6 weeks and a lot of memories

People said 4 weeks would fly by before I knew it and they weren’t kidding! It felt like I had just unpacked and started classes when I started packing my bags again and started studying for finals. The things I was able to see and do during those four weeks are things I will never have the opportunity to do again. CIMBA set up buses almost every day and night to nearby cities, different cooking classes, mall trips, and day trips to go up Mt. Grappa. Before I left I was worried that I would get homesick and bored during the afternoons and nights that I didn’t have class or anything to do, but I don’t think I spent a single night just sitting in my room.

After the program, my mom and two of her friends met me in Venice to start two and a half weeks of travel around Italy. The first night I met up with them, Hannah and Jackie, two girls I made friends with during the program, also were with me. We all went to St. Mark’s Square and took a gondola ride with our driver, Alvine. He even let Jackie drive for a little while!

After Jackie and Hannah left to go home, my mom, her friends, and I went to Monterosso, which is part of Cinque Terre. We had a tour with Andrea, who actually is one of the guides in Rick Steve’s Italy book! He took us to four of the five cities and explained everything that we were seeing. It was only a 4 hour tour so Andrea had us power walking and almost running through the vineyards up on the hills. It was really interesting to hear the history behind all the places and things we were seeing. The next day we relaxed on the beach and got ready for our travel day to Rome with a stop in Pisa to see the leaning tower. In Rome, we saw all the major attractions, which I had already seen most of. It was still a lot of fun to go back because I was able to pick up on some things I had missed out on previously.

After Rome, we went to the island of Capri, which is by Sorrento and Naples. We took the train to Naples and had to catch a boat out to Capri. Once we got outside the train station, we started walking down a sidewalk that suddenly became really crowded with people trying to sell stuff, people trying to walk through, and people not sure what was going on. Once we got to where we needed to buy tickets for the boat, my mom’s friend realized her tablet computer had been pick-pocketed from her backpack while we were walking through the crowd of people. Luckily, that was the only thing we had stolen during the whole two and a half weeks! The next morning we had a private boat tour around Capri. We weren’t able to go to the blue grotto because of how rough the water was, but we still got to see most of the rest of the island, which was beautiful! My mom and I even got to swim for a while. The water was a lot colder than I thought it would be!

After Capri, we took a boat to Sorrento where we spent a few days. We went to Pompeii one day. It was amazing to see the people that had been completely encased in the ash and were buried under it all along with the houses, pots, and daily things that had been found. We also took a cooking class in Sorrento. We made ravioli, an eggplant casserole, and a creme and chocolate pie for dessert. This was by far the best food I had the whole time I was in Italy and it was really cool to think I had actually made it! The next day we headed back to Venice to get ready for our flight home.

When we landed in Philadelphia, we had to go through customs. This wouldn’t have been a problem if 6-8 other international flights hadn’t also landed at the same time we did. We had to get our passports checked, collect our checked luggage, go through actual customs, get our checked baggage back to be put on our plane, and go back through security. Everything was going at a decent pace until we got to where we had to get rid of our luggage. Luckily, since our flight was coming up soon we got to skip the line. Security was an experience. People were all cramming into the small area trying to fight their way to the front since many flights were soon getting ready to leave. My mom and I got separated from her friend since she got in the line on the left and we went right. We had chosen the short line somehow and got through pretty quickly considering how many people were all trying to get through. Even a few of the workers were talking about how insane it was with how many people were all there at once. Once we got to what we thought was our gate I started looking around and realized the sign said that flight was going to Houston, which was not where we wanted to go at all. From the time our tickets got printed in Venice and when we landed in Philadelphia, the gate had changed so we had to hurry to the correct gate to catch our flight on time. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful and we landed in Des Moines a little before 10 at night. We still had an hour and a half drive home, so by the time we finally got home, I was more than ready for bed.

Since I was lucky enough to spend 6 weeks of my summer in Italy, I did learn a few things:

-Pack light. Lugging around a huge suitcase really is not fun when you’re traveling to a lot of different places.

-Service fees and cover charges at restaurants can quickly add several euros per person to your bill.

-Take more pictures than you think you need to. Looking back through I can remember some things that I now wish I would have gotten a picture of.

-Don’t talk to the people trying to sell you stuff unless you actually want it. As soon as you talk to them, they will start following you since they think you’ll be an easy sell.

-Don’t take anything from anyone. While in Rome, we saw a guy with two birds that would put them on people, take 3 pictures of them with the birds, then make them pay 15 euro. There were also guys walking around trying to hand out roses. As soon as someone took one, they would make them pay for it. It was much easier to just drop whatever they tried to hand you so you didn’t even have to worry about paying for it.

-Water is NOT cheap. If possible, bring your own with you when you’re out walking. Bottled water ranges from 1-5 euros, which is crazy when that’s what you drink most. Filling yours up in your hotel in the morning and taking it with you can save quite a bit of money.

-Everyone wants exact change. This is next to impossible when the only thing the ATM gives you is 50s and 20s. We found that you can actually go into a bank and get smaller bills so places will be more likely to accept them. We also watched the grocery store deny our 50 but then accept a 100 from the person behind us for a bill less than ours simply because the person was Italian. Try to use your large bills when making bigger purchases like getting a purse at a market that is around 20 euro, they’ll usually accept your 50.

-Don’t pass up on opportunities to go see or do something. You don’t realize it at the time, but you probably won’t get that chance again.

I am so happy to be home after living out of a suitcase for 6 weeks, but I already miss the small campus of Paderno del Grappa and the surrounding towns that show the true Italian spirit. The past six weeks went by unbelievably fast but after spending what felt like Monopoly money the entire time, it’s best that I get back to work!

Arrivederci Italia!

Kelsey