Trip to Italy.......................................................................................................by Jasek Ciecholewski
Where do I begin my story of the road trip to Italy. I guess I'll
start with who was in the car. My Italian friends Emiliano and Alberto,
a Brazilian girl Cris, the Swedish Hampus, and myself. We drove Alberto's
car, a Renault Megane, it fits 5 comfortably but it looks terrible,
the rear end of a car looks like a fat ladies ass that is sticking straight
out and you could place a tray on top of it. It took us about 13 hours
to reach Genova, Italy ( Genova is on the coast and about 1 hour south
of Milan). We drove through Germany on the autobahn and hit speeds of
180 kph which is i don't know how many mph. We stopped at a rest area
and I feasted on a schnitzel. it was delicious.
Genova (Genoa in English) used to be a prosperous port city long ago
circa 12 century i think. Anyway, the city is getting a face lift and
more and more business and tourists are visiting. It was here that i
found out that Italians really know their coffee, try to picture this....pear
fruit in syrup on the bottom, a layer of hot fudge, espresso coffee
with whisky, covered in fresh whipped cream, topped with nuts, cacao
and cinnamon powder. This was served in a coffee bar, literally a closet
sized shop that only serves these coffee masterpieces. Right next door
was a gelateria (ice cream shop) and of course i stopped there too.
Genova has Europe's largest aquarium which was very entertaining. I
have many pictures of exotic fish and animals. My favorites included
a green turtle whose head was as large as a melon and body which was
about 3 feet in diameter, my other favorite creature was a spider crab
which was about 3 feet wide as well, it was very large and very scary
looking. There are too many animals there for me to describe, but it
was definitely worth the expensive entrance cost. We finished the night
with dinner at a friends house. Mama, I think you will be happy to find
out that I am learning how to cook everywhere I go, and I am growing
a new appreciation for cheese.
The next day we traveled to a few coastal areas near Genoa. We went
to Portofino, a very small and very exclusive port town. Only the rich
and famous live there, like Madonna and the ex-president of Italy. The
main street which only has maybe 15 stores, which include Gucci, Prada,
Armani, Kappa, and a few others i did not recall. Anyway, the church
and lighthouse there were very pretty, and of course we had gelato overlooking
the Mediterranean. That night we went out to dinner with Albertos friends
from his home university, we ate dinner at an osteria, an authentic
Italian dinner restaurant. The meal started off with antipasti which
included pate with bread, an assortment of fluffy fried objects, olives,
all sorts of cold cuts which they call salumi which included prosciutto,
mortadella, and other meats. Following the many different antipasti
we had our pasta which for me was pesto nocci, nocci are fluffy little
potato type pasta. Genoa is known for their pesto so of course I had
to try that. The next dish is called a segundo which is the meat dish.
We ordered lots of different seafood such as calamari, large shrimp,
herring, and swordfish. All of it was to die for, especially the swordfish,
it was a very thick meaty fish. After stuffing our faces with food and
house wine, the Italian's always drink a Italian coffee after their
meal. After the espresso type coffee, we drank what is loosely translated
as coffee killer. The Italian coffee killer is called amare, the restaurant
owner came out and gave us 3 bottles of amare, the first was the original
amare called amare, a bottle of jagermeister, and a bottle of limoncello.
Limoncello is like mjoduwka but with lemon and not honey. There were
9 of us at the dinner which lasted well over 4 hours, we were the last
to leave the restaurant, we left very happy and very drunk.
The
next day, Hampus and I traveled to La Spezia, where our friend Emiliano
lives. La Spezia is a large port city famous for its shipyards and the
Italian Navy. It is the largest city directly south of Cinque Terre. We
arrived in time for an aperetivo, which is basically ordering some type
of drinks in a cafe/pub in a plaza and they bring out complimentary food.
We ordered the unofficial official drink of Italy, a negroni, 1 part campari
- 1 part martini rosso - 1 part gin. The Italian's swear by this drink,
its a little bitter but when served with a slice of orange its amazing.
After the aperitivo we went to an osteria called The Inferno. Emiliano
knew the owners so we ate like kings again for a modest price. That night
we headed out to a small town which felt abandoned but we did see an old
castle and made friends with a dog that followed us as we walked through
the town. We finished off the night with a cocktail at the only bar that
was open in the town. As we were driving home we were stopped by cops
at a checkpoint before the highway. They didn't check for alcohol, they
just checked all of our ID's and that we owned the car. It was my first
encounter with cops in Europe, hopefully my last.
The next day Emi took us sightseeing through the different small coastal
towns which were busy with workers preparing for the upcoming tourist
season. We drove on small roads next to the coast and ended up at Portovenere.
I think that's what the town was called. We saw a beautiful church on
the cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean. We sat on the rocks taking in
the warm sun and salty air, finally warm weather. On our way back to our
car we ate gelato and headed to the train station, our next destination
Firenze (Florence).
To get to Firenze from La Spezia we had to change trains in Pisa, so we
made a quick stop to the leaning tower of Pisa. We took some pictures
pretending to hold the tower from falling, had a coffee, and headed to
Florence. In Florence we stayed at my friend Jenny's apartment. She is
studying abroad also. We went out that night to a Shot Cafe, where we
ordered exotic shots such as "duck fart" and many others of
which i cannot remember. Next, we headed out to a bar with an Italian
Beatles cover band. They were good and the stines of beer were great too.
On our walk back to the apartment we met some of Jenny's friends and together
we went to a local bakery at 4am. We had to wait for the bakery to open
but it was well worth it for the nutella filled croissants.
The next morning, Hampus and I wandered the streets of Florence and saw
the Duomo, the fake Michelango statue and all the other great works of
art, and of course ate gelato. We walked to the Piazza Michelango, which
is a plaza overlooking the capital of Tuscany, Florence. We relaxed there
for a long time because our feet were exhausted from walking so much,
we met 3 polish women from Atlanta, 2 sisters and their mom, one of them
was named Dorota. We also saw an Asian bride and groom taking pictures
for their wedding. We hiked back to the train station and our next stop
was Arezzo, a small but famous city in Tuscany where our friend Alberto's
family lives. Alberto picked us up from the train station and we walked
to his family's house. His house was an old school but converted to a
large 3 family home. The rooms were large, everything was really old,
but very elegant. We ate dinner with his family and I managed to step
into his dogs poop in the middle of the living room. His family said it
was good luck, but I think I just fed the dog too much cheese a few hours
earlier and that was his revenge. That night we headed out to Alberto's
other house in the countryside. This was also another old building but
it was everything an old country house should be. Old wooden doors, spider
webs, a cellar with fermenting wine, grappa, and balsamico. Albertos father
grows his own grapes there. In between some of the grape vines, there
was a small soccer field set up. This place was very comfortable and a
great change of pace from the regular tourist stops. The country house
was near the top of a hill overlooking other farms and the small town
in the valley, in the distance was an old castle.
For 2 nights we stayed in the countryside, we relaxed and cooked for the
most part. Bread, cheese, and coffee in the morning, pasta in the afternoon,
and a large feast at night. Feast is an understatement of the last night
there. Some of Alberto's friends came over for the night and we barbecued
all sorts of sausages, meats, vegetables, potatoes, and drank wine from
the north of Italy and topped the night off with the homemade grappa.
The next morning we woke up very early and made our way back to the Arezzo
train station where we departed to Bologna. In Bologna, Hampus and I wandered
the streets which were full of people and markets. I bought a pair of
really nice dress shoes for 10 euros. It was a chore carrying them around
but for that price I couldn't stop myself. I wanted to buy 5 pairs, I
felt like a woman. After spending the afternoon wandering a small portion
of Bologna we decided to go to a different town because there were no
Hostels near the city center. From word of mouth we found out about a
beach town called Rimini. Rimini is a coast town on the Adriatic Sea,
most Italians do not have a good impression of this beach town but I loved
it. We came for the best weekend possible to visit, not only because it
was right before tourist season and the weather was perfect but the world
championship of ultimate frisbee and freestyle frisbee were being held.
Roughly 1000 people from all over the world flew to Rimini to participate
in Paganello (Paganello is the name of the ultimate frisbee event). For
2 days we enjoyed great weather and entertainment on the beach. At night
there was a big circus tent that was set up on the beach and a band and
DJ played for free. That night we stayed at a hostel however the next
night there were no rooms in the hostels so the hostel owners were kind
enough to arrange a hotel for us for a very good price.
We left Rimini on Easter Sunday morning and headed back to Bologna. The
streets of Bologna were nearly empty, it made walking through the city
center very easy and we got to see all of the tourist attractions. Bologna
is known as a communist city, and you can tell because all of the drapes
over the windows are in red. A local student told us this story, I don't
know how true that is though. After walking for many hours and eating
some more gelato, we met up with Alberto and started driving to La Spezia
for a quick dinner at Emi's and then to finally head back to Holland.
We decided to drive back through France instead of Germany because an
Internet site said it was faster. The route through France took roughly
2 hours longer than the previous one. We finally arrived back in Delft
around 1pm.
That concludes my road trip through Italia. There are of course many more
details but I tried to include everything major.
I am in Delft for now, I fly back to Chicago next Thursday.
Love,
Jasek