Rather tired so this will be one of those what-I-did-this-weekend posts. Which was a lot, and I've enjoyed myself so much that I want to blog about it before I forget, but since I am still using Laura's mum's computer I will not upload any photos. (And obviously I've found the apostrophe though it's rather out of the way.) Maybe tomorrow when we reach Prato I'll find some wireless connection.
Italy is simply lovely. I arrived in Venice via night train on Friday morning, hopped on a regional train and got to Vicenza where I met a CSer for an interview, and met Laura there. After that it was a series of public transportation to Piovene Rochette - from Vicenza to Schio via train and from Schio to P.R. via bus, and finally we arrived at Laura's parents' place. They are out of town for the weekend so it is just us. Friday night Laura brought me to her pizza party which was kind of a reunion among people of the same age as her, in her town, and hardly anyone spoke English to me (they were too shy to but later on it was better) so I spent the evening like I predicted. Good pizza, incomprehensible conversation, but people were quite friendly.
And the pizza. Glorious, glorious Italian food. I had only crappy food in Vienna, so I practically inhaled my vegetable pizza which had eggplant, asparagus, artichokes, zucchini, mushrooms, pepper and cheese on it, and I only surfaced for air sticking up my thumb saying 'saporita' (which means tasty) at intervals and dived straight back in. It was unbelievably good. Orgasmic.
So on Saturday we woke up pretty late, because the pizza party ended with an after party at a watermelon place which ended with a drink at Laura's. For the record pre'pizza party we had aperitif (pre-meal drinks), so the gathering began at around 8pm and lasted till 5am (I crashed at 3am.) In the afternoon Laura brought me to swim in a river near her town where the water was really, really cold, and in the evening we went to a villa in a small town near Verona to have some free wine, there was some cultural talk going on about Italian television (which I obviously do not understand) but the wine was good, both red and white, and also the cheese that went with it. After that Laura and her two friends brought me for a walk in Verona, and it was simply. magical.
I love Verona. I can only say that I admire Berlin, Prague and Vienna, but for Verona, it was something really special, a place that was historical without being imposing, and the streets were cozy and inviting and friendly, it is probably the most romantic place that I have been so far in my travels. There was a castle with a moat, the type that you can totally picture a captured princess waiting for her knight in shining armour, and I liked it so much more than Schloss Schonbrunn of Austria where there was more than 1000 rooms (kinda like the Forbidden City of China I guess) and even Prague Castle which was majestically beautiful, but I just didn't feel any chemistry. Also there was an ancient arena right in the middle of the city, kind of randomly, and I was just thrilled.
Note to self: get a boyfriend and go back to Verona with him.
Also for the uninitiated, Verona is the setting of Romeo and Juliet, and there is this place within the city called Juliet's House, with a statue of Juliet with shiny boobs (tourists touch it for luck) and a balcony where Romeo met up with her. It was closed when we were there, but the shopkeepers of the apron shop right next to the place actually invited us to go upstairs where we had an unobstructed night view of the balcony. Sweet as.
Today we went hiking at the Dolomites, the Italian part of the Alps, and it was also very beautiful and nice, although I couldn't understand most of what was going on with my Italian hiking partners, Laura's friends.
I have to go, Laura has prepared dinner, I still have stuff to say but maybe later.
