Amo L'Italia

So it's been over a month since I last wrote anything...I did warn that I wouldn't be very good at this. But a lot has happened, so I'll do what I can to cover the highlights.

At the beginning of March, we took a school trip to Lugano, a city in the Italian part of Switzerland (the Ticino region), and from the moment the "next stop" line on the trains switched from "prochain arret" to "prossima fermata," I knew I was going to like Italy. I don't speak Italian, but I was amazed at how much I was able to understand, be it from my French or from growing up around my family. I will say, however, that my ability to count to ten really came in handy (thanks, Nonna). Other than that, growing up around an avid (crazy) Italian chef certainly did it's part in my ability to translate menus and order food, obviously the most important part when in Italy. Even though we were still in Switzerland, the difference in culture between French Swiss and Italian Swiss was quite evident and made me look forward even more to actually going to Italy. I'll leave the bit about Lugano at that, since there's really not much more to tell...we went to the Swatch store about 10 times, everyone making the crucial decision of which color watch to buy, and it snowed for the ENITRE Wednesday of our stay.

Oh, and this wouldn't be complete without the following: Earl Falsity #7653-we could go paddle boating in Lugano. FALSE.

After Lugano, since we were already so close to the Italian border, we took a train en route to the first leg of our vicious endeavor of covering Florence and Venice in one weekend. Upon getting in to Florence that night, we went to a restaurant per recommendation of our hotel and discovered the glories of "cover charges" (usually around 2 euros per person) in restaurants. It's definitely a tourist thing, but at the same time, kind of unavoidable since these cities are FILLED with tourists. You really have to do you research (or be alright with getting very lost in an alley somewhere) if you want to find somewhere truly authentic). Excellent first night of real Italian food though. (But at the same time, I couldn't be too terribly upset if I got bad food in Italy, because I would just be reminded that I could go home and get it better for FREE, chez daddy :)...be prepared for my return, dad). Florence was pretty wonderful, despite all the tourists. We got possibly too much practice bargaining prices in Italian at the leather market and saw the countryside, churches, churches, more churches, the David, the Uffizi (absolutely worth it if considering going to Florence...even the hour and a half wait we endured as a result of its closing the day before due to strikes).

Apres, it was off to Venice that Saturday. We got in and got on a water taxi, but after realizing that we were going the complete wrong direction (why would VENICE have 2 St. Mark's squares???) we called the hostel. Man answered, told us to meet him at the Rialto bridge. Man that met us was a petite rotund Italian man who didn't speak a WORD of English. Led us to our hostel (slash I'm pretty sure it was someone's apartment? For 15 euros a night, we got 2 full beds, a sitting room, and a kitchen) down a dark alleyway to an unmarked door and up 4 flights of stairs. Told us that we could leave our bags the next day at a different hotel? We tried to find said hotel, decided it didn't exist, found the one we were supposedly staying at (different location from where our 'room' was), turned out to be petite rotund man's house. Ended up eating dinner that night at the only restaurant that was still open (not too inclined to so much exploring of Venice's back alleys mapless at 1 am...) per request of petite rotund man...it was called Planet. It sucked. The next day we did the typical Venetian sightseeing things, canals, glass, pigeons, etc. and trained out that afternoon (on a train we should have missed by 10 minutes, thank god for Italians never being on time for anything). All in all, the Italian whirlwind tour was a success.

Oh, and side note about Venice, there are 2 train stations, and one is MUCH closer to the city than the other. And bus drivers certainly like to take their time with smoke breaks, must be the "Italian way"?? Let's just say I think we all did our fair share of running (sprinting?) for trains that weekend...way to go team.

The weekend after, it was time to continue the tour in Roma and pay a visit to Tatum, my room mate from GW. I flew from Geneva with 2 other people from my program but split off when we got there to go find Tatum. I was worried when we landed that my phone wasn't working, but to her credit for flawless directions, I found her apartment sans telephone but sans problem. However, when I actually got to the apartment, phone still wouldn't work, and "Enslin" was not among the very Italian last names by the various buzzers for the building. Thought running through my mind: I am going to sleep alone on the streets of semi-outskirts of Rome tonight. Somehow I wasn't that panicked. Weird. After over an hour and a moment of elation when a call finally went through, Tatum found me, and we went to aperitivo that night, had gelato about 6 more times, and did literally every typical tourist thing over the next 2 days, among which were drinking wine on the Spanish Steps at night, going to another country (yeah, it was just Vatican City...) and traversing the route of the Roman marathon to get to the Coliseum.

All in all, I have decided that Italy is a magical place and have made it my goal in life to go back as much as possible (which I have done, more to come on that later...), learn Italian, and see a less-touristy part of the country (family trip in store...???) Friendly people, old things, excellent food.