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First a note to Roberto...( I gotta get on the forums, sorry) We went through Florence by Bike (www.florencebybike.com), which was AWESOME. The people were incredibly friendly and laid back, and the bikes were in good shape for being rentals. Plus they had really good advice for where to go (itineraries are also on the website), and free water bottles 😊 A note tho: If you are in reasonably good shape, you can cut the travel time on their itineraries in half. I am not a biker, never have been, haven't been in shape since my ten-year x-country skiing kick ending when I left AK, but I'm young and healthy, and above all stubborn, so our trip that was supposed to take a full day one way took us seven hours round trip, including a few stops for food and whatnot. Hope that helps 😊
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With two weeks to go of my mad existence in Italy, I find myself slogging through an incredible sadness at having to leave. Literally every minute of every day is precious, and the thought of going back to my humdrum life in Tacoma is bittersweet at best. We've had a string of hot hot weather,
Sirmione
From orientation, first week in Italyand everyone is out on the streets, laughing with complete strangers, the ever-present melting gelato in hand. Am getting in as many trips to Chocolat, the 101 creperia, the park, and the galleries, as well as any unknown streets that cross my path, as possible. And, of course, am writing my fingers to the bone. I've run out of pages again, and now my apartment is littered with fragmentary thoughts on the back of italian excercises, old music photocopies, whatever I can grab.
Ultimately whatever I've gone through here is inexpressible, no matter how much I write about it. This country has quite simply made me who I am: a person who if she met the old me back in Tacoma would gape in astonishment. There is a nugget of excitement though, in all my preemptive nostalgia. I know what I want now, and I'm not afraid to go after it, and Seattle and Tacoma have more than enough to keep me occupied, music-wise and discovery-wise, for the next few years. On the heels of reading that mad romp through America, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, dreams of a pickup truck with a mattress thrown in back and
Race
A race heading by the Duomo, Mar. 11 drives through the starry strange desert are flitting through my head...All in good time. The point is that I have time, and all the petty impossibilities of my old life have been obliterated in one fell swoop called Italy.
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anonymous
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They've replaced her with a Robo-Heidi!
Wow, Italy must have been some place to have made this sort of imprssion on you! I've been catching up on your live journals (partly to procrastinate during finals =P), and its evident how much you love it there. Will Ann and I even be able to recognize you when you get back? ;) Maybe this "new you" will be good in motivating the two of us to play more Racquetball instead of slacking off like we usually do. - Ben