This past weekend was my final weekend in Italy and in Europe -- I am coming home. Earlier last week, I realized that I had seen much, much more than I expected to see. I had explored Venice on two separate occasions, clubbed in Florence, relaxed by the river in Bassano, ventured through the Vatican, hugged the columns of the Roman Coliseum, soared above the Alps via parachute in Switzerland, and much more. With this in mind, I found that I was ready to come home -- there was nothing else that I was absolutely dying to do here. I missed my family, friends, and one very special woman. So, short story shorter, I changed my flight to Monday, June 14. Now that we have that out of the way, lets go back a couple of days to the beginning of my final weekend in Italia.
My weekend began right after my final exams in Paderno. We won’t talk too much about those. I caught the bus to Bassano at 1:30PM, taking the train from the Bassano station to Padova, and one more train from Padova to Rome. My friend Cary Decker and I traveled together, and arrived in Rome at about 9:30PM. Once we lugged our things outside the station, we stood in the huge taxi line (the public transport services were on strike at the time). While standing in line, we were pestered by individuals trying to sell their private “taxi” services. One man said it would only be 40 Euros to go to our hotel, and that we had to follow him into the back parking lot of the station. We decided that this was probably not a good idea, so we told him no thank you. After he kept pestering us, Cary worked his magic and told him to leave us in peace in Italian. He did, waving as he yelled a polite “f**k you!” We were bravo’d by many of the Italian bystanders. With that little incident over, we stood in line and talked to a couple from New Zealand for a while until it was our turn to get a taxi (the real taxi only charged 20 Euro for the ride).
We arrived at out hotel later that night. Well, my hotel. Cary hadn’t reserved anything, so we decided to just try and sneak him in to my one bedroom to sleep on the floor. He hid outside while I went in with both of our bags and checked in. The clerk seemed suspicious of me, and asked “Just ONE person, correct?” Not wanting to lie, I replied “Yes, I came to Rome with a friend, but he’s not here now.” All I did was leave out the part about him being outside behind a tree. I got my room key, went upstairs, and opened the fire escape door to let Cary in -- mission accomplished. The room had two beds, so he didn’t have to sleep on the floor.
The next morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel (going one at a time with 15 minutes in between each other so we wouldn’t muster any suspicion from the clerk) and then headed out into Rome. I had a reservation for the Vatican at 1PM, but after waiting outside and asking around, we could not find the correct tour group for the life of us. So we just stood in line, which wasn’t bad at all -- only took about 15 minutes for us to get in. After walking around in the Vatican and Sistine Chapel for a while, we left and went back to the hotel for a nap (we were both pretty exhausted). After a five hour nap and a laptop viewing of “The Emperor’s New Groove,” we went back out for some night sight-seeing -- destination: the Coliseum. Feeling all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed from our nap, we thought “Hey, why don’t we just walk there? Screw taxis!” This would have been a normal thought if we were inside the city -- not half an our drive outside. But we were apparently delirious, so we pulled up Google Maps on the iPhone and began to walk down the mountain into Rome. On the way, we went by a fresh fruit stand and got some peaches to munch on for the remainder of our walk.
After three hours of walking/jogging, we finally arrived at the Coliseum. That thing is gorgeous, especially at night.
We crashed at the hotel and decided to sleep in the next morning since the only thing that we still wanted to see was the Trevi Fountain.
At about 6, we decided to be lame and go back to the hotel to relax. We were both still exhausted, and the long hike from the day before also left us pretty sore. After we relaxed and watched a movie, Cary left to go meet another one of our friends at his hostel by the train station (they were both leaving for Maranello the next morning, so it just made it easier for him to stay there for the night). We snuck his stuff out of the hotel, and said our goodbyes. I went back upstairs and got some rest for my flight the next morning.
Well, that’s about it. It’s hard to believe that I am writing this from the Leonardo Da Vinci airport in Rome as I wait for my flight home. Even though I am ready to go back to America, in hindsight, this trip really did fly by. I had a lot of great experiences, met some incredible people, and created memories that will stay with me forever. I am so glad that I decided to study abroad (and that my parents decided to foot the bill).
I will end with a list of things that I learned:
1. Prosecco is incredible.
2. Italians do not like to form coherent lines. They enjoy massing around counters and breaking in front of Americans.
3. There are more kinds of cheese than you think there are.
4. There is no excuse for the lack of bidets in America.
5. Gelato is better than ice cream. Hands down.
6. To get a street salesman to stop bothering you, simply whack them in the nose with a newspaper.
7. Time means nothing to Italians. Expect many stores and restaurants to be closed at random hours.
8. The pigeons in Venice are ruthless. If you want to get rid of someone, just throw bread at their face.
9. When crossing the street, drivers accelerate in your direction.
10. Traveling in Europe is an amazing experience. Don’t ever pass up a chance to go.
Thank you to all that read my blog and supported me.
Until next time,
Connor
