"Va bene"

“Va bene:” {adv.} Italian phrase for alright, it’s okay, it’s good, it will be fine, fair enough

“Va bene.”  It’s a common phrase in Italian, used for a variety of situations, and it’s one of the first we learned in our Emergency Italian class here at Santa Chiara.  Want to know if a train is going the direction you think? Ask, “Va bene per Roma?”  When you’re digging in your coin purse for that last Euro but the cashier is going to let you off, he says, “Va bene, va bene!”  It’s often used as a phrase of confirmation or comfort, and it’s a phrase we heard often during our first week in Italy.

Our first week here brought all of the excitement and thrills that come with being in a new country with a whole bunch of new friends.  Sprinkled in that excitement were a few obstacles to overcome.  How will we communicate when very few speak our language?  How will we get to this new site we want to visit?  How will we navigate once we’re there? 

Already we’ve conquered these first-time things this week.  We’ve traveled to new cities independently, we’ve navigated them ourselves, and we’ve begun to learn some phrases in Italian and are able to order food with them (our most important achievement to date).  It’s a triumphant feeling to have faced challenges square on and to have conquered them, and that’s only a sliver of the growth that will occur over our next month and a half abroad. 

We heard, “Va bene,” almost constantly at the beginning of the week during our Italian lessons and amongst our conversations, and it became almost a promise, a promise of the goodness of the experiences to be had during the first week.  And it was true.  It was good. 

-Macy Hicks

I ordered cheese for the class in Italian at the local market in Castiglion Fiorentino.

Medieval Festival in Castiglion Fiorentino

Exploring Castiglione del Lago