Problem
I'm probably going to Italy in the next year and would like to find some people who speak English and attend a social and networking meeting. Are there any Toastmasters clubs in big cities or near holiday destinations? Any point looking now, when I don't yet have a trip planned? (And the same goes for a couple of other countries.)
Yes, because :
1 SAVE TIME & MONEY
When I do plan to go to Italy or another country I shall be in a rush so researching the Toastmasters clubs several months in advance will come in handy. It's a rush at home to research when you are busy at the last minute booking hotels and travel tickets. It's a rush to research on the day when you should be catching a coach tour or co-ordinating meeting colleagues.
2 LANGUAGE PROBLEMS SOLVED
Last time in a hotel I found I had to pay for the three-day internet access to go onto a website in a hotel for three minutes to get a phone number. Finally, the websites assume you are Italian (or German in Switzerland) and send everything in a foreign language so you will wish you researched earlier at home in an English speaking country.
Looking at a website in English, one club has said it meets Giovedi. Help! I know hundreds of Italian words and can read whole pages of Italian and get the gist but I am suddenly stumped. I could be missing breakfast in a hotel trying to check all this before a 15 minutes free internet session times out. Giovedi is Thursday.
I have also learned or been reminded about placenames: that the Italian for Florence is Firenze. Milan is Milano. Rome is Roma. Genova is Genoa. I have noticed some abbreviations. RM is Rome. MI is Milan. TO is Torino. GE is Genova. VI is Vicenza. CO is Como. FI is Florence.
Veneto is not the city of Venice but a region of Northern Italy.
I have picked up some general vocabulary. Costa is not cost but coast. Di is of.
I clicked on some placenames and up came Wikipedia in Italian. No sign of the English flag or the word English which you might see on the top of page one of a tourist site or hotel website or a blog or blog post created in Wordpress.
So I googled 'translate Wikipedia into English'. It said look on the sidebar (on the left of the screen). Nothing useful appeared in the first few lines. I had almost given up when, at the end of the column, I found:
In altre linge (meaning in other language)
Deutsch
English (Hurray! We found it.)
Hrvatski (I looked that up. It's Croatian.)
Portuguese (It appeared with an accent too small for me to identify so I have given the English.)
2 TRIP PLANNING
It could help you re-route your trip before booking. Just looking at the website has already taught me some handy things, such as that there are four clubs in Milan - which would make it worthwhile staying overnight in Milan on a side trip from Switzerland (which I did to see opera at La Scala).
If I had told my family the days of the week when I could visit Toastmasters, and written to the clubs to find out if they were still meeting, I could have told my family that a Toastmasters meets in Milan on Thursday. Then we could have booked months in advance for expensive opera seats when they were still available at the cheaper price which we were willing to pay, for the in demand day, Friday.
Answer
Using the website Toastmasters International Find A Club I found twenty clubs in Italy. 20! If you are alone in Rome or nervous in Naples, go to a club which welcomes and helps potential speakers. (Do you have to give a speech at a wedding? Here's the place to go for help.) It's great entertainment. In Rome there's one every Tuesday.
How To Make Contact
No need to hunt for the right person in the club to contact. On the Toastmasters International website you just click on email.
That's the theory. Sometimes it works like a dream and if you've included your own phone number they ring back five minutes later!
However, I suggest you do this at least a week in advance, not on the day. You occasionally find a club where the person listed is away on business. Or the committee has just changed and they have not updated the website. You might find the club has closed for Xmas or summer holidays or forever.
If I don't get a reply from a club within 24 hours, I email another club in the area. I sometimes end up going there instead or in addition. You might even hear of a new club which is starting and not yet listed on websites.
I have listed the following in alphabetical order by city:
BOLOGNA
Toastmasters Two Towers, Bologna, BO, Italy. 6.30. One Monday our of three.
COMO
The Como Lakers, Como, CO, Italy. The first and third Thursday of each month at 7.30-9.30 pm.
Lake Como is a tourist destination in summer.
FLORENCE
1 Firenze Toastmasters, FL, Italy. On the second and fourth Thursday at 6.45 pm.
2 Toastmasters Academy, Florence, FI, Italy, 7.30pm -9pm Wednesday. I presume that's every Wednesday and not just one Wednesday a month but you'd better ring to be sure.
Florence, known for art and the bridge.
GENOA
Erzelli Toastmasters, Genova, GE, Italy. First and third Wednesdays from 6 to 8 pm.
MILAN
1 The Milliners, Milan, MI, Italy. Every other Monday at 7 pm.
2 Milan-Easy Toastmasters Club, second and fourth Tuesday at 6.45 pm.
3 Navigli District Toastmasters, Milano, Ml, Italy. 7.30 every other Monday.
4 The Xplorers, MI, Italy. 6.45 Every month, first and third Tuesdays.
MONZA
Next to Milan, 9 miles from city centre of Milan but the outskirts of the two cities are only three miles apart if you are driving. Speaking of driving, Monza is famous as the centre for Italy's Formula one.
NAPLES
Naples Toastmasters Club, Naples, NA, Italy. On the first and third Tuesdays at 6.30 pm.
ROME
1 Toastmasters INAIL, Roma, RM, Italy. 12.30-2.30, 1st and 3rd Wednesday.
2 SPQRs, Rome, RM, Italy. On Wednesday lunchtime, 12-1 pm. Sounds like a company club.
3 Toastmasters Roma, RM, Italy. 6.45 every Tuesday. Contact them through the website.
TURIN
1 Radiant Rhetoric, T o r i n o, on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday at 7.15 pm.
2 Toasting in the Sky, Torino.
3 Trucks and Tricks in Torino.
4 Toastmasters Torino, Giovedi (Thursday) first and third Thursdays at 7 pm.
It took me a while, plus a few searches, to find out that Torino is called Turin in English - and it's famous for the Turin shroud, reputed to show Jesus! Four Toastmasters clubs in a tourist destination.
VERONA
Toastmasters Monza, The Verona, San Massimio, (VR), Italy Milan-Easy Toastmasters Club.; Vicenza Toastmasters Club, Costabissara, VI, Italy, second and fourth Thursday.
Toastmasters in Italy and Worldwide
If you are already a Toastmaster (many clubs many members worldwide, you could start a club with the help of a new members' pack available free from head office if you can muster about twenty potential members from your company or just by advertising and getting everybody together at a restaurant or coffee bar. A good place to advertise is on MeetUp.
If you are on holiday or business anywhere in the world, you can join a Toastmasters club, attend a meeting, mentor a member by Skype, go to the annual contests for serious speeches in autumn and humorous speeches in Springtime.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, member of HOD and Harrovians in London, England and Braddell Heights Advanced club in Singapore. I am the winner of more than 50 ribbons for Best Speaker, Best Evaluator and Table Topic (impromptu speech). I won three ribbons in one evening this month at Harrovians. I have judged competitions and run workshops on public speaking and attended meeting in China, the Czech Republic, Singapore, Thailand and the UK and attended the world finals in Las Vegas, USA.
Speakers' contest at the Business School near Baker Street station in central London, England.
This post was compiled Feb 2018. Please bookmark this page but update on the Toastmasters website if you wish to attend a meeting. Share your favourite posts with friends. I have several more posts on Toastmasters on this website and on my Toastmasters blogs, and posts on Italy, St Valentine in Terni and waterfalls, and the Osteria Modigliani Restaurant in London, England. Also see my other websites: Luxury for less and luxury travel for less.
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