A rare sight
This morning, a driver was standing in front of our palazzo waiting for someone. Our palazzo is surrounded by woods and there is some surprising wildlife near us. There are salamander lizards scampering about. After it rains, worms the length of my foot appear out of nowhere. And once I saw an enormous toad the size of my fist squashed on our driveway, poor thing.
As I passed the driver to get into the house, I said my "Buongiorno!" and he said to me, "Guardi! Ha visto lo scoiattolo? Nel albero li?" He was frantically pointing to something in a tree nearby that he really wanted me to see, but I didn't know what a scoiattolo was in English. Then I saw a squirrel run down the branch of a tree near us. I looked up scoiattolo in my handy pocket dictionary and sure enough, it means squirrel.
"Oh. Uh, yeah. Aren't they all over the place here?"
The driver didn't seem to think so. Not in the city at least.
"But aren't they all over the parks?" (and we live on the edge of a park).
He didn't think so. Come to think of it, I hadn't seen many squirrels around here either. But seeing a squirrel was an amazing thing for him and no big deal for me. And now I understand why. Our cleaner has just informed me that squirrels are pretty rare in Europe. Back in Canada, I used to see squirrels crossing my path every day. Sometimes, they sat on our front porch! (But the SPCA put out a notice not to go near them because they could have rabies). So to me, squirrels are a complete banality, as are racoons, skunks, porcupines, and various vermin that used to raid our outdoor garbage bins at night (at that was in the heart of the city of Toronto).
On the other hand, before coming to Europe I had never in my life seen or heard a cicada. I don't think they exist in Canada, or at least in the province of Saskatchewan, where I grew up, or in Toronto or Montreal, the other two Canadian cities in which I have lived. I guess it is too cold there. So cicadas are something I tune in to everyday here (at least in the summer. They have recently stopped making noise). And the amazing thing is, they all stop making noise for the year on the exact same day at the same time. How do they know to stop? Incredible!
7 comments:
That's funny because I saw my first squirrel when I moved to the US and couldn't get over how common they are....and my husband had never heard of cicadas before he met me! :)
(oh, it's 'nell'albero' BTW, because of the A) :)
So cicada are those animals which make noise in the trees? I've never seen one before. I always thought they stayed in the trees and it was near impossible to see one. So I'm wondering how you got that photo :)
all my Italian friends come back from trips to the US raving about the squirrels! My Dad instead had to call an exterminator to get them out of the attic where they were doing lots of damage.
Are you near Villa Pamphili?
why does everyone keep calling these insects cicada? the correct name is cicala!
Because 'cicada' is the English word for 'cicala'. :)
We get tons of cicadas in Australia. I always associate them with hot summer nights in Sydney. Also lots of other fabulous insects like Christmas beetles (dark green iridescent shells) and amazing spiders (only some of which are poisonous :)).
On a more negative note, we also get huge, flying cockroaches - yuk!
Alex, according to my dictionary, you can say cidada or cicala in English. I had to ask someone what they were called in English and I was told "cicada" so now that is what I call them. Elizabeth, we are near the Villa Borghese.
Kataroma, much as I think Australia must be an otherwise fabulous place, you just gave me one good reason not to move there. Flying cockroaches. Ick.
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