A 9 Day Italian Affair
My romance with people, trains and architecture
I didn’t go to Italy to fall in love, I’m not that type of person. I can’t even say why I was initially drawn to this country as the first stop on my travels. But it happened, and I did.
I left the U.S. with no expectations, no hard set plans, and enough gusto to at least survive losing my passport for a couple hours the morning I flew out. All my worries about travel pretty much evaporated after I almost wasn’t even able to leave the country. Baby steps right? One thing at a time.
Before I left, I decided that despite all the things that go through your head when it comes to trusting strangers, that I was going to be sure to interact as much as possible with locals. One way of doing this, was to arrive to a strangers home after 15 hrs of travel and a major time change, to leave all my belongings at their place before heading out to explore the city with some new found traveling friends. Like, I was on a plane for 7 hours and then within 2 hours had met 2 other girls travelers through my Couchsurfing host and we were out the door to hit the streets of Milan.
We spent hours walking around and getting to see the most famous sights of the city. The girls I was with had been traveling for a bit and were great to chat with, one from Russia and one from the UK.
It takes a special person to backpack as a traveller and stay on people’s couches. They were extremely friendly and outgoing gals that had some great stories about their adventures. I’m sure when you’ve travelled a long period of time, you have your pitch down pretty well. Who are you, where you from, how long have you been traveling and where, etc. etc…
By the late afternoon though, my energy was waning…I sat down on a curb outside this beautiful cathedral and almost fell asleep a couple times. It was kind of funny…some passerby started laughing at me struggle to keep my eyes open, so I had to put my sunglasses on to hide being asleep on the sidewalk. After my new friends were done in the cathedral, we had to go meet with our host for an Italian “aperetivo”, the american equivalent of happy hour…except they give you food with your drink!
After an awesome meal, good drink and great company, a few of us decided we would walk back to our host’s flat. We got lost on our way back to the east side of the city, so after another couple of hours of walking the streets at night, it was close to midnight when we finally arrived. I haven’t had such a long day in a long while. I slept so good that night, surrounded by complete strangers, but in such good company that it made all my fears of booking that one way flight to Europe, obsolete.
I’m going to take a moment to admit…I come up with these crazy ideas for my life, and who I am as a person is always completely capable of surviving and making the most of any given situation I get myself into…but damnit if I don’t second guess myself all the way up until the leap. Then I do it. And when I land on my feet, I still surprise myself that I had the balls just to jump. Booking a one way flight to Europe to make a lifestyle out of traveling, was definitely a big one that had me really questioning my life choices up until I just did it.
Waking up to home cooked pasta for breakfast and learning about the difference between “summer pasta” and “winter pasta” was a great way to be welcomed into Italy. As I would soon discover, there is an abundance of carbs in Italy. Bread, pasta, pizza…these are like the food pyramid there. And unlike the U.S., no one is sneaking their carbs. They eat all this in beautiful little restaurants in the streets. No juice cleansing. No raw food diets. No kale and avocado smoothies.
Everyone was pretty accommodating to leaving off the meat and cheese for my vegan preferences. But…I did cave twice in my 9 day stay in Italy and had Mozzarella at a hosts house, then later in the heat of Florence, tried the Italian Gelato. The phrase “when in Rome” definitely applies here right??
Thanks to an acquaintance from the Art Institute back in San Diego, I had got to stay at a really great flat my last night in Milan before heading to Venice by train. It was really great to get to bump into her as well while she was back for holiday. You begin to realize how small the world is when we have such great ways of staying connected. I’m forever grateful for all the people reaching out to me through Facebook and social media with great places to stay while I’m bouncing around. It has been so kind.
One of the girls I met staying at my host’s home, was such a beautiful and sweet person with great tales from her 2 months in New Zealand and then 2 weeks in Thailand. We both needed to head East and thought we’d try our hand at hitching a bit of the journey. Well, as it turns out, Italian men are extremely friendly. We got picked up my a couple guys on their way to work that spoke absolutely no english, but managed to convey that despite having families, they were interested in “making love” to us.
We graciously thanked them and then got the hell out of their car.
Our hitchhiking escapade was not going so well, so we ended up hitching to a train station with a ride from a Peruvian who I was able to communicate with enough through my terrible Spanish. We chatted mostly about the differences between Italy and latin america, the biggest being the discotecas and nightlife.
Once we finally hopped on a train towards our destination, it was smooth sailing for me and my new friend. We parted ways on that train and I headed off to Valencia, where I was to switch routes and head north for one night in a town called Treviso.
My host was so accommodating and I had a fantastic stay on a little detour from my plans. Despite it raining, we had a fantastic night where he cooked for me and one of his friends, then we headed for a mini pub crawl to the local hangouts. The night ended after singing and dancing in the rain with a group of locals, in a little plaza surrounded by canals. Pure magic in this foreign land…such a perfect evening.
The next morning I headed to Venice and spent a good 3 hours trying to figure out the waterway transportation system so I could get over to the hostel I had booked. Hot and frustrated I arrived and immediately took a nap. Then I woke up in the evening and jumped on a boat that just went round and round the city at the most beautiful time of day.
Venice was spent working at night, until the early hours of the morning, sleeping through most of the day, then wandering about at dusk. The city was so beautiful, especially at that time of day, and it was so peaceful to jump on one of the ferries and just ride around with my camera snapping photos. It was so odd to watch such modern looking people wandering around such ancient architecture. You could almost picture what it must have been like with people walking around in more romantic renaissance garb.
On my last day, I caved and met up with a local to go for a tour of the city and get a more authentic experience. We walked around for hours and it was a great way to learn more about the city as well as see some parts that I had missed while I was lost wandering around. After multiple suggestions, I was inspired and decided last minute to jump on the train to Florence for my last couple of days in Italy.
Florence turned out to be the best idea ever. I booked a cheap hostel to the north of the city. It was an ancient looking building on a villa that was huge. They not only had a ton of dorm rooms, but they had great camping grounds for travellers. The walls and ceilings were covered with what looked like fake paintings to create the atmosphere of ancient Florence. Either way, it was a cool spot to call home for two nights.
The one day I had to walk around and tour the city, was amazing. I walked for hours, snapped photos of all the awe inspiring architecture and eventually hiked up to the top of a fort that overlooked the whole city. From the intense statues to the amazing museums and churches, I could not get enough. I finally made it to the plaza of Michaelangelo, also overlooking Florence and was wowed. Such an awesome skyline. I get inspired by cities, and I thought that the greatest thing while living in Los Angeles was to hike to the top of Runyon Canyon to look out over the busy city… but that was nothing compared to the inspiration I felt looking out over Florence.
I left Florence to head back to Milan for my flight out of Italy the next morning. When I got to Milan, I had planned a month before, to go to Milan Expo and to go see the Cirque du Soleil performance there. Upon checking into my hostel and checking public transportation, I realized my flight was at 6am on the opposite side of Milan…outside of the city. There also was no public transportation would get me there in time if I left even in the middle of the night… So I took a quick shower, left my tickets at the front desk of the hostel and managed to arrange a quick drink with a local before I checked out and then headed to the airport.
Train rides across Italy, just as the sun is setting, on the cusp of a new adventure, in a new country…will forever be in my heart. Nine days in this amazing country was not nearly enough for me, so I promised myself to come back. I said my goodbyes to Italy as I sped across the countryside, because London was calling…
If you like what you read, don’t be afraid to hit the Recommend button. You can follow my adventures through IG: @_MaggieHicks and connect with me on Twitter: @Maggie_Duh.
