Italia: Day Ten

We got up super early this morning, at like 4:45, so that we could hop on a bus and go to the airport to catch our flight into Florence. The problem was that even with getting up early, we couldn’t get to the airport because our bus didn’t show up. We ended up taking four taxis so that we could catch our flight on time. It was especially urgent because only one flight goes out of Cagliari to Florence per day and we wouldn’t be able to see the city if we didn’t make it.

 After the one hour flight where I sat between two older businessmen, we checked in Hotel Albion and dispersed into the city. Pam, Chelsea, Becky, and I headed to an underground mall that while similar to the one in Montreal, was actually really ghetto. I didn’t find anything in the mall to buy, so we continued on toward the San Lorenzo market. The stalls were really a repetition of each other, but I managed to find a cute dress, a magnet, a postcard, a jacket, and some cigarettes for Daniel. I wish I could have bought the absinthe that I saw, but I wasn’t sure who I would drink it with and I can’t exactly take it back to the U.S.

The river that runs through Florence 

We stopped for lunch near the side of the market at a restaurant called Za-Za. I ordered the chicken breast and was really surprised by how bland it tasted once it arrived. I also had some potatoes with it. I’ve been craving chicken because of the lack of it since we got here, but the meal definitely did not quench the craving. If anything, it only made it worse because I wanted something that tasted good. The meal was outrageous too and had a 2.50 euro cover charge per person. I swear, the system with which they charge for food in Europe is so unusual.

After lunch, Pam bought a postcard and in our effort to find a post office for her to mail it from, we ended up stumbling upon the Duomi and taking pictures of it. None of us wanted to wait in line to go inside, so we turned back because Pam had lost her postcard by then. We headed back to the hotel so that Becky could unpack her suitcase and Pam could take a nap. Chelsea and I grabbed some delicious gelato along the way and I actually got a really good waffle cone. The man who worked in the shop was really nice too. We made conversation about Jeni’s.

The Duomi doesn't even look real

The bathtubs they have all over Florence

While we were hanging out in the hotel, I looked around on the internet for some clubs that we could go to. Florence has a club that actually sounded really cool, with five floors and different music on each one. It had an outrageous cover charge of twenty euros though, so I decided it wasn’t going to happen. A lot of the other clubs had similar cover charges or weren’t open on Mondays. In fact, only one was free and it was pretty far from our hotel. Monday is such an awkward clubbing night.

We tried to go to the Boboli Gardens after everyone woke up, but the gardens closed at 6:30 and no one wanted to walk all the way there. I tried to find us a bus route, but we had trouble. We ended up going back to the hotel for a little while before we got bored and decided to wander around.

Pam, Chelsea, and I walked along the river, which was feasible once the sun went down a little bit. We took a lot of pictures and walked along the quaint Italian streets. Florence really didn’t feel like home though. We found a market and bought some fruit and Barcadi Breezers then walked down the street drinking them until we found a cheap café for dinner. We all ordered sandwiches and ate them out on the patio before going back for desert. We were charged extra because we ate at the restaurant. I’ll never understand all of the hidden charges.

The expensive gelato in the center of Florence - 15 euros for a waffle cone!

Dinner of sandwiches

A bridge in Florence

After dinner, we wandered the streets of Florence in search of Absinthe, but it sounds like most of the stores that sell hard liquor close at 7PM. It was pretty much a wild goose chase from going where one person told us to where the next person said we would be able to find it. We ended up at some African picnic/dance party that may or may not have been political in orientation. I didn’t really feel like dancing and none of the guys were cute, so I didn’t really want to stay. But I did because Pam and Chelsea were having a good time dancing with the guys.

When it was time to go, Pam suggested that we take a picture with all of the guys that we had been dancing with. They had been teaching us moves and Pam and Chelsea had been sharing theirs, so a sort of camaraderie was formed. They didn’t speak English very well though, so it was difficult getting them into a picture formation. One guy kept doing weird hand signals too, but he would wait right until the guy was taking the picture to do them, so we couldn’t stop it.

Once the pictures were over, we went to leave and Pam noticed that nearly ninety euros were missing from the front pocket of her shirt. She immediately asked who had taken it, but obviously, no one confessed. We looked at the pictures that had just been taken and you could clearly see a guy reaching toward the same pocket the money was in. Everyone in the picture, his friends included, started blaming this guy and Pam got into an argument with him. A bunch of other people who had been sitting under some of the tents set up for the party came over to see what the commotion was. They also started arguing that Pam probably lost the money and there’s no way one of the guys took it because he’s one of them, one of the “hardworking people”. It all pretty much sounded like bullshit but we didn’t know what to do. Pam was really flustered and me and Chelsea were just standing on the sidelines, upset.

The guy that Pam accused gave her twenty euros and another guy came over and kept saying that we should be friendly and was trying to keep the peace while saying that Pam was wrong. Another girl came over and started arguing that no one was at fault, that they were just trying to have fun and we shouldn’t bring bad vibes into their party. She seemed kind of drunk while she was arguing, but she knew both English and Italian, so it made the most sense to pay attention to what she was saying. She gave Pam another thirty-five euros in an attempt to get us to stop worrying about the money.

We were still trying to figure out what to do. It sort of seemed like Pam wanted to report the theft and I had seen a few police cars drive by before everything happened, so I started to walk out to the street near the plaza to see if I could find another. Just as I started walking, one drove by. I ran over to the car with my hand in the air, trying to get their attention. The woman who spoke both English and Italian realized what I was doing and started charging after me with a beer bottle in her hand. Apparently, it was quite the sight.

I managed to get the police’s attention though and they parked their car nearby. One of the officers only spoke Italian though and the woman started into her side of the story in fast Italian before I even had the chance to explain what was happening. She put her beer bottle down on the ground while she was having the conversation with them.

Once the other officer walked over, I was able to tell them what happened, but I have no way of knowing what she said to them. Essentially the officer just kept repeating that we needed to be “friendly, friendly.” He said there was really nothing we could do except go to the police station and file a report in the morning, and even then, he didn’t really see what that would do since we’re just tourists. Pam was freaking out because she didn’t have her passport on her and she was afraid that they would ask her for it if she filed a report, but I tried to calm her down while conversing with the officer. The whole time my legs were shaking. I hate talking to figures of authority.

It was ridiculous though because it was like he looked down on us because we weren’t citizens and felt no need to help us whatsoever. I never realized foreign police were so rude. As much as I hate the local police and all that I’ve been through with the law, this has made me respect the way they enforce things in America a little bit more. On top of the lack of help, the officer proceeded to lecture me about trying to get their attention. He said that running after a police car and calling for help are things that you only do if someone is getting hurt or killed. He made it sound like their job was basically to drive around writing tickets and preventing murders. I wanted to fight back against the lecture, but I just tried to thank him for his assistance with the smallest amount of sarcasm possible before walking away. I needed to leave to control my temper. I can’t stand when people are rude and unhelpful.

We spent the walk back to the hotel trying to calm Pam down and figure out where we were. We were actually pretty far away when this all happened and we ended up being twenty minutes late for the meeting. I think Kimberlie and Dr. Fink understand though.

Italia: Day Nine

Today was really boring. We didn’t have anything scheduled except for a visit to the beach in the afternoon, so I slept in until 9:30 before going for a run around the city. I managed to get lost but locate our hotel over the roofs of all the buildings, so it wasn’t too bad.

For lunch we went to Il Pomodoro, but they didn’t have any pizza! It was really disappointing. I ended up getting French fries and chicken that might have been turkey. I’m not really sure. It was a good meal that I topped off with a Bacardi Breezer in orange that tasted like orange pop. I’ll need to look for them in the states.

We met up at the hotel afterward and headed to the beach. It took forever for the rest of the group to assemble though, so we waited for almost an hour before we actually stepped onto the bus. The ride was also long and boring. I have an allergy to the parasites that live in sand, so I started itching and breaking out with little red bumps the instant we got to the beach. I ignored it though.

Pam, Chelsea, and I went into the water. It was kind of cold, but definitely manageable. Plus it stopped the itching and now I can say that I’ve been in the Mediterranean Sea! The only problem was the bottom was kind of rocky in random places and I kept accidentally stepping on them, so we had to swim out far and tread water, but then we realized all the waves were closer inland.

The Mediterranean

The beach

When we got out, Pam and I went down to a little restaurant farther down the beach from where the group set up camp. I got a Sex on the Beach while Pam got a sandwich. When we were done, the group split up and left the beach. Pam, Chelsea, Becky, and I headed back to the hotel and I took a shower before Becky and I went to the market. It was closed though, so we ended up wandering around and trying to find some stores that were open for shopping. We only found two and I didn’t see anything in either place.

We met up with Pam and Chelsea back at the hotel and tried to go to La Cantina again for dinner, but it was closed so we ended up going down the street to Burgerlandia and getting pasta and French fries. Then we went down the street to a gelato shop, which actually turned out to be rather gross. The ice cream was really watery.

We came back to the hotel afterward and I got a slice of flipped pizza from Pomodoro on our way. We waited in the lobby for the rest of the group to assimilate for our evening meeting, but nearly all of them were late. It wasn’t us for once though, so no one could complain.

Italia: Day Eight

This morning I got up at 7:45 to shower and stuff before we went down to breakfast. I had the awesome bread again and some cheese and ham. For some reason, it didn’t taste quite as good today so I had an apple as well.

Our morning officially started at nine when we went on tours with the students. The whole day was rather disorganized though. It turns out the Italians hadn't had breakfast yet, so we hopped on the bus and stopped at a sit-down restaurant. Once we got there, they realized we didn't want to get anything to eat though and apparently not all of them were hungry, so we hopped on the bus again to go to a croissant shop that also had coffee. The Italians downed their espresso like it was a shot and we were off again.

It didn’t seem like they really knew what we were doing though. We wandered around the town, looking at the views from off the tops of buildings, visiting a park called Monteclaro that had a lot of turtles and odd-looking ducks, and getting on and off the bus. They seem to use public transportation a lot here, which I love. I just wish the buses weren’t so crowded. I like sitting down occasionally, especially when we’re doing a lot of walking.

One interesting thing I noticed though was that to get to the top of the buildings in the older part of the city, they have outdoor elevators built into the side of the wall. It seemed really strange to me. Wouldn’t the mechanical parts erode over time and the elevator stop functioning? It was actually one of the largest elevators I’ve seen since arriving though, so I guess they work quite well.

Views from the top of the city

The confusing streets of Italy

Man-made lake in the city park

I also got to see an Italian driver’s license, which looks a lot different than ours. Their license indicates what level they are at and, specifically, what type of vehicles they can drive on the back. It also includes the basic information listed on ours. They were all really surprised by the vertical appearance of my license and the warnings indicating I was underage. They were amazed that I’m only eighteen and that it isn’t legal to drink in America at my age. It turns out the drinking age is actually 16 here and no one pays attention to it either.

For lunch, we went to a place called La Cantina, where we feasted on fries and breaded chicken sandwiches. The amazing thing was this place actually had ketchup. I was surprised to find it and immediately ordered a healthy amount for my chicken. I swear, living in Europe, the first thing I’ll go through withdrawals of is my ketchup. This place does not appreciate the condiment.

We took a bus to an outlet of the university after we were done. At the university, we showed the students our video of Delaware and recapped our afternoon. After a short question and answer session, we say goodbye to our second group of passing friends and went back to the hotel for a brief moment before going to a shopping street in the city for dinner. We ate at a small restaurant on a side street that had a menu in English and Italian, along with a number of other languages. The waiter was really nice.

How Italians think of American clothing and New York...

The classroom we gave our presentation in

Before they brought out the first course of our meal, there was some commotion outside. It turned out to be a PRIDE parade, so we went outside and videotaped it. While we were watching, a guy heard us talking and asked if we were American. I started a conversation with him because he was cute. It turns out he’s a nineteen-year-old guy from Idaho who is studying as a foreign exchange student in a local high school. It's weird how you can find an American pretty much anywhere in the world.

Idaho

Drag queens in the parade

PRIDE parade

Garlic bread had appeared on the table since we had gone outside, so we indulged. Next came the pasta. Becky, Chelsea, and Pam had all ordered spaghetti, but I was confused when they brought me a lasagna looking dish instead of my cheese pizza. I ate it though because I was hungry and thought it may be some weird kind of pizza that I hadn't seen before. I was even more surprised when, after I finished the lasagna dish due to my hunger, they delivered a pizza to the table. Where did the lasagna come from?!

When the bill came for our meal, I was outraged to find out the lasagna that I didn’t order had been placed on our bill along with my pizza and the bread that we also didn’t order. I complained to our waiter, who had been funny and entertaining the whole meal. He seemed nonplussed to change our bill because as he claims “I ate the dish”. I explained that I thought it was what I had ordered and he lowered the bill by six euros, which wasn’t the full price of the lasagna. I was really appalled by how he handled the whole ordeal. In the States, if something like this would have happened, I definitely wouldn’t have been charged for non-ordered items. I might even have gotten something extra because of the mistake. I think this is just an example of people trying to take advantage of the tourists. While it was awkward at the time, I’m glad I didn’t stand for it.

The waiter playing around before the bill issues

We tried to go shopping after dinner, but everything was already closed, so we turned around and found the only open gelato shop to get our fix. They had terrible choices though, so I ended up with a melon flavor that I didn't really enjoy. It ended up being a disappointing experience all around because Pam didn't like her flavor either. I can’t believe they didn't have any type of chocolate.

We walked back to the bus stop afterward and ended up stumbling upon the PRIDE parade people having a party in the square. There was a stage with a band set-up and the drag queens were all hanging out ready to perform. They kept talking in between each song though and we couldn’t understand what they were saying, so we ended up coming back to the hotel.

Italia: Day Seven

Our hotel in Cagliari is really nice. It has a modern design to it and we are staying in triples, so I’m rooming with Becky and Chelsea. We took a Mercedes-Benz tour bus from the airport to our hotel and then we looked around real quick before heading up to the rooms and passing out. I've been exhausted this whole trip. It’s ridiculous.

The inside of The Hotel

This morning I got up at 7 and went for a run on my own. It was nice to see some of the town before everyone else and I did really good with not getting lost and remembering all the turns I took. Sometimes I think it’s easier to pay attention when it’s just me, the wind against my face, and the music in my ears. I can tune everything else out and focus on the next step.

The breakfast was really good too. There was some amazing bread in the hotel restaurant and I had some ham and cheese as well. We had to eat quickly though so that we could catch our bus to the university of Cagliari. It turns out that the students there don’t speak very much English compared to those in Torino and the language barrier was immediately evident. They gave us a tour of the school but we couldn’t communicate with them much because of it. The only thing that I was sure about was that they wanted us to come to a concert with them tonight near our hotel. They struggled through their translated presentation as well.

A sign on the back of one of the desks

Monkey watching the presentation

The lunch was amazing though. We just ate in their cantina, or cafeteria, but the pasta was the best that I’ve tasted. The beef and bread were okay too. The only thing I didn’t like was the oil that I put on my lettuce, but I should have predicted that.

Our presentation came after lunch. It was a lot to endure. We needed a translator for the entire thing to make sure all of the students understood what we were saying. It dragged on for over two hours once you accounted for the question and answer session that followed. We got to come back to the hotel immediately afterward though, so there was relief in that.

I took a nap for an hour and woke up when my mother called to say that I still haven’t received a check for my Holocaust grant in the mail yet. It was a good rest though.

I got ready and went with Pam to dinner at the il Pomodoro restaurant down the street. They had the most amazing pizza. It was a really strange experience though because we got our food at the counter and then sat down to eat. When we were done, we had to pay for it and remind the woman what we ate.

We walked around the streets near our hotel afterward in search of a gelato shop, but we couldn’t find one so we ended up having to go to McDonald’s and get McFlurry’s to meet our day’s gelato quota. I was actually surprised by how good the brownie bit McFlurry tasted. I made it chocolate ice cream essentially by mixing in the fudge to the vanilla and just had to suffer through the bits of chocolate.

Once we were done with our meal, we hung out in the lobby of the hotel and wrote our "homework" journal entries while sitting in the bar area.