My main challenge, I realized, would be sticking to Italian when it was easier for everyone to speak English.

“E

xcuse me,” I said in Italian to a man standing near the bus stop in Vairano, Switzerland. “I need to go to San Nazzaro.”

He helpfully whipped out his phone, but then looked perplexed when his search pinned a town in Spain instead of a Swiss village that should have been just down the hill from where we were standing in Ticino, Switzerland’s Italian-speaking canton. Evidently, my pronunciation of San Nazzaro was “molto terribile.”

I showed him the town I meant on Google Maps, and understanding brightened his features. He started speaking rapid-fire Italian while gesturing down the road, and I picked out some words: “bus,” “30 minutes,” “walk.” I interpreted this to mean the b

See Full Page