My Month In Italy - The Basics

Right. I've been staying with this Italian family for five days now. My original intention to keep a travel blog of my stay here has proved difficult as I am only able to access the internet at the place where I am currently sat: the legal offices of the couple with whom I am staying (they are lawyers).

The wireless has decided to be a prick and hate my laptop, meaning I have been unable to upload any of my photos or get on to Skype due to the fact that this is Alessia's computer. I may add pictures to this post later or feature them in subsequent blogs if I have any success with my laptop. If there are any grammatical errors, I blame the Italian keyboard.

Right so I'll keep it concise because, frankly, to mention everything I have done over the last 5 days would waste a lot of time which I should be making the most of.

The Family


Alessia and Michele - The adults of the family; both Lawyers. They have a passion for art, especially the modern and interesting sort, and their houses are decorated accordingly.
Umberto - Their 6 year old son.

Locations


Rovigo
This is the town where the family have their permanent house in which they live all year round. Rovigo is a modest little town in the Veneto province of North East Italy; the same province in which the city of Venize is found. Their house is quite simply amazing, with art everywhere and interesting furniture. I wish I could upload pictures of it but hopefully I will get my laptop working soon. If not, I'm sure you can wait a month.
During the day here, Umberto is at Animazione, a kind of summer school for kids of his age. While he is there and the parents are at work I have the day to myself, giving me lots of time to explore; such as yesterday when I went to visit Bologna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of the country. I collect Umberto at around 5.30 PM and we then go home where I look after him until his parents get home at around 7.00 PM. His parents want me to teach him a bit of English when it's just me and him together.

Pietrasanta/Forte dei Marmi
Pietrasanta is the small town in Tuscany where we go to stay on the weekends. It is a city known for its art and due to being located near abundant sources of marble, features lots of the gorgeous white rock in its architecture. In fact, Michelangelo even stayed in the town at one point, in a building which is now a bar; fittingly named Bar di Michelangelo.
During the day we head to the beach at Forte dei Marmi. On the beach there is a swimming pool resort with a bar where we often sit and swim when we are not on the beach itself. This place is for the elite sectors of Italian society and some of the people I have had pointed out to me there are the president of Inter Milan and the Italian national footballer, Andrea Pirlo; who I have so far seen everyday I have been there. When we get back from the beach, some time after 7.00 PM, if Alessia and Michele want to go out, their Italian babysitter Patrizia comes over. Me, Umberto and Patrizia then have some dinner, either in the apartment or at a restaurant, and then me and Patrizia sit in the Piazza keeping an eye on Umberto while he plays with the other kids. On Saturday nights there are performances in the piazza, the only act I have seen so far being a man juggling fire on a giant unicycle.



Well that's all I really have time to write now. As I've said, I don't want to be wasting my days stuck in on the computer. Tonight, in Rovigo, there is the weekly event of Notte Rosa (Pink Night) where the shops stay open until late and there are shows in the piazzas.

Next time I blog, I will write up the positives and negatives so far of being here, trying to keep it to a concise and general nature like this, rather than rambling on about specific stories which will take ages to tell. If I get my laptop up and running then I'll be able blog in a bit more detail, WITH PICTURES!

Sicily 2010 - The rest

Due to the fact that I am jetting off to Italy again tomorrow to spend a month with an Italian family, I feel that I am unable to blog the rest of my recent trip to Sicily in the day by day fashion that I set out in the last post. Instead I will skilfully condense the rest of the trip into this one post. So here are the highlights of our stay with Alessio in Catania.

So I last left off where me and Lucy were shattered after our day in Palermo. The morning after our well-earned sleep, me, her and Alessio went to San Giovanni beach, formed from cooled lava from nearby Mt. Etna. As a result of its volcanic geological formation, the sand on the beach is black, as are the rocks.

That afternoon, we went to watch England beat Slovenia in a betting shop. Then later than night we went on our first Catania night out, starting off drinking in Piazza Teatro, a big square full of bars. Alessio and his friends were introducing us to Sicilian drinks such as Rum e Pera, a drink made up of two shots, one of rum which is drank first and one of pear juice which is drank to wash down the rum. Another awesome shot was the torcia which is a strong shot with a slice of orange on top of it. Sugar is then poured onto this orange with a flammable liquid. Torcia means torch, a name for which the reason quickly became apparent when the barmaid then set fire to the sugar on the orange causing it to caramelise. You then bite the orange and down the shot.

After this Sicilian drinking lesson we headed to Moon Beach, an awesome nightclub on a beach.

Another day, we watched the Italian world cup match where they were eliminated by Slovakia at Alessio's university in the auditorium. I found it very atmospheric being surrounded by Italians with their hand gestures out in full force, accompanied by yells of "Dai cazzo!" as they watched their team lose.

For our last night in Catania, we partook in the Italian tradition of passeggiata, a late night stroll. However, our passeggiata took us back to Piazza Teatro (below) for a second schooling in the wonders of Sicilian drinking.

 

Alessio's friends were all so generous, buying me drinks, and none of them spoke any English so it gave me and Lucy lots of opportunities to practice our Italian. Among Alessio's group of friends was a guy called Fabio. From the day Alessio's friends saw me and Fabio together, the fact that we bear a striking physical esemblance to each other became a running joke among the whole group, so much to the point that, by the end of the trip, I was addressing him as fratello (brother).

In all, my five days in Sicily gave me a real taste of the island, its people and the way it feels inexplicably different to mainland Italy. I met some wonderful people there through Alessio and can't wait to return there one day and see them again.

As of tomorrow I'm back in Italy to stay with a family there. I'm really not sure what to expect and am currently feeling a cocktail of excitement and nerves due to the whole stepping into the unknown. No doubt my next blog will be while I'm there.

Sicily 2010 - Day 1

After a long, long journey broken up with a couple of - sporadic at best - hours of sleep, mine and Lucy's plane finally touched down at Trapani airport. In our tired haze we went and sat at the baggage claim and started chatting. A couple of minutes passed until it suddenly hit us that we hadn't in fact checked in any baggage and the only luggage we had taken was already in our hands, rendering our being at the baggage claim absolutely pointless.
So first thing was first, we needed to cure our tiredness; with the time being 10.30 AM, the day had barely begun and we had a lot ahead of us. So what better way than a good Italian caffè to wake us up? The second I had swallowed the espresso my tiredness began to subside.

From the airport we got on our pre-booked coach to Palermo. We were due to meet Alessio that night in Catania which is about 2 hours 40 minutes by coach from Palermo. However we weren't meeting him until around 9.40 PM so by the time we reached Palermo at around mid-day we had a good few hours to kill.
The night before while tossing and turning on the floor of Stansted airport with nothing more than a lumpy suitcase for a pillow, I had gone and bought a Sicily travel guide to give me something to do. This proved useful for our time in Palermo, with the map allowing us to find our way back to the Central Station (above) when we needed to get our coach that night in Catania.

The first real thing we saw was this giant tree at Villa Garibaldi. There were a few giant trees like this; this one being far from the largest although the biggest one was cordoned off. We had an amazing sandwich for lunch at a little Panino bar called The Navy, which I would love to return to next time I'm in Palermo.

Next we found our way to a beautiful view of the Mediterranean sea.

Later, we captured this photo of a Vespa, an Italian icon.

We strolled through the beautiful Villa Giulia, where we saw this statue of Poseidon.

 

This is a stall at a street market we visited. It was a long street that snaked along among the buildings, lined with stalls. I got a real sense of Italian-ness from the market, with people all around me yelling about how their fruit was the best in Sicily or how their fish was caught today. Another scene that greeted me here was a group of vendors taking a break and playing some cards. It was a very cultural experience.

 

Then it was off to the Palermo Cathedral which we went inside and saw the beautiful art it had to offer.

 

This picture was taken at Quattro Canti, a piazza at the intersection of Via Maqueda and Corso Vittorio Emmanuele; essentially a giant beautiful crossroads smack-bang in the middle of the city. We passed through Quattro Canti on the way back to the station where we then set off to Catania.

Two hours and forty minutes later we had arrived. Alessio greeted us with open arms and took us home on the bus where we then got off at the stop nearest to his house and walked the rest of the way, catching a glimpse of the Cathedral at night.

Once back in his flat we could relax. Our travels were complete. We had reached our destination. We had gorgeous home-cooked Italian food in our stomachs and I was finally able to change my clothes after the 24 hours since I had last been able to before leaving my house.

Some of Alessio's friends came over and we sat eating pasta and watching Italian TV. After the large amount of travelling, walking and heat we had endured, we were pretty exhausted and no matter how hard I tried to listen to the Italian conversation between Alessio's friends to get involved, the words were just blending into incomprehensible sounds as my tired mind failed to process them quickly enough.

It was time for sleep.

Sicily, here I come

Well, despite the fact that only me and Lucy are going to Sicily, we have sorted out what we are going to do.

This is my last blog before I jet off to sunny Sicily.

I fly tomorrow but get a train to Stansted tonight, where I have to kill 7 hours at the airport.

The plan is that we will head to Palermo from Trapani airport via bus, see Palermo for a few hours then get another bus to Catania where we will meet Alessio and stay at his place. I'm really looking forward to it.

Hopefully everything goes to plan.

In other news, I got a call from the university the other day informing me that, contrasting to what I previously believed, in fact I can go to Italy to stay with an Italian family! I'm going for the whole of July and the flights are already booked! I'm very nervous.

However I have a busy day of packing and Euro-getting ahead of me so more on that and my Sicily trip when I return!

Arrivederci!

Crisis in the slow lane

A bit of an unpleasant surprise has surfaced regarding my trip to Sicily.

I was talking to Giovanna, asking if she had sorted out where we are going to stay. She was sorting it out with Alessio, due to them both being Sicilian. I stressed that it was only a week until we are due to come over to Sicily. She then said it was more like a month. This provoked a confused reaction in me due to my flight being on the 22nd June. She then went on to inform me that all our other friends have booked flights for the 22nd JULY and that she won't even be in Sicily on the dates I'll be there.

I don't recall ever facepalming harder than in this moment.

Due to the fact that we booked the flights together, thankfully Lucy is on the same flight as me on the 22nd June. When we booked the flights we checked and double checked that the 22nd June was the right date. I really don't know how this misunderstanding came about.

By the grace of the gods, Alessio will be in Sicily when me and Lucy are there. So, although we won't get to see all of our other friends for the last time in quite some time, at least he may be able to find us somewhere to stay. If there's no room at his inn then we will probably have to seek out a hostel.. or something.

Had I foreseen this mistake, I would have said my goodbyes to them all properly the last time I saw them in Cardiff. I merely said goodbye to them all like it was just another day, thinking I would see them all in Sicily.

Oh well. I'm sure I'll see them again.

I hope.

And at least I still get to go.

Open all the boxes

The boxes are at it like rabbits. Floor space is getting smaller than smaller. And it's only going to get worse until I move on Thursday.

The World Cup is well and truly underway and I'm enjoying it accordingly, trying to catch as many matches as possible in all its HD glory. I'm involved in so many sweepstakes and fantasy football things I've lost count, the most recent of which is a sweepstake between my friends where the prize is around £50. To win that, I need Italy to win. I don't particularly like my odds however I might feel better after I've better assessed them in tonight's match against Paraguay.

An Englishman cannot mention the World Cup without mention of the quite frankly disappointing result against the USA from Saturday night. Seeing Rob Green clumsily fumble that ball across the line from Dempsey's average long-shot was painful to say the least. I felt the hearts of the patrons of The George unanimously sink, which contrasted against the elation following Gerrard's goal earlier on in the match. It still fills me with disappointment and embarrassment to think of it now. Beckham's reaction says it all.

Following the match we hit town hard for a night of fun-filled frolicking; my first night out in Plymouth since my glorious return from Cardiff. There was a lot of dancing, England flags out of the window of Liam's Fiat Uno, singing Nathan's x-rated re-working of the alphabet at the top of our voices and acts of piracy in the form of boarding docked vessels.

I'm really in the mood for going to play football at Jennycliff. Chris Allin, if you're reading this, do you fancy rounding up the boys some time soon for a kick around?

I've made my decision as to what to do about the whole broken laptop thing. I'm going to get a new laptop for an early birthday present and go to Spain for a week with the money I have saved. The electric drum kit was too expensive anyway. It's no big deal though because I can just play my real drums whenever I'm home, due to the fact that there will actually be room for them in the new house. I will probably spend a week in a hostel but am a bit worried about going alone because I would rather have some company to make the week pass better and so that I don't have to take photos of myself. If anyone's interested in a week in Barcelona (or maybe another city if you present a valid argument) give me a shout. The ability to speak Spanish is preferred but not essential.

Oh and Sicily is now ridiculously soon. 8 days. The sun is shining and life is good.

What would you do?

I am struggling to make a decision.

Basically my laptop had been overheating and turning itself off a lot lately. So, having worked in a computer shop, I thought I'd open her up and have a look at the fan. BIG MISTAKE. I took it apart, cleaned the fan, rebuilt it and now it is 100% dead. Windows doesn't load. Nothing.

So it has now become apparent to me that, one way or another, I am going to need a new laptop some time soon; at the latest by late September when I return to uni. 

So here is my dilemma:

I have £500 put away which I intended on spending on a holiday in Spain this summer.  Also, my parents (in their undying generosity) have offered to get me a laptop as an early birthday present, three months early. Before this little mishap I was planning on getting an electric drum kit for my birthday to take up with me to Cardiff so that I can keep up my drumming. So here are the choices:

1) I get the laptop as an early birthday present and buy myself a trip to Spain, probably Barcelona, for a week or so.

+

2) I get the laptop with my own money and an electric drum kit for my birthday.

 +
So I either miss out on a trip to Spain or an electric drum kit. Tough decision.


What would you do?