Chapter 7 – Saint Ives
When Maurizio reads The Legend of King Arthur he learns that knights were polite (=educati) to women. So, for several days, he is always opening doors for girls and helping old ladies across the road. Maurizio also wants to show he is brave. After he reads that Lancelot often slept out under the stars, he persuades Fabio to sleep on St. Ives’ beach one night.
“It will be nice to sleep by the water,” he says. “ We can look at the stars and listen to the sea breaking on the sand, and we need to save money.”
When Maurizio says this it is daytime. The sun is shining on a bright blue sea, but when they arrive at 10.00 p.m., the moon is small and the beach is dark and cold. They can’t sleep because the sea, so romantic in The Legend of King Arthur, is noisy. Worst of all (=peggio di tutto) is the cold: it penetrates every part of their bodies. Around three o’clock they walk up and down the beach to get warm.
Just before dawn the beach turns from black, to blue, and to grey. The cold grows =crescere; qui: diventa) worse at dawn and then the beach begins to get warmer. The boys finally sleep, but only for two hours.
When Maurizio reads The Legend of King Arthur he learns that knights were polite (=educati) to women. So, for several days, he is always opening doors for girls and helping old ladies across the road. Maurizio also wants to show he is brave. After he reads that Lancelot often slept out under the stars, he persuades Fabio to sleep on St. Ives’ beach one night.
“It will be nice to sleep by the water,” he says. “ We can look at the stars and listen to the sea breaking on the sand, and we need to save money.”
When Maurizio says this it is daytime. The sun is shining on a bright blue sea, but when they arrive at 10.00 p.m., the moon is small and the beach is dark and cold. They can’t sleep because the sea, so romantic in The Legend of King Arthur, is noisy. Worst of all (=peggio di tutto) is the cold: it penetrates every part of their bodies. Around three o’clock they walk up and down the beach to get warm.
Just before dawn the beach turns from black, to blue, and to grey. The cold grows =crescere; qui: diventa) worse at dawn and then the beach begins to get warmer. The boys finally sleep, but only for two hours.
At six in the morning, a policeman wakes them up and tells them it is prohibited to sleep on the beach in St. Ives. Fabio remembers the film In the Name of the Father. He whispers to Maurizio in Italian to be careful.
“The police are really dangerous in Britain, be polite.”
However, the policeman is a very friendly, young man. He tells the boys where they can wash in a public toilet.
“Go to a camp site,” he advises them, “ Or to a youth hostel, that’s the best bet (=è la cosa migliore). It’s cheap and more comfortable than a beach.”
That day they hike across Bodmin, a high empty moor (=landa)and see a lot of wild horses galloping across the down. They eat fried fish and chips by the sea and go for a Cornish cream tea with scones (=piccole focaccine tonde), jam and cream.
“Go to a camp site,” he advises them, “ Or to a youth hostel, that’s the best bet (=è la cosa migliore). It’s cheap and more comfortable than a beach.”
That day they hike across Bodmin, a high empty moor (=landa)and see a lot of wild horses galloping across the down. They eat fried fish and chips by the sea and go for a Cornish cream tea with scones (=piccole focaccine tonde), jam and cream.