An Italian Halloween

The Biggest Jack-O'-Lantern we ever did see ...

 All last week, I taught my students about Halloween and our American traditions. I told the legend of Jack-O'-Lantern and started a worksheet with new vocabulary, etc. I described carving pumpkins and showed pictures of Jack-O'-Lanterns so many times, that all I wanted to do was make one myself! I wanted to watch the Halloween parade that my neighborhood throws every year with the kids following a firetruck and ending at a house with bobbing for apples and other treats. The next best thing ... to go to an amusement park! How more American can you get? Two other assistants teaching in Milan and one assistant's friend from home and I went to an amusement park near Lake Garda called "Gardaland" to have an Italian, yet really, an American Halloween.

As you can see from the picture above, there were many decorations for Halloween with pumpkins, Jack-O'-Lanterns, graveyards and ghosts in the trees. Even though it rained, we had a really fun time. There were a lot of people dressed up in costumes - but scary things with masks, dead brides, lots of witches. It made me laugh because a Halloween celebration in Italy seemed to be more true to the roots of the holiday of what I taught in class than what we see now in the USA. I did somewhat miss seeing different and interesting costumes people come up with though so I have been explaining to my classes this week that part of the fun is seeing what costumes people create. Abby is an assistant for the year in the middle of doing her masters at Boston College, Barry is also an assistant from Scotland and his friend Ashley is spending the year abroad from Scotland in Milan studying. Barry had a mask with his costume, so he let me wear it since costume shops don't exist in Brescia.

A new ride premiered last weekend at Gardaland called "Inferis." I thought that it was just a ride they made into a Haunted House but apparently it is a new attraction all year round referencing "Inferno" or "Hell." So, it's supposed to be a "trip to hell" or "face to face with fear." Once inside, we passed through the Gates of Hell [from Dante] and I couldn't help but say out loud "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here" (Professor Shepard would be proud). The trip to the amusement park and naturally, the long lines gave us assistants an opportunity to catch up and compare notes on teaching English to high school students here in Italy. It also gave us a chance to notice cultural differences between Americans, Scots, and Italians. Interestingly enough, according to Barry and Ashley, the British really separate themselves culturally from Europe and relate much more to our customs in the US than those in the rest of their continent. Then again, both Barry and Ashley have spent time in the US before on vacation or to work at summer camps, so they are more familiar with our culture. Regardless, it was fun to show them and explain parts of the American "Wild West" theme in the Fantasyland part of Gardaland which you can invariably find in all amusement parks.

Waiting in line for the Raging River in our costumes

In the end, after a full day of speaking English and barely any Italian, we felt like we had an American, yet really Italian Halloween.
Oh, except that the Saloon we ate at for lunch was a Pizzeria :)