My Favorite Sky in The World

Last weekend was our first tour of Rome. It was sooooo great to return to the city in which I first fell in love with Italy. The weather was beautiful, the people and sights and food are always beautiful. I stayed with the wonderful Giuseppe, Carlo, and Francesco (i miei amori) the first night, and then in a hostel near Termini. We did the Vatican the first day, the Colosseum the second day, and the Trevi/Piazza di Spagna/Pantheon the second night. It was amazing being able to share something I love so much with 20 new people who had never seen it before. I slept way too little to be awake as much as possible, but it was worth it.  My favorite part of the weekend was being reminded of my favorite sight in Rome - the sky above the Colosseum. I don't mean the Colosseum wth the sky in the background, but the sky with the Colosseum in the front. I have never seen a sky as blue as this in my life - and every time I go back when there is a sunny day it strikes me and I am left breathless. It is always the same, brilliant blue with no clouds and is absolutely my favorite sky in the world.

First Tour...Success! (i.e. Venetians are not always jerks if you show interest)

Free Hugs near the Ferrovia

This weekend I met Andy in Venice and we lead the first ever Weekend Student Adventures' Venice tour! We began Thursday night with three, by Friday morning had five, and by Friday night, nine. Eight girls and one guy - all wonderful and super fun. We had a great weekend - strolled through the Rialto, San Marco, and Palazzo Ducale, caught a vaporetto to the exterior islands and watched glass blowing in Murano, and ate delicious pizza and a three-course dinner (side note - finding a decent restaurant that does not serve overcooked, precooked, sick nasty food has been the most difficult task in planning a tour in Venice because of its extreme tourism). However,

Rialto from the gondola at sunset

the most pleasantly surprising part was the Venetians themselves.  Venice is known for its rude and cold inhabitants, quick to point you in the exact wrong direction and make fun of your accent. However, I was greeted by the contrary. Example 1 Oeople were giving out free hugs next to the Ferrovia (main train station). Example 2: Galleria San Marco. We went to the elegant glass shop Galleria San Marco to watch a glass-blowing demonstration. The visiting of a Murano glass Gallery is known as an expensive, prestigious endeavor, often reserved for those interested in spending hundreds or thousands of Euro on hand-blown Murano products. We were bring students, however, who were hard-pressed to spend five Euro. After visiting the gallery, I began speaking to the portiere about how I noticed the differences in his dialect and Italian and how I was interested in the Venetians as a people and as a culture and as a history. We talked for over an hour, and finished our discussion with him giving me his number and inviting me to call him any time I came to Venice and he'd personally take me to show me the "real Venice" and exterior islands.  Example 3: That night we went for a gondola ride - I chatted with the gondoliere in Italian, pulling out random Venetian dialect words, about his life and the history of Venice and the ride ended with the same - him telling me to return and call him whenever I would like so that he could take me and any friends on a gondola ride. Example 4: I went early to the restaurant where we were having dinner in order to finalize arrangements and ended up listening to the proprietor's stories about his jobs, his obsession with white bedsheets, and his garden. Andy joined us part-way through and we finished the night with free coffee, two free bottles of wine, one free caraffe of spritz, and a free contorno. My point is not that you should be nice to people because you get free stuff, but that if you show interest in people and who they are what makes them them (family, culture, and language/dialect), they show interest in you. Take the time to learn a language and a culture and the world becomes so much nicer and so much more piacevole :) C'e' un'opportunita' che ti aspetta - ciappa!!

Paris, the City of People Watchers

Last week I visited one of my closest friends from Tampa who is living in Paris for a few months. It was a great visit - she worked during the Thursday and Friday that I was there while I walked the city and sight-saw, and during the night we went for delicious French dinners of fresh baguettes, duck, desserts and wine. The first night we saw the Eiffel Tower in all of its hourly sparkliness, and the second night we witnessed the moon hanging gently over the Louvre. Paris was beautiful, and lives up to the hype. However, it wasn't the Eiffel Tower or Notre Dame Cathedral or the Mona Lisa that struck me the most about the city. The most striking and most "French" part of the Parisian scene were the cafe's that were on every corner. I knew going to the city that the French enjoyed their coffee and/or wine breaks and I'd heard stories of hourly chats in Parisian cafe's over a carafe of  wine or a cafe au lait, but I had never imagined that the people doing the chatting might not be facing each other. In fact, all of the cafes had tables and chairs squished together as close as possible, some with the chair around the table like what I'm used to, but most chairs facing out into the street instead of towards the other occupants of the table. The French, or at least those in Paris, are the ultimate people watchers, and they are not ashamed! As one sips their beverage of choice, they don't even have to turn their head to see the action and to comment on any and every passerby. I found it amazing that they have taken this very common and very human of activities that is usually done in secret, or at least with some discretion, and have placed it out in the open for all to enjoy. I wonder if this is why the French are considered more snobby than most other nationalities; it isn't that they are more judgmental, it's just that they don't hide it!

Vicenza and Ai Nani

This past Friday I visited Vicenza and some of the surrounding regions.  We first went to a theater from the 1500s completely in Greek style, designed by Andrea Palladio, one of Venice's most renowned architects. The theater was designed to created to resemble Thebes with the seven roads of Thebes and a point of view illusion behind the stage made completely of wood. They still do plays there today.

     After going to the theater, we stopped at a villa called "Ai Nani" ("Villa of the Dwarfs"_  I have never seen anything like it. The villa in and of itself is beautiful, and it is surrounding by a wall with little statues of different professions on it. The weirdest thing, however, is that the statues are all of dwarfs. It looks like something out of "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" or "Lord of the Rings." You feel almost like you are the adventurer who has stumbled on something that seems normal, but a little off what you are used to as normal - the same sensation you get that Alice feels when reading Alice in Wonderland; the one where you realize that this is a reality other than yours. Legend has it that the owners of this village were little people, and they created an environment for their daughter, who was also a dwarf, in which she believed everyone was small. They had the statues built on the wall, their house help were all tiny, and their daughter never had exposre to the taller world. One day, inevitably, a tall and handsome man came riding by on his horse. She saw him, starting talking to him, and fell in love. She also realized that she was not like this man, and that her reality was false. In despair, she killed herself.  Whether or not this legend is true, I don't know, but it is sad and interesting at the same time, and this villa is truly l'unica (one of a kind).

Venice...is it really a romantic city?

I have discovered that you have to be very selective as to which travel sites you use to find things like restaurants. Marco and I went to Venice for the last two days - for a kind of romantic trip, which is actually a lot harder than you think in Venice. Even though it is considered to be one of the most romantic cities in the world, it has several romantic obstacle for a number of reasons:

1. There are so many sites, and when you go there you feel like you have to see the sites. That means you're squished in the crowd of 2398723712894 other people that feel the same way and there isn't much alone time.
2. Venice is like a labyrinth - there are streets that dead end into bridges, bridges that dead end into buildings, and so many turns that its sends even those with impeccable internal compasses spinning. And if you have a map - it's even worse. Therefore, even if you want to have a relaxing time and just go to one or two places, grab some dinner or a drink, or go to a peaceful church, you will inevitably get lost and end up walking in circles, which can be tiring on the legs and body. This in combination with number 1 leads to both people ready to go to bed at 5pm instead of start a romantic dinner some place.
3. Venice is also like a huge Disney World in terms of restaurants. You know you are going to pay too much for bad to decent food. If you look on the travel websites for top restaurants, it's even worse. I looked on the websites for a restaurant that seemed out of the way, was rated well for local cuisine by French, German, Italian, and English speakers, and was not unreasonably priced. We ended up eating at a restaurant with Turkish proprietors, over-priced dishes, and decent food. Failed. I would say next time we'll wander until something catches our eye.

In sum, the experience was good, but a bit like whenever you drive a long way to a specialty store for a certain product that you have researched and have made the decision to purchase. You buy that expensive product and then return to see the exact same thing in a bonus pack at Target for $50 less. However...as tiring as Venice can be, and as confusingly winding as the streets are, you can't help but want to go back. Despite the tourism industry doing its best to exploit this 1500 year old civilization, it still maintains that famous feeling of enticing mystery and foreign elegance that tugs at the heart and leaves you wanting to return with someone you love.

Italy has elves...and they are helpful

Just got back from Torino, a city that is beautiful and clean and actually more like a German or American efficient than the rest of Italy. I could definitely live there comfortable We went to a Juventus Seria A game in the new stadium in Torino (decorated with all Italian colors and the names of the players) and visited my family who live in the area. Although I love soccer, my favorite part of the game was not the game itself, but the reaction of the people around me. Where Americans watching a game usually stop (profanity-wise) with "shit", that's where the Italians only start. The hurling of insults at the otehr team and at their own players for messing up is an art that you can only learn from a young age and lots of practice. Check out this picture of people in despair over a bad call:

In addition to Torino, we went to Venice on Monday to do some research for the tours. Both in Torino and Venice, we got lost trying to find a landmark. We walked around, sure of where we were going but found ourselves even more lost than before. Both times, however, a little old man with a can popped out and asked us where we wanted to go. In Venice, the old man held an umbrella and pointed us to San Marco; in Torino he held a cane and lead us to the Juventus store. There is only one conclusion to this....Italy, in addition to having small people in general, is a land of helpful elves that pop out when you need them. Never fear Americans who feel daunted by a huge Italian city - help is just around the corner, holding a cane and speaking in half jibberish, half dialect, but pointing in the right direction.

La Bella Sicilia

Balcony of Marco's Villa with Lava Rocks in Background

Balcony of Marco's Nonna's villa

We just got back from 5 days spent in Catania, Sicily at Marco's dad's family's villa on the sea (how's that for Grammar 1 possessive nouns, English teachers?). It was built sometime in the last 200 years - I ask for an exact age, but I am quickly learning that Italians do not think in terms of age. They look at a building and say "this is the municipal building" when that is only it's boring present-day purpose. When I ask what it used to be, they say "I don't know, a palace or some other important building...probably a rich family lived there." And when I ask the age, they say, "I don't know the ---- century", taking a stab at whatever number pops into their head first. Anyway, some time in the last couple of centuries Marco's family built two villas on the sea. They are right on a beach of volcanic rocks and every day the family and all of the extended cousins goes to take a swim in the deep, crystal waters before having a coma-inducing lunch at 2:00 pm. After a two hour lunch, beginning with pasta (primo), continuing with a meat or fish (secondo) and vegetable (contorno), still continuing with fruit (frutta), and ending with a dessert (dolce) and espresso (caffe'), all accompanied with the desired beverage. This holds you over until about 10 pm, when we eat a pizza or a dinner of cheeses, cured meats, vegetables, fruit, and bread. In addition, every morning was started with granita (kind of like gelato but way better). That's pretty much our visit - swimming in the sea and eating.
 
On the way to picking up food or doing more of this eating, we experienced the wonders of Sicilian driving. There aren't really lanes painted on the road, and if there are, no one follows them. On a two lane street, there might be three cars and two motorini all trying to pass each other. Red lights are more of a suggestion, the speed limit only counts if you're going too slow, and cars pretty much park wherever they so please. In fact, we talked to Marco's uncle at length about speed limits and red lights. Marco pointed out that he saw several cars casually cruising through red lights and his uncle argued vehemently against Marco, claiming that Sicilians DO obey the rules, per forza! Then Marco cited the time(s) that he's seen people go through the red lights when there is no one there, and his uncle responded, "Well of course if no one is there you would go. Why would sit there and waste time for nothing?" This conversation continued with a discussion on tickets for speeding in America and the imposition of speed limits on the highways - it was absurd that you aren't allowed to go as fast you possibly can in America when we have such opportunity with our streets and cars. The Sicilian point of view: "How can you fault someone for going as fast as they can if they have a V4 or V6 motor and such numerous, wide, straight lanes? It's more efficient that way - obviously if you have the means, you should go as fast as possible." I think I'll try that excuse the next time I get stopped.

Another thing I found striking was the relationship of the Catanese people with their volcano and their sea. Every day, the first thing the people commented on was the condition of the water. "Today the water is beautiful; Today the water is dirty, what a shame; The temperature is perfect for a swim." They eat food fished off their own shores and fruits and vegetables cultivated in their own farms. Weather includes not only the temperature and chance of precipitation, but how much ash will fall from the volcano. Marco's Nonna knows at what time shade will fall on her porch, making it possible to eat lunch outside, and his whole family waits for the one time a month when they can take a swim under the light of a full moon. In fact, this was our inaugural night in Catania - a family gathering ofmunching on pizza, watching soccer, and into the sea for a moonlight swim under la luna piena.

View of Catania with Etna (Catania's volcano) in the background

However another thought came upon me during this visit to the beautiful land of Sicily. Although it is a wonderful place to visit, I could never live in Sicily. Speaking with Marco's family made me realize how stuck these people feel, still controlled by a mafia-run government and helpless to advance themselves of self-merit. Many young people see no future in staying, and seek to leave as soon as they have a chance. Others insist on the possibility of change and the capacity of this generation to do something that has yet to be done. I am left with a hope that the latter will prevail.

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