Alright friends...I'm finally back in Vancouver. In fact, I've been back for 2 weeks now, and found myself very busy with a few things since I've returned. I was jetlagged for a good week, I helped put up my theatre company's second play, I've gone back to work (much welcomed after not working for 2 months) and I moved into my mom's apartment, which is friggin awesome. Things are going really well for me right now. Time to get back to writing before it becomes a fog...
But it's strange, my trip already seems so long ago, and it was literally a world away. Now back to the slow pace of my Vancouver life. Not saying it's bad, just very different. I was so used to doing and seeing so many different things everyday, for 6 weeks.
Like I said, I feel good about things and more confident in what I know. But I do remember when I got back I felt an extreme high, that has subsided now into more of a pleasant feeling. I felt so happy to see all my friends again and share stories.
And that's what I have to keep doing until it's done. I'm determined to finish this blog and put up pictures as soon as I can, because I've felt myself already drifting away...stay tuned for some great stories, and yes, eventually pictures!
Now back to Milan...
*****
I woke up on a sofabed in a quaint bright Milanese apartment, instead of a hostel...much better though. Martina had left for work so her husband Nelson and Pietro and I all had breakfast in the kitchen. An italian breakfast is never a huge deal, usually just coffee and a pastry. This time we had leftover poundcake from last night and...instant coffee. Yes :) It was a tea drinking household...whoda thunk?
So I needed to get back to my hostel before 11am, my checkout time. We made our way across town and got up to the hostel just in time...my bag had a nice, expensive sleep on the bed. Well, I did get to use the shower which was actually great. They even let me store my bag there until the evening, when I would meet Laura.
So we set our for a day in Milan. I was still hungry (of course) so we went across the street to a little cafe and I got a sandwich, a nice caffe latte and a fresh squeezed orange juice, or "spremuta". I love how in Italy, and in most cafes in the countries I visited, almost every decent bar has a kickass espresso machine and a fresh squeeze orange juice machine. Amazing! And Pietro bought me breakfast, so nice of him. Ok, NOW I'm ready to go. We went downtown to the main piazza with the famous Duomo di Milano. Thankfully they had just finished the renovations of the exterior; the detail on this church is amazing. Pietro and I talked in english most of the time, his english is awesome as he spent a few months in the US. We did the tour through the interior where there was a service happening; this building is so huge, and the stained glass windows go on forever. We even did the tour to the roof, which is well worth doing, we got to the very top of the white roof to get a great view over the city. Lots of people just hanging out and enjoying the sunny day.
We came back down and with only a few hours left, Pietro took me to a famous Panzerotto restaurant, where the lineup was out the door and down the street at lunchtime. For those who don't know, a panzerotto is like a calzone, like a pizza folded in half, but gently fried. Um, ya. F-ing delicious. We each got 2 kinds, they were only like 3 euros each and went and found some steps to sit on in a plaza nearby that weren't occupied by dozens of of other people with the exact same idea, panzerotto in hand. Pietro then took me to a famous gelato place...this would be the best gelato I would have in Italy. I had a chocolate kind and some other crazy caramelly-praline-I-don't-even-know kind, delicious. OH YEAH: When you order ice cream and italy, you don't have to order a giant size to get 2 scoops of 2 different kinds, you can just order a small one and get 2 kinds. AMAZING. Although this I fear could lead to daily consumption and trial of every kind of gelato there is....whoa back now...
So the plan now was to go back to my hostel, grab my bag, and Pietro and I would go out to Crema to meet Laura and her boyfriend Stefano for dinner. Crema was about an hour outside of Milan; not far distance-wise, but you can only take small country roads anywhere once you get a certain distance from big cities. Crema wasn't a dot on the map by any means, it was sizeable and had a main shopping district. Pietro lives in Crema too, so he stayed on the bus once we got to where he told me to get off to meet Laura to go home and meet us later.
I stepped off the bus and called Laura; she said she was a couple minutes away...but for a brief moment, I was an obvious outsider with a huge backpack, standing on the side of the road in a small town in Italy rarely visited by tourists. I thought for a second "Wow if she doesn't come, I would have NO idea where the hell I was."...but she did.
Very cool to see little Laura. She's just so typically friendly and welcoming Italian. We went back to her bright and fancy apartment in Crema where she lives with Stefano her boyfriend. She had laid out my sofabed and gave me a tour of the place and said to make myself at home and do whatever I liked. She had to go out to work for a few hours but would be back. I got a chance to just relax and nap, and take it all in. I felt so lucky to be so welcomed into a home.
I woke up and Laura came home and I let her in, and soon after Stefano came home from work. I remembered meeting him briefly when I came through in 2004 with Kristen, when I stayed at her parents place in the country. I remember back then her mom was also so welcoming and kind but didn't speak english so I had to speak italian. I remember having a great home cooked meal with fried zucchini from the garden; Kristen was squeamish about trying new foods, and didn't think she would like it, but she tried it and couldn't get enough. It was like a different food altogether from zucchini we have at home in Canada, so good.
Pietro couldn't meet us so the three of us went out to dinner at a local pizza place that Stefano likes. I was surprised at the different kinds you could get, I always thought italian pizza was kept pretty simple. I keep seeing the words "Rocket" and "Speck" showing up on english menus. Problem is in Italian the words are the same. So they put the same words on the english menu and expect me to understand. "Oh sorry, ya now I understand what Speck is, thanks for translating that. Apparently, "Rocket" is some mistranslation for what we call Arugula, the leafy vegetable...also called that in Italy. And "Speck" is some thin sliced german-style meat. Never heard of it. But it's tasty. I made sure to have Gorgonzola again on my pizza though. And sausage and onion :) SOOOOO good... And I probably had the best Tiramisu I've ever tasted, not too sweet at all. And of course they didn't let me pay!
After dinner we met up with Pietro and went through the town centre to a bar with a "drinking" theme. Quotes about alcohol and various bartending accessories everywhere. We chatted mostly in Italian as Stefano doesn't speak much english. I had some gay fancy cocktail like a mojito, it was alright but not great. But Pietro had the full on Absynthe dealio with the sugar cube and green flame and all. Not my cup of tea though as anyone who knows me knows I hate licorice as that's what it tastes like...but it was entertaining to watch. Pietro speaks great english but understandably he mispronounces the occasional word...so he was trying to describe the taste of Absynthe and said "It tastes like anus" "Um, I think you mean 'anice'!" I said...we laughed pretty hard after that.
Afterwards we wandered through the streets and I got a mini tour of Crema; it has a town Plaza and Duomo as well. A small town in Lombardia with it's own rich history and monuments and stories...I just love Italy. If you're from Crema, you're 'cremasco'...sounds cool :)
The next day I got up and Laura made me breakfast, pulled everything out of her cupboards it seemed. Still very simple: coffee, fruit, cereal. They had an automatic Lavazza coffee machine that you put coffee pods into. Italians are serious about their coffee! Still almost as good as a proper espresso machine. I had time to catch up on some emails and relax, and a couple hours later they started lunch. I had mentioned that I felt like I was lacking vegetables in my diet so they went out and got some veggies for a pasta sauce. Don't remember if I mentioned this before, but I started to get constipated from all the pizza and pasta I was eating over the week in Italy...an awful feeling...FYI.
But I was so caught up in the moment of being with friends in their cute apartment in a small town in Italy, I pulled out my journal and just wrote about what I saw for a few moments...I like this journal entry so I'm gonna transcribe it word for word:
"Crema, Casa di Laura. Oct. 23/2010
They're making vegetable pasta in a bright kitchen...I said I hadn't had veggies or fruit while travelling so they went and got some to make veggie pasta. Stefano opened a bottle of red wine. The table is set neatly with a plate of parmeggiano in thin chunks. Stefano timed the pasta boiling on his iphone, to make sure it's perfect. Pietro told me yesterday cooking pasta properly is the first step, sauce is something else. Such kind and giving people..."
After lunch I said goodbye to lovely Crema and the four of us piled into Stefano's Peugeot 206 and were on our way to Como to see Emilia...none of us had seen her in 7 years!
Como would be one of my favourite destinations to date...including the infamous Disco party, the lake, and a Swiss Casino...AND teaching italian friends some dirty words!
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