And then there was one

10/23/2009

Last night a crazy storm raged. You could hear the wind and waves roaring. Katherine left early in the morning to catch her flight. My plans for the day included taking a train back to Torino to meet up with Claire. I got up shortly after she left, which was earlier than I thought I would need to get up, but it ended up being a good thing that I allotted myself more time. It took more time than I excepted to get to the main train station, but when I did get there, I realized that my train was delayed so everything worked out. I have come to find out that Italian trains are usual on the late side. As I was checking out of the hostel about 40 Mexicans checked in and were making all of these comments about me and my backpack. They were a little obnoxious and I was glad to be checking out as they were coming in. I think that three nights in one hostel is just a little over the amount of time that like staying in one place. The head lady at the hostel packed me a free bottle of water, two apples, and some cakes for the train ride. It was super nice and hospitable for her. So far, the majority of the Italians I have come across have been so nice and friendly. I really appreciated the free bottle of water because I have found it extremely hard to stay hydrated over here because water is so expensive and you cant drink the tap water.

As I was sitting in the train station waiting for my delayed train, I noticed that even though it was a nice 60 degrees out, everyone was still bundled up in their scarves and down coats. I brought this up to Claire later on and she said that once it reaches a certain date, it is wintertime for Italians and they dress accordingly no matter what the weather is. I thought this was so funny and then realized that I probably look like a total foreigner every time I strip layers on the train when I get over heated. Its just something in their culture to keep bundled up after a certain date.

I took an intercity train from Rome to Torino. This meant that it was not a high speed train so it stopped more often and took longer to get to Torino, but it cost less to reserve a seat on this type of train and it was a direct route so I didn’t have to make a connection in Milan. The train was pretty crowded and the cabin I was assigned to was full. A concern of mine about traveling by myself was that I wouldn’t be able to get my pack up on the storage racks above the seats on trains. I was very proud of myself because I was able to successfully throw my pack up on the rack without too much trouble or knocking someone over. This train went up the western coastline of Italy, through Pisa, Cinque Terra (which gave me a sneak peak of what is to come in a few days), and then turned north towards Torino. As we went through all of these places, I noticed that it was a pretty ugly day all over Italy. I ended up having about 10 hours of traveling time total form leaving to the Hostel to getting to Claire’s. I spent most of the time on the train sleeping, then I read some, listened to music and enjoyed my snacks. Even though I couldn’t understand them and they didn’t speak any English, the people I was sharing the cabin with were extremely pleasant. Every time I went to take my coat on and off (due to my over heating problems) the woman sitting next to me would help me get my arms into the sleeves, which was nice of her to do in the cramped quarters. Going through tunnels in trains drives me batty because it seriously messes with my ears. We went through a lot of times so I kept on having to clear my ears. Im sure my fellow cabin mates thought I was a lunatic sitting there holding my nose and breathing out hard.

I successfully took the buses to Claire’s house just a little before everyone returned home. Claire was at a birthday party with Giacomo, so everyone arrived at the same time. I had just enough time to get unpacked, organized, regrouped, and changed for the night. The plans for the night were to go out with Susan’s colleagues, who are more like her good friends, because it was one guy from the group’s, who moved back to the States, last night in town. We went to a restaurant that was known for its Naples style pizza. Apparently Naples has the best pizza in Italy. I ordered a porcini mushroom pizza that also had four cheese on it and it was literally to die for. Claire and I swapped pieces so that we could try more types. She ordered a white pizza with grilled veggies on it, which was also very good. We had wine, coffee, limoncello, and tiramisu to finish the dinner off. The tiramisu blew all of the other tiramisu I have had so far in Italy out of the water. It is really becoming one of my favorite desserts.

One thing I learned from tonight is that Italians are very funny in the way that they take forever to do an outing. They gather outside before the meal talking for about an hour, then when the meal is over they gather again outside saying goodbye for about an hour. After dinner we walked around the city and eventually found a very cool bar to hang out in for a while. During our walk we passed the location of the Shrowd of Turin, which is apparently is the shroud of Jesus. It is only open to public viewing once ever 20 years or something like that and when it is, many people make the religious pilgrimage to come and see it. We had about three rounds of drinks (I ordered the Chimay Belgian beer) and just enjoyed everyone’s company. I really had a good time listening to all of the Italians talk and converse with they good friends, highly entertaining with all of the hand motions and passion and giving each other a hard time. Susan’s one friend, Pino, happened to sit next to Claire and I for most of the night. He was a very interesting individual and I very much enjoyed our conversations. He convinced me that Sicily is a wonderful place and as a result it has been bumped up in “my next vacation” list. A huge plus he told me about Sicily is that the prime time to visit is January because that is when spring starts and all the flowers are blooming, which is said was a truly breathtaking sight.

We got back home around 3 and then Claire and I stayed up chatting until about 4. With the kids being young and liking to get up early, I knew the morning would come soon. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out like a light. It was a good night.