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Published: October 24th 2006
Wow. What a month in Italy. Although I love South America, travelling there had worn me out and I arrived in Rome lonely, angry and sick. Thanks to the healing powers of the "La Dulce Vita" I'm back. I never did figure out what was wrong with me; I am convinced it was a combination of several deadly diseases that would have killed a lesser man. In my case, it merely reduced me to pathetic whining for 4 months. Anyway, while in Rome I met a friend named Louis Wang from Hong Kong. We had a great time simply wandering the streets and checking out the city's remarkable art and architecture. Some of my favorites were Boromini's churches, Caravaggio's painting's and Bernini's sculptures. If you haven't heard of these people, don't be too impressed, they are mega-famous in Rome and plastered over every tourist pamphlet. In addition I learned alot from Louis about the subtleties in Asian religions and politics. Was I the only one who didn't know Hong Kong, mainland China and Tawain all had different governments? Well, after Rome I headed to the Adriatic coast to see my buddy Tye Blazey get married to his girlfriend Ivanna. We spent
the week leading up to the wedding chilling on the beach; playing volleyball, diving for mussels and making great meals with his family. On the day of the wedding I, along with Jay Blazey, was entrusted with the lofty responsibility of "witnessing" the wedding. It seems I managed to offend the catholic church in even this simple task because the priest, upon seeing my signature, predicted I would soon end up in prison.(seriously) The reception was incredible and we fulfilled our duty of acting like buffoons until 4 in the morning.
After the wedding I headed down to the "heel" of Italy with my friend Helen. We stayed in a little town called Otranto. There we met a cool couple from Japan, Taro and Naoko, that was travelling together. We went to a wine festival, rode scooters down the beautiful coast and celebrated Helen's SECOND scholarship to her graduate program in Linguistics.
On the 5th of september I headed north to visit my mom, who was going to be traveling with me for ten days. We started in Venice; which was the most incredible city I had ever seen. The combination of midevil (lack of) city planning and water canals
creates an almost dreamlike quality. We had a great location near the Rialto bridge but a not-so-great hotel. My mom and I walked that place for hours every day and she picked up Italian almost instantly: "I want-oh to buy-oh those-oh". Quite impressive, really. During one of our wanders we entered a museum and were suprised to see the bronze original of Rodin's "Thinker" and some Klimpt inside. The "Thinker", by the way, is in a very uncomfortable position that I doubt anyone actually thinks in. From Venice we visited Florence where my mom and I styled ourselves out with imitation products sold by the Senagalese men on the streets. We took side trips to the small towns of Greve and San Gimignano before ambling north again toward Venice and my mom's flight home. So, there you have it, my month in Italy. I have refrained from including any historical or cultural information in this blog because I wanted to emphasis the "friends and family" focus of this time and, more importantly, because I don't know anything about it.
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