dogs are taken to the local “dog rescue centre”. They are not put down but kept until, hopefully, they find a new home. The comune in San Giorgio is now offering 250 euros if you take a dog from a Centre afiliated to the comune. For the first two years you will also get 200 euros towards their expenses.