Sunday, July 5, 2009

Italia!

Ciao loyal readers!
I am currently in Siena. For the past couple weeks I've been soaking up the sun and almost intolerable heat of the great country of Italy. I. LOVE. IT.
I left Oviedo in the dust and was quite content to. I went to Ireland and rented a car and drove on the wrong side of the road and got lost in the Irish countryside on roads that looked big on the map but in reality were only wide enough for barely one car, let alone two, or one car and a horse pulling a buggy.
I loved Ireland. We rented a car in Cork but almost immediately drove to Blarney Castle. I kissed the Blarney stone, although later I learned that the men that help you kiss it also pee on it. How disappointing for guys whose job it is is basically to look down at boobs all day. To kiss the Blarney stone you have to lay on your back and lean back, suspending your head over many stories above the ground. So my friend took a picture of me kissing the Blarney stone and all that appear in the picture are my boobs.
Then we drove to Galway. We had a hostel right in the middle of everything, which was great. There were a ton of pubs with live traditional music, which was AWESOME. The next day (after getting lost even with a GPS) we drove to Connemara, which is supposedly one of the most beautiful places in Ireland. I agree. Then we went to the Cliffs of Moher, which were windy enough to knock us over, and we ended up having dinner randomly in a tiny town which also had live music. We got to Cork late and were going to couch surf but since it was so late we just slept in the airport and when I couldn't sleep I experimented with putting on every piece of clothing I brought to lighten up my suitcase, so that I wouldn't get charged to check it for 30 euro with my laptop inside!
Then we flew to Dublin and saw Trinity College and the book of Kells, and also went to the Guinness factory and the Jameson whisky factory. Both were fun. We couch surfed with a couple, a Polish girl and a German man, as well as another couple from Texas being hosted. The guy used to be a drug dealer until he was arrested for 7 felonies and then experienced a conversion and got a degree in theology. The girl used to be Catholic and a NET minister and then converted to "the Vineyard". We had some really interesting and spiritual gratifying conversation over a Guinness.
And then I went to Barcelona. It was fun. I'll be going back after Italy so I'll write about it then. The Sagrada Familia is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Coincidentally I met an Irish man and his daughter there, who had just come from Ireland and were then going to Rome like me. What a strange itinerary for both of us to have.
Then I went to Rome and spent 8 nights. I fell in love completely with that city so much that I can't even describe it in words. I felt so at home there. I went for a job interview for a description that would have suited me perfectly but didn't get a job because by the time I got there all the positions had been filled, although the man was very nice and happy that I had applied and come by anyway. But for a good two days I was hypothesizing about living there. The funny thing was that the girl I was renting a room from told me when I got there that starting in September the room I was staying in was free. So I had a job interview AND a potential place to live! And I really felt like I had entered grown-up world.
I saw so many things in Rome, but I'm glad I spread them out because even as it was I got really tired. There's just too much to see there. I ended up seeing the Pope twice and totally made eye contact (it's documented on video!). Also saw the tombs of many saints, many priceless works of art, and got handed a rose from a man in a car while walking around the Circus Maximus at 11:30 at night.
From Rome I went to Florence. I really liked Florence too. I got to see the real Birth of Venus by Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci's Annunciation and a bunch of other paintings that I think it made me a better person to see. Also went to the Church and House of Dante. Both Beatrice and his actual wife are buried in the church, which is interesting. I always wondered if his wife was jealous of Beatrice. The information in his house said he was betrothed to his wife at the age of 14. I really wonder how he felt about her. He must have paid her some attention because he had quite a few kids with her.
I also have managed to get hit on every single day since I left Florence, except for today and that's because I'm staying inside. The first night a guy started talking to me on the street and I was curious about what he would say, as well as wanted to learn more Italian. So I went with it, telling him I was Spanish and that I was an English teacher and he showed me around and then bought a bottle of wine and we sat on the banks of the river Arno while he played the only two songs on his cell phone: "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt and "Hips Don't Lie" by Shakira. I was actually laughing the entire time. He tried to convince me to go with him to a mountain on a motorbike and to be his "girlfriend" but instead I went home, leaving him disappointed and with a half-empty bottle of wine. Since the fact of whether or not I had a boyfriend was important to him, I decided to make one up halfway through, although it didn't really help.
The next night an African guy asked me in French if he could kiss me, even though I told him that he could not sit next to me. I was minding my own business looking at a building from the Renaissance and listening to a guy on the street play some very good classical guitar and then an overly eager African ruined it.
Then last night the same scenario almost happened as my first night in Florence, although it was in Siena, and the guy was a lot more pushy and a lot less respectful of my wishes to NOT go to his house and drink Chianti. He ended up flipping me off when I refused and decided just to go home. Yeah, yeah, I shouldn't have gone out with him in the first place, but he had just asked me to go have a beer with him in a nearby café. Curiosity gets the better of me. My revenge will be that someday I can write something with all of these guys as characters that bad things happen to.
Siena is really cute. Florence was bustling in the Renaissance, but Siena was built up during the Middle Ages. It has lots of winding streets perfect for getting lost on. Right now it's a party atmosphere because of the Palio, a famous horse race that they actually party for a month to celebrate. Last night groups of men at 2:00 in the morning were marching down the street next to my hotel shouting songs as loud as they could. Makes our Derby parties look lame. I saw St. Catherine's head (and thumb, actually), as well as her house and the cell she used to use. I've also really enjoyed the "crypt", which is actually not a crypt but the anteroom of an ancient church covered in wall paintings that were preserved because they filled the place with dirt and debris and left it for 700 years. So the colors are bright and beautiful. It's so funny how they used to just build churches on top of one another, like it was no big deal. Also there is a Eucharistic Miracle here were 200 something consecrated hosts have survived perfectly for over 200 years. Numerous scientific studies have been done on them and they have confirmed that they date until way back when and that they are bread which should have already disintegrated many years back. They've been stolen and returned twice. Very interesting and something I'm glad I got to see.
Today I tried to go to a small town that is having a Chianti festival, but the bus never came. So I had an excellent lunch of grilled vegetables and swordfish and drank a half liter of wine, and then the owner, who had been talking to me, gave me a free limoncello at the end. And then I realized that I was tipsy and after tackling the steep medieval hills went home and took a four hour long nap.
I think I'll go out now and have a gelato for dinner. I saw a place that had white chocolate flavor. MMM.

3 comments:

  1. Sounds like a busy crazy fun time.
    Love,
    Aunt Beth

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've haven't read the post yet... but I'm sad there's no pictures... :(

    ReplyDelete
  3. well.. now that I read thru the post I'm really disappointed about the pictures. Where's the one of your boobs??? hahahahahahahah

    and are you really surprised you're being hit on everyday??? hello gorgeous.

    Can't wait to hear more!

    ReplyDelete