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Published: August 11th 2015
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Straight from lunch with my Slovak family in Bratislava we had to get on the road and head for our last B & B of the trip in Bergamo! For any reading this that may not know, Bergamo is the city in northern Italy (about an hour east of Milan) where I lived for my junior year in high school. When we originally plotted our course and I saw that one of google’s suggested routes went right by Bergamo, I was extremely excited. We made it our weekend activity to stay two nights in Bergamo, and again Hailey was the idea travel partner, enduring (and even claiming to enjoy) a day spent revisiting my host families and hanging out with my host siblings and old friends.
We got into Bergamo late on Thursday night and found our B & B, Antica Dimora. Antica Dimora is located close to the old walled city in a very old part of town and in the 17
th century was the palazzo of a countess. Even more incredibly, the room we stayed in (for less than a hotel would have cost I might add) was actually the room the king and queen of Italy would
stay in when they visited Bergamo! The ceilings and walls of the large breakfast room are all decorated with original frescos and the main stairwell has beautiful sepia tone paintings done by a fairly famous painter who’s name I have unfortunately forgotten. It was gorgeous, and naturally breakfast was delicious as well. That night it was too late to contact any of my host families, so we went out into the lower city to a café I remembered always going to. It was under new ownership unfortunately, but it was still beautiful and had delicious food (obviously). We had casoncelli, which are a sort of ravioli stuffed with ground meat and cooked with crispy sage and pancetta. It is a typical dish of Bergamo and one of my favorites! After, the wait staff pointed us to a pub nearby and we enjoyed a beer in the warm Italian evening. As it turned out this was a bar frequented by the aforementioned waiters and they bought us a beer and practiced their English before excusing themselves to take care of some odd chore related to keys to the café and ice. This seemed silly until I remembered how impossible it is
to get ice in Italy, so oddly two cafes shared one icemaker.
The next day we made the short walk over to my first host families house and I nervously rang at the gate. When the speaker came on I thought I was hearing my second host brother, Tommaso, who was about 14 when I lived there. He didn’t say anything when I said who it was, just let me in. I went in the door and bounding down the stairs comes my first host brother, Lorenzo, who was only 12 when I saw him last and is now a giant, deep voiced 17 year old! I couldn't believe my eyes! He just returned from a year abroad in Mexico with the same program I had been in during my Italian exchange and regaled Hailey and I with stories. I accurately predicted he would grow up to be a lady-killer with good looks and charm. He was disappointed to be back in Italy where he no longer had the “exotic Italian” thing going for him. Next my first host mother Cristina and Tommaso come home. Tommaso looks much the same with a bit more muscle and a mature air.
Cristina also looks the same and is still the completely wonderful and on top of it ball of energy she always was when I lived there. It was so incredible to see them again. For lunch, Tommaso came with us to meet up with Giulia, my host sister from my second family and best friend there. After we got to visit my second host house and see my second host dad Marco for some delicious oolong tea and a quick tour of the ever improving garden. Then for dinner we went out with my first host family (minus Pietro, my oldest host brother, who is studying government in Budapest), Giulia, and my third host mom. Unfortunately Prisca and Gabri, my second host mom and sister, were not in Bergamo, and neither were my two host sisters from my third house, Gaia and Jacky. Nonetheless it was a wonderful dinner and such an incredible joy to see them all again. I have been generally worried about how much time had passed and how little I have had contact with them, but they were so incredibly warm and welcoming and happy to see me that all my fears instantly dissipated and seemed
silly. I hope very much I can return again sooner than five years from now in the future, or that they will come and visit me!
After dinner we went out with Giulia and Lilo (Lorenzo) and met up with many of the people I used to hang out with, including our very close friend Edo, who, like everyone else, said I was just the same as five years ago. I feel this can't be so, I certainly feel like I look at least somewhat different, but I suppose they are better judges than I. We ended the night sitting on the wall and looking out over the twinkling lights of the lower city. It was a clear, cool night and I wished it would last forever. Being there again made me certain I could be happy living abroad again someday as long as I had a group of friends like that. It is so different to visit as a tourist than it is to live in a country and be a part of a community. I realized how much I missed the atmosphere in Bergamo.
The next morning Eleanora (my third host mom) gave us
a tour of her new home, a beautiful re-modeled old building in the lower city that she and her contracting company designed and did the remodel of. I saw pictures of her daughters who both look much grown up, in particular Jacky who was 10 and is now 15! After a tour and some breakfast we walked back through Bergamo to again spend time with Lilo and later Tommi and Cristina before very reluctantly acknowledging it was time to leave. Saying goodbye brought me to tears and driving out reminded me vividly of my long taxi ride out of that same city 5 years ago. I could only continue to remind myself how incredibly lucky I was to be able to visit at all.
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