Ischia for Easter, Rome, Vienna, Budapest and back!

A brief disclaimer: This blog post is very long and probably overly detailed. When I wrote it out on Word, it was about eight pages and it took me three days to write, so it may take a bit to read (although, now that I think about it, it is probably a general rule that it’s quicker to read than write, so it may not be as long as it seems to be). My picture albums from this trip on Facebook are only a fraction of the pictures I really took. I may have made spelling errors, but I think you’ll get the point. Comunque…Iniziamo!

It was late one Ischia night, by the rest of the house’s occupant’s standards, and I was on the computer talking to my friend Gudrun Müller from Vienna, Austria. I know Gudi from school here, in Urbino and she was at home for the break as was the trend for most Europeans studying in Italy since it would be the equivalent of not going home for Easter if I were studying in Kentucky. I was saying to her that I hadn’t decided where to go and what to do after my parents left, whether to go to France to see Julia or Germany to see Jan or somewhere different. She responded, “Well, come see me in Vienna” or something. I said, “Give me two minutes to find a cheap way to get there.” Two minutes later and I had found a train from Rome to Vienna, overnight for €50 (it would later turn out that that was a typo and it was €99, but s’whadev). Great! I had a place to go on Wednesday instead of back to an empty Collegio Tridente at Urbino.

But rewinding a bit, the rest of the time in Ischia with my parents was great. We ate and ate and walked and saw more pretty things and then ate some more. On Easter day, Franco and Paulette (my father’s father’s brother’s wife’s brother and wife) and their grandson Antonin went with the three of us to the other side of the island to see a traditional Easter performance where men hold statues of Jesus, one of an angel and one of Mary and sing and run back and forth. It is supposed to represent the process of convincing Mary that Jesus had returned. When she was finally convinced, the Mary holders ran down to Jesus at the end of the street and everyone threw confetti. It was quite charming and festive. I’m glad we did that instead of Easter morning mass. Easter lunch was unending and on the verge of button bursting, as was expected. We started with two types of pasta with cheeses. After that course, which could have easily been a meal at home, we moved on to the rabbit. So cute, but so delicious. Giulisa made a huge pan of coniglio cacciatore. After another full meal-of-a-course we moved on to small potatoes grown right outside in the yard and a bit of lamb. Belts were straining all around the table. Wine and digestive biters and limoncello and more of the traditional Napolitano Easter cake and fruit and salad later, it was difficult to move. It is always interesting to me that we live in such a way that it is possible to get physically exhausted from just the motion of eating and the strain put on one’s organs to digest such inane amounts of food. After lunch, we took a walk and a nap. That night, we went to church. We were told it would be 20 minutes. It was an hour. But whaddayagonnado?

The next day Uncle John showed us the old house. It’s like Richmond in a way; so much potential but everyone just sits on their hands and doesn’t want to put up the money or effort to do anything about it. After the tour of the old house, we took a nice long walk over toward the castle Aragonese. The weather and the sunlight were incredible (See Facebook pictures). We stopped in and said hello to Aunt Libby’s sister and family (my father’s father’s other brother’s wife’s sister and family). It was nice to see them and know more about my roots in paradise. We came back to the house for a barbeque. At this point, it was beginning to get ridiculous with the amount of food we were eating every day. We had barbequed chicken with a lemony sauce that Giulisa had prepared. The meal was never ending again with a full cheese course and more wine and bitters and salad and fruit. We were all sleepy again. My mother and father and I went out a bit later and walked down to the beach where my mom was able to fulfill her goal of dipping her feet in the water. It was very pleasant.

The next day was our last. We had planned on stopping by Ercolano to see the ruins, but my dad’s back was being a bit apprehensive and was threatening to make it not such a good time, so we decided to lay low and go back a bit later. We had a beautiful breakfast of cakey things and coffee. Anthonio, Giulisa’s husband, is the captain of a Hydrofoil, or Aliscafo, and said that it would be possible for us to get on his boat for free despite his being on temporary disability leave with a broken arm. We said our goodbyes and I was strongly encouraged to come back to Naples so Giulisa could show me around the city and offered a free place to stay in Ischia. I made sure not to buy a postcard so I’d feel even more obligated to come back. Anthonio took us down to the port where he brought us on a ship and talked with the crew (in unintelligible Napolitano dialect) and said we could sit in the cockpit. It was awkward but incredibly cool. One of the crew made coffee for the three us. It’s all about who you know it seems. We got to Naples about an hour later after a brief stop on Procida and found our way, once we had almost been killed walking through traffic, to Pizzeria Brandi, the place where the Margherita pizza was invented. It took quite a while to get our food, but it was nice to not have a strict schedule for once. The pizza was very good, but honestly, not the best I’ve ever had. The mozzarella in carrozze was delicious though, made with milky, fresh mozzarella and fried in vegetable oil. All of the fresh, hot cheese paired well with my Peroni. Food and drink are a good thing. We caught a cab back to the station and in the process found out that we had been ripped off on the way to the port when we first arrived, having paid €25 before and only €10 on the way back (whaddayagonnado?). After a brief wait, we boarded a regional train for Rome. This train was €100 cheaper than the faster, more direct train, but about 45 minutes longer. It felt like forever. I think it was only just over two hours total. We got back into our hotel in Rome and found some touristy place to eat and I bought my ticket for my trip to Vienna at the station. We went to bed after packing our bags and having our room changed for a bigger one after it was deemed impossible to put an extra bed in the room to which we were originally assigned.

The next morning we got up and had brioches outside of the hotel, checked out and walked over to the train station. We were a bit behind schedule so we ran to the train and I hugged my parents and said goodbye and thank you for visiting me and they jumped on the train. I was independent again. When the train pulled away, I had to do laundry and meet up with Mia so I would have something to do until 7:00 that night, when my train for Vienna would leave. I looked for a Laundromat, but the one near Mia’s apartment was closed so I went back to the station and wrote in my journal (which almost exactly mirrors this blog) about the time I had just had with my parents while it was still very fresh in my mind. When I finished, I went back and checked the Laundromat. It was open so I put in my laundry. About an hour and €11 later, when that was done, I called Mia, but she was still recovering from a migraine she’d gotten the day before, so I walked around the block. She called me not too long afterwards and I went to her apartment to put down my things. We decided that, since she wasn’t feeling too well, it would be best to just go to the Villa Borghese and lay low, so that’s what we did. We stopped by a restaurant that makes specialty salads for a nice, cool lunch on a hot, sunny day and then spent between about 1:30 until 5:00 sitting out in the sun. It was a fantastically uneventful day. We finished our time together with a gelato and both had three flavors and then I gathered my things and got to the train station to board my train/hotel room for the night.

The train ride was very, very long. It turns out, much to my chagrin that Vienna is not close to Rome. What’s more is that from Rome to Padua, people would get on and off at each stop. I didn’t get to have any quiet until about 2:00 and even then, the lights were not off and I was in a seat and not a bed. I can’t complain though. I traversed many, many miles and spent the night without paying for a room for under €100. I left Rome at 7:30 and arrived in Vienna at 8:30 the next morning. When I arrived at Vienna Meidling, I got off the train and walked apprehensively toward the “ausgang.” I hadn’t gotten a hold of Gudi yet and I was getting worried she’d slept in. I walked downstairs and was immediately met by Angela, Samantha and Adrienne; the SUNY New Paltz crowd (with the exception of Adrienne who doesn’t go there but is studying with the same program yadda yadda yadda). They were waiting for Gudi too. The three of them had gone to Budapest and had been in Vienna for a few days already. This was their last day and they would next go to Prague. It was great to see them, some familiar faces from the Erasmus family. Soon thereafter a smiling and apologetic looking Gudi came from around the corner. Apparently, much to my surprise, buses and trains are late in Austria like they are in Italy. She took us back to her house and I took a shower and we played with her wonderful dogs, Cleo and Fruli and got comfortable and then she fed us an incredible Austria breakfast of dark, grainy breads and spreadable cheeses and Austrian meats and cheeses and juice and coffee. It was such a wonderful break from the Italian breakfast of simple starch, sugar and caffeine. After that, she took us to the Vienna zoo, the oldest zoo in the world. Gudi’s friend’s sister met us there and we had another coffee together, my third that day, and then she pulled some strings and got us into the zoo for free. It’s all about who you know in Austria too. We saved €15 each, so not too bad. I got to see my favorite German word, the schildkröte and numerous other enslaved animals. It was a little sad. The elephants had such sad eyes. One of the female elephants had a little frustrated tantrum and tried to break the fence that was keeping her away from the male elephant. They could only touch trunks through the fence. The orangutan was trying to kill children who were too close to the glass. I could feel his frustration that he couldn’t ring their little blonde necks. After the zoo, we met up with some more of the Gudi’s friends and got a bit to eat. On the way to the biergarten, Gudi received a phone call. It was Éva, a member of the Erasmus family who had studied the semester before me but with whom my stay in Italy had overlapped (I’ve mentioned her before in this blog. She’s great. You’ll see), and she had decided to come visit the next day! We jumped for joy. At the biergarten, I had, what was so eloquently translated for me as pig fat bread with onions, or in German Grammelschmeizer – or something. Boh? How could you go wrong with pig fat smeared on dark, dense bread with red onions on top? I had two Austria beers. I mention that they are Austrian not only to emphasize that they were delicious, but also huge and strong. The girls, who would be heading for Prague the next morning, left to go pack up their hostel room. I had an interesting and semi-inebriated conversation about global politics with Gudi’s friend Jimmy and his friend Reinhard. It was then decided, unbeknownst to me, that we would go somewhere else. We hopped in Reinhard’s car and headed for a party that was under some party tents in the shadows of the Vienna Rathaus, or city hall. I was fed more alcohol, this time, in the form of traditional Austria wine. It was good and as soon as my glass hinted at being empty, I was topped off. I couldn’t be rude and refuse their hospitality. After a nice conversation about how large Gudi’s friend Georg’s boss was, and how he once drank 56 wine spritzers in one night, we moved to another pub. Georg bought me another beer, this one to ceremonially thank the United States for Austria’s freedom. How could I say no to such a gesture?

Let me pause for a moment to better explain the current situation. So far, I have slept maybe four hours on an uncomfortable train seat, not eaten anything since breakfast except one piece of bread with pig fat smeared on it, walked around the zoo in the heat for three hours and now I’ve drunk probably 5 beers and 3 glasses of wine.

That being said, the girls came back and met us at the pub. From here on I don’t remember much other than short clips of my journey home. It’s not that I was black-out drunk or anything, but much more embarrassingly, I fell asleep. Many times. First time, at the pub, most likely while someone was in mid-sentence talking to me. Georg and Jimmy and the others who were there, apparently, were trying to tell me that Gudi was boring and that I should go to a club with them. “I’ll do whatever. I’m fine to do whatever.” I’d keep saying, probably between snoring. Gudi finally resisted everyone’s peer pressure and she and I and her friend Julie got on the night bus to take the tram back to her home. I remember bits of conversation and holding on to the plastic loop while standing on the bus. In all honesty, I think I would have been in a similar state had I not had anything to drink after my 13-hour odyssey by train the night before. It was about 2:00 and I was asleep for the night as soon as my head hit the pillow. We’d wake up at 10:30 to meet Éva at the train station.

Gudi uses total blackout shades in her room, making it nearly impossible to motivate one’s self to wake up at any reasonable hour. Against all odds, and fighting the headache that would last through the day, I got up and took a shower and we headed off to the station to meet Éva. We were sure we’d be late, but by some miracle, every train or bus or tram we got off of was perfectly in-line with the next one we needed to catch. Éva arrived about five minutes after us. It was great to see her. She looked so happy to see Gudi again, who shed a tear or two, and to have made such a spontaneous decision to travel the three hours from Budapest to Vienna and stay the night. We were all starving but also tired, so we went to a Viennese coffee house for a spot of coffee and a Brezel. We briefly caught up with Éva and then headed towards the sights of Vienna. It had started to drizzle. We walked through the touristy area to the international food area. We settled down to some Döner Kebab and a coke. Food is a wonderful thing. The sky cleared up then and we made our way to the Dome and all of the beautiful sights of Vienna, which are more numerous than you can imagine. Every time I’d take a picture, I’d see something else, take a picture of that, turn off my camera and put it in my pocket and then turn around and see something else. I filled an entire memory card over three days in Vienna. (See facebook pictures). That night we went back to Gudi’s house, which, by the way, is beautiful. She lives in an apartment that is attached to her parent’s house. Her apartment is incredibly comfortable, not only because it’s well decorated and physically comfortable, but also because Gudi is such a supremely awesome hostess. Coffee at any beckon call, a comfortable couch and a huge beautiful yard with fun dogs. What could be better? Comunque, Éva, Gudi and I went next door to her parents’ house where we had Wiener schnitzel – in Wien! It was fantastic, complete with a side of vinegary potatoes and onions. I don’t know what to call it but it was very Austrian and thus, delicious and potatoey and sufficiently heavy. Her parents are very sweet and elegant people who both look incredibly young for their age. After dinner, we went out again, this time to a bar where Gudi’s friend tends bar. It was a fun night with Gudi’s friends and a great opportunity to catch up with, and better get to know Éva, who, as I’ve mentioned, left only about a month into my stay in Urbino. I had two small Austria beers and it turned out to be just the cure for my headache, still present from the night before. This time I remembered, and stayed awake through the whole trip back home. We went to sleep without a set time to wake up. With blackout shades, this is a dangerous proposition.

We woke up at around 10:30, if memory serves me. After showers, we went to Gudi’s parents’ house for some traditional Saturday noontime pancakes filled with cheese and ham or marmalade. Food is really, very wonderful. Gudi’s father, who has strikingly bright blue, kind eyes, is a doctor and, more importantly for me, a pipe smoker. We spoke briefly about pipes and Virginia tobacco heritage (which I fake well now seeing as that most people in Italy and elsewhere who don’t know much about states in the US know Virginia for the popular tobacco with which it shares its name). He gave me a bit of his favorite pipe tobacco, made in Denmark. I look forward to trying it. We packed, Éva and I, and then she proposed an interesting idea. “If you’re not too tired of traveling, you could come home with me tonight and stay a few days and I’ll show you Budapest. I asked my mom and she said that’d be okay.” I faked like I needed a second to think about it. I love spontaneity. I brought my stuff with me so we could leave that night and we met Jimmy and went to a café for a coffee. I had had too much coffee already, so I had a big girly chocolate frappe. We then walked to the Belvedere, the Viennese castle/art museum where Gudi works as a cashier in the gift shop. It was beautiful and somehow very Austrian. After the Belvedere, we made our way toward the train station. We made sure to give ourselves plenty of time to visit the sausage stand and get some Käsekraener(sp?). Tell me if this sounds appetizing – Austrian sausage stuffed with melted cheese dunked in mustard and a cold beer from the tap. Again, let me reiterate, food is really a very, very good thing. We made a brief pit stop at the Opera toilet, a public restroom in the trainstation that plays Strauss’s waltz and is designed to look the opera house, which is just outside. We got the station, bought my ticket for Budapest, €30, and waited for the train. Gudi’s friend Martin and Sarah, also Erasmus in Urbino and a resident of Vienna, met us there. Éva and I boarded the train and waved goodbye to the foursome. They tried to surprise us by getting on the train and taking it one stop to the closer station, but Éva accidentally discovered them and foiled their plan. We were off to Éva’s Budapest! I was very excited to see it and compare it with Vienna since both have so much in common, but also such a different history. Éva and I talked the whole way back to Budapest about her potential job (which, in the time it’s taken for me to write this post, has become her real job) and about the US and Hungary in the world and the fall of communism and its implications on global politics and economics with regard to Hungary. These conversations I’ve been having – what’s going on? I’m like an adult or something. Like Gudi, Éva lives outside of the center of town. Budapest is actually divided into Buda and Pest. Buda is more residential and on the other side of the Danube from Pest, the city center. However, Éva and Gudi’s respective neighborhoods are very different. We got to the station and took a short bus ride to her neighborhood. It would be a scary place were we in Richmond, but there is no threat of gun violence or mugging in Buda. Her house is cute and small, with thick walls, which shows that it isn’t new by any means. Each room has its own living area with a couch and a TV. There are two bathrooms, one with just a toilet. The kitchen is small, but certainly usable. I was so happy to be there as her guest. We went to bed as soon as we got in after she showed me her house. She promised a traditional Hungarian breakfast in the morning. I thought, ‘Food? I like food!’ I felt bad that I got to visit Éva before others from Urbino who have much more history with her, especially Katy, but if I hadn’t gone then, when I was in the neighborhood, I didn’t know if I’d have the chance.

We woke the next morning at a semi-reasonable hour. I didn’t feel dirty and breakfast seemed like too good of an idea to take the unnecessary time to shower so I just put on some clothing and Éva showed me to the garden, which it had been to dark to see the night before when we got in, for the traditional Hungarian breakfast. It was good that we were eating. I was… Hungary…get it? Like hungry..but it’s the country not the…
We had some long rolls that had cheese baked into the top of them spread with butter and filled with salami, ham and, what we would call pepperoni, or in Hungarian, Kolbász, and peppers, tomatoes and radishes. Another roll was spread with liver pâté, which, against all odds and my upbringing, I found delicious. We had coffee and juice and beautiful weather. The garden was lovely and temperate and in bloom with flowering bushes and a large cherry tree that drops cherries when it’s the season. Her hosting was giving Gudi a run for her money! Soon after breakfast, I got my camera, and headed for the center of town. If I were to name all of the places we saw that day, I would probably need another five pages. We saw a church built into a cave, the Hungarian statue of Liberty – like ours, also a gift from the French. We crossed the river and she took me to the sights in Pest. Éva is also one of the most well educated, intelligent people I’ve ever met so her guided tour was complete with historical background and the local knowledge you can’t get from exploring on your own. We stopped by a cheap Chinese place for lunch and ate outside in a park with hundreds of bicycle riders all around because it happened to be the weekend of a major bike gathering called Critical Mass. We took a trip on the second oldest underground line in the world down to the Heroes’ Square where statues of important figures in Hungarian history are displayed. Èva was able to tell me exactly who each one was and why he was so important. There is no way I could do that with important founding fathers of America. She’s so smart. After seeing the Turkish bath we ran into her cousin and his girlfriend by coincidence. We went to a little festy tent thingy with a guy singing and people dancing and her cousin and I had a beer each and Éva and her cousin’s girlfriend had cokes. It was really pleasant to be outdoors on such a beautiful day after so much walking and to meet her cousin. We had seen so much and I felt accomplished with that day’s history lesson, so we headed back to her house where her mother had prepared a potato casserole with kolbász and hardboiled eggs and sour cream. It was so incredibly good. I love food. We watched the movie Milk and then went to bed. We decided we should wake up early to get to the Parliament tour in English at 10:00 the next morning.

I woke up to a beautiful sunny room and Éva made coffee. I took a shower and we ran out without breakfast to try to get there on time. We were running a bit behind so we decided to see the castle district before going to the Parliament tour at 12:00. The castle district is the huge palace and surrounding residential and government buildings all encircled by a fortifying wall and perched on a hill that overlooks the river and Pest. Next to the castle, a few blocks away, is the Dome. I found this incredibly interesting, especially when compared to the Dome at Vienna. What is so amazing about Budapest is that, through time, it’s been passed from one culture to another, being on the boundary of east and west. The Dome reflects every part of these overlapping cultures. The walls are thick and the windows on, what would be the ground floor if it weren’t just one big room on the inside, are small and round, reflecting Classical Roman building. The windows directly above however have sharp arches in the Gothic style. The roof is decorated, like the Vienna Dome, with colorful tiles. The inside is strikingly different; every inch is painted with intricate designs in a traditional Hungarian style. It’s almost as if you could take it apart in your mind like one of those books about the way buildings used to look in the past with a different layer cellophane layer for each architectural influence over time. (See my facebook pictures of the Dome. I’ll show you more when I get home). After the Dome, we rushed down across the river to the Parliament building to catch the tour. We jumped on the tram and got there just in time for the noon tour. We arrived at the entrance to read, “Due to an official programme today the Parliament building is not open for the visitors.” Whaddayagonnado? We had more time for food now, which is always an upside for me. We took our time now and got to the covered market, just over the bridge in Pest. It is huge and smelled wonderful, full of all sorts of peppery things and sausages and - lace, which I’m sure smelled good too. We looked around a bit and then headed upstairs for the restaurants. We were both starving, having not eaten yet that day. Everything looked so good and spicy and flavorful. We decided it would be best to get a bunch of things and split them. We decided on Gulyás, stuffed pepper, stuffed cabbage, sauerkrautishy stuff – everything spicy and wonderful and topped with sour cream. (I’m having trouble talking about this right now because as I write this, I just woke up and I haven’t eaten lunch yet. I’m really practicing restraint to not look at the pictures of these foods I’m describing right now, but you should, again on facebook). We had enough to feed, I would say, four or five people. We didn’t finish it obviously and after we had all we could muster, it was hard to move. After this feast, we walked a bit around the market and I bought some traditional kolbász and some of the Hungarian equivalent to grappa, called Pálinka. We made our way, still stuffed full of meaty spicy goodness, back to her house to get my things. After a brief stop there, where Éva, insisting on being an amazing person and exemplary hostess through the last moments of our time together, made me some sandwiches for the trip of the same meats and liver pâté we had had for breakfast the day before, we got back on the buses and trams and to the station, rushed to buy my ticket and I said a rushed goodbye and I was in my room for the next 16 hours, from Budapest to Venice.

I had such an incredible time in Vienna and Budapest. I can’t express how grateful I am to have had such amazing hostesses and friends. Éva and Gudi, if you’re ever in the US and you need a bed and a tour of my city, you know where to come! Although, even though I do love Richmond, it’s not quite Vienna or Budapest when it comes to history or awesomeness or cuisine. Just be warned. I’m so happy I actually did something with my break before I have to get down to reading and doing schoolwork in the coming weeks. I could not have done it without you two. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I had plenty of time to reflect on my journey on the way home on the train. The train car was occupied by myself, an elderly, but energetic Czech couple and a Hungarian woman who had been living in Italy for 30 years. The common language was Italian, so it was not only an interesting conversation, but also some needed language practice. I paid a little bit extra for a bed instead of just a train seat, which I had on the way there. Even with the bed, it was only €69 from Budapest to Venice. It’s like a flight plus a hotel room for €69, so I can’t complain. I had my passport stamped about 20 times while crossing from Hungary to Croatia and Slovenia because they aren’t part of the Schengen area. Finally, I have some stamps and it looks like I’ve actually done some traveling! In the morning, we arrived at Venice and I bought my ticket to Bologna. It was a moderate wait but I got a seat and in about two more hours I was in Bologna. From there, there was another two and a half hour ride to Pesaro and then an hour-long bus ride. I had traveled from 4:30 in the afternoon until 3:30 the next day – a full 23 hours.

It started raining as soon as I got to Urbino. It felt like coming home. After a shower, I came down to the 700-block to say hello to everyone and I was met with warm embraces from Katy, Danielle and Gudi. What a relief it was to be back in a non-moving room after so much trekking, although the rain was a very real reminder that the sunny days of my vacation were probably over and that it was time to get to work.

The past few days have been pretty relaxed, just getting reacquainted to Urbino-life and the Erasmus family. I re-hemmed a sweater that was mal-fitting and made brownies. On Monday, student life will resume for me. I started reading a bit for school and it has been taking a bit longer than I would like it to, but whaddayagonnado? I’ll get better the more I do.

I hope this post has not been too much of a strain to read and I will most certainly try to update this more often. Either that or do less interesting things worth talking about.
Until there is more to tell you about, and with love from Urbino, my home away from home,
David

Pasqua, parents, P...Rome

It’s Pasqua time! A lot to talk about, but not so much inclination to be detailed so I will be brief. I came to Rome on Wednesday (a bit later than planned because my travel companion, Gudi, had a slight technological malfunction and was not able to get up on time) and after saying goodbye to Gudi, met up with Mia, my Danish friend who I met at the hostel the first time I was in Rome. We spent the day together and met up with her friend Isabel and we had a great time just hanging out as the Romans. I slept in the hostel down the street from Mia, but I didn’t sleep well because it was noisy and I think I had a coffee too late.

My parents arrived here on Thursday morning, which is awesome. We explored Rome for two days and saw the Coliseum, the Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum, which were all incredible and interesting; the next day, the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. It was a great time indeed.

This morning we woke up and checked out of our hotel and went to the train station to get our tickets from the train. The one we wanted was sold out (which I didn’t know was possible) so we paid a bit (read: a lot) more money to get on the direct path from Rome to Naples. About an hour and twenty minutes later, we were in a bustling, terrifying city and we caught a cab, which was a death-defying adventure in it’s own right, to the sea port, hopped on an Aliscafo and another half-hour later, we were in the land of my ancestors.

Ischia is mind-blowingly beautiful. I kept thinking about how hard it must have been for my grandfather, and his brothers and their father and my grandmother’s father and everyone in my family who had to leave this place. Times must have been really bad for someone to find enough reason to leave this paradise in favor of New York. Everyone tells me how built up it is now and how much better it once was before all the Germans and tourists, but when I look out the window here, out onto Ischia Porto, I feel calm and relaxed and just content with the world. What it would be like to live like this forever is beyond my comprehension.

My great-uncle John (Gianni/Giovanni), my grandfather’s brother, is the spitting image of my grandfather. It’s so interesting to see someone, not only physically like my grandfather, but also with such similar gestures and expressions, even after so many years apart. I feel so comfortable here with Uncle John and Aunt Anna. I’ve only met them today, but I feel like we are family. Could be, now that I think about it, that we are family…

Tomorrow we’ll wake up and go to church (my first time in several years) and then eat a fresh rabbit and I’m sure numerous other delicious things. So far, the food here has been outstanding. We had spaghetti with tomato sauce made from tomatoes grown in my uncle’s garden and some fresh fish that was delicious, followed by a homemade cakey-pie thing that is traditional for Easter only in Naples. Unbelievably good. My family knows how to live.

I still don’t know what I’m going to do when my parents leave. I’m not trying to sound hopeless, but just unprepared. I’m considering France and Germany, but I haven’t made any decisions yet. Luckily there is internet and my Uncle’s house so I should be able to do some planning tomorrow and Monday.

Until I write again, buona Pasqua and Arrivederci!

First week in April

It’s Sunday now, but unlike normal Sundays, it’s the first Sunday of the month which means that the main piazza is filled with antiques dealers. I am going to meet the Irish and Danielle and I don’t remember whom else in a few minutes to go down to Centro for that, but I thought it would be go to write a brief blog post to update.

This week was successful in that I am still alive, I understand more Italian than I did last week and I am happy and relaxed. I not only went to all of my classes this week, but also to a meeting with Professoressa Viganó with Elizabeth to discuss our class. This whole time I’ve been waiting for a bit of guidance and something resembling a curriculum, but as it turns out, our class will be us doing research on a specific topic related to agrarian economics and then either writing a paper or giving an oral exam. We can use English texts as well, which will make things easier, while taking away any excuse for doing a bad job. When Elizabeth asked how long she wanted our paper to be, Proff.essa Viganó said, “Boh…circa 50 pagine?” like it was nothing! Our jaws almost dropped off.
“No? Troppo?”
“Sí…” We were a bit ashamed by our laziness. But really, 50 pages? We’re Erasmus for heaven’s sake! She came down to almeno 20 which I think we can handle since we can write it in English, though it may be easier to just do research on a topic and read a lot and then give an oral exam because we can still use our lacking Italian as an excuse.

Presidente Acuna told me what my exam for Latin American History and Institutions will be. It seems like I am to read his book and pick three countries to talk about. I’m not quite sure if it’s to be written or oral. It’s a lot of reading. I do actually have a bit of work to do but I think I’ll be okay.

So far, all of my exams are in May, which means that June will be free to travel. I am very much looking forward to getting our and seeing Europe in June. I really want to go to Tunisia I think and be incredibly hot.

Welp (clap), it’s 11:30 and I have to get upstairs now.,,,Oh wait, I’ve got to tell you about moving my room! I’ll be back…..

Okay. It’s nighttime now. I went to the market with my Irish friends and it was wonderful. Beautiful pipes were plentiful and wonderful paintings and this, that, and the other. After a pleasant stroll through the market, Síne, Annie and I got Greek food at a wonderful Greek restaurant. It was incredibly tasty and we sat on a park bench and looked at the beautiful sun and got tan (or red, if you’re Irish). After a pleasant and relaxing several hours in the sun, we went back to Tridente and had a tea and an even more relaxing lie down on the terrace atop the 700-block. After I was thoroughly crisped, with the exception of raccoon eyes, it was time for the Catholics to go to Palm Sunday Mass and Gudi and I to have coffee and watch Friends. Four episodes later, everyone came back and we ate some Mensa food and now here I sit in the common room writing these words about my possibly-too-relaxing day.

But, back to moving to Tridente. Romain, before he left for Paris for a few days to chase the love of his life who he met a few days prior and is German but was studying here for a few days and then going to Paris, which is ironic because Romain is from Paris but he’s here and she’s there so she paid for his flight…yadda, yadda, yadda…told me that a room had opened up in his block and that I should try to move in so I could be closer to everyone. We went to ask about it the other morning and they told put me down to move and I was supposed to come back in a few days. Anyway, to make a long story short, I now live in the 200 block of the 3rd branch of Tridente, only a few short steps away from everyone I know. Scott was also able to move into the block across the hall so now everyone except Viktoria lives in Tridente.

Kevin is waiting for me now so he can see my room and use my bathroom so I’d better go.

Coming soon!
-My parents come to visit
-I meet my Uncle John
-I go to Norway (hopefully)
-I start doing school work

Best wishes,
David