From Vegas to Vignola

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On the road again... well, more like in the air again, then on the road, followed by the rail… whatever. This time, off to Italy. While there I was to meet up with two people I hadn't seen in many years. Samantha was my first girlfriend in High School here in the States. Over on a one-year exchange program from Italy, our paths crossed in the School Library, and before long I was her English Boy and she was my Italian Girl in the middle of the California desert. We hadn't seen each other for 12 years, recently reunited via an Alumni site I run. Ali was also to meet me while in Italy... we had attended Primary School and High School together back in England some 16 years earlier.

Again, like Japan, my trip started out early in the morning, having just finished my shift at my second job. Managed a few hours sleep after double-checking all my packing. When I went to Japan, I didn't own a backpack, and had to lug a suitcase around, this time was different. I had all carry on luggage, strapped to my back! No waiting at the airport when I arrived, just get off the plane and go. The flight was much longer than I had expected. I'm not sure what the hell I expected actually. Vegas to Atlanta, then Atlanta to Milan. The first leg of the trip went well, roughly 4 hours. The old lady next to me just talked and talked till SHE couldn't take it anymore. She apologized that she couldn't talk anymore, downed a bottle of water and settled into her book.

The airport in Atlanta is huge!! Anyone stopping there, if you land at Concourse E, and have a connecting flight there... stay there! I wasted a good hour making my way to the very front of the airport, only to find there was actually a smoking area at Concourse E!!! (side note, take the tram/train, it's there for a reason! Especially if you have a pack).

The second leg of the trip was another 11 hours. I'd brought along a book to read to pass the time, but ADD kicked in every 5-10 pages, and my mind started to wonder about what it was going to be like meeting these people again after so many years. With so many things on my mind, the flight lasted for what seemed like an eternity. Samantha had told me she was having one of her friends meet me at the airport. Geraldo, as she called him, didn't speak English, but apparently spoke Spanish pretty well. So I was racking my brains for quite some time about what I could possibly say to this guy for the 2.5 hour drive to Bologna. If anything, I thought I could just read my book.

Landed in Milan, grabbed my bags and thanks to me still holding a UK passport flew through customs. Nobody even gave me a second look and a few times I stopped and looked around to make sure I was walking the right way. I'm sure the heavily armed Italian police would've said something if I'd made a wrong turn. As I walked out into the flight arrival area, I started looking for a sign with my name... I mean, that'd have to be what I was looking for right? I didn't know him, and he for sure didn't know me. In the background I see this crazy woman jumping up and down flailing her arms around like mad... SAM!!!!! I went over and we greeted each other with a huge hug... not sure if I picked her up or she jumped up, but I noticed everyone was looking our way. Now writing this after the fact, I wonder why they were looking? A display of affection in Italy hardly gets a second look with the way the Italian men prowl the streets at night. My guess is no one in the airport was Italian but her.

I was still in a state of shock that she came to pick me up... I had no idea, and she couldn't seem to believe that I thought she was serious that she would actually send someone else to pick me up. Either way, it was the best welcome I could possibly imagine! For a little while, I couldn't actually think of anything intelligent to say, other than stumbling over my own words of disbelief. blah blah blah... that was about the state of it. She'd also mentioned in emails that she looked old now... and a few other things, I now see that women the world over tend to downplay themselves to some extremes... she looked as she did the day the left the States 12 years prior.

Milan was to be an arrival point only. Both Samantha and one of my bosses back in Vegas told me there wasn't much need to stay there any longer than need be. Essentially I was told it was very expensive, and not too much "touristy" stuff to do. I took their word on it, and had already planned to get out as soon as I arrived. Sam got us on the road to Bologna right away, and didn't waste anytime forgetting how to get home. A few turns later and we were back in the right direction, and my awe of Italian driving began. These people are NUTS! Seriously. A lane just isn't a lane on the freeway unless you drive in-between two lanes, go god awfully slow or tremendously fast, and pull out in front of people at the most unexpected times. While in awe with the driving skills, I fell in love with the language. Samantha was swearing at people on the road every few minutes, and it sounded beautiful... until she translated what she said... and then it just became amazing that she had obtained the mouth of a sailor! hah

About an hour into the drive, she asked if I needed/wanted some coffee or something to eat. I was ready for it. I was already running out of steam with only 3 hours of sleep the night before. Then I did it, I made a cardinal sin, insert foot in mouth... "Sure" I said, "we can hit up a Starbucks or something!" Shocked that I'd even suggest such a thing, the evil eye was bestowed upon me for the first time... a chill ran up my spine... I knew I'd made a mistake.
"We don't have Starbucks HERE!"
Maybe I should play it off?
"Really? But they have them everywhere!"
"Not HERE!"
"Oh come'on... not even one?"
"We'll stop here."
Ok, so that's a little exaggerated, but it was close... I did get the evil eye! 😊

We stopped at a gas/petrol station, walked in speaking English to each other and got some funny looks. After sipping down a Cappuccino, we left. Sam asked me if I'd noticed the guys when we walked in. I'd noticed a few looking at us, but not paid them much attention. Turned out when I went to the bathroom they were talking about us, thinking we were both American, not realizing that Sam understood every word. She corrected them in their thinking, and also mentioned that I wasn't American anyway... guess that shut them up. Good thing she's got my back! I feel much safer.

Back on the road. Paying more attention to my surroundings now. I didn't feel like I was in a different country. With the exception of prior mentioned driving skills, I could've been anywhere. Not sure what I was expecting... I sure as hell knew I wouldn't be seeing a Coliseum every few miles, but everything just seemed normal I guess. I'll blame it on the freeway, I'm sure taking back roads and seeing old villages would've done the trick, but that wasn't the purpose here. About an hour or so later we were at Sam and Giovanni's (Sam's boyfriend) apartment in Vignola, about 30km away from Bologna. Sam cooked up some Pasta for me and broke out the high school yearbook to dig up some old memories. Had to laugh when arriving at my picture... it was scratched out with "asshole" written over it. Nice touch. We hadn't exactly parted on the best terms back then, but I personally had always regretted how I left things. Fortunately, we are both older now, grown up, and managed to have a good laugh about it. To say sorry for being an ass, and to hug and make up was great, especially to do it in person.

After some more talking, it was off to Bologna. Sam had some DJ'ing to do at the Nike shop in town, and Ali was to meet me there. He had arrived the day before in Rome, and was making his way up to meet me in Bologna. Parking in Bologna isn't too great. She found a spot rather quickly, but would come to find that it was about a mile or so from where we wanted to be. Living in America, this is a difficult concept to grasp, especially as she's lugging her cases of records around for her set. In the States, you park as close as humanly possible, and if not close enough drive around again and again till something opens up. On the way we stop by her boyfriend’s shop where I meet Giovanni for the first time. A really nice guy, but I was a little taken back by the full beard at first. My stereotype of Italian men is GQ close shaven, Armani suit wearing, olive complexion... not even close. His shop sold Carhart clothing, which I recognized as being work clothes in the States. Over here, they are very fashionable, and not exactly the same ones you'd find in the US, more of a designer style you could say. Looking at the prices, I about fell over. 100 euros for a hoody!!! Whoa!

As we continued on to the Nike store, we headed through the city center. Now things started to look more like I expected. Beautiful brick buildings everywhere, a basilica here, a few leaning towers there (note: Towers in Italy all lean! Pisa MUST be a tourist trap!), statues of Neptune in big open squares, street entertainers molesting poor female students as part of their show, nice boutiques, tons of "Smart" cars everywhere. I was starting to get a feel for things. Bologna was indeed, at the risk of sounding generic, beautiful. No sooner had I arrived at the Nike store, there was a tap on my shoulder, low and behold it was Ali. What the hell do you say after 16 years? “HEY!”

We left Sam to do her thing. After dropping off his backpack at Giovanni’s work, we decided to find somewhere to sit down, have a coffee, or two, and catch up on old times for a while. Since the past few years of his life has been pretty well chronicled on Travelblog, it was my turn to drone on about all the things I’d been up to for 16 years. Never knew I had so much to talk about. While we were sitting outside this typical Café, I experienced my first beggar in Italy. A young girl, maybe about 7 or so came up asking for money (I think). This is always so sad, but I know the routine. Ali pointed out that the girls mother was hanging around in the background and then moving her along to other people. Then it was explained to me that I should expect Gypsies to come around begging fairly often, which I would find especially true at the train stations.

After a few drinks, we decided to take a walk around Bologna, see what we could find. We went from the nice central area of town, to what appeared to be the dodgy/shady area of town where people seemed to be offering to sell us drugs. Weaving our way through the streets we stopped at a Gelateria for my first sample of Gelato, or Italian Ice Cream. Now this stuff, this stuff is good! Gelato is served warmer than Ice Cream, 10-15 degrees warmer, and has a much higher density. It also has a lot less milk fat in it, which is one of the reasons it doesn’t freeze as solid as ice cream does. But the flavor, the flavor hits you as soon as it hits your mouth. Yummy! I was a bit of a wimp with my first sampling, and stuck with Strawberry since I couldn’t read anything else… that changed in Rome where I told the guy to just pick a combination of 3 flavors for me (which was delicious I might add!). After the Gelato experience, we headed back to see Samantha since she would be wrapping up at about 7’ish. On the way, we stopped for more coffee since we were early. Inside the Café, we were treated to some DMX playing in the background screaming on about “my niggas…” I had to laugh… that was just great. Finishing up my coffee outside, we saw the Italian “Casanovas” as Ali would like to refer to them, making their kissing sounds to girls saying “Ehy Bella, Ehy bella!”. It was time to find Sam!

While we were waiting for Samantha, we were entertained by Pedro, Nike employee, whom during his high school years spent a year in Kansas City. He couldn’t say enough good things about the place, and how much he wanted to go back. Of course, the reason why he wanted to go back was due to the “Generosity” of the American girls… they are “very generous” he proudly reported with a shit eating grin. I love it… “Generous” now plays a new part in both of our vocabularies. Sam wrapped up, and off we went to see Giovanni. Ali needed to get to his Hostel by about 9, so we thought that asking Giovanni where it was would be a good start. Once at his shop, and the question asked, a long conversation, all in Italian ensued between him, Samantha and one of his coworkers. I’m not sure what was being said, but this place sounded pretty difficult to find. Eventually Samantha turned to us and asked if he’d want to stay with me at their place. Hrrmmm.. let’s see here, stay at hostel, or stay in someone’s home with real food, conversation, authentic atmosphere, outside the city? Yeah… tough decision. Finally Giovanni locked up the shop, and we headed back to Vignola, where we settled into a nice plate of Lasagna and red wine. Haven’t spent much time drinking wines of the world, but I could sure get a feel for it!! After dinner we sat around the table drinking and talking for a few hours, after which I could hardly keep my eyes open anymore. What day was it? What time was it? Was I really in Italy? I was so out of it. I’m sure I’d sleep like a log… wouldn’t I?

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Photos

White Rooftops of Bologna
Most of these pictures were taken after my first arrival day, since I was too tired to care about taking pictures. But this was a rare treat to see a blanket of white over what would normally be a sea of red rooftops.

Pastries galore
Damnit! Everywhere you went, pastries, pastries and more pastries! Thank god for all the walking we did. The food of Italy was a major highlight! The prices were a highlight of their own.

More Moore
Michael Moore is pretty popular over there. Ok, not just him, but anything that spoke out against America and Bush was pretty popular. This was part of a larger section of books in a bookstore all grouped together.

DJ Samie
Samantha working her set in the front window at Nike Bologna. She always had a love for music in High School, but I never imagined her doing this. It makes her happy though, and she looked happy doing it, and that's what counts. Kick ass girl!

Asinelli Tower
Built in the 12th century as a watchtower for the city of Bologna. Standing at 320 feet, it's the tallest building in Bologna, and by all accounts on a clear day it's possible to see the Adriatic sea and the Alps.

The Kitchen!
This is where great amounts of goodness were prepped for nightly consumption! And trust me, we consumed!!! Giovanni and Sams kitchen was pretty impressive. Very large, all stainless steel, very stylish. Showing my pictures to people back home, everyone has commented on the kitchen! :) Mmmm... Pasta and Wine!

Giovanni
The not so traditional Italian man. At least not by my wonderful stereotypes. A great guy, despite his knack of not saying the right things at the right times. (read Ali's blog for more insight). Much thanks to him and his Mum for everything.