Wednesday, Jul. 16, 2003
The Italian Odyssey, posted at 11:01 a.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com I'm back from Italy.The trip was extraordinary. I feel so good about it; my expectations were exceeded. I feel more worldly and well-rounded, my perspective forever broadened by two weeks in a foreign land.
Highlights are many, and I may spend some time later and post my vacation journal that I kept, but I'll try to summarize here a bit today. The trip was a great meshing of relaxation and exploration, in which we alternated days on the village beach with trips to Verona, Rome, and Venice. Verona is one of my favorite cities ever, by the way. It is manageable and fairly easy to tackle, and does not feel as touristy as other areas, yet the rewards are just as profound. That was our first major city visit. Then we backpacked through Rome for a couple days, which was an amazing experience. Then it was back to the lake for a bit, in which we climbed mountains, hung out in Greta Garbo's favorite hideaway town, and played hours and hours of Scala Quaranta, a card game similar to Rummy. Then it was off to Venice on Monday for the day.
I'm not sure how else to start. Since I'm a list person, though, I figure a list of my top Italian memories is appropriate. Here they are:
1. Celebrating the 4th of July in Verona. After a day of sightseeing sights like Juliet's house and the Roman Theater, we went to the Opera at La Arena, which was an incredible and beautiful experience. Then we decided that it was the US Independence Day, so we should try to find some American tourists to celebrate with. Combing through the (incredible) bar scene in Verona, we didn't find any other Americans, but we did go into a bar at midnight and ask the bartender to make us any classic American drink of his choice. He thought a moment, and made us a Southern Comfort and ginger ale. We got pretty drunk that night, ending up at a great midievil bar called Camelot, where we endlessly flirted and took pictures with the beautiful waitress there who didn't speak an ounce of English. Then, it was off to take a passed out, drunken train ride to Rome.
2. Visiting the Colliseum in Rome. It was an amazing experience - definitely one that reminds me of Janie's words at the end of Their Eyes Were Watching God: "You got to go there to know There." We've all seen photos, but it's difficult to explain to someone who's never seen it just how amazing the sight of it is - not just the size, but that it sits basically in a valley, with an ancient arch on side and then some more ruins on another. The epic grandeur of it is breathtaking.
3. After touring the Colliseum, we were outside, relaxing on the grass, when we heard some music blaring. Hmmmmm. A throbbing bass line was evident, then the lyrics to the song revealed the song to be "It's Raining Men." Upon further investigation, we noticed a parade coming up the road - a gay pride parade. We sat down and watched the surreal spectacle of a gay men in thongs and lesbians dancing in rainbow flags against the backdrop of the ancient Colliseum. This moment sort of summarized the friendly coexistence of the ancient and the modern in this city. I bet Marcus Aurelius never had this in mind, I thought. Though he did seem like a cool guy, so I don't think he would have minded, either.
4. That night in Rome, we hung out in Campo Fiore at this bar called The Drunken Ship, which was basically American Central. The bartender was a European football player in his off-season and a former NFL player, and he took a shine to us and took us out to other bars in the area during his hour break. We drank more than I ever have in such a short period of time, as he was a loaded guy who kept buying drinks for us - including something called a Car Bomb. We met a cute American girl that I was later shocked was only 19. I even gave this girl, Lisa, this address later in the night, as I became more and more altered. She also has a blog that I'll have to check out; she wrote the address on my Lonely Planet "Hanging Out" guide. After that night, we went back to train station, falling asleep on the sidewalk outside while we waited for our train to come in.
5. Taking a ski-lift and a mountain bike up to the top of Monte Baldo on Lake Garda, then mountain-biking down the most dangerous path I've ever seen. We hooked up with these Germans taking the same path, and followed them. We ended up completing much of it carrying our mountain bikes on our shoulders, walking on a 12-inch cliff where any false move would have been the end. I kept thinking to myself, "What did Bill get me into? I'm going to die," but it ended up okay, eventually widening and making for a pretty amazing descent down the mountain.
6. The hours and hours of card-playing, where I got to know Bill so well, and eventually his aunt - a hilarious Italian woman in her sixties who loved playing cards with us.
7. Playing darts for hours in a tiny pub in Malcesine, a tiny resort villa where Greta Garbo liked to hide out when she was alive. No one there spoke English, but the bartender still was able to help us work the darts machine. We played two nights, about eight games of Cricket each night.
8. Going to a town festival in Castelo, a very, very tiny village up in the Italian Alps near the town we were staying in. While there, we reveled in the fact that we were almost certainly the only two Americans - or, heck, even the only two non-town dwellers - there. We hung out, sharing two 4-euro bottles of wine and watching the townspeople from a granite wall off to the side of the delapidated soccer field the festival was held on. There was a band there, and another one of the surreal trip moments occurred when they broke into John Lennon's "Imagine," sung with an Italian accent so pronounced that it was almost incomprehensible. It was great stuff.
9. Hiding out from the train conductors on our train rides, or simply playing the "Dumb American." Looking to cut corners whenever we could, we spent much time on our train rides plotting how we could get by without paying, or paying as little as possible. We were successful quite a few times, honestly telling the train conductor at one point we didn't have enough cash to get from Verona to Rome. We tried paying with a Visa, but he couldn't take that, so we exasperatingly just took what we had and wrote a ticket down there for us. Another time, we were able to hide out in a bathroom long enough to score a free ride. The longer we could hold out on the trains, the less we would have to pay, because they only charge you from the last stop reached. We ended up getting from Verona to Rome for $22 Euros each, then from Rome back up to Verona for $25 each.
10. Almost getting gored by a cow up in the mountains of Lake Baldo. They have lazy cows everywhere up there, munching on the grass. I thought they were docile, but got charged when I tried to pet one. Oops.
11. All the pigeons in St. Mark's Piazza in Venice. Being the animal person that I am, I was amazed by how tame they were - even getting eight pigeons on my arms at once. Venice was a beautiful, cool cities with all its canals and bridges, but the pigeons were the most memorable part of it for me.
12. Falling asleep in the park in front of La Arena in Verona, waiting to get in line to watch the Opera Carmen with 20,000 other folks. The sun felt so good that day, and the grass was so soft, and we both slept about an hour.
13. Nearly daily gilato.
14. The amazing street performers. I especially enjoyed the guy who played Dante in Verona.
15. Walking around with the worst hangover of my life in Rome, desperately searching for a hostel. We got turned away by two before the YWCA took us in. The next day, we inadvertently posed as a gay couple to get a better rate.
Needless to say, the trip was an amazing experience. My wallet and my waistline will be paying for it for a while, but it was worth it. I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to embark on the journey, and even plan on making it an annual event. Bill proved himself a great travel partner and I kept thinking to myself what I did to deserve him inviting me along. I mean, I only met the guy in October, and only really became close with him in December or something. But I can now count him amongst my best friends. Next year, we plan on making the trip even more adventurous, possibly flying into Amsterdam and backpacking across down to Rome and then back up to the lake. In the coming days, expect more whiny entries about money, because I came home to find the world closing in on my more than ever. I'm officially being sued about the Holden dogbite thing, I'm being (falsely) charged with driving without insurance because apparently Geico did not fax over the paperwork like they said, and the check for my softball team that I wrote a long time ago and thought was long passed bounced. With no money coming in for weeks and being a payment back on car payments, I'm pretty screwed and honestly don't have $20 to my name right now. But it'll all work out, right? I needed to take this trip, so today I will not worry about it. I'll just revel.