The world is chock full of good people. And I keep meeting them! (Italy, Part II)

In continuation! On Thursday, April 1, had breakfast in my hostel in Rome with my freakinawesome roomies, then checked out and hopped on a 4-hr train to Florence. Spent the afternoon there, wandering the amazingly gorgeous city, planning my itinerary, skyping parents :-), and bartering at the outdoor market thingy. After a delicious pizza dinner, went to a cute little church down the street for a performance of “romantic arias” in period costume. I don’t know how authentic the dresses were. The soprano’s skyscraper of a wig fell off at the climax of a high crescendo… that was interesting.

On Good Friday our hostel gave a free tour of Florence. I met a legit porteño (from Buenos Aires) who lives in Barcelona, actually, and we decided to be friends and accidentally spent the entire day together. Very very very cool city. Everything is beautiful, impressive, and historically important. Loved it. And yes, we tried the gelato. Yes, it was good.

Anyhow, I went off on my own to pick up my (reserved) ticket to the Uffizi Gallery but randomly met back up with Daniel, my Argentine friend, at the coat check, haha! So we did the ENTIRE museum together and concluded that the ancient sculpture was the best part. Go figure.

And yes, I saw David, and yes, he is perfect. He’s the awe-inspiring idol, the Gallery is his temple, the tourism people are his priests, and the tourists are the dedicated pilgrims that travel any distance, spare no expense, and endure whatever hardship necessary to pay him homage.

Had a long conversation in the market with a vendor dude from Bangladesh who told me all about his culture, his country, the history of India, why he moved to Italy, and why it’s such a great place to work. He had some interesting insights. Also chatted with the bookseller dude in the libreria evangelica about what it’s like for them to live in Florence. Interesting.

Ok, just a super quick bit about the rest of the week. Trying not to bore. Saturday night at a candlelit vigil in a convent (in Rome) was a magical experience. Rather profound. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it, at least I hope not. (See facebook video)

On Easter morning at the Vatican I waited in line for a couple of hours in the rain to get into St. Peter’s square. Which was fine, because I was so excited, and besides, in those types of situations you always have camaraderie with the poor souls waiting with you. While in line, I chatted with some American students, with a happy Latin American family, and some nuns. One of them had dropped her rosary and I found it for her, which was pretty darn awesome, I must say. It just sounds good: I helped a nun find her lost rosary. Doesn’t it? (photo/video: my view of the Pope, etc. for Easter Mass)

On Monday I took a train to Camucia to visit a friend from Union who’s studying there, yay! On the way, had an interesting conversation with a girl from Vietnam. One of those weird connections where I left thinking I really could have been best friends with her. I’m still amazed by how awesomely intelligent and kind she was. She was good at asking really interesting questions… and genuinely caring about my answers. I want to be more like that.

So I kinda accidentally hitchhiked… twice. I arrived in Camucia and was waiting for a bus to Cortona when I realized it was a holiday and the next bus wasn’t coming for three more hours. Desperately hoping I was wrong, I asked a woman nearby if she knew anything about it… She answered in English! She and her husband and little girl were on vacation from Australia, touring Italy by car. They must’ve felt sorry for me, because they gave me a lift up the mountain, quite out of their way. They said they were so grateful just to chat with another English-speaker. Gosh, nicest people EVER. I had completely different adventures coming back down again, but they were a bit frustrating. Anyhow, Allyn showed me Cortona, her beautiful little town. It was SO lovely to see a familiar face from back home. And then she took me to her ceramics studio, showed me her work, and instructed me in throwing my first pot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And my second, too, haha. I can’t even describe how awesome that day was.

Oh, Tuesday was a beast of a day, too. First I had a leisurely breakfast with a girl from St. Norbert College, WI. I made her talk to me about DePere, a town I loved living in (against all odds). But apparently Hansen’s has been closed for some years now. Sad! Ok, sorry, moving on!

I did the Forum, Palatine, Coliseum, Pantheon, S. Pietro in Vincoli, Sta. Maria Sopra Minerva, Via Appia, Catacombs of San Calisto, and saw the Santa Scala (from which I left feeling like angry Martin Luther in the scene from the Joseph Finnes movie, haha) all in one day. I think I took eight buses to enable all that. (photos: at top, me in the Coliseum. At bottom, Michelangelo's Moses at S. Pietro in Vincoli)

One more random tidbit: on a bus on the Via Appia Antica, I gave my seat to an old man. Then, turned out we took the same tour of the Catacombs (in Spanish). After, he came up to me and (in Spanish) said something like “On a bus full of people, you left me a seat. You are one of the best-mannered young persons I’ve ever met.” And thanked me. I was like, woah! I dunno, that left a big impression on me. It was, like, Flattery for Mary Week or something.

Anyhow, a completely amazing trip. I feel pretty grateful about it. Sorry this post was so long in coming: writing them takes a very long time.