0
Italy
Posted by La Belle Vie♥
on
11:28 AM
So here I sit, back in the ole U S of A and I haven't blogged in forever. I'll update on my triumphant return back to the states later, I still have to write allllll about Italy and Spain...a month late.
So School was still in session and I didn't care and I decided to buy myself a ticket to Italy and do a tour of the north. What a fantastic idea. I started off by heading over to a town called Torino...well scratch that, I started off by heading to Milan to meet my girlfriend Caroline, however she had a rehearsal scheduled at the last minute so I ended up heading over to Torino to find her instead. I landed in Milan, met myself a nice frenchie on the plane who put me on the bus to the center of town, (this is after I'd already ridden a train and two metros and taken a plane just to get to Milan...I seriously feel as though I deserve a medal for extreme traveling) and I wound up at the central train station in Milano, bought myself a ticket, the nastiest sandwich from a vending machine you've ever had and hopped aboard the train to Torino. The train system in Italy, blows, just so you know. I've never missed French travel so much in my life. Arrived in Torino and took a minute to digest my surroundings, very different architecture, very industrial, and pretty dirty. As much as the French love round a bouts, the Italians love Piazza's more. Caroline and I wandered around until we found the BEST gilatto there ever was (a place called Grom) and I was thoroughly pleased with myself when i could order it in italian. found ourselves a piazza with a lovely man playing the harp and sat as the sun set licking our melting cones.
The next day caro had to head to class, so i headed out for a sightseeing tour/run along the river Po. sometimes i get so caught up in whatever it is i'm doing that i forget where i am and what i'm doing, and how incredible this adventure all is. but that day was one of those amazing moments of clarity as you're running along cobblestone streets of the medieval city they've reconstructed to look like ancient torino, and it just happens to sit on the river where people are boating and rowing (old school sport practiced by pretty much everyone there) and the sun is shining on your face while you're listening to your ipod, and you look over and think to yourself, holy shit, i'm actually going for a run on a river in italy, man life is sweet:) i found that italy for some reason, was full of moments like that for me.
met up with caro later and headed out for some drinks and apperitivo at a local bar i stumbled on earlier with a barman who spoke broken french and gave me lots of free good wine so i promised i'd come back later, and with more girls:) so we did, and ate ourselves silly. i love the italian tradition of apperitivo, 5 euros for a glass of wine and you get to partake of the all you can eat buffet food samplings they've got. i've never eaten so well, or so cheaply in all of europe. needless to say we had lots of fun along side the river at the bar, which had seats in the form of like, greek benches, complete with pads for laying on, i felt very lady godiva like as i lounged in my long black dress eating cherries and drinking my fabulous red wine on a cushion...all i needed was someone fanning me with a giant leaf and my fantasy was complete.
The last day I had with caroline, she and her friend meredith and i went down to the coffee house, where they make lattes with designs in them...the barista spelled out "welcome to torino" on our three glasses for us with the foam from the milk, that folks, is talent. then we headed off to the local wine shop, where, if you bring your own bottles, they fill them up with wine, it's like a wine pump, for a euro fifty a bottle...excellent. headed over to the park and got some paninos (fancy word for sandwich) and spent the afternoon lounging in the sun by the river drinking chilled white:) i eventually had to get up and go find a bathroom and found one in the old medieval city (side note: finding a bathroom that's free in europe is always a bit of a challenge, and the free ones are usually just holes in the ground with two foot holes...gives a whole new meaning to the "hover pee" ladies). Finally found myself a bathroom, but the italians, and i didn't really think this was possible, are even WORSE at forming lines than the french. I have never seen so many people cut line in my life, to the point where i put my arm up on the door as i approached it to prevent someone from cutting in front of me, and a little old lady just freaking walked right under it. at that point i was pissed and started yelling in french at the old lady (why french you ask, i have no idea) and walked in and took the stall she was about to go into....she mumbled something in italian about "les franceses" and it made me giggle...to think i'd one upped her, and she thought i was french all at the same time. love it.
After I left Torino I went back to Milano to stay with my friend Becka (actually a friend of a friend, but that's how it works in europe, all you really have to do is buy someone a beer and then you're pretty much welcome to come stay at their house). Anyway, bex is in school at FIT in Milan, she's about 5'1'' maybe, and 90 pounds soaking wet. needless to say the two of us walking side by side definitely drew some stares. Milano again, not too mussed with, I did a lot of sightseeing (since bex was in school most days), the highlight of which was of course going to La Scala and having to stealthfully take pictures of the theater since the camera nazis were in full force. I also wandered up to see Verdi's grave and tried woefully to get into the last supper fresco, but you had to have made a reservation and bought tickets in advance, so i was out of luck. also i was not allowed in the Duomo either because i had on a tank top, i really felt like Milano was just sticking it to me.
The next day however, bex and I headed down to Cinque Terre, some of the most beautiful countryside you will ever see on gods green earth. Cinque is 5 fishing villages located on the west side of italy that are all connected by hiking trails, cars can go between, but the trails are actually on the cliffside of the Mediterranean, so close you can taste the salt. all in all it's about 7 miles to hike all five of the villages, which of course we did, stopping for gilatto in each one of the towns (and a gatorade too, mother of god it was hot). but i have never felt so connected to, whatever word it is we give to that feeling of being truly 100 percent alive and connected to the universe. i just can't even do the beauty justice, check out the pictures on facebook, i entitled the album "i am fueled by sugar and sunshine" (due to gilatto infusions helping us throughout the day). As we finally arrived at the end of the trail at this point i realized i did NOT want to go back up to Milano for the night (bex had to leave since she had class the next day), so after we gorged ourselves on a fabulous seafood dinner (shrimp risotto for me) and a bottle of Spumante (Italian sparkling white) i set out to find a room for the night and bex set off back to Milano. I don't know how to even explain all the feelings i was having that day as i was there, such an amazing overwhelming awareness of self satisfaction and self worth, i finally came to terms with who i was, right there, that day. for some reason, he act of just doing it, the schlep, the wandering around town alone, finding a room, making a snap decision to stay someplace alone and just doing it, i don't know why, but it just made me feel so good.
to top it all off, there was an added bonus to Cinque, that my roommate for the night in the hostel basically turned out to be my australian doppleganger. one of those people you just immediately click with and feel connected to, like you've known each other forever. we woke up the next morning and our relationship started with..."well sarah, i was going to go down and take a dip in he mediterranean before heading off to hike, do you want to come?" My response, "um, yea." Kindof a no brainer there. So Ness and I headed down to the ocean, which was FREEZING and waded in, all the while i was screaming "i'm making a memory, i'm making a memory" (also i really needed a shower too, since i'd literally come with nothing the day before). Then she and I decided to head off on one of the different hikes that we hadn't done yet, so we loaded up with tons of FOCCACIA (this region is known especially for that and their pesto) tarts and water and began our hike. The 2 miles turned into about 5 hours, since we got lost...but it was a glorious day, spent with a glorious person who happened to be on the same soul searching journey that i was on...i just felt so on fire for life, its just so amazing to me, what a revelation, you can have whatever you want, all you have to do is go for it...and when you decide to do it, the things that come along with it, you never could have imagined, nor would have known to want for. It was that day that i decided the word Agape would go in the middle of my new tattoo...meaning unconditional love.
Ness and i ended our hike by running (and screaming) into the ocean, then heading to the local foccacia shop where you can choose between 15 different kinds, they slice it and bring it to you heated, gorged ourselves again for the second time that day, hugged goodbye, promised to see each other next month (which we did, since Ness came through Tours at the end of her trip) and I went back up to Milano for the night. Hopped a train the next morning and headed to Bologna (are you tired yet...I am just remembering all this). So in bologna i met up with my friend Jen from grad school. Jen, another one of my favorite human beings, and i became really fast friends and bonded over our shared love of europe and the fact that i was seemingly living the same life she had already had, only 5 years later, and in france instead of italy:) Bolonga was where jen lived off and on for 3 years before she headed back over to the states to start her doctorate (where we met). Anyway, such a surreal moment getting off the train and running screaming and giggling to see that Jen was waiting for me in the Bologna train station!! Amazing. So. Happy. Jen and I had the BEST time knocking around bologna and introducing ourselves to our "euro versions" (as you know you're always yourself, but just a different version of it when you live in a foreign country and speak a different language, IE, there is French sarah, and American Sarah:) So Jen and I stayed with her friend Paola, who only speak Italian and French, I only speak French and English, and Jen only speaks English and Italian....there were ALARMING amounts of language flying around that place all weekend.
Found ourselves out for dinner at some random resto in the middle of bologna singing karaoke later that night with jen and paola and elena (a friend jen brought back to the states with her who ended up doing her bachelor's in jen's hometown and now speaks fluent english, only with a southern accent, hilarious to hear her speak beautiful beautiful italian, and then switch to a hard on southern drawlin' english). The next day jen and i hopped the train down to Florence, which was possibly even more breathtaking...no, you know, i can't even weigh it against anything, each place had it's own specialness to me for so many different reasons. Florence was beautiful for the day I got to spend with my old friend, talking about her life and mine, life, love, dreams, spirituality, seeing the top of the city, the ponte vecchio, celebrating life and dropping over 100 euros on a lunch that we had in the main piazza while a medieval costume parade marched by. You know those friends that you just will take and keep forever, yea I got the pleasure of sharing one of the most open and beautiful feeling moments of my life with her. just. fabulous.
we got back from the majesty that was florence only to have paola pack us into the car and drive us an hour and a half to the beach, where we partied all night on a rooftop and jen and i tore up the dance floor...especially when michael jackson came on (i squealed, just a little). The next day we recovered and that night jen put a tearful me onto the overnight train and waved goodbye (wow i almost get misty even remembering it now). the overnight train, blew, because by the time i got to my cabin i was the last one there, all the bags were shoved under my bottom bunk, making it slant into the wall, and everyone had shanghaied my pillows and blankets for the night. not to mention there was the loudest smelliest snoring man right across from me staring at me. ew. eventually i deliriously made it back to france and stumbled into my bed and slept for probably two days straight.
italy was definitely one of the most soul changing parts of this experience so far, i feel like it was a real cornerstone on the map of moving into being sarah the woman instead of sarah the young girl.
i love you, i miss you
Sarah
|
So School was still in session and I didn't care and I decided to buy myself a ticket to Italy and do a tour of the north. What a fantastic idea. I started off by heading over to a town called Torino...well scratch that, I started off by heading to Milan to meet my girlfriend Caroline, however she had a rehearsal scheduled at the last minute so I ended up heading over to Torino to find her instead. I landed in Milan, met myself a nice frenchie on the plane who put me on the bus to the center of town, (this is after I'd already ridden a train and two metros and taken a plane just to get to Milan...I seriously feel as though I deserve a medal for extreme traveling) and I wound up at the central train station in Milano, bought myself a ticket, the nastiest sandwich from a vending machine you've ever had and hopped aboard the train to Torino. The train system in Italy, blows, just so you know. I've never missed French travel so much in my life. Arrived in Torino and took a minute to digest my surroundings, very different architecture, very industrial, and pretty dirty. As much as the French love round a bouts, the Italians love Piazza's more. Caroline and I wandered around until we found the BEST gilatto there ever was (a place called Grom) and I was thoroughly pleased with myself when i could order it in italian. found ourselves a piazza with a lovely man playing the harp and sat as the sun set licking our melting cones.
The next day caro had to head to class, so i headed out for a sightseeing tour/run along the river Po. sometimes i get so caught up in whatever it is i'm doing that i forget where i am and what i'm doing, and how incredible this adventure all is. but that day was one of those amazing moments of clarity as you're running along cobblestone streets of the medieval city they've reconstructed to look like ancient torino, and it just happens to sit on the river where people are boating and rowing (old school sport practiced by pretty much everyone there) and the sun is shining on your face while you're listening to your ipod, and you look over and think to yourself, holy shit, i'm actually going for a run on a river in italy, man life is sweet:) i found that italy for some reason, was full of moments like that for me.
met up with caro later and headed out for some drinks and apperitivo at a local bar i stumbled on earlier with a barman who spoke broken french and gave me lots of free good wine so i promised i'd come back later, and with more girls:) so we did, and ate ourselves silly. i love the italian tradition of apperitivo, 5 euros for a glass of wine and you get to partake of the all you can eat buffet food samplings they've got. i've never eaten so well, or so cheaply in all of europe. needless to say we had lots of fun along side the river at the bar, which had seats in the form of like, greek benches, complete with pads for laying on, i felt very lady godiva like as i lounged in my long black dress eating cherries and drinking my fabulous red wine on a cushion...all i needed was someone fanning me with a giant leaf and my fantasy was complete.
The last day I had with caroline, she and her friend meredith and i went down to the coffee house, where they make lattes with designs in them...the barista spelled out "welcome to torino" on our three glasses for us with the foam from the milk, that folks, is talent. then we headed off to the local wine shop, where, if you bring your own bottles, they fill them up with wine, it's like a wine pump, for a euro fifty a bottle...excellent. headed over to the park and got some paninos (fancy word for sandwich) and spent the afternoon lounging in the sun by the river drinking chilled white:) i eventually had to get up and go find a bathroom and found one in the old medieval city (side note: finding a bathroom that's free in europe is always a bit of a challenge, and the free ones are usually just holes in the ground with two foot holes...gives a whole new meaning to the "hover pee" ladies). Finally found myself a bathroom, but the italians, and i didn't really think this was possible, are even WORSE at forming lines than the french. I have never seen so many people cut line in my life, to the point where i put my arm up on the door as i approached it to prevent someone from cutting in front of me, and a little old lady just freaking walked right under it. at that point i was pissed and started yelling in french at the old lady (why french you ask, i have no idea) and walked in and took the stall she was about to go into....she mumbled something in italian about "les franceses" and it made me giggle...to think i'd one upped her, and she thought i was french all at the same time. love it.
After I left Torino I went back to Milano to stay with my friend Becka (actually a friend of a friend, but that's how it works in europe, all you really have to do is buy someone a beer and then you're pretty much welcome to come stay at their house). Anyway, bex is in school at FIT in Milan, she's about 5'1'' maybe, and 90 pounds soaking wet. needless to say the two of us walking side by side definitely drew some stares. Milano again, not too mussed with, I did a lot of sightseeing (since bex was in school most days), the highlight of which was of course going to La Scala and having to stealthfully take pictures of the theater since the camera nazis were in full force. I also wandered up to see Verdi's grave and tried woefully to get into the last supper fresco, but you had to have made a reservation and bought tickets in advance, so i was out of luck. also i was not allowed in the Duomo either because i had on a tank top, i really felt like Milano was just sticking it to me.
The next day however, bex and I headed down to Cinque Terre, some of the most beautiful countryside you will ever see on gods green earth. Cinque is 5 fishing villages located on the west side of italy that are all connected by hiking trails, cars can go between, but the trails are actually on the cliffside of the Mediterranean, so close you can taste the salt. all in all it's about 7 miles to hike all five of the villages, which of course we did, stopping for gilatto in each one of the towns (and a gatorade too, mother of god it was hot). but i have never felt so connected to, whatever word it is we give to that feeling of being truly 100 percent alive and connected to the universe. i just can't even do the beauty justice, check out the pictures on facebook, i entitled the album "i am fueled by sugar and sunshine" (due to gilatto infusions helping us throughout the day). As we finally arrived at the end of the trail at this point i realized i did NOT want to go back up to Milano for the night (bex had to leave since she had class the next day), so after we gorged ourselves on a fabulous seafood dinner (shrimp risotto for me) and a bottle of Spumante (Italian sparkling white) i set out to find a room for the night and bex set off back to Milano. I don't know how to even explain all the feelings i was having that day as i was there, such an amazing overwhelming awareness of self satisfaction and self worth, i finally came to terms with who i was, right there, that day. for some reason, he act of just doing it, the schlep, the wandering around town alone, finding a room, making a snap decision to stay someplace alone and just doing it, i don't know why, but it just made me feel so good.
to top it all off, there was an added bonus to Cinque, that my roommate for the night in the hostel basically turned out to be my australian doppleganger. one of those people you just immediately click with and feel connected to, like you've known each other forever. we woke up the next morning and our relationship started with..."well sarah, i was going to go down and take a dip in he mediterranean before heading off to hike, do you want to come?" My response, "um, yea." Kindof a no brainer there. So Ness and I headed down to the ocean, which was FREEZING and waded in, all the while i was screaming "i'm making a memory, i'm making a memory" (also i really needed a shower too, since i'd literally come with nothing the day before). Then she and I decided to head off on one of the different hikes that we hadn't done yet, so we loaded up with tons of FOCCACIA (this region is known especially for that and their pesto) tarts and water and began our hike. The 2 miles turned into about 5 hours, since we got lost...but it was a glorious day, spent with a glorious person who happened to be on the same soul searching journey that i was on...i just felt so on fire for life, its just so amazing to me, what a revelation, you can have whatever you want, all you have to do is go for it...and when you decide to do it, the things that come along with it, you never could have imagined, nor would have known to want for. It was that day that i decided the word Agape would go in the middle of my new tattoo...meaning unconditional love.
Ness and i ended our hike by running (and screaming) into the ocean, then heading to the local foccacia shop where you can choose between 15 different kinds, they slice it and bring it to you heated, gorged ourselves again for the second time that day, hugged goodbye, promised to see each other next month (which we did, since Ness came through Tours at the end of her trip) and I went back up to Milano for the night. Hopped a train the next morning and headed to Bologna (are you tired yet...I am just remembering all this). So in bologna i met up with my friend Jen from grad school. Jen, another one of my favorite human beings, and i became really fast friends and bonded over our shared love of europe and the fact that i was seemingly living the same life she had already had, only 5 years later, and in france instead of italy:) Bolonga was where jen lived off and on for 3 years before she headed back over to the states to start her doctorate (where we met). Anyway, such a surreal moment getting off the train and running screaming and giggling to see that Jen was waiting for me in the Bologna train station!! Amazing. So. Happy. Jen and I had the BEST time knocking around bologna and introducing ourselves to our "euro versions" (as you know you're always yourself, but just a different version of it when you live in a foreign country and speak a different language, IE, there is French sarah, and American Sarah:) So Jen and I stayed with her friend Paola, who only speak Italian and French, I only speak French and English, and Jen only speaks English and Italian....there were ALARMING amounts of language flying around that place all weekend.
Found ourselves out for dinner at some random resto in the middle of bologna singing karaoke later that night with jen and paola and elena (a friend jen brought back to the states with her who ended up doing her bachelor's in jen's hometown and now speaks fluent english, only with a southern accent, hilarious to hear her speak beautiful beautiful italian, and then switch to a hard on southern drawlin' english). The next day jen and i hopped the train down to Florence, which was possibly even more breathtaking...no, you know, i can't even weigh it against anything, each place had it's own specialness to me for so many different reasons. Florence was beautiful for the day I got to spend with my old friend, talking about her life and mine, life, love, dreams, spirituality, seeing the top of the city, the ponte vecchio, celebrating life and dropping over 100 euros on a lunch that we had in the main piazza while a medieval costume parade marched by. You know those friends that you just will take and keep forever, yea I got the pleasure of sharing one of the most open and beautiful feeling moments of my life with her. just. fabulous.
we got back from the majesty that was florence only to have paola pack us into the car and drive us an hour and a half to the beach, where we partied all night on a rooftop and jen and i tore up the dance floor...especially when michael jackson came on (i squealed, just a little). The next day we recovered and that night jen put a tearful me onto the overnight train and waved goodbye (wow i almost get misty even remembering it now). the overnight train, blew, because by the time i got to my cabin i was the last one there, all the bags were shoved under my bottom bunk, making it slant into the wall, and everyone had shanghaied my pillows and blankets for the night. not to mention there was the loudest smelliest snoring man right across from me staring at me. ew. eventually i deliriously made it back to france and stumbled into my bed and slept for probably two days straight.
italy was definitely one of the most soul changing parts of this experience so far, i feel like it was a real cornerstone on the map of moving into being sarah the woman instead of sarah the young girl.
i love you, i miss you
Sarah
|
