Well, I’m
sitting in the airport getting ready to take the first of two flights that will
get me home, thus, I have ample time to reflect on my past 3 months in Italy.
Regretfully I have only written 3 blog posts about my time during Italy, but I
don’t consider it slacking off. Yes, I may have been a little lazy, but I was
just living the Italian lifestyle to a T, and it hasn’t disappointed. While
during my 1st month in Perugia I was ready to pack up and leave,
looking back on it, these past 3 months (especially these last 2 months) have
been great! I’ve made 3 amazing new friends, something that I’m always scared
won’t happen, but thankfully does happen anyway, including one who I’ve been
with night and day nonstop since about the 3rd week I’ve been in
Perugia. Eve is calm, easygoing, yet fun-loving, which makes her the perfect
travel companion. While I went to the Universita per Stranieri in Perugia for 2
months – okay, let’s say a month and a half, since that last half a month I was
barely ever in class – I got tired of the long hours pretty quickly, and I
thought I had learned a decent basis of Italian. Thus, my parents had the idea
that instead of Eve and I going back to the Universita, we could use this last
month, the month of April, to travel around Italy.
The
first week we went to Bologna and Milan. Bologna is a cute little city, very
tranquil and student-oriented. I think since it was the first stop on our trip
after coming from Perugia, I was enthralled by it since it was a city, not
merely a town like Perugia is. While there, Eve and I walked around and saw the
“Nettuno” fountain, the piazza outside the Church, at sushi for dinner one
night, went to an Irish pub another night (very authentic, I know), and went to
a wine-tasting at a vineyard our second and last day there. The vineyard was
right outside Bologna, and had apparently only been started up in 2009, so it
wasn’t as rustic as I pictured a vineyard to be. However, the wine was good and
the owner of the vineyard was nice and very generous with his portions of wine
that he gave us. Next stop was Milan, and it just blew Eve and I away. It’s a
huge city, not very walkable unless you only want to stay in the absolute
Centro by the Duomo (or as English-speaking tourists endearingly call it, “The
Domo”). The hostel we stayed at was only about a 7 minute walk away from the
Duomo and was beautiful; I would recommend it to anyone (it’s called Ostello
Bello). For 25 euro a night, we got a clean bunk bed (in a room with 8), and
got to stay in this cool venue that offered a café/bar downstairs, a basement
with couches, musical instruments, and games like foosball, 2 different outdoor
terraces with hammocks, and a nice, clean, bright little kitchen with an herb
garden on the accompanying terrace. Eve and I of course, with our newly
acquired love of cooking, had to test out that kitchen, so we made some nice
eggplant tomato sauce penne one night while we were there. We also of course
went shopping (Milan IS one of the fashion capitals of the world), and went out
at night. One of the places we were at was a converted little gothic Church
that was now being used as a bar. The bar and DJ booth were where the altar
should have been and there was a giant crystal chandelier hanging from the
ceiling. It was beautiful, just up my alley in terms of décor... too bad the
crowd in there was singles 45 and up. Oh well, we still had a good time and
danced!
Next
on the list was the Amalfi Coast. It had been nice weather all throughout
March, so I was expecting it to be hot and sunny in April as well, especially
towards mid-end of April. Our plan was to go to Capri for three days, since
we’d read online that it was beautiful and quaint there, and then go to
Positano for a day. We started our journey by train from Perugia to Naples (I
personally do not recommend traveling to Naples just for the sake of
traveling), then a tram from Naples Central Train Station to the harbor, then a
ferry from the harbor to the island of Capri. While the island definitely had
charm (all whitewashed houses, lemon and orange trees, and jagged, rocky cliffs
jutting into turquoise waters), the weather was not nearly as charming. It was
overcast when we first arrived, and gradually turned into a rainstorm later
that day... lasting for 2 full days. By the end of the second day Eve and I had
already explored Anacapri and Capri, the only 2 towns on the island, and gotten
drenched more times than we could count, so we decided to go to Pompeii on
Wednesday instead of staying another day in Capri and then going to Positano. I
think that was probably a wise choice since Pompeii was very interesting (it
helped that we got a private tour guide, which was originally my dad’s idea by
telephone). We went back to Perugia on Thursday, cooked a nice meal and then
went out for some dancing that night. The following week Eve and I went to
Florence, which, even though I had already been there on 3 separate day trips,
we were going to spend two full days and nights there and therefore hopefully get
a feel for the city. It really is an amazing city, my only complaint being that I think all
other English speaking people in the world realize how nice of a city it is
too, and come here to do study-abroads or just vacation in general. Everywhere
I turned I heard English, and actually, not just English, but American
English... so I’ve deciphered that Florence must be quite popular amongst
college-age Americans. Rightly so though, because the city is all so condensed
so it’s easy to walk through the entire city without really breaking a sweat.
The lack of need for taxis is not only more economical for a budget traveler,
but I think it’s nicer in general, since Eve and I could walk from one nice
café or bar, to the next café or bar, without spending money on taxi fare
(which is really expensive in Italy). While in Florence, we took an awesome
cooking class, where we learned to make a antipasto, a primo, secondo and
dolce. We made some sort of roasted eggplant/mozzarella dish for antipasto, we
made spaghetti from scratch (!!!!) for primo, we made chicken in white wine
sauce for secondo, and tiramisu for dolce. We were all divided into groups of 4
(Eve and I were with a nice Canadian couple) at our own kitchenette area, and
we learned how to cook all this food and then got to eat it too(!) The next two
days after Florence, Eve and I went to Milan again, just because it’s teeming
with people and life everywhere, the pulsating heart of Italy. This time we
didn’t do anything particularly noteworthy, just kind of walked around and took
it all in. To sum it all up though, I’m SO glad that I got this month to just travel around Italy. I really
feel like I’ve gotten to know the country and the culture quite well if I may
say so, not to mention that it’s been so much fun. Eve and I as a team did
things that were a bit off the beaten path for tourists. For instance, we
didn’t even visit the Uffizi in Florence, yet we did that cooking class (and
for me, that’s more fun anyways). and we didn’t go to swanky touristy restaurants,
but we went to nice “aperitivos” at bars around town (an aperitivo is basically
when a bar puts out a buffet and if you buy an 8 euro drink, you can eat as
much as you want from the buffet of pasta/grilled veggies etc. that are on the
buffet).
And
so, as all my friends start coming home from college, so concludes my gap year.
If I dwell on it too much, it’s incredibly sad to see such an amazing and
life-changing period of time in my life come to an end (so I try not to dwell
on it but instead get excited for my next adventures in life) yet I wouldn’t
change it for the world. Both Lima and Perugia, and Italy in general, have
stolen a piece of my heart. I will always associate these places with some of
my most carefree moments in life, so besides making me sad, it also makes me
smile to think back on all that I’ve lived, seen, eaten, experienced, cried
about, and laughed about in this past year. It’s official. This gap year was
the best thing for me at this point in my life, and I think now I am SO much more educated
in life than I was a year ago. :) I'm so thankful to everyone who supported me in this year off of school endeavor, because I think it's changed me for the better. And NOW - I get to go home and be with my family, what more could I ask for?
