As Translated Correctly

 I am fascinated by language. Its variation across the world astonishes me. I love the fact that there are scores of languages within Italy, and that Italian has changed so much in the past 50 years that my "Modern Italian Grammar" from 1973 is only barely useful today, and definitely can't be considered "modern."  When we have stayed in Hotels, it's fun to see their attempts at leaving comments for their English speaking guests.  When it's a small mom and pop bed and breakfast and the comments are pretty bad, I'll offer a little free advice which is always graciously accepted.  Italians do immeasurably better than most asian attempts that end up being really funny (see Engrish.com).  Come to think of it, the minor solecisms I find here are barely funny--but since I started, I'll include a couple of instances I found funny or odd.  In the Paris, France airport we were greeted by the giant sign telling me to "be relax."

Our hotel in Ravenna left an interesting set of instructions about their efforts to be green.  The Italian cognate for sponge is spugna, (pronounced spoon-ya).  The Italian version refers to the animal from the ocean that served as the original picker-upper, but also to any number of items for sopping up water. The hotel note was meant to tell us that anything we wanted laundered could be left on the floor. However, the English version said we should leave on the floor, "only the sponges that want to be washed." We weren't quite sure how to determine what they might have wanted so we got 'em all washed.

Even given the syntax of this note and part of the menu in the hotel restaurant (excellent food BTW) that proved to be unintellibible even though it was in English and Italian, I'd go back in a second. It was a great place to stay--which reminds me of their excellent customer service and another little miracle that we've come to expect while working in the temple.

When we checked out of the hotel, we were trying to stay ahead of an incoming snow-storm, there was a massive windstorm as we were loading the car.  We got on the road and after about an hour realized I had left my Sunday clothes in the closet in our hotel room.  We were too far away to warrant turning around, but I thought that maybe the missionaries in Ravenna could help. I got their number, called them, and they agreed to go get my clothes and then we'd figure out how to get them later on.  I called the hotel and they were happy to hold my clothes until the missionaries came to retrieve them.

Then, I couldn't figure out the best way to get them to Rome without inconveniencing people.  I got a message that two missionaries from the Milan mission were coming down to Rome and that they had my clothes and would bring them on their trip.  Yesterday, Robyn and I went back to the temple after our regular shift because she had agreed to do some baptisms for a friend who couldn't stay to do them.  While coming out of the dressing room, I said hello to a young man who turned out to be a missionary. He and his companion had come down from the Milan mission with their branch (he is the branch president.) I mentioned that I had been in their mission last month and had inadvertently left a suit in Ravenna.  His face brightened and he said, "We've got your suit in our car! The missionaries who gave it to us forgot your name and we didn't know how to get a hold of you. Isn't this a lucky coincidence?"

We got them dinner and had a great visit and my clothes are safely in my armoire. (I think the only closet I've seen in Italy was in the hotel in Ravenna. Everywhere else they're called armadios. 

 Coincidences here in Rome are so common that they can't be coincidences.