I have a few goals in life. A bucket list, if you would. One was to own a house (check), another to get a degree (check) and then subsequently to get my PE. One goal I've had since I was very young has driven many other goals into fruition: I wanted to go to Italy. I wanted to see the land of my ancestors where my Great-Grandpa DiNatale (that I never knew) was from. If you hadn't guessed, I'm very fond of my heritage. This singular goal has helped shape my life. Eventually it morphed from simply wanting to go to Italy to wanting to travel and learn and see the world beyond my home and comfort zone (yes that does include the rest of the US, I'm not only talking about Europe). But to be a traveler you have to have money so I had to get a degree and get a job and so on and so forth.
This May, accompanied by my husband, I finally went to Italy. And was immediately disappointed. I'm not saying Italy was a disappointment per say, it was everything it should be. But I had hyped it up to more than it is and was immediately brought back to earth upon arrival. This is what happens when you build something up for your whole life. Nothing can live up to your wildest dreams.
Ok, maybe some things. Marie Calles in Verona, the Mediterranean Sea, and Venetian masks made by the Boldrini brothers to name a few. But let me start from the beginning and give you far too much detail and opinions.
We had an afternoon flight on Sunday the 6th. Which was perfect because we were able to exercise the dogs before our friend, Nate came over to dogsit and housesit. Our flight to JFK was uneventful although Steven started getting a fuzzy feeling in his throat. For being in a big city like NY, JFK was pretty "meh". There wasn't even a pizza place in our terminal. Isn't that against some sort of law? We ate the most expensive crappy food at this SOHO bistro place that I've ever had. Seriously, if you find yourself in front of the SOHO in JFK, walk away.
You know how I've said before that we're cursed fliers? Our luck struck again. There we sat on our big-ass plane taxiing away from our gate when the pilot came on over the intercom and informed us all that he "wasn't happy" with the preflight check they had run through and that we were heading back to the gate for repairs. I started having flashbacks of Trinidad. It turns out that the pilot had broken the adjustment lever on the pedal that operates the flaps. In other words...we have a short pilot and his block of wood came off his shoe. What they promised was a 45 min repair ended up taking 2 hours. Which we all spent in the airplane without air conditioning. Our trip wasn't starting off on the right foot.
Fast forward - The flight FINALLY took off, our in-flight meals were actually good, our in-flight entertainment was broken, the night's sky from an airplane is pretty friggin cool, we look enough like Italians for the airline screw to speak Italian to us instead of English, Steven's sore throat was a full blown cold, we made up most of the time in the air and our landing was really bumpy.
And then amazingly...without warning...we were in Europe.
I really thought it would feel different. I thought I'd step onto European soil and it would feel all "Europeany". Again, this is what happens when you build something up in your mind your whole life. Asphalt in Europe in fact feels just like asphalt here. The air smells about the same too. We made our way to the trains were I uttered my first Italian phrase "Tu parli Inglese?". Haha and luckily they did.
After getting really confused at the Milan Centrale train station and having our first bad experience with Italians, we found out train to Cinque Terre. Oh let me elaborate on that because this could be helpful for someone else. Your train ticket will tell you YOUR destination, the platform signs will say the trains FINAL destination. Your destination might be on that route, but it won't say it on the platform. We didn't know that. So we asked one of the train employees which train we needed (it was a "help" booth) and he pointed towards platform 21 and said "customer service". Ok, we walked down to customer service and asked the same question and without even looking at our ticket they said "No, go see information". Ok...so we walk back out to the platforms and find the Information booth. This lady says (without looking at our ticket) "We don't do anything with trains, go see customer service." For f*ck sake, if any one of them had even bothered to look at our ticket, they could have said, "oh, Monterosso is on the route for La Speze, you need the La Speze train". Sorry...that still pisses me off.
On the train, our last leg of traveling before our first B&B, we sat next to a nice couple from Sweden who thankfully spoke some English...as well as Italian...and German... Yep, us Americans are kinda behind on our language skills. We chatted it up with them for a while and watched the countryside float by. It was pretty green and flat for a while, nothing outrageously lovely until we got closer and closer to Cinque Terre. Then we started passing through tunnels and exploding out of the mountain to a breathtaking cliff and blue ocean view. Holy crap, gorgeous.
Our destination, Monterosso al Mare, is the biggest of the Cinque Terre towns. We arrived and hiked our way up to our B&B where we were greeted warmly my Lorenzo of Manuel's House. It felt awesome to take our packs off and to have a glass of wine with this view.
Wow...I'm not usually an ocean/beach person but this place could change my mind. I even had a kitty to pet. These were the B&B's resident stray cats. Once I was slightly more comfortable with my Italian I asked the bar guy what the cat's name was. He laughed and said (in Italian) "no-name" was the cat's name. In other words, they don't name these strays.
After our wine, we explored Monterosso a bit and grabbed a snack and some coffee. This was the best coffee I'd ever had. Ever.
We walked up some of the random roads and found an old castle type thing with a statue of a monk petting a dog. I'm not sure what the statue was about. We couldn't understand the sign.
The view of the city was pretty neat from up here.
The other side of the mountain had spectacular views as well:
We eventually found the Hawn's who were staying at Manuel's house too but had been gone on the hike (you can hike from one Cinque Terre village to the other on this old hike route. We didn't get to do the hike since we were only in Cinque Terre one day but I bet it was fun). We had a blast with them at dinner where I accidentally spoke Spanish to the Italian server and learned they really didn't like that and I tried the pesto which was fantastic! (Apparently Cinque Terre came up with pesto sauce) Then we went to a couple bars and tried the local wine and the flagship drink, Sciacchetra'. Being that Steven and I had been up for about 30 hours at that point, we called it a night early (12am Italian time) while the Hawn's kept the party going.
I think our best breakfast in Italy was at Manuel's house. The best cappuccino, yummiest prosciutto and cheese, tasty yogurt and according to Steven, a delectable kiwi. Not to mention the view...and the kitties. We were sad to leave but totally psyched to see Verona. Back on went the packs as we made our way back to the train station.
On the train to Verona we passed by Lake Garda and wondered why we weren't stopping there. As picturesque as Monterosso was for the coast, Lake Garda was the postcard for mountain lakes. Lake Garda is crystal blue water with a background of snow tipped Alps and framed by pastel houses. Next trip, definitely next trip.
Things we learned so far:
- Wine is free on long flights...take advantage of that.
- Train platforms have the final destination of the train showing which might not be the destination that is showing on your ticket.
- Italians in customer service positions are cranky.
- It is unheard of to be a female Engineer (the lady from Sweden practically shook my hand when I told her my occupation).
- Italians dislike accidental Spanish.
- If you buy a glass of wine, Italians serve it to you with a platter of chips, nuts, olives and sometimes meats.
- Italian coffee is amazeballs.
- Travel with Airborne and other OTC medicines.
Continue on to Part 2? Don't mind if I do!
-Liz
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