Her parents immigrated from India so they spoke Italian, their native language, and some broken English. They loved practicing English with me, and it was funny to hear Cinzia speak English since I never had before. Due to the Swiss, Indian, and Italian influences though every meal this family made for me was incredible and from a different country. We woke up to have a Swiss breakfast with her parents, her sisters, and her cousin who could only speak Italian. Then me and Cinzia went out to explore Lugano, which is a beautiful city on a lake with the mountains running into it. Sadly, it was a bit overcast, but I still got the idea.
She lost the buckle on her purse so we had to retrace all the steps we had taken before we could get down to the lake. Then we walked all the way back up to her house for lunch, which was a bunch of indian dishes, which were eaten by hand--when in Rome... My hands smelled strongly of spices for a long time after that, but it was so good. I'm not even sure exactly what I ate.
Then we drove out to Mini-switzerland. Which was kind of scary since Europeans can't get their licenses until after 18 and it was her very first time driving alone. When we got there, we decided it definitely wasn't worth it, so we walked along the lake and then searched for a path up the mountain. By the time we found the path, we didn't have much time left on the parking meter so we didn't summit, but it was pretty and peaceful anyway. P.S. leaves are slippery.
That night was Italian for dinner and I ate a prosciutto salad (for those of you who don't know, i basically never eat pig) which was actually tasty and olio and oolio that was delicious. I also had chai tea made from the root and we all ate the Swiss Easter bunny I had bought for the family as a thank you. On top of that we had ice cream cake.
After that massive food binge, me and Cinzia took a night walk that was really fun and our adventure lasted almost 2 hours. There were some parts where there were no lights and since we didn't have our cell phones on us it was piiitch black. Gotta admit, I was afraid of ending up in a lake. It was nice to talk and share experiences, and it really helped my french to have to constantly conversationally use it. By the end of the weekend, I was feeling fluent (minus my accent of course).
The next morning I had to roll out early to catch my train to Ferarra, Italy to visit Lisa Picascia. I got to Ferarra at noon as planned and went out to the front of the tiny station to wait for Lisa to come pick me up. After waiting awhile, I decided to text her in case she forgot when I was coming in and then I realized I had typed in her number wrong and it wouldn't let me call or text her. I started getting worried after waiting about 45 minutes because she said she'd be there and that there wouldn't be a problem finding each other at such a small station. After an hour of me freaking out because I had no where to go and no way to contact her, Lisa came out of the station saying she had been waiting for me on the track, phew... but guess we had just walked by each other.
We walked back through Ferarra the 20 minute walk to her apartment and I learned that it is the city with the 2nd highest bikes per capita to Amsterdam, and that everyone is depressed maybe due to the gloomy, overcast skies that cover the city every morning. We went to her apartment (which is kind of like a home stay since the land lady is so intrusive and controlling) which was nice but really just a room in someones house with a makeshift "kitchen" in the library that included a mini fridge and portable stove top.
That day we explored Ferarra. We walked past a random, giant rhinoceros hanging from a ceiling... something to do with surprise art and took a picture of me pretending to hold it up, but instead of using zoom, Lisa kept making me move backwards and forwards and up and down, it was kind of hilarious but the picture is sub-par unfortunately.
We went to their Sunday street market (happy easter by the way!) and I bought a Murano glass necklace that I'm pretty excited about. We saw a famous building with protruding diamonds that point outward from the center, making the building looking bigger than it is. Then we went to her favorite place, this circular park with a statue in the middle, and got some gelato. Lisa ordered for me in Italian, but in the middle we were discussing flavors in English and the server lady was not too happy about that, she was pretty mean to us. I did get incredible dark chocolate and stracciato gelato to eat in a park though, so i really couldn't care less.
We ate and talked about how similar our tiny, direct enrollment programs are, except with hers she can only speak to the other participants in Italian, like legit rule against English (thats middlebury for ya) so I was only the second person she had talked to all semester in English other than her boyfriend. We also talked about Tufts med which we are both planning to go through with, but with totally different perspectives. I look at it as an opportunity to take advantage of my undergraduate experience and relax and I'm really sad that I have so little time left to do it, while she looks at the rest of ungrad as a waste of time and wants to get her life started. Funny how different perspectives can be.
Later that day we went on a run outside the city walls on this bank. There were a billion people out, so we had to dodge them, but it was nice to run with somebody after running solo for so long. We planned on cooking that night, but because it was Easter in Italy there were no grocery stores open when we went looking. Instead we found an apertivo bar, bought a €3.50 spritz--the ferraran's drink--and went to town on the tapas line up. It was delicious, there was bread and cheeses, mini sandwiches, pasta salads, risotto, shrimp, hot dog, meats, pizza, etc and all for 3.50, I mean I'm not sure if you're supposed to eat as much as we did, but whatever totally cool by me. Also, it was my first drink with lisa, yay!!
That night, I think we were supposed to go exploring, but she passed out after dinner. The next day we went back to the train station to go to Bologna since I had to go there anyway to catch my train to Naples. The city was pretty empty because of Easter break, and it also wasn't too impressive (in my opinion). We saw all the sites and walked around and had a picnic which was all fun, but I wasn't feeling the city. Who knows.
The cathedral in their main piazza looks like they were working really hard on it to make it look pretty, then half way through got lazy and just decided to finish it up as quick as possible.
We went to the outskirts and found this enormous park where EVERYONE in all of the city seemed to be, it was packed with people. We set up camp in some wildflowers near a river and chilled out. A crazy guy asked us for a cigarette then asked the person next to us who also said no so he came back to us and said she was a whore. Then he asked the couple drinking wine/doing math next to us and they gave him one but he came back anyway and told us that they were doing math and drinking wine and how horrible a combination or something weird.
Then the woman of that same drunken mathematics couple decided to change clothes, yes in the middle of the park, and I got a full moon. She didn't even appear embarrassed or anything walking around without bottoms on... ohhh Italia. We went back to the main piazza and went into a little side area, and as we were walking out they were shutting the entry gate... nearly trapped us inside! Then we went and got pizza.
Lisa went back to Ferarra after we found a place to get internet (I was getting concerned because the guy I was supposed to be staying with in Naples never confirmed either way after the earthquake because he said his grandfather lived nearby or something but that he should still be back in time?) So she left and I still had like 4 hours until my 12:45am night train. I went and paid for the internet in a hotel because i still had no call from Carlo--the naples guy--and he never gave me his number no matter how many times I asked. There was also no message when I signed on, so I sent him one saying I was about to get on a night train and I need to know if he will be there to stay with and that I won't have internet again but that he must call me. Then as my half hour session was just about to end, my gmail refreshed saying he had sent a message, way to follow instructions. I had to buy a whole new session to read the message which said his cousin had died due to the earthquake and that he wouldn't be there. Great. Now I was alone in Bologna in the middle of the night with a roundtrip ticket to Naples but no one there anymore. Way to call like I asked, and way to tell me ahead of time, and where was this cousin before when only your grandfather was involved? Either way, I had another little freak out and ended up calling Lisa who said I could come back to Ferarra.
I got back at like 2am and she stole her landlords bike to pick me up but both the tires were flat, so it was interesting to walk back. Then we went to bed and the next day decided to go to Venice. At least out of the shitty situation I got to go to a city I otherwise might never have gotten to. As we took the train to Venice, the tracks suddenly became surrounded by water as we approached the Westernized version of the Indonesia sea gypsies village.
We winded through the narrow streets filled with Venetian and Murano glass shops and stands, and porcelan masks and replicas of gondoliers. Lisa loved all the glass things that were tiny especially the little fish bowls.
I wore my blue and white striped sailor shirt, and i SWEAR i had no idea I was wearing the gondolier's uniform. I should've grabbed a boat and started selling rides.
I think there were too many things to look at and tight, crowded spaces, and not enough food or water and too much sun so I started getting really dizzy after awhile and was afraid of fainting. We made it to the famous main piazza whose name I forgot and I have never seen so many tourists in one spot except for maybe in line for a ride at Disney world. The piazza was really beautiful though and we settled down for a picnic lunch.
Then we walked past a million more vendors with food and Venetian paintings and the masks and glasses and 1 euro squishy faces. We walked along the water, until we decided to explore the less touristy parts of the village. It was way more interesting to me to explore and get lost, and that is just what we did.
We eventually made it back to the train station around dark and went back to Ferarra. The next day I let Lisa do homework and went to a nearby park to do some of my own, lame I know, but I had already unexpectedly doubled the time I stayed with her and felt bad. We went on another run but not really together because of skype and I ran outside the walls which I found really nice to have them towering over me. I'm not sure what else happened that day, but I woke up super early the next morning for my adventure to milan malpensa airport to get to Athens, I'll save the second have of my break for another post though because A) my computer battery is about to die and B) even I wouldn't read a post of mine that long. I'm definitely not interesting enough.
Swiss Italian Observations:
-A very interesting combo because Swiss and Italians are so different, they are kind if like a more punctual version of Italians.
-Lots of hair gel as usual.
-Super friendly people.
-It used to be that Italians came to Switzerland to shop because it was cheaper, but things have changed and now it is the other way around.
-Speak Italian. but also speak french german english, etc
-See below.
Italian observations round two:
-In the spring the ugly royal purple shifts to ugly light purple.
-Venice is my favorite Northern Italian city that I've seen, it is just so beautiful.
-People not only don't do anything over Easter, they dont do anything for the week before and after, because you really need all that time to pray, I'm sure.
-Everything is closed on Sunday, but especially Easter Sunday.
-They almost never control on regional trains, don't be silly like me and buy a ticket.
-They are not afraid to take off their panties in a public location.
-No one in the park was playing frisbee, only futbol, catch, juggling, etc.
-The pizza tastes better in the south because of the climate, they use the same ingredients and styles.
-I know no Italian, except for Where is...? and Left Right which is really all you need to get around.
-Italians not only stare, but approach and often call you "ciao bella," it's way more creepy than the Swiss just staring and letting you pass.
-You have to carry your purse on the side opposite the street because people on mopeds will swipe it if its in the hand closer to the street.
-Still amazing gelato.
-Seriously guys, wear some deodorant.
