Under the Tuscan Snow
Trip Start
Dec 13, 2004
1
66
70
Trip End
Ongoing
Arezzo, Italy
Saturday, November 26, 2005
Where do I start? And how much do I put in? How much to leave out? I have to save some stories, don't I? To share when I come home in a WEEK AND A HALF!!!!!!!!!
That's right, on December 7th I will finally be reunited with my wonderful family and my lovely city! I can't wait to see everyone else who is around Victoria shortly after!
First I must backtrack, and write a short anecdote about our journey to MassaSassaRosso, because it was an epic worthy of Asia travelling, and somehow I forgot to write about it before. I'll make it brief though.
Journey: Geneva to Massa di Sasso Rossa.
Estimated travel time: 11 hours
Actual travel time: 15 hours
The Events:
-on the way to the train station with James, we heard on the radio that the Italian trains were on strike, so we weren't going to be able to go. By the time we got to the station the strike was off, so we went. But not without having to pay a very unwelcome 10 Euro reservation!
-got to Milan with 3 hours to wait, went to McDonalds to "kill time". Reread schedule and realized that we had been looking at the itinerary for Sunday, so in fact what we had actually been doing while we were "killing time" was missing our connecting train. The next one meant that we did in fact have to still wait for the rest of the 3 hours.
-so we "busked". Well, not really.. we played guitar and sang in a corner of the ticket buying room... and then this couple came over while I was singing some Bob Dyland and put 2 Euros on our guitar case!! We couldn't believe it. It was soo cool. As they walked away we noticed Canadian flags hanging from their bags. Ah, Canadians.. living up to their reputation. :-) It was actually really cool!
-caught our train to Parma and switched on to our next one... which seemed to be behind schedule, because we sat on it, waiting and waiting long past its posted departure time. Finally I got off the train to see if I could find out how late it was. We were worried about making our next connection. Uh, but when I looked at the board it wasn't our train at all.. it was headed off somewhere totally different. So we quickly got off and I spoke some "Italian" to the information guy and showed him our itinerary. He then rushed us back around to the platform. There was a girl there with an envelope. He told us in Italian that we were to go with her, something about no train, something about taxi, something about free. So off we went. With her. Uh, yah.
-with her we got back on the same train. And then off. And then on to another one. And then off. And then we waited an hour. And then on to another one. And then off for the last time. And then we waited for another half hour. For her cousin
-yes, apparently we weren't taking a taxi after all, no, her cousin was coming to pick us up. So, her cousin and a friend appear in a little tiny car playing loud music and laughing and talking, all loud and Italian like. And we squish into the car with them. And we head off on an hour and a half drive up the narrowest winding roads, up into the mountains. (What is with us going on sketchy drives with Italians?) Nicole and I were both feeling rather ill, it didn't help that they were smoking in the car.
-and then they broke out the weed. Ahh...oh dear. As the car got higher so did the driver. Sigh, another experience of just willing time to pass quickly and hoping that we arrived safely to our destination.
-which we did. And Inico met us in another small town and took us the rest of the way up to Massa.
Shoot, that wasn't brief was it? Sorry.
Okay, so now.
We are in Arezzo, a city in the middle of Italy where Life Is Beautiful was filmed. We are living in an apartment here for 2 weeks and are attending an Italian school.
It is AMAZING!!
It is the perfect way to end off our trip. It has exceeded our expectations. The city is the perfect size and is really lovely to walk around and live in. Our apartment is perfect too. We have a nice cozy room with a big window. And the bathroom and kitchen are really new, clean and IKEA all the way. It's very comfy cozy. Our two roommates are from Japan and one doesn't talk much, but the other is really cool! They don't speak any English so we have to communicate with them in Italian. It is pretty neat.
The school is absolutely fabulous. Small classes, great teachers, fun games. It is really so much fun! We are learning lots and having so much fun with it. I can't believe that it is already half over.
They organize activities for the afternoons and on Thursday we went on the tour to Cortona, a beautiful Italian village, perched on the side of a hill, surrounded by Tuscan countryside. In fact, it is the village where the movie, Under the Tuscan Sun was filmed. Very beautiful.
But there was a catch. It was snowing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, so here's me, thinking that I had a chance of getting some of my tan back before I came home since I'd be ending my trip in Italy and what actually ends up happening is that I end up freezing in only a thin Lululemon jacket in the freaking SNOW!!!
That being said, it was very gorgeous to see all the red rooves covered with a dusting of snow. It is very cold here though. Yesterday we made soup.
I have more stories, but I think that you all need a rest from reading right now, so I will write them in another pod, or tell you when I talk to or see you soon!
To summarize, I am doing very very well. I am feeling happier here than I have in a while. It is such a nice place to be and SO much fun!
I am also so excited to come home that I can't even describe it. I can't do justice to my excitement so I'll leave it to your imagination.
I'd highly recommend writing me so that I'm still your friend when I get home in a week and a half! ;-)
