One must deplace themselves from a natural habitat to become cultured, and that I have done, but upon returning to the place I would call home, I miss what I have become accustomed to.
I miss the narrow, cobble stone streets lined with marble, that you can walk down the middle of with no fear of getting hit by cars. I miss the leaning, towering buildings, with colourful walls and shuttered windows. I miss the basilicas, the piatzas, the bridges, rivers, and canals. I miss the marble and bronze statues, and the mosaics and frescos. I miss chasing pidgeons, riding boats, and window shopping.
But most of all I miss the static in the air that comes from being surrounded by history, something that is simply not found in solid concrete highways, bustling with cars. In truth however, I was "home" in Italy and I and am proud to say that I've walked the streets of the Mother of Modern Civilization. Walled cities still thriving on ancient sewers, lead piping, and historical aquaducts is where my heart lives. It is where the world lives.
60 Things that happened in Italia (in no particular order)
Note: These ten days were primarily spent with Steph, Karlene, Victoria and Michael. You are amazing guys!
1.
CAT STEVENS!!!! - Ok, so basically, when we were walking to downtown Sienna, this little kid walked past us and like
attacked Mr. Buchanan, Ian, and Michael screaming bloody murder. It was crazy. The kid had black eyes like he was possessed too. This moment is entitled CAT STEVENS because we believe that's what the kid was screaming. Or something to that effect anyways. OH! and the parents of the attacking kid? Just pulled him off whoever he was attacking and
laughed. That's right. Laughed.
2.
Fuck me. I'm Italian. - Not the most appropriate of lines, I am aware, but failing to mention it would be blasphemy. When we were walking downtown Rome at night, we were also searching for wi-fi access on Mike's iPod. Whilst standing outside the later mentioned church with bones in the wall, we happened to come accross a wi-fi source called, Fuck me. I'm Italian. There is a picture. We're still not entirely sure why this simple discovery produced laughing whenever there was a lull in conversation throught the week.
3.
The boots weren't made for walking, but they'll just have to do. One of these days these boots will be replaced with running shoes. - Basically and impromtu remix of These boots were made for Walking as we walked to the boat back to Sorrento after climbing hills in Capri.
4.
Masks - A simple moment in which was paraded through St. Mark's square in Venice, wearing our Venitian masks and chasing pidgeons while eating gelato.
5.
The Carousal - Ahaha... well... us high school seniors spent a well-worth-it two euro to ride the carousal in a piaza in Florence whilst being glared at by an Italian lady filming it for some reason...
6.
Capri - Beautiful as it is on its own, our little band prefered exploration over shopping and took a turn down a tunnel to explore the residential section of Capri on our free time. It was worth the hike half way up the hill (which was farther than anyone else got btw) and the gardens and gated homes were simply beautiful. Plus there were a lot of amazing look out points.
7.
Pompeii - Incredible if you ask me, it was the highlight of MY trip. Everything is so incredibly preserved that you FEEL like a Roman when you weave throughout the ruins.
8.
Gelato - Enough said.
9.
The Alps - Although we never visited them, you could see them all over the place, especially in Northern Italy. But my favourite view was from the plane from Paris to Rome in which I had a window seat and fought sleep to watch us fly over them. It was incredible to see. The snowy peaks just break through the clouds and into the clear blue sky. Def worth the turbulance.
10.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa - Not only did we take the tourist-style picture of holding the thing up, we also climbed it. It was incredible (though treacherous), and to think Galileo climbed the stairs too...
11.
Breakfast - Cake and Coca Cola for breakfast? Totally.
12.
Silvio - So our bus driver's name was Silvio and he was like THE most amazing driver ever. Driving in Italy is crazy and crowded as it is, and he navigated those streets and tight corners in a freaking tour bus! Let's just put it this way. He'd put the host of Canada's worst driver to SHAME.
13.
Night Lights - Seeing Paris and Rome by night was just beautiful. Phenominal even.
14.
Backstreet E-mailing - So that e-mail we sent on an iPod? Sent it in a backstreet of Rome at night. We were sitting on the side of the road taking turns sending messages and getting weird looks from the people walking by.
15.
Spanish Steps - Raced up 'em. It's just something you've gotta do.
16.
Flower throwing - So this flower seller in Rome was extremely annoying and Mike ended up buying a flower to get him to go away. Steph ended up with it, and to get rid of it, she threw it over the gates of the church with the bones in the wall. It was very cool.
17.
Basilicas - There are churches EVERYWHERE in Italy. It's crazy. But every single one of them is so beautiful. I stood in awe in almost ever single one.
18.
I've been there - Simply being able to say I've been there.
19.
I knew that - It was kinda neat to know the history behind the places we visited, more extensively too than the Tour Guides had time to explain.
20.
SPQR - This is proof that Rome still uses the same ancient Sewer system. SPQR stands for Senatus Populisque Romanus. All the Man-holes for the sewers were labeled with this.
21.
SPQR, again. - Seeing it in other places on statues and stuff, really cool. OH! and it was on the wall in Versailles. Weird.
22.
Coliseum - Just touching the walls layed by slaves so long ago was enough for me... It was sad to see the destruction of the middle ages too. :(
23.
Late nights - We spent HOURS in each others rooms at night. We were usually free to ourselves at 9-ish... and we usually didn't venture to bed until 2 in the morning. Those were some good discussions guys. ;)
24.
Euro Disco - We went to a disco in Sorrento we did...
25.
Train from Hell - Out overnight train to Paris? COLD. The air conditioning was constantly on in our car, and couldn't be turned off... there weren't enough blankets fior the number of beds we had, AND the emergency window fell open in the middle of the night. It felt like we were driving through the freaking Arctic! Winter Camp know-how came in super handy here...
26.
Getting Sick - So I got sick. Well, technically Mike was sick first. Then I caught it... and so did everyone else... except Victoria... :S *shrugs* It's just a cold.
27.
The Purple Store - There was this one store in Florence that was all purple. If something wasn't purple, it had purple on it. And the store owner was amazing. He was extremely friendly, spoke fluent english and was getting us to try on all this stuff for fun. XD PLUS he showed us where the Euro McDonalds was. :P
28.
Markets - The market in Sienna was really cool. Like it was an honest-to-God market. In a square. With white roofed stands. Seriously.
29.
Isn't that our bus? - So we missed our ride back down to the highway in Sienna and had to walk... The bus was there the whole time we were waiting and eventually drove off, but someone insisted that it wasn't our bus... ;
30.
Matchmaking - It seems that store owners in Italy like to pair people up. Most of our adventures saw Mike and Karlene, or Mike and Steph matched up as a couple... yeah, no. And I still wonder why I never had a date... :S
31.
McDonalds - Yeah, we ate at one. But it was just so we were able to say that we did. It was really nice. Like an actual restaurant.
32.
Can't speak!!XD - Mike lost his voice as part of his cold half way through the week. It was actually kind of fun... He would start singing with no sound and we had to guess the song. XD
33.
SIP - What does it mean? We still have no idea. When we were walking in Capri, every so often there was a sign pointing to the ground labelled
SIP. Out best guess is
Sewage in progress.
34.
Sex Menu - There was seriously a preserved prositute house in Pompeii with like a menu PAINTED on the walls. It was graphic.
35.
Gratci? - ahaha... a few of us got some free stuff in Paris for using the wrong language... We would go to say thank you, and say Gratci instead of Merci. XD
36.
Sing, and sing loud - We were a bit obnoxious with our singing... and we sung everywhere we went. Loudly. The people around us were not found of us.
37.
ABBA - Especially Fernando. ABBA was like the artist of choice for our little group that week.
38.
Moulin Rouge - So we had to walk through the Paris "red-light" district to get to the church with the look out point in Paris. Saw the Moulin Rouge though. XD
39.
Magic Pills! - When Mike's voice wasn't getting better, we popped into a Pharmacy to see if we could get him something for his cold. The nurse actually knew what we were talking about and gave him something like Vicks. Except where Vicks takes a couple days to get your voice better, Mike had his voice back almost completely in about a half hour. It was amazing.
40.
Lost - We got lost a couple times, but found our way back to the meeting spot in time. But the first time we left Victoria with some others to shop, they got lost and were late by like a half hour. We were worried.
41.
Olay! - We started a sing off with some French guys on the other side of the tracks in Paris. It was fun until this one drunk French man got ticked at them for singing... We had to get on the train, but we were pretty sure there was a fight.
42.
Oh Canda! - We sung
Oh Canada on the subway platform for the French peoples on the other side. We're so patriotic.
43.
Snape, Snape, Severus Snape - If you've ever seen
Harry Potter Puppet Pals on Youtube, you know what I'm talking about when I say
The Mysterious Ticking Noise. We had the song almost perfected. XD
44.
Walking Sticks - When we were walking in one of the markets this one lady was selling umbrellas that looked like walking sticks... like the handles were all silver and jeweled... it looked like something Lucius Malfoy would walk around with.
45.
Coke - European Coke is like is like 50 million times better than American Coke. It has half the sugar and twice the caffine. XD
46.
Don't gape at the canal - While watching an orange float by in a canal in Venice, Mike lost his gum to the canal. XD
47.
Mission Impossible - Mike and Steph crossed one of the canals by scaling along a really thin piece of wall and jumping the fense on the other side 007 style... And Karlene's kinda ticked at me cuz I wouldn't do it and she had to take the bridge with me to the other side. :( I'm sorry Karlene!
48.
The Watch - So Victoria held Michael's watch and 1000 lyra hostage for the full 10 days... actually... I don't think she's given them back.
49.
This one? - We tried on like a bazillion masks in Venice... Like an hour and a half was deticated to this one street in order to pick the right ones.
50.
Down boy! - I swear, in Venice, this pidgeon jumped a meter and a half in the air and attacked Karlene's head. No flaping... it jumped.
51.
The American Bar - In the Sheraton we stayed at, there was an American bar, and Karlene wishes it recorded that it amused her that she and Katie ordered Tea and water there.
52.
And then she... - On the train to Paris we did a bunch of those line at a time stories. It was kinda funny, Karlene and Toria were trying to make it dark, and me and Michael were trying to make it funny by adding random things or insights... When Victoria and Karlene told me to write dark though, apparently it ended up sounding like gay incest... ;
53.
Towel Heaters - Most of our hotels were a major fail... like if it were Canada, they'd be graded below one star... But despite the failness of these hotels, there was always one good thing about the rooms... For example, the one in Rome had a towel heater. I could get used to that. XD
54.
Italinas - On our last night in Rome, we shared the floor with a bunch of Italian teens. A couple of them were cool. We met them again later in Venice.
55.
Skittle Fail - We ate a lot of American stuff to taste the difference... One of those things was Skittles. They're pretty much the same except for the purple ones... rather than tasting like grape, they taste like grape flavoured medication. It was gross.
56.
Even - It was kinda cool how all the prices were perfectly even. Everything with the exception of maybe museum tickets had no cent cost. It was always an even euro. OH! and Tax is included in the price!
57.
Roof Roaming - Our hotel in Florence had a huge balcony, but no view. The balconies were attatched however, and you could jump from one to the other... That's what we did and we ended up sitting out on the roof, which did have a view for a bit.
58.
Epic Fail of the Trip - When we were in Pompeii, there was this ledge and Karlene yells out behind me not to fall. I step up fine, but when I turned around to say "Look! I didn't fall!" to Karlene, she tripped over the ledge. It was terribly ironic.
59.
Straight Forward - Advertising in Italy and France doesn't need to be censored at all... So you get posters that say things like this: "Sex sells, but unfortuantely we sell jeans."
60.
Having the time of your life - I think we'd all agree, this was one of the best weeks of our lives.
Lean on me when you're not strong, and I'll be your friend, I'll help you carry on! For it won't be long, 'til I'm gonna need somebody to lean on.
Don't stop believing. Hold onto that feeling! Street lights. People. Living just to find emotion hiding somewhere in the night!
Italy 2010 --> March 8-18.
