Italia

Ciao!

My, my I have so much to tell so forgive me this long blog journey you are about to embark upon… There is no better way to tell this than a day by day account, which is a bit dry but necessary. Here we go…

Day one: Thursday 16, 2010

After a 16 hour flight with tiny seats, drunken ladies, and the company of Jaden Smith in his impressive role in Karate Kid, I finally arrived in Venice. I gathered my many belongings and began my journey… It was at about his moment that I realized how hard this trip was going to be—I had a suitcase on wheels that weighted 50 pounds and two smaller bags that weighed 20 pounds each! As my luggage played such a large role in my trip, I am hereby going to collectively name them Gary. So Gary and I made our way to the bus, then onto a water taxi, then to the hostel. 

First glance of Venice! 

Boy did the people stare when they saw me lugging Gary around… Americans… Yeesh! their deep Italian-brown eyes said as they glanced my way. (Mind you, no one was mean, but I could see the snickering as we made our way along, slowly but surely.)  Once I settled in at the hostel, I met my travel buddy, Leah! 

We exchanged a few quick details about ourselves then set off to explore! On the water taxi we caught a few of the sights—San Marco square, Basilica, etc. We wandered through the many tiny streets and over bridges, alongside canals and past shops and markets. We got a bit lost, which is what you are supposed to do in Venice apparently, ate pizza and drank wine and were quite merry. 

Basilica 

I love it that hanging your clothes out to dry is endearing in another country... 

After a bit of a nap, we got dolled up and went out for a night on the town! After eating an amazing meal, we were invited by some handsome Italians for a drink, which we gladly accepted. Quite a first day!

Gondola! 

This was the lone gondola man in the middle of the big river (normally they are in the small canals) and the water was really choppy... We we felt bad for him, but also found it quite funny!

Day two:

This trip was decidedly a fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants kind of trip which meant we had a lot of waiting around to do… We decided to leave beautiful Venice and head to Verona, home of Romeo and Juliet. After waiting an hour and a half for a train ticket, we finally set sail to the fair city. Again because of our lack of planning, we showed up without a reservation for a room and had to thus spend some time wandering in the rain looking for a shelter, all the while lugging Gary alongside. Luckily we found a beautiful bed and breakfast! We put Gary to bed, then went out to explore…

We had a fantastic dinner of tagliatelle and cream sauce then wandered aimlessly through the city until we came across la Casa di Giulietta! ‘Twas a nice time to see it as the hoards were away… 

Day three:

Still a bit jetlagged, I was happy to have had a good night’s sleep. I awoke refreshed and ready! We had a quick espresso then ventured into the city- we went into the old arena and at some point made a wrong  turn and ended up on the stage (where tourists are not supposed to be) so we got to see what it felt like to be an opera singer. 

We returned to Casa di Guiletta to see Juliet’s balcony—the graffiti is extensive and all about love! Added an interesting flavor to the ancient building… 

Romeo, Romeo...  Wherefore art thou Romeo?

We left fair Verona and again headed East to Milano. Upon arriving, we found out where the hostel was located and made our way there… only to find out it was booked solid! Homeless and in the rain (again) we went to an odd internet café and booked a night at a cheap hotel. We hailed a taxi, loaded ourselves and our 6 pieces of Gary into the tiny, Italian car then settled into the hotel for the night… 

Day four:

Waking up to sunshine… what a treat! Leah and I moved ourselves to the cool Zebra hostel then set out to enjoy some vitamin D! Our first stop: The Duomo. Well, after a bit of confusion about whether or not the giant cathedral was indeed the Duomo (you see, it has no dome, therefore we were certain it could not be the Duomo) we were informed it was so we went in…

The Dome-less Duomo

 Now I’m not sure if this is was the safest idea ever pulled out of the hat, but it was certainly the best… the hike up the Duomo stairs brought you to the roof! It was quite amazing to be on the roof of the Duomo in the heart of Milano with not a cloud in the sky! Leah and I took our time up there, taking it all in and sunbathing and napping in the warm sunshine.

The roof!! 

Then, later, we met an old friend of mine from high school for drinks. Lisa was a foreign exchange student my junior year and when she noticed on Facebook that I was going to be in Milan, she contacted me and we set up a time to meet. So, Leah, Lisa, Matteo and I all went out for traditional Milanese cocktails at this cool strip of bars along the Canal. 

In Milan they have an awesome version of Happy Hour: with a cocktail, you get to enjoy the all you can eat buffet of actually decent food. So, the four of us stuffed our faces with gnocchi, mozzarella, pesto dishes, lasagna… everything awesome and Italian! It was great! 

After we parted ways, Leah and I returned to the hostel where we played Taboo with some of our Danish roommates… Playing against foreigners is a great way to boost your self esteem: despite that they spoke English perfectly, they were no match for our astounding cultural knowledge of marshmallows, HBO, Sesame Street, and the like. But the absolute best part of the night was when they played against each other in Danish! It is such an odd language with its English and German cognates mixed with grunts and groans (I mean no disrespect to the language, but listening to it being spoken at warp speed at 4am was astounding!) It was an interesting end to our time in Milan. 

Day five:

Good-bye Milan, hello Lake Como! Leah and I took a train and a bus to the beautiful lake (so breathtaking, George Clooney has taken residence here). See for yourself… Amazing!

 We settled into our very cool hostel right on the water and went out to explore the small streets of the lakeside village, Menaggio. The buildings were ancient and full of charm; the view of the lake and the small cities on the other side was incredible!

 

And as the sun set, we returned to our hostel where we had a three course meal fit for the gods! Gnocchi with sage and parmesan to start (already full), spinach omelet with potatoes and veggies (stuffed), then panna cotta to finish (put a fork in me, I’m done!). It was a great meal, and so large that afterward I could do nothing but sleep, which I did very well with the lapping of the lake just outside the window…

Day six:

A quick breakfast at the hostel then it was out to the lake! I couldn’t wait to get my in the crystal clear water for the first swim in Italy. I lay on the small rocky beach just long enough to get warm then I made the plunge! As I when in, the air in my lungs went out! My heart raced as it tried to pump my frozen blood… I felt so alive! I love it…

Until, I remembered, I didn’t bring a towel. 100 pounds worth of luggage and no towel… So, I tried to dry off and get warm with a tank top, which was not too successful, so I lie down and let the sun warm me up.

Soon we were itching to see Bellagio, said to be the most beautiful city on the lake. We took a ferry ride over... 

...  and promptly ate lunch, as you cannot see the most beautiful of the beautiful cities on an empty stomach. Satisfied, we wandered through the city, but as we had our luggage with us we had to do so in turn—I ate gelato as Leah explored, then vice versa. It was quite nice to enjoy my colorful array of gelato au bord du lac, the sun threatening to melt it if I didn’t eat it fast enough.

Once we both had our turns around the city, we decided to head back for the train station, as getting anywhere in Italy will take you a full day, even if it is really close. And good thing we did... After a long day on the ferry, then the bus, then the train, then another train we arrived in Riomaggiore (one of the 5 lands of Cinque Terre) at 11pm.

Now, as it is a very small city, this was stupid. Especially stupid as we didn’t know the name of the hostel we were staying at. In my defense, I figured there was only one hostel in this tiny town, so surely everyone would know it (and if you’re wondering how we could have missed such a big detail, remember that we had to catch about 5 different modes of transportation which were comically always leaving “in just 5 minutes!” So, we’d run with all of our luggage, throw them aboard in the nick of time, then hop on ourselves all hot and sweaty and hungry, so there was never any time to check my email.) So, there we were two American girls with 200 pounds of luggage, in a tiny Italian city, speaking very little Italian at 11 o’clock at night. It sounds like the plot of a bad sitcom…

Luckily, a very cute and handsome man from the train had hopped off in the last minute to help us (he recognized how truly hopeless our situation was, and thought he could lend us a hand seeing as how he spoke the language and all). So, there we were lugging Gary up and down the one main street of the city (of course which was on a steep incline because we’re in Europe and nothing else was going our way) looking ridiculous and asking desperately if anyone knew where the hostel was...

Well, no one knew. But, after about 20 minutes of this, we happened to meet a Japanese boy who spoke no English but, by some stroke of luck, was staying in the city and had extra beds! We gladly accepted his offer, relieved to not have to sleep on the streets. But, then… he opened the door to his apartment and a staircase that went as high as the heavens appeared before us. Midnight and there we were lugging our luggage up 5 flights of stairs…

Our new found friend, Tes, showed us to our rooms … The apartment belonged to an elderly couple who were away for the night but due back at 9 am. With only a few hours to sleep, I crashed immediately after the world’s longest and most comical day… 

So that's all for now, folks. Will write about the rest of my trip soon, but wanted to give you a head start since it's a bit of a novella already. 

Love.