Unplanned Adventures Work Best

“We’ll take the next train.”

“Don’t you have classes?”

He raised his shoulders. “Cancelled.”

She was not expecting an answer, just the money for the ticket. She frowned when he took too much time to take his wallet out of his pocket.

“Here you go”, he said nervously.

She was not listening. She just took the money and waited for the next customer.

Giacomo and Maria headed towards their train.

“Where are we going?”

“Perugia”

Giacomo woke up at 8:00, just like any other day. He had breakfast and got ready for his classes. He tried his best to stay focused on whatever the professor was saying, from 10:00 till 12:00. Then, he would have a one-hour break before his next class would begin. He would only be a free man at 6:00 PM.

Today, freedom wouldn’t wait.

“Maria, let’s go somewhere”.

“Now?”

“Now.”

They sat by the window and watched the world move backwards. Giacomo was missing his finance and banking class. Gladly.

“How far is Perugia anyway”.

“Two hours”.

“You heard about the guy who skipped class and went to Oslo?”

“A living legend”.

She nodded in agreement.

Perugia is a historic town in the north of Rome but they didn’t care much about it. Today was about being spontaneous. They spent the afternoon exploring the town. They walked around the old city and found their way towards the center. There was a chocolate salon — today was their lucky day. They visited as many booths as they could, trying various kinds of chocolates. Giacomo kept on checking his watch. Not because he was anxious to go back or because he felt guilty for skipping. He just wanted to compare his current situation with what it would be like to be in class. It was a fairly easy thing to do because nothing out of the ordinary happened back at university. The only difference weekdays had between each other were how close (or how far) they were from the weekend.

Surely, he can’t have white chocolate strawberries every day instead of his finance and banking lecture but breaking the routine every now and then has its perks.

They found a small restaurant that served pasta with truffle and decided to end the evening there.

“I can get used to this, you know”.

That was exactly why next time — if there would be a next time — they would go somewhere else. Wherever the next train would take them.

Giacomo is finishing his studies in Rome. He occasionally skips class and has done a lot of exploring… meaning that he has lots of stories to tell.

— Written by Lama —