i love italy!

I’m home! And I love Italy! I had such a great time there – it was so great to see Linds (my best friend and maid of honour) and uh, the food… was ridiculous – ridiculously delicious! So this is how it went. I left here last Sunday morning, on a cheap Ryan Air ticket that left from the huge (not) airport here in Constanta (thankfully the runway was pothole free) and arrived in Pisa. I’d arranged to meet Linds and her boyfriend Kurtis in Florence on Sunday afternoon, so hopped on a bus that connects the airport with Florence’s central train station, Santa Maria Novella. As soon as we arrived in Florence I raced around and found an internet café so I could watch the last set of Steve’s Final Four Cup game (which they won! YAY! more about that later), which ended up being super frustrating – the café that I found had a slooooow internet connection, and I only saw freeze frames and couldn’t see the score. Mrrrr… But! They won and became the first Romanian team to finish in the top three in a European Cup - awesome. Anyways, so I found a hotel and checked out Florence. I’ve been there once before – when we were living in Calabria four years ago I did a mini-tour of Italy with two other girlfriends, so had seen the main sights before - but wow, what a beautiful city!



I spent the afternoon walking around, eating (gelato, pizza, foccacia) and walking and eating… and then heard of a change of plans from my two friends who’d been held up in France as a result of the rail strike there. So I checked out the rail timetable and bought a ticket to get to Genoa the next morning – we’d meet halfway and then head south to the Cinque Terra and do some hiking/walking. So Monday I made my way to Genoa and did pretty much the same thing I did in Florence: got a hotel, walked around and ate. And drank coffee. The food in Genoa was ridiculous… the foccacia? The cheese? The pandolce? Uh, YUM! I met Linds and Kurtis off of a 5:30 train, and we headed straight into the city to buy food for an in-the-room picnic dinner, and this is what we bought and gobbled: fresh mozzarella di bufala (the best mozza ever), pecorino and some sort of Italian brie, baguettes, Prosciutto di Parma croquettes and wine. It was so so so super yummy! And it was great to meet up with Linds – we’ve been best friends since we were 14 or something, and it was her first trip to Europe – and to meet her boyfriend Kurtis too.

Linds and an entire window of deliciousness...

The harbour in Genoa - another beautiful day!


Tuesday morning we headed south from Genoa towards La Spezia, and got off the treno in Rio Maggiore, one of Cinque Terra's southern villages. The walk into the park was more or less a seawall, and not unlike Vancouver’s Stanley Park strip; we were wondering if this was the extent of the “hiking” that we’d all been looking forward to. After hmmm, about 20 minutes, we arrived in Town Two: Manarola. We’d planned to make it our home base for the next couple of days and hike some coastal and mountain paths, but without our heavy bags – done and done. We found a room at Bordone Davide, which was great: €75 for the three of us per night… sold. So we spent Tuesday afternoon and all of Wednesday traipsing about the park, on the coast and up in the hills, and it was beautiful. I can’t imagine being there in high season; I mean, I can’t imagine being in any touristy place in high season, but thankfully there weren’t too many people out and about – we saw fewer people up in the hills than we did down by the sea. The weather was great – it was sunny and warm and the light was fabulous… it was all good. We had beers at lunchtime and more picnics of bread and cheese and avocados and strawberries, and crashed both nights chez Davide back in Manarola. Thursday morning we headed for Florence, where we had lunch and walked around a bit before I had to get back on a train, headed for Rome. I booked a flight with another low-cost European airline, Wizz Air, flying out of Roma Ciampino. The name of this company does not, in any way, reflect on the service, speed or efficacy of anything or anyone involved in any operation of the whole flying ordeal. The line-ups were ridiculous and horrible, and the people (the passengers) were appalling; there was budging, crowding, and more budging, and then yelling and more crowding and pushing. And then there was running – people actually ran from the shuttle bus to the stairs to get on the plane. It was actually quite a show, watching the people rush and crowd the aisles of the plane, going both directions, forwards and backwards with their bags and goods and coats; I mean, some people literally had three or four bags! And of course there was just as much yelling and shoving and crowding on the plane as there was in the airport… it was really something. I felt so sorry for the flight attendant who had to corral and direct people (and their bags) and scold them like children; the patience that those people must have… mamma mia. Anyways, even though my trip was a bit of a whirlwind, it was great – super great to see Lindsey and meet Kurtis, and to see Italy again and speak Italian and eat to my heart’s content. Really, the food was so so so so super amazing. Yum. I arrived home back in Constanta on Friday night, and just missed the first game of Steve’s quarter-finals against Dej. I’d gotten up at 4am to catch a bus from Rome’s main train station to the airport, so was just a little bit tired… but not too tired to wolf down a huge salad (the only vegetables I ate in Italy were avocados and pesto – that counts right?) before heading to bed. I love travelling but I also love coming home; and for now – for one more month – home is in Constanta, Romania, and I am happy… to be home.

Lunch in Vernazza

The high road: somewhere between Manarola and Vernazza



Manarola

Me and Linds - yaaaay!