Well, it's been a while since I've posted. I know y'all have all missed them terribly, but the fact is that the winter was relatively quiet. Apart from attending Ellie's wedding in January
and going to Wilmington for Edo's birthday at the beginning of April,
we didn't do a whole lot of noteworthy things.
But that all changed on May 21st, when we flew the coop from Raleigh to Venice (by way of New York JFK, London Heathrow, and Milan Malpensa). We arrived in Venice at 11pm on May 22nd, and stayed with a friend of Edo named Sara. She's a very lovely girl and we all had a good time together. The weather was hot and humid, but not "North Carolina in August" humid, so when the breeze blew off the canals, we were able to really enjoy ourselves. In Venice we ate fantastic seafood, gelato, and pizza (of course!). We walked around the canals, through St. Mark's Square, and into churches with highly important pieces of art.
I tried to get into the routine of speaking and listening in Italian but, being lazy, I did tend to speak in English whenever possible. Sara speaks English quite well so it was easy to communicate.
She works as a restorator -- Venice is definitely the place to be for a restorator -- and she's currently working on a church that she allowed us the privilege of entering to see the restoration "in action". That was a cool experience... usually those kinds of things are way off-limits for we mere mortals.
On Friday afternoon we headed off to Bologna, or more specifically, Castel San Pietro Terme, a spa town approximately 10 minutes by train from Bologna. We met up with Edo's friend from school, Enrico, his wife Nicoletta, and their 18 month old boy, Davide. Or, based on their own admission of the hierarchy in that household, Davide, Nicoletta, and Enrico! Nicoletta is a wonderful cook and she made us a lovely dinner; then the five of us went for a stroll (Davide quite literally went for a stroll, in a stroller) to relax and encourage Davide to go to sleep.
They live in a beautiful town. Nicoletta and I had the opportunity to talk girl-to-girl (one thing I missed with Sara, unfortunately) and we got along really well. Enrico is also a really nice guy; it was clear when I met him why he and Edo are such good friends. They are very similar in personality and character, and even physically they resemble each other a bit. Sadly, we were only able to stay there for one night because Saturday we had to head "home" to Ivrea, near Torino (Turin) from whence Edo's family comes.
In Ivrea, I met Edo's mom and his oldest brother, Enrico. We stayed there until Tuesday afternoon. It was a nice time; his family is lovely, but they don't speak much English (his Mom speaks none at all; his brother reads it well but doesn't speak so much) so it was Italian pretty much 24/7, except when Edo and I were alone. We didn't stay at the house with his Mom and Enrico, but we did stay with his Uncle and Aunt who live a few minutes up the road. Everyone was very friendly and kind, and his mom, who has been a hairstylist pretty much all her life, even gave me a free haircut :)
Ivrea is an incredibly picturesque town; possibly one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen in Italy and indeed in all my travels throughout the world. It sits at the base of the Alps, and there is a river flowing very rapidly through the center.
According to Edo, several Olympian rowers come from that area, which is not surprising considering their practice waters! The city itself is home to approximately 25,000 residents, so it's a rather small town, but still has all the cool shops that Raleigh/Durham is missing :( and an atmosphere that makes it seem busier than it is by virtue of the number of people in the streets and piazzas. One thing that I'll always miss about Europe compared to America is the piazza. People are always out and about, and it's nice.
We did run into Edo's friend Lisa who lives in Ivrea; it was totally random, but I was glad to be able to meet her. It was a brief introduction, but I know her through emails.
On Tuesday we made it to Torino, the big city in the Piedmont. It's a bit like Milan, but cooler (sorry all you Milanese out there -- it's nothing personal). It's a city of about 1 million people and it too is bustling and interesting.
There is a very active cultural and artistic life which includes the following: a building with a piercing, neon lights spelling out famous quotes from Italian authors speckled throughout the city, the National Museum of Cinema which was AWESOME -- we saw the history of cinema from shadow puppetry to MGM and such items as a contract signed by Jimmy Stewart and costumes from "Lawrence of Arabia" -- plus signs throughout the city describing important writers living in Torino (and then killing themselves... I don't get it.. I guess they're tortured souls or something. Artists!)
We did manage to see some of Edo's friends from the university while we were there. That is one of the ugliest buildings I've ever seen. But everyone was friendly there and they were really happy to see Edo! We also had dinner with two of Edo's friends from school who still live in Torino, Marina and Paolo (and their new baby, Alice). It was a wonderful meal and they both speak English really well so it was really easy for me to understand the conversation!
On Friday afternoon we headed back to Milano to spend a couple of days there visiting friends before our flight home on Sunday morning. Before we left, however, we were able to arrange a meeting with Edo's middle brother, Gualtiero, and his girlfriend Giulia.
We basically crossed each other in Torino for all of one hour, so we sat at a cafe near the train station and hung out for a while. It was nice to meet them finally. They seem like very nice people.
When we arrived in Milan, we met up with Federica and Andrea, Edo's friends
and with my old friend, Luca. We went to a bar to have "aperitivo" which is a sort of pre-dinner drink and snack, but you can get as much food as you want so essentially you can make an entire meal out of an 8-euro drink if you want to, but we decided to hold out for the sushi restaurant Luca recommended. We drank sake and ate gyoza, edamame, and sushi, and by the end of the night I was pretty drunk ;) Luca invited us to Switzerland for a dinner the next day, but we decided that since it was our last day in Italy and our flight was very early on Sunday morning, we'd be better off staying in Milano with Federica and Andrea. Luca was kind enough to find us a hotel close to the airport though, so we didn't have to sleep in the airport the night before!
Sunday morning we came back home after almost two weeks of fantastic food, way too much wine, and seeing lots of people that we love and miss back here in the US. It's good to be home, but Europe will always be with me.
The one thing I would do differently the next time around is, instead of going all over the North of Italy to see all our friends, I would like to rent a villa in Sardinia or Elba and we can all converge there for a couple of weeks! Also, my dear friend Cat was in Italy at the time (in the South, though) and we weren't able to meet up :( So next trip might be back to England to visit her, or maybe we'll arrange a time to go and stay with her family in Roma!
