Toga Party (Come on - it's Italy!)

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Today, which is my 21st birthday, is around the halfway (one month) point of our trip, which means everything starts getting a little more real. I'm made to realize again how unreasonable, arrogant, and even cruel I can be at times - not so grown up after all.
We've survived our first fight - Rome was not a relaxing place to be. Because of my hopeless romanticism, I fully expected it to be my favorite city of all. I did love seeing the ancient sights: the catacombs, the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's, the Colosseum, etc. The history was as thick as our ridiculously expensive little jar of peanut butter, and was even more exciting to the senses. But the first tendrils of homesickness started to creep into my heart in Rome. I thought I was surviving culture shock quite well in France, but now I realize that it's not much of an accomplishment to survive crepes and a new language.
Italy is a different culture. Sometimes I suddenly long for the politeness, even the coolness, of home. I've often thought I'm a crusader for sincerity, but Rome made me realize that sometimes masks can be very convenient. Italy hits you like a sledgehammer, making no excuses for its blatant behaviour. Men yell at you, Vespas surround you like hornets, beggars are visibly, even revoltingly ill or injured, and in the midst of this, there is still unashamed splendour inside palaces and cathedrals.
Like London, I found Rome hard to absorb. But Naples, which I've been warned about time and again, is somewhere I'd love to spend more than one night. Yes, there are dangerous areas, and to traffic, "red means go", but it's the Italy I meant to find all along. There are shops filled with nativity scenes and lucky clay red peppers, white and blue banners everywhere for Naple's recent soccer victory, and innumerable beautiful castles and cathedrals. Not only is Naples probably the best city (not village) I've been to so far, but the hostel we randomly ended up at was just today voted the best hostel in the world for the second month in a row. One of the staff members joked, "Now your expectations are sky high, but our floor tiles will send them right back down." The floor tiles are all loose - it's nothing fancy to look at, but it's all about atmosphere. Where else would I be given a chocolate cake for my birthday and sung to in Italian? It's quite like family; Giovanni made us free pasta for a late Italian lunch and afterwards we and a few new friends walked all over Napoli seeing the sights. Today it actually hit me that maybe I should be a hostel host instead of a book editor. But perhaps books are slightly better behaved than 20-somethings...

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Comments

[lora]

oh Liz! happy birthday my lovely cousin! you are missed and loved muchly but I am so proud of you and all that you have experienced to far. Really Liz, i doubt that you can be all that arrogant or cruel... but i suppose I will just take your word for it. 21 is a huge deal. I can't believe I am not even twenty. so unfair. well sorry this isn't longer i have to jet to work and make banana choco chip muffins with the kiddies. then tomorrow i am off on an adventure to osoyoos :) you are rad! laura.

[Auntie J.]

Happy Birthday
Hi Liz... Happy 21.!!!! Have been thoroughly enjoying your writing... Awesome!! Maybe photo journalism.....?! You paint word pictures that one can see, feel, and almost smell. Enjoy every sound, sight and scent! Chat up the locals even if you can't speak the language--enthusiasm makes up for a lot. I've sent a little gift to your bank account. Have a glass of wine and some wonderful bread and cheese for me please. Love you! Jordon sends his best! [e-mail]