The Mountains

Often I have days where I think my life must be a dream.
Recently, I had one of those days.

One Friday, I left work early (6pm) to head up to the mountains with 7 friends (well, 4 friends, and the other 3 became friends). We were heading to Madonna del Campiglio to spend a few days in the snow at Giovanni's cabin. Every Italian had the same reaction to my trip: "oooo, con i VIPs a Madonna del Campiglio!!" Needless to say, I was excited

The drive was pretty long and in Italian (aka small) cars, that means a lot. We made a pit stop at the AutoGrill, had a panino and bought some chocolate and continued on. Gio had all of one CD that worked, so you can imagine how much fun that was.

Madonna di Campiglio is absolutely beautiful. The town is set right at the bottom of gorgeous mountains and the scenery is just breathtaking. Saturday we went up to the top of the mountains to the ski lodge where we met the "men" for lunch. I swear to you, the lodge food was out of a nice restaurant at home. Only in Italy. Christina and I, being the people we are, split a huge piece of veggie lasagna (amazing) and AMAZING polenta and wild boar. Omygod, it was heavenly. And being up at the snow covered mountains, I truly felt I was in heaven. 

The lodge bumps the latest tunes and really feels like a party. People dance and drink outside, dancing on tabletops in their snowboarding jackets. Then Christina slid down a mini hill. And fell.

Carnevale 2010

It has happened again. Great night out!

Life's Adjustments

One of the greatest things about Italia is in fact it's cuisine. While I will argue until I die that you can never say it is the hands down BEST in the world, it is pretty ah-mazing. I can walk down the street from work and pick up a DELICIOUS and hearty portion of homemade gnocchi with a bowl licking tomato sauce or a scrumptous seven layer lasagna. However, this little golden star in this country is also one of my biggest weaknesses.

Christina and I have come to the conclusion that neither of us have any self control, what-so-ever. Especially in the food department. We like delicious food. Period. When we're bored, we don't read a book or go for a run, we want food. When we're sad, we don't starve ourselves, we EAT. When we're poor and have no money, we fork out the ten euro for the best plate of pasta you can find. So we are both pretty mortified at the fact that summer is fastly approaching. By "fastly" I do mean in about five months, HOWEVER, it is never too early to start to worry.

Before we went home, we decided we'd take it down a notch the month before we left so that we could binge eat and wolf down as many American delicacies as our little hands could find. Well, we "dieted" by eating chocolate, pizza, chocolate filled croisants and cappuccinos, pasta and chinese food, all in preparation. FAIL.
We have a new plan these days as we are failing in two main parts of life: MONEY and DIET. So, we figure we'll kill two birds with one stone: no money and no extra pounds, right?!

Our new plan is brilliant and very well thought out. Don't eat. Don't spend money. By don't eat, I of course mean, eat some pasta at home and occasionally go out for Chinese food down the block. O and we definitely can't rule out cappuccinos or brioches in the AM because, Raniero a.k.a. "Principino", our barista, would just miss us way too much and we can't do that to him. Also, any invites to dinner/aperitivo/drinks can't be ignored because that is just RUDE. I mean I don't see how our plan could fail....

I guess we'll see in five months on the beaches.

Milano.

Chinatown Diaries

Christina and I live in Chinatown. Fact. My father said, "if you're lost, just follow the Chinese and you'll get home." Fact. We are in the middle of a war? Maybe?

This entire blog post came to be thanks to shoes. I, being obsessed with shoes, nearly died when I found a beautiful pair of leather short, studded, brown heels. They were beautiful and I am currently obsessed with studs. Obsessed. So, I thought it had to be destiny that Christina and I were wandering down a busy street in our neighborhood, full of Chinese owned stores stock full of the same stuff, and she happened to eye the shoes in the window. The rest of the shoes were cheap looking and hideous. "The hidden gem," as she termed it. And could it be? Only 22€ ? Couldn't be... of course they had my size (I have a small foot) and so I asked for the match.

"Non c'e'....in magazzino" ("They're not here....in the warehouse") - replied the sales woman. Christina and I both looked at each other, soooo, are you going to get them? She informed us that it would take her an hour or more or we could come back tomorrow evening. Being that we lived around the corner, I said I'd be back tomorrow evening, please be ready.

Last night I dreamed about the shoes, thought about every possible outfit I could wear them with; thought about different pictures I could take one night out to make sure they got some well deserved camera time as well. Christina and I met up after work (and school for her) and walked home together and stopped off at the store to get the shoes. We get into the store, there are three guy teens gathered outside chatting, a man sitting on the floor in the store talking to the woman I talked to yesterday and some other woman sitting behind the "counter." I look at the woman I spoke with yesterday and she seems SURPRISED to see me. The shoe is on the counter, where I left it yesterday. I go pick up the shoe in hopes it'll spark her memory and get NOTHING. I want this shoe.
"Twenty minutes. In warehouse" - woman
"Twenty minutes???" - me
"Five minutes." - man sitting on the floor
"Ok, well, I want them, please get them....and they're 22?" - me to the man
"Uhhhhh" - man, looking at woman who could CARE LESS about this sale
"No, 45" - woman
We go to the window display and point to the price. "It's wrong." - her reply
So, I put the shoe on the floor and we leave in a huff. How does the store NOT have a SINGLE shoe in the store?? NOT ONE! And the woman is clearly NOT there to sell shoes.

Now, Christina and I have been living in our apartment for about a month now and we apparently have a "warehouse" next to our apartment because EVERY NIGHT I see unmarked vans loading up "merchandise." Now, I've seen the stores and I have never seen anyone actually buy anything. And the stores all only have ONE thing. Like a store that ONLY sells socks, shoes, jeans, or purple knit things. And yet, I don't see people walking around in these things. Now, I didn't want to jump to any conclusions, but after my sales woman was NOT interested in making a sale and didn't even HAVE merchandise to sell, my curiosty got the best of me.

So I consulted Google. Fact.
And what do you know, a ton of information and articles came up. Apparently there was a huge protest in 2007 by the Chinese immigrants in Milan due to some "discrimination." It is referred to as the "Pushcart War." You can decide for yourself.
In other Google results, I came across this video.

I'm not really sure what to think. However, I now know that just because they seem to be working in a store, does NOT mean they have any merchandise. Fact.

Only in Italy

Well, I have been in Milano now for almost a month! Amazing. Our apartment is about the size of my living room in Lucca, but we'll just say it's "cozy." The location is not the BEST, however, it IS walking distance to one of our favorite clubs - creatively called "The Club."


Anyway, this week was/is FASHION WEEK. Amazing! I love fashion week and being in Milan during fashion week is very fun. Models walk the streets with the rest of us, take the metro and tower over us. It's great. Well, this year, C'N'C Costume National, had their fashion show in Piazza Duomo. They hosted an entire nighted called Milano Loves Fashion, including some performers (The Kills and some others) complete with performances and then finally the fashion show and a DJ after. So, Christina and I met up after work and headed down to Duomo to eat and scope out the scene. There weren't many people, so we casually got dinner, went into a few shops and then headed to get some good spots. There were only about three people in front of us, so we camped out and waited for the show to begin. Well, it began, and the performances were going on and suddenly Christina taps me on the shoulder and I turn around and there is a giant space between us - because there was a woman in a wheelchair pushing people out of the way. Now, at this point, it is crowded - VERY crowded, we could barely move anywhere and this woman is coming through. She stops RIGHT between Christina and I and is trying to get her way to the very front. Mind you, people are NOT happy about this. She was with her son/friend/I have no idea who, but this tall man and she is in her 60s probably, wearing a pleather coat and scarf. TELLING, not asking, people to move out of her way. And so the drama begins: she reaches our area, and there are two people left in front of her - a little asian tourist and this older woman, we'll call her signora. So the asian tourist kinda shuffles to the side as much as he can seeing that he's sandwiches in this huge crowd. So there is only signora left. Mind you, the show is HAPPENING and they are yelling at people to move!!! There is a little elevated grate and then a baracade at the very front of the crowd (before the runway). Her son/friend/tall man lifts her up so the front of her wheelchair is on the grate and then she's like YELLING at this signora to move. Signora does NOT want to move and she is PISSED. So she ignores her. The woman in the wheelchair is MAD and starts RAMMING into signora with her wheelchair!!!! It was unreal. Finally her son/friend/tall man yells at her, "ma sei matta?!?!" (are you crazy?!?!) and makes her stop. At this point, there is ONE person in front of her, this tiny signora, and she had a clear view of the runway. But, she is not satisfied and says, ok, we need to go back then! And her son/friend/tall man is like, are you kidding? We made our way here through this huge crowd, and you want to go back?!?!?! She yells, "la ammazzo!!" Meaning, "I'll kill her" (about signora). So, thank god, the son/friend/tall man is like ok, so they GO BACK through this entire crowd of people, just trying to watch this show!!! It was quite the scene and just insane. (Sidenote: during this whole scene Christina is loving it - saying ONLY IN ITALY, THIS IS AMAZING!, THIS IS CRAZY!) The show itself was really interesting. I think more fashion shows should be done with a public audience. They of course had seating for the actual guests (like the mayor of Milan, some tall blonde woman wearing a giant blank scrunchie who was famous because she was getting interviewed/lots of pics taken) but the other side of the runway was for the public. It was great!

the grand finale

In Sicilian Transit

I'm on the train heading from Taormina to Palermo and the adventure has already begun. We had a transfer in Messina onto a train coming fron Venice. This is a sleeper train that apparently they usually attach some passenger trains to. Of course, this time they didn't. So we were about 40 trying to get onto a train with no seats. One of the train conductors told us to go to the sleeper car, so we did and we were relaxing when another conductor said we had to leave and go to another car. Now I'm here, between two people, hoping that we're ok in these seats.

Taormina/Giardini Naxos was a gorgeous little beach town. Taormina is up on a hill with an awesome Greek Theater overlooking the water. The water is so clear it feels like you're in a bath and it's ice cold so it's very refreshing from the killer Sicilian sun.

Some fun things I've noted:

-Sicilians don't wear helmets. If they do, they are rarely strapped on, they're just sitting on their heads. This baffles me because once I forgot to strap my helmet and it almost fell off before I made it two feet!

-In Giardini people dress up for no reason, all day. For their passegiata sul lungomare, they're rockin some heels on the cobblestone and short skirts with sparkley tops.... Where are you going????

-Platforms are IN. Even the 12 year olds were sporting wedges, platforms, espidrilles, etc.-Clear bra straps are also back. I first saw them about 5 yrs ago when I was in Italy for the summer. Here they're in full force. They are really quite pointless. The whole purpose is so that you can't see the bra strap, because it's clear + plastic so it.....disappears??? Well, it does quite the opposite

- it sticks out like a sore thumb and looks cheap. I hate them.

-The bagnino (they are the "lifeguards" but really they just lead people to their sun chairs and umbrellas) at this spot in Taormina apparently took a liking to me and we were chatting for awhile - please note: he was about 40 - and then he leaves and comes back with a postcard for me. I've been studying his message for awhile trying to read his writing. I THINK he wrote "(heart) Francesca the beautiful, with love il Mister Loris - the cousin of Rosario" NO IDEA then he gave me another little card with a piazza and time to meet signed Loris #1 .... Needless to say, we totally met up (totally JK mom!)

A dopo....

Catania

So here I am... Catching some rays with the Isole Ciclopi in front of me. If you had asked me last night if I wanted any more sun or heat in my life, I would have laughed and probably suffocated. Let me explain....

We arrived in Catania yesterday around 5pm, after a slight delay - according to our caption Pisa airport's fault - and went straight to our hostel. We're staying near Piazza Duomo, which they also neglect to mention is near the Pescheria. If I leave Catania not reeking of fish, I will be very happy. Anyway, after a delicious fish dinner we went back towards our place and had a few drinks at the bar downstairs. Finally we decided we were both dead tired, so we ventured up to our room or as I like to call it "the sauna of death." We were both so tired we thought whatever we'll pass out right away. Little did we know there would be no (and by no I mean NO) air. Not even one little breathe of air that the ceiling fan should be creating. Needless to say, both of us didn't sleep until 5am, MAYBE.

Today we slept an hour later than planned, and were awakened by the beautiful Sicilian argument outside in the street. Now I am struggling understanding this dialect, it's quite fun thought. Cristina has a hard time sometimes too, so I don't feel too bad. Apparently the fight was due to one man washing the car windows and accidentally spraying another man... we moved on.

Claudio, our free, local Rick Steve's, suggested a bar for a traditional Sicilian breakfast that was near to where we're staying. After discussing with bartender what to try, we settle on two Iris (Cri got cioccolato and I got crema) and two granite alle mandorle. The Iris is like a deep fried ball of deliciousness that could feed a small African village. It was delicious and made me satisfyingly feel sickly full after. The granita was the most refreshing thing ever.

So now, after about a 20 minute bus ride, we have arrived at Riviera dei Ciclopi and have taken a dip and are now relaxing and probably going to nap. All the "beaches" in Catania are really like porches with steps leading down to the water. It's actually very nice and I kind of enjoy not being covered in sand (for now).

A dopo...

Sicilia

My bag is packed (hopefully not over 10kg!) and I'm ready to go! Tomorrow I'm heading out for an 8 day trip to Sicily. Having never been south of Naples, I am very excited!!!

Places we will be seeing: Catania, Taormina and Palermo

A dopo....

Girasoli

Toscana, Italia