Rendezvous, Romanella, and the North Pole

"Venice is a Fish"
It's the name of the book that the innkeeper gave me in Venezia.
I stayed at a lovely B&B,
where I was the only guest.
It was so nice and so quiet :)
And he was soooo hospitable!!
Reminded me of the old days back at the good ol' Garden Street Inn :)

Unfortunately I wasn't able to finish the book,
got about half way through it though!
(Which is quite an accomplishment for me, as I am self diagnosed reading retarded)
It told me things like:
you shouldn't use a map in Venice,
you should just "get lost" in Venice.
While this was great advice,
it is LITERALLY impossible to get lost in Venice.
It is soooo small,
you can walk through all of Venice in a day (or less actually),
and there are unavoidable signs telling you which direction to go on EVERY wall!
And did you know that the only form of transportation allowed in Venice is by boat?
Obviously it's the easiest mode,
but any sort of bike,
scooter,
or whatever other kinds you can think of are strictly prohibited.
Yup, it's true.
The book told me so.
Regardless, I understood what the book was trying to tell me.
To appreciate and experience Venice beyond the tourist attractions.
Which is just what I did. :)

I arrived on Friday, midday,
and even though I was beyond exhausted from
waking up at 5am,
walking 30 minutes to the train station,
sprinting 100 yards to catch my train that I came deathly close to missing,
and then sitting on a train for 4+ hours...
I was bound and determined to explore this MAGNIFICENT place.
Within an hour of exploring on that first day, I had already snapped about 100 photos,
including the one above.
I am usually not one to toot my own horn...
but I just loooove this photo!
Portrays Venice to a T!

I kind of thought that maybe the movies made Venice and the romance and the gondola rides seem more glamourous than it all actually is...but clearly I was wrong about that.
The gondoliers do actually dress like this...
and they sing if you ask them too... (at the rate of about 50 Euro per song though I think!)
and they stand around all day trying to sweet-talk girls into gondolas...
(or at least sweet-talk the girls into sweet-talking their husbands and boyfriends).

Walking around Venice during the day is no problem.
There are plenty of tourists and people,
enough to make a solo traveller not feel so alone.
At night, however, is a different story.
The romantic atmosphere of the already romantic city is on steroids.
For two hours my first night,
I walked and wandered
to try to find somewhere to eat
where there weren't candles on the tables,
and the meal wouldn't cost me half my life savings.
But to no avail.
The first night,
I wound up dining in an overly expensive restaurant where there were in fact candles on the tables.
It was either that, or a restaurant that had a built in mini-casino.
No thanks.

The next day, I woke up early to take a trip to a small island off the coast called,
BURANO!
I had researched some things to do in Venice before my trip,
and there was no way I was going to pass up an opportunity to visit this glorious place.
Upon arriving on this nearly microscopic island,
I was slapped in the face with
the smell of baked goods, clean laundry, and a color explosion.
Easily three of my favorite things.

It's like a lifesize Candyland!

Had to take a solo tourist pic...

so cool.

SO MANY COLORSSSSS.

I'm not kidding when I say that it is very, very, small though...
one hour was more than enough to see it all.

The second night,
I had a little more luck.
With the help of Frommer's Venice recommendations
(btw I am beginning to loooove Frommer's...
if you are ever needing to buy a travel book, definitely go with Frommer's)
I found a small trattoria/pizzeria,
with opaque windows,
where passersby couldn't convey to me pitiful looks that I was subject to the night before,
and that I was so desperately trying to ignore.
Happily, I DEVOURED a whole "4 Formaggi" pizza.
And two glasses of wine.
Why not?

After dinner, I decided to walk a bit,
just because I wanted to digest,
and because it was only 9:00,
and I didn't want to validate the pitiful looks I continued to receive
by returning to my hotel room before even the old folk called it a night.

So I walked a bit and followed scents, sounds, and people,
and found myself in a piazza not far from my hotel,
where there was a massive gathering of young Venezians, music, booze, and cigarettes.
I perused the piazza for a low key bar where I could grab a quick drink,
but I was honestly intimidated a bit by all of it.
Standing room only in the bars,
and I really, really, didn't want to feel like a loner with no one to talk to.
So, reluctantly, I decided to call it a night,
and began to head back to my hotel.
But, just as I rounded a corner onto a quieter "calle",
I heard someone behind me calling out, "Ciao, scusa!?"
Hesitantly, I turned and looked for just one second,
and was surprised when I saw a familiar young man behind me.
It was a boy I had ignored earlier that evening when he waved at me,
assuming he was just another Italian creep.
Well, I was close,
he was a French creep!
He told me that he saw me walking three times that day,
and had just decided that he had to talk to me,
so...he chased me down an alley,
and there we were.
I agreed to one drink.

His name was Stefan,
from France.
And he really wasn't a creep...he was sweet.
And he talked,
and talked,
and talked,
and talked some more.
And to be completely honest,
I couldn't understand a majority of what he said.
He spoke very fast in English,
and with a French accent,
but it almost seemed to me that some of his "English" words were actually part French.
So, I nodded along and hoped he didn't comprehend the confused look on my face.
He insisted I try a drink called a "Spritz",
which he said was a "true Venetian drink".

We talked for a couple of hours,
as he blew cigarette smoke into my face and hair.
It was oh-so-romantic.
And then suddenly, he said he had to go,
but that he wanted to meet me the next day.
We agreed on a time and a place,
and parted ways.
That night, I went to bed smelling like a true Venetian,
spritz, smoke, and the undefinable smell of the canals.
It was just fabulous.

The next day we met,
and wandered around Venice for a little while.
We went to a bar where you could write on the walls.



I took some more photos,
of gondolas...



and pigeons...?



Doesn't that pigeon look morbidly obese to you?
They ALL look like that!!
I don't know if it's because they get fed all day by the tourists...
who seem to have a strange obsession with allowing pigeons to perch on their arms, and heads...?
Or maybe they have extra body fat because it's so damn cold in Venice.
I don't know. Either way...
It's so gross.

And then, once again we parted ways.
I'm not sure if I'll ever see that fast-talking, brisk-walking French boy again,
but it was a fun and unexpected couple of days, that I definitely won't forget.

Leaving Venice and heading back to Nettuno,
I made a quick decision to visit a friend in Milano.
I wanted to see Milan before I left Italy,
and I was running out of time to visit before he headed back to the sunshine state.
I quickly realized it was for good reason too...Milan might as well be named the North Pole.

It was so cold in Milan,
that we literally had to take "breaks" from being outside...
finding warm cafe's and shops to jump into so that our hands wouldn't go numb.
On the train ride not far outside of Milan, we saw snow...
SNOW...
in case you didn't hear me the first time.

I was in no way prepared for the bone chilling temperatures we experienced.
Not physically, not mentally, NOT. AT. ALL.

OK so maybe I'm being a bit dramatic...
it wasn't that bad. 

The Duomo was beautiful,

it really was as just amazing as it looks on Wikipedia.

And the shopping in Milan is out of this world.
Store after store after store of clothes and items that I could never afford...
but fun to look at. :)
And aperativo!
Aperativo is very common in northern Italy-
it's like happy hour, but better.
You can go to pretty much any bar,
order a drink,
and you get free, unlimited appetizers!!!
Buffet style!!
Why didn't American's think of that??
Oh ya, because we're cheap,
and money hungry.
Stupid Americans.

While I was in Milan,
I also went on this kind of crazy psycho mission to find Italian leather boots.
My cheap American Old Navy boots had officially become worn-out.
I literally wore a hole through them...
which definitely wasn't helping my already freezing feet.
So I searched, and searched, and searched...
and when I finally thought I may have found the perfect boots...
the unthinkable happened...
BUM...
BUM...
BUM!!!
I broke the boots!!! :-O
How do you even break boots??
Well, apparently it's possible...and it's not that hard.
I was pulling the zipper up on a beautiful pair of brown leather boots,
when it got just a liiiiittle stuck.
I gave it a liiiiiittle tug...
and the zipper popped right off.
I wanted to cry.
I didn't even have any idea what to do.
I went over to the shopkeeper,
(who was an asshole by the way...scuse' my French...but he was)
who looked at me with dismay,
took the boot from my hand,
quickly examined it,
then threw it down on his workstation.
That was my cue to leave.
Sorry dude, but maybe you shouldn't make boots that are so easy to break.
C'mon.
Cristina and her friends have been teaching me bad words in Italian,
and recently they taught me a phrase:
"Mortacci Tua!"
Means something like F*** off!
When I told Cristina the story,
she told me this would have been the perfect opportunity to practice my new vocab...
but I was too busy turning beet red and trying not to cry...haha.

Don't you fret though,
in the end,
it all worked out.
I ended up purchasing a beauuuutiful pair of boots from a very nice lady,
who even offered to use a special machine to stretch the leather around the top of the boots so that they fit around my abnormally sized soccer calves!!!
I proudly took her up on the offer,
in case you were wondering. :)

So, I left the North Pole with the perfect pair of boots.
But, perfect boots and all,
 I have to say that Milan was definitely not my favorite place I have visited.
Maybe it was the weather...
or the way the people seemed to have a certain arrogance about them...
(cough*broken boots man*cough)
or the intimidating storefronts of Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Prada.
I'm not really sure.
But I was without a doubt happy to return to Nettuno, and Roma... :)

The next day,
one of my oldest friends came to visit me in Roma.
She's studying in Florence at the moment,
and wanted to take a quick trip down to Rome.
We decided to stay one night in Nettuno with Cristina, and have a dinner with her friends,
and then stay the next night in Rome, so that we could have the night to explore.

On Friday night, we went to a nearby town called "Ariccia",
which is famous for a delicious wine called "Romanella".
We had a FEAST!!
I have adapted the "take the back seat" approach when we go out to eat,
because it is impossible not to trust Italians when it comes to menus and food.
They absolutely know what they are doing.
Our meal consisted of:
plate after plate after plate...after plate of meats and cheeses and bread.
Prosciutto, salami, mozzarella di bufala, porchetta, dried meats, meats I had never even heard of...
For a while, there was literally no end in sight.
Just when I thought we were done, they brought out another platter.
It was incredible.





THEN-
came the dinner choices!!
Choices like carbonara, fettuccine with mushrooms, ragu, all the perfect pastas.
I was in pasta heaven.
And of course, there was wine.
As I mentioned before, Romanella is a common wine of the region.
It is a sweet, red wine, that is "frizzante", aka- sparkling.
It's almost like prosecco and red wine mixed together...
pure bliss.



It was a beautiful dinner,
and a beautiful night,
full of laughter, sing-a-longs, and food-babies.

The next day,
we ventured into Roma, and did what else...
but take jumping photos in front of the Colosseum.
C'mon guys,
did you really think I was going to come to Rome and not take a jumping photo in front of the Colosseo???



100% AMERICAN.
And 100% proud of it!! HAHA!
We spent the whole day touring around all of Roma's most beautiful monuments...
Fontana di Trevi,
Piazza di Spagna,
the Pantheon,
and of course,
we made a visit to my good friend Cesaretto at my favorite trattoria,
Fiaschetteria Beltramme!

Remember that place I wrote about when I first arrived in Roma?
Where I met the man who insisted I eat more,
and insisted on paying for my meal?
Well...I have been back to that place a total of 4 times now.
I have not seen that man since the first time,
(which is probably a good thing- he was maybe just a little crazy)
but the sweet Italian family running the restaurant definitely knows me now. :)
They know where I like to sit,
and what I like to eat,
and I don't think that they actually know my name,
but I can assure you that they will before I leave in two weeks.

Once again,
a beautiful dinner,
and a beautiful night filled with invigorating Italian energy.
After which, my friend and I retired to this oh-so-romantic 5 STAR hotel room...



So...funny story...
I had no idea I was booking at a five star hotel when I made the reservation on hotels.com.
I just booked it based on the photos looking nice, and the amazing location...
and of course, they had listed a very great rate for the night.
When we arrived we were very surprised to see a sign outside the hotel:
Residenza Frattina
*****
My friend said,
"You booked us a 5-star hotel room??"
"Wow...I did...??" I replied.
We were greeted at the reception,
and the woman informed us that they had booked us in a very nice room!
"Great!!" we both exclaimed...
"With a big bed!" she said.
"Perfect!" again we said...
"A big, round bed..."
hahahahahahahahahah
We couldn't keep from laughing!
So, we spent the night in what they probably call "the lover's suite"...
or some other ridiculous romantic name...
laughing at the irony of it all,
but not complaining one bit.
Gotta love hotels.com.

The rest of the week I spent relaxing back in Nettuno,
enjoying the warm weather...
(to me 55 degrees is warm now...anything is warm after you visit the North Pole...)
and anxiously awaiting until I wake up on Monday and am finally reunited with my mama and auntie!
I am SO excited to see the more of Italy with two of my best friends!!

And then,
I will be headed home.
Back to the sand and sun,
and BURRITOS.
I think something is seriously wrong with me...
I think about burritos and mexican food more than you can ever imagine.
I'm talking like, all day, every day.
I think my brain...and stomach...are telling me that I may never be able to leave California again.
Which I think would make my mother very happy...

Ok wellllllp I think I've rambled more than enough for one blog post,
although, I'm sad to say that I think this may be my last one! :(
The next two weeks are going to fly by,
and I am so excited that I will be spending them touring and traveling with two of my favorite people. :)
I maaaaayyyyy be persuaded to write a post-homecoming blog,
as I'm sure I will have plenty more stories to tell after the Tuttle girls blaze their way through Italy...
;)
But, for now, from Italy, I think that this is it!!
I hope you all have enjoyed my tales and travels as much as I have,
writing about all of it has been so much fun...
even though I'm not even really certain that anyone is reading it!! :-P
But, if you are one of those crazy folk with too much spare time on your hands,
thanks for tagging along :)
And, for one last time...

PEACE
LOVE
&
PASTA
from Italia!!!

CIAO
<3