Prima settimana fiorentina...

This week has seemed much more relaxing in comparison with crazy Naples. We went to Florence by train (first class no less!) and arrived at the family’s new apartment on the Sunday afternoon. When I stayed with them earlier in the summer they had been living in a rented house with a pretty garden (with a resident squirrel named Lorenzo) just outside the city so I was fairly surprised to find that they had moved to an apartment closer to the city centre. It is a beautiful apartment all white and modern but not very child friendly. They no longer have a garden and I’m not sure how long the all-white look will last with two small children around. I have my own room with a single bed and a massive built-in wardrobe which is where the children’s clothes are kept although there is still a little room left over for me. T has also mentioned that later on this week there will be a maid arriving to live with them too. I’m not sure why both a maid and a nanny are needed as T doesn’t work but I’m not complaining, I have a job and hopefully some good company too. Perhaps they hired her to maintain the all-white, spotless look?

The children have also gone back to school. I knew a little bit about their school already as I ran a summer camp there earlier in the summer. It is a catholic school and they are mostly taught by nuns. I also know most of F’s classmates as they were the ones who came to the summer camp. F’s best friend G has spent a lot of time with us this week as the mothers are good friends so actually I have three children to look after instead of two most of the time. I like this though as G is exceptionally bright and receptive and stops F and N from having too many arguments as brothers and sisters tend to do.

Now as most of my days will be free whilst the children are at school I have decided to advertise my services as an English tutor for adults and children so I set about making a colourful poster and put it up in the school building, with the permission of the formidable Suor Ersilia (the nun who runs the school) of course. There has been quite a lot of interest so far and I am due to give my first lessons next week to the Tuccari family, a mother and two teenagers who all want individual lessons. I’ll see how that goes, if it goes well it could turn into quite a little money spinner which would be fantastic as Florence does have some excellent clothes shops!

I’ve also had the ‘chat’ with T about salary etc and ground rules for living and working in their house. It turns out I will be paid less than I thought as they have now hired a maid too so don’t have as much money to pay a nanny (thrifty or what?!) In this case English tutoring better had work out well! The ground rules turn out to be as follows:

-          don’t use the telephone, all calls to be made on my mobile (which I have now bought)

-          children need to be out of sight by the time P gets home from work as he is tired when he comes home (around 8pm)

-          no drinking in the house (kind of obvious!)

-          Sundays will be my day off but I will be needed to babysit at least one weekend night a week, if not both (I’m hoping it won’t be both too often though!)

This doesn’t seem impossible to live with by any means – I am usually very sensible and although at first I was a bit miffed that my salary had been cut in half I think I will enjoy making that money back by tutoring instead of cleaning the house. Every cloud and all that!

A Napoli....

Ciao tutti. So here begins my Italian adventure! As arranged I was to spend my first week of work and the last week of the children’s school holiday with them at their grandparents’ home in Naples. I had a flight booked from Luton airport to Naples on 6^th September and I have to say I was more than a little bit nervous. It suddenly struck me that I didn’t know this family very well and I didn’t know anyone else in Florence at all! What on earth was I thinking?!

 I decided that the best thing to do would be to spend a day in London beforehand with some friends who were bound to be full of excitement and encouragement. Unfortunately when I went with said friends to Starbucks in Victoria I discovered that my handbag which contained my mobile phone, purse, camera, ipod and car keys had gone missing from under the table. It turned out to have been pinched from under our noses by a man sitting nearby and by the time we realised it had gone so had he – long gone. Not the best start and after that I really did consider turning straight back again, but my passport hadn’t been taken and I might as well go and start earning.

So there I was waiting anxiously in Naples airport passport and suitcase in hand (but no handbag!) for the family to come and pick me up (still thinking this could have been a mistake). They turned up soon-ish (all of them) and we drove through the bumpy streets of Naples to the grandparents’ house. N had learnt one phrase in English and repeated it all the way back, What’s your name? What’s your name? What’s your name?

Once there I explained my predicament to T and she lent me 100€ to tide me over the next month and let me phone home to let my family know I had arrived safely. After that she told me that she would wake me up at 7 to start looking after the children. And what a week of looking after them it has been – R and R (the grandparents) turned out to be lovely and have given me a lot of help. They have also introduced me to some of the fantastic food that the Campania region has to offer, especially the mozzarella, yum yum yum! Naples is quite dangerous so we have been confined to the house for the week so I have been using my imagination to think of as many indoor games as possible. I also got to meet the children’s other grandparents. Let’s call them Nonno and Nonna. Nonna was a little more insistent on children being seen and not heard than R and R and we had to mind our manners quite a lot, Nonno was just a great big personality who clearly loved his grandchildren very much.  



I also had a day off later on in the week much to my relief and paid a visit to Pompeii where I spent 15 of my 100 euros on a disposable camera and enjoyed the peace and quiet enormously. Pompeii was very busy but most of the tourists stuck to the main streets and I was easily able to find some quieter ones and put my camera to work.

 When I arrived back in Naples around 5pm I was greeted by Nonno who had decided that him and I were going to take the children plus one little cousin to a theme park called Edenlandia. So we all squished into his Smart car, not easy with five people even if three of them are children, and off we went. I think we must have been on every single ride in that theme park but by about 7 o’clock I was beginning to think that we should probably be getting back as none of us had eaten and it seemed quite late for three young children to be out and about. I tried to explain to Nonno that either we needed to go back asap or he needed to phone T to tell her where we were (I of course didn’t have a mobile), but to no avail. Instead we went on the runaway train on which Nonno squished up to me, pointed to my bottom and said, “You no small.” Thanks Nonno.

When we eventually got back home T wasn’t best pleased with her father but the kids described it as the best day of their lives so far. Nonno then gave the 6 of us another lift in the Smart car back to R and R’s.

And so ends my week in Naples, next stop Florence and where the job truly begins. I am looking forward to having my own room and a routine which begins when the children go back to school. I shall miss R and R helping me out though, they were just lovely.

An introduction...

Ciao tutti. Let me introduce myself. My name is Amy and I am currently a primary school teacher in Oman. I’m very happy with my life at the moment, I have a nice job, nice friends and I do plenty of travelling during my holidays. Anyway, it’s my summer break right now and I have been sorting through my old things at my parents’ house with a view to clearing out. Whilst going through a box of old letters, cards etc I came across a diary I kept whilst I was working as a nanny in Italy from September 2008 until May 2009 and thought I would share it in the form of a blog. Many people have asked me what it is like to work for and live with a family as a nanny so perhaps this will give them a taste!

First of all, let’s have a bit of background. I met this family in June 2008 when they became my host family whilst I worked in the children’s school for two weeks running an English language camp. They then asked me to come back and work as a nanny for them at the end of the summer which I agreed to do as, having recently graduated from university, I had very few ideas of what sort of job I wanted and this would give me a year’s breathing space in a beautiful city (Florence).

The family had four members T (mother), P (father), F (daughter aged 6) and N(son aged 4). Originally from Naples, they had moved to Florence for P’s job as what is known in Italy as a notaio (a job a bit like a solicitor).

I hope you enjoy reading about my adventures with them – it was quite an experience!