That's Amore

Hey Kids,

So this will be 4 days worth of blogging...sorry! Well, I got back from Italia in one piece, not without its complications along the way though. Bergamo was gorgeous, so much so, I found myself listening mostly to Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra while I was there. The city was divided into Citta Alta (the high and old city) and Citta Bassa (the lower city). The morning started out rocky, I couldn't get my computer to turn on so i could write down my flight confirmation number, I biked to the University to see if I could look it up there, but I guess it was too early, the buildings were still closed. The taxi service was great and my plane was on time. They just wouldn't let me take my peanut butter on...which I don't get, it's not a liquid, but oh well.

To get to my hostel I had to take 2 buses from the airport...when I got off the first bus and didn't see the bus number i was supposed to take next on the sign, I wasn't sure what to do. The lady at the info desk didn't tell me i needed to walk to another stop. But there were two other girls that had luggage and looked lost. This old italian woman noticed we were all just staring at the sign and didn't know what to do so she looked at our maps and tried to explain what to do. She just kept repeating the same thing in italian, it's funny that the universal thing to do when you speak another language is to get louder or keep saying the same thing. Of course it's riduculous...so this old woman said the same thing and slowly put one foot in front of the other and pointed around the corner, this old man also saw and walked us to the next bus stop. I found out the two girls are from Venlo, another city in the Netherlands, but unfortunately we were headed in different directions.

I hoped on my the second bus and noticed another english speaking guy with luggage headed the same way, but he got off a stop earlier than i did, luckily i was following the map with our turns and knew where we were, but he was at the other end of the bus, and i didn't get to tell him before he got off. After I got the keys to my room he was arriving and we chatted a while, he was from Australia on business and just staying for the night.

There were 8 bunk beds in my room with a bathroom, shower, and lockers. I had reserved a co-ed room because the others were taken, but there must have been an opening because the 4 days all my roommates were women. I talked with this other girl from Scotland, she had just moved to Bergamo a week before and was waiting for her apartment to become available. She had lived in Spain for 2 years, Poland for 1 year, Korea for 1 year and now Bergamo to teach English. She has a degree in accounting, but didn't want to go into the field and started out the story with... 'I was in a pub...' the way all great stories begin. Her friend was moving to Spain to teach English because they pay for your housing and for the teaching and you don't have to have previous experience (just pass the TOEFL). The second night we had pizza and she told me about all her traveling and experiences in foreign countries...very interesting person.

It got me thinking about how I'm in the Netherlands studying, but enjoy traveling or even just planning a trip much much more than I do spending time in a classroom. And I know a degree is necessary in many ways, and most people aren't overjoyed at spending an hour and a half in classes either (here they even have intermissions during classes)...but I also think I could be doing more than I am. And there's got to be something that I can do that I would love, but of course finding that is the trick, and a degree can open my possibilities. I think meeting this person made me hopeful that there will be something that I will find. She seemed so happy with her life and excited by her choices.

But anyway, so the first day I just went into the Citta Bassa and looked around, got some groceries and picked up some bakery pizza from the grocery store. The second day I boarded a bus to Milano. In front of the train station was an antiques market, where I bought a tile from the 30s that says in Italian, Madonna protect my family to this you are consecrated. And has a picture of the Madonna and child on it. Since the Madonna is the patron saint of (right? or at least the most popular to pray to) in Italy I thought it was appropriate. Taking latin and knowing a tad of Spanish came in handy so I could read a tiny itsy bit. But, I did notice that I know a whole lot more Dutch than I thought I did. I would look at a menu and only know maybe 5 or 6 words, and how much I rely on being able to read and understand key words in Dutch. I felt like I did when I moved to the Netherlands 2 months ago, and I definately don't like that feeling...like I'm blind, or just ignorant.

But... I walked around the city, trying to find Porta Nuova where the Duomo Plazza is and everything else seems to be centered around. It took me about an hour and a half to get there, stopping at other points on my map, various museums, but since I had to take 2 buses to get to the station and then another bus to Milan, by the time I got there it was 1 pm and I didn't have too long to wander around and go into the museums. I went into the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II--the famous shopping mall area with prada and gucci, and everything else. There's a bull in the center of the area and it's said if you spin around on its privates it will bring you luck...you can check out the video I have of it on the website where I posted my pictures.

I went inside the Duomo, there's also a video of that, and was able to go onto the roof, ugh, the stairs to get up there though were insane. But it was so worth seeing life from the top. There's also a video of that, and plenty of pictures. In front of the Duomo in the square a celtic new year festival was going on, and some kind of protest, people had flags and banners and were chanting something in Italian every so often.

I also found the Teatro alla Scala, the famous opera house, but didn't want to have to pay to get in, so I took a picture of the hallway inside! But...I was there! On my way down to the Santa Maria della Grazie Cathedral, where the Last Supper is...well it's actually in a museum right next to it, but was in the Cathedral(like I said before though, I wasn't able to see it since all the tickets were sold out)...I stopped and got gelato...not quite sure what all the fuss is about, it's just ice cream. Don't get me wrong ice cream is one of my all time favorite things, but gelato wasn't anything special, and I even got it from a fancy recommended patissere, gelatario from my guide book!

Here's where the adventure begins, it was getting late and I didn't want to have to walk the hour and a half back to the centrale statione so i tried asking people what tram or metro i could catch back to the station. I must've asked 4 people, and circled 2 blocks looking for where they were telling me to go (of course in italian), until I met a girl who spoke english and she told me where to go. An hour later and one metro I was back at the station and took a bus back, but had missed my dinner plans that I'd made in Bergamo.

That night I met another roommate from Sicily, she was staying for a month to train to work for ryan air, the airline I took to Italy. Louise (Scotland girl) and Sicily girl and I spend the third day together in Citta Alta, since Louise had already been in the city a week she knew her way around and showed us the sites. We also had lunch (vegetariano panini and a house red wine) together. I went back for a siesta and later on went out to dinner by myself, I think that's the first time I've ever eaten in a fancy restraunt by myself...it was nice. I had polenta and mushrooms, and fromaggi ( i think) the cheese with spices and things that you put on top of bread and red wine. It was great. The last day was the most difficult, I boarded the wrong bus twice, missed my stop once, and wound up in the old city, but i'm glad i did because i had the best view the whole trip of seeing the city from above. More complications came when my flight was delayed 15 minutes, then 30 minutes, then 45, then 1 hour. Luckily I made my taxi reservations in plenty of time that I wasn't going to miss it, but was beginning to worry. But...I made it back!

I'm sure I could go on and on, like I already have, about what a great time I had, but it's getting late, so...I posted pictures and videos on picasa, and you can get there by going to the left side of the screen and clicking under Various Websites on 'My Pictures'

Doei!
p.s. title song by none other than Dean Martin