Patrick Brogan
It was August, September, October, November, December 2006 when Amanda and I talked of quitting New York and moving to Italy. Always it was "next year, save up, we'll make time next year to do it." Winter 2007 turned into spring and there we were at dinner on Seventh Avenue one late April evening when we said what the heck are we waiting for, the time is now. So we quit. And we moved out. Now we're in Veneto, IT and life ain't bad.michiamopatrizio
I know you've thought about the same and you've got tons of excuses why you can't travel the world for more than your vacation allotment. Well, all excuses aside, the hardest part is just saying "let's do it." The rest of it falls into place. I hope you'll be able to come away from this blog with some encouragement to follow your own.
Travel Blog Posts
Curry and chips and English, oh yeah (Part 1)
Published: September 15th 2007Europe » United Kingdom » England » Essex » Stansted Airport
September 6th 2007
It feels a kind of relief, yet at the same time a certain bore, to be among native English speakers again. It has been over two months. I am on the Ryanair flight from Venice that is readying to pull into the gate at Stansted Airport. Though I was one of the last people to board the plane, I got a seat in the second row. I grab my bag from the overhead luggage bin and ready myself, brow scrunched, eyes focused, body wound up like an Olympic sprinter. As originally scheduled, I would have 30 minutes to get from tarmac to train. But the plane was 20 minutes late taking off. I think 10 minutes is an impossible amount of time to de-plane, get through passport control, pick up my train ticket and find the ... read more
The Germans versus the Italians... and us
Published: September 5th 2007Europe » Italy » Trentino Alto Adige » Bolzano
September 5th 2007
As one of our last trips on this trip, Amanda and I drove to Bolzano, an independent province close to the Italian/ Austrian border. Mapquest said it'd take just under three hours but in reality it took close to four--a combination of the inevitable heavy traffic on the autostrada and getting lost in circles of one-way streets and dead ends once we got to Bolzano. This time, after our accommodations in Rome, we decided to dig deep and get a hotel room right in the main square, Piazza Walther, or Waltherplatz, depending whichever language you speak. The room was clean and bright, there was a shower curtain--no, doors!--and we were happy. Now, Austrian-Germans and Italians share the same soil, but the German language/ culture dominates the region. It's the first language on the menus, shopkeepers say ... read more
August 16th 2007
Thursday, August 9 Cyprus trees, those lanky, lofty-canopied alberi begin to punctuate the landscape and I know our train is now rocketing, up to 180 mph, deep into Lazio, a central regione in Italy that nestles in its heart Rome, the country’s capital and our temporary home away from temporary home. Over the last few hours I’ve had a blurred-eye view of the country’s changing landscape: picking up speed through the vineyards of the Veneto and Emilia Romagna regions; cruising through the olive orchards of Toscana and the vast swaths of sunflowers saturating Umbria; coming to rest, through Cyprus and industrial development, at Termini Station on Thursday just after lunch. Amanda and I had gone to the station in Portogruaro two days ahead of time to make sure we were sold the correct tickets. Even though ... read more
August 8th 2007
Amanda and I leave tomorrow morning for five nights in Rome. We found an apartment on craigslist that will put us in the heart of the city. Rome is my favorite place in all of Europe and I can't wait to return as a seasoned traveler so I can skip whatever mandatory sights/ sites are required of every new tourist and focus on my favorite parts. I'll take hours wandering the Villa Borghese admiring the Bernini sculptures and Caravaggio paintings and I won't for a minute have to worry--like the common daytripper--that I still have to make it to the Colloseum, the Spanish Steps, the Piazza del Popolo, etc, etc, etc. Those places, that history, and the mobs of tourists, stand still, but I cannot. It's not that I try to put myself above all the ... read more
Patrick & Amanda versus trenitalia, Round One (or, when the weather breaks, so does everything else)
Published: August 5th 2007Europe » Italy » Veneto » Verona
July 25th 2007
The searing heat finally let up yesterday and as we sat late in the afternoon in the center of town watching a thunderstorm roll over the Dolomites, we smiled at the good fortune that was blowing in. The next day we'd travel to Verona. Wake at 7 A.M. by a man and his gas-powered weed-wacker in the large empty field outside the window. Try to sleep in 'til 7:45 when the alarm will go off. Starting to feel like we should never leave the house, shutter it all up and keep to ourselves. But we're adults, we don't need that much sleep. Make it to the train station by 9:05 for the nine-forty-something to Venezia-Mestre and catch another train to Verona. Make it to Verona by noon and ride the #11 bus into town. See the ... read more
[i]Lingua[/i] is the Italian word for language and also for tongue
Published: August 6th 2007Europe » Italy » Veneto » Concordia Sagittaria
July 21st 2007
A few of you have asked how I’ve been doing with the language barrier. I can say, for the most part, that I’m doing pretty well, and though the learning curve is steep, as long as I hear/ understand 60-75% of the words spoken to me, I can keep up with the conversation. A few exceptions… The oddest thing happened to me the other day. Language has been playing all kinds of tricks on me. The second night I was here, I dreamed in Italian: days of the week and conjugating some common verbs—it was simple but it happened. And you know what they always say ("they" being who?): if you dream in a foreign language you're getting the hang of it. Hasn’t happened since. But as I was saying, the other day I was—where was ... read more
Venice versus the rest of Italy, part 1
Published: August 7th 2007Europe » Italy » Veneto » Concordia Sagittaria
July 17th 2007
I spent most of Thursday, Friday and Saturday back in Venezia. Abe, my Brooklyn roommate whom I abandoned, had been in Switzerland for the Montreaux Jazz Festival, so I convinced him to stop here on his way back to Stati Uniti. Thursday afternoon Amanda and I tracked him down in Piazza San Marco. Along with a girl he'd just met we (brace yourself, New York) fed some pigeons. Right from the palms of our hands. After disinfecting, Amanda led us to a table in the sun at the Florian, considered by some to be the premier cafe in Piazza San Marco for cocktails. We ordered a champagne spread (one bottle of prosecco and bowls of olives, chips and nuts) and we sat back and we talked and we watched the sun course over the piazza. Live ... read more
July 17th 2007
I guess I'm at a bit of a blogging crossroads. Life here is great, but it's simple and I'm enjoying that most of all. Especially contrasted with the constant in your face and up-to-date New York world in which I was living. So how many times can I write about all the caffè I've been drinking and the pasta I've been eating without becoming repetitive to the point where the audience is lost? What did I do today? I was up by ten, drank a coffee, watered the lemon tree, watered the pool. Amanda and I rode our bikes to the baker to buy bread for lunch and by then it was noon, so we stopped at a café for a couple spritz aperol (prosecco spritzed with mineral water and aperol liquer). Plenty of people blog ... read more
July 9th 2007
Tuesday? Si, Martedi. The weekend passes like the days of the week: much ado about nothing, but at any moment something made from nothing. Family stops by for a caffè and end up staying through dinner, even if they choose not to eat; others drop in only to say hello and we end up following them home, 40 km away, for cena. The one (only) thing that gets me (just a little bit) down about being unemployed is that the week provides no great promise for the weekend. On the contrary, Monday does not loom with despair and sorrowful anticipation, but rather the chance to live another week at life’s pace. Last night we played our first game of Scrabble. In Italian. And I won. Certo. 108 to Amanda’s 81 to Signora Burigatto's 73. The gamebreaker ... read more
July 6th 2007
I promise the rest of the entries won't be quite as manic. As surprising as it may sound, life in Italy so far has been full of indecisions. Time to relax, but feeling restless. Working for years at the pace of a New York minute really gets your wheels wound up. So Amanda and I arrived here on July 4, and since then I've been a bit up and down just trying to get relaxed. My thought processes? I brought a handful of books to read and have started, oh, nearly all of them but can't decide which to stick with. Or if I want to even read at all right now. Not sure if I want to stay up late or sleep all day and kick this jet lag. So I get up early, have ... read more
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