Ultimo settimane

So, at the time of writing this I am 25 hours from departing Italy, and it seems like as good of a time as any to bring my final weeks in Italy to a blog ending as well as an actual ending.

I've a few trips in this installment, and I've a few short stories from my time in class.

Forgetting where I am in Firenze

What seems like an eternity ago (was actually a handful of weeks ago) I went to Firenze (Florence) and spent the day.  I had looked at prices for the Frecciarossa train on the Friday, the day before the day I went, but due to equal levels of ignorance and laziness I chose to buy the tickets at the station rather than online.

On the Saturday morning I headed to Porta Garibaldi and went to buy my tickets... Only thing was the cheap economy class tickets on the train to Firenze had been snapped up over night and I was left with two options, scrap the trip, or pay for a Business class seat.  The difference was somewhere between 40 and 60 Euros from the evening before.  Given that I'd already gotten out of bed I figured to pay the price of ignorance and laziness and book the tickets regardless.  So, finding my way through the needlessly confusing station (perhaps because it is a station where the trains go through, as opposed to Centrale and Cadorna where the trains come to a complete stop and in order to leave the station they must leave the way they came in), I eventually came to an elevator, which took me down to the platforms and I got on my train to Firenze.  I had no point of comparison due to having never taken the Frecciarossa before, but the Business class seats were very swanky, very comfortable, and the reclining function meant I slept most of the hour and 45 odd minutes to Firenze.

The last time I had been to Florence and used the train station it was 12 years ago, so actually understanding where to go from there was a bit of a difficult proposition, this was further compounded by my lack of ability to use my phone for maps (as my data had run out and I was waiting for it to click over after the weekend).  I paid a guy 1 Euro for a map, and from there I walked to the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore (the grand basilica in Florence), then through the streets where I stopped for a chocolate and cream covered waffle (which is surprisingly difficult to eat gracefully in public when you've got a massive beard/moustache combo), went to the Loggia del Mercato Nuovo (a 16th century covered market) and then ended up in the Piazza della Signoria in front of the Palazzo Vecchio.

The narrow streets of Florence

Narrow streets which become grand piazzas

Cattedrale di Santa Maria

Cattedrale di Santa Maria

Piazza della Reppublica

 

Mercato Nuovo

Palazzo Vecchio

Palazzo Vecchio

Palazzo Vecchio

Palazzo Vecchio

Michelangelo's David, without the lines for admission

Statues near the Palazzo Vecchio

Amazing detail for something made of stone and marble

Piazzale degli Uffizi

After spending some time admiring the sculptures (which by the way, are amazing, when you think about how difficult that must have been and all the time it would have taken, I mean, they're just amazing), I headed to the Arno River and headed across Ponte Vecchio, which is lined with shops selling gold and jewelry.  Very upmarket, and just a touch out of my price range... Sorry to anyone expecting a gold watch when I get home.

I walked up to the Piazza dei Pitti and was going to walk into the vast gardens they had there, but given there was another price of admission and my day in Florence was disappearing, I decided to give it a miss and head back for some lunch.

Ponte Vecchio and the River Arno

Ponte Vecchio

Ponte Vecchio

The River Arno

This shirt hit a touch close to home

The view of the Cattedrale as you look over Ponte Vecchio

One final view of the river and the ponte

I headed to get some lunch and found a restaurant near the Palazzo Vecchio, which I though was a legit restaurant but by the time I'd been seated and ordered I worked out that it was just re-heating things they'd made last night.  This was a very interesting learning experience.  Further, I was trying to improve my Italian, but after one sentence out of my mouth in Italian the waiter answered in English and basically refused to speak to me in Italian.  This made it easier for me but didn't help my Italian skills at all.  (The food was very overpriced for what was essentially 'last night's pasta').  The other guests in the restaurant were Americans, loudly debating a point which was asinine (can't for the life of me remember what it was now, but I rolled my eyes on more than one occasion).  Only English in this restaurant.

I returned to the old market to do some shopping, and eventually buy some items, and all I could hear around me was English.  The customers all spoke with heavy British accents, or with heavy (& LOUD) American accents, all the shops owners, despite having a clear Italian accent were speaking English as well, and there came a point where I legitimately forgot where I was.  I was standing in a 16th century market in the heart of Firenze and did not hear one word to suggest that I was in Italy.

I then had some gelati, and headed back to the train station to get my train back to Milan.

Pretty good day out in Tuscany.

My One Bad Week

I'm probably lucky I only had one bad week in school, because I'm not sure I could have handled 3, or 6, or 12 bad weeks.

As a few new students had joined our class I was tasked with the job of introducing all the other students in the class... But I was put on the spot and completely caught off guard by it.  I knew the name of the English speaking New Zealander sitting to my right... But as for the other 11 people, I could only look on as I crashed and burned.  Not only did I forget everyone's names, but I even forgot the name of the girl who lived in the same apartment as me.  I felt awful! Just terrible.  And I apologised to them later, but it really made me feel bad (hate to think how they all felt!)

That was Monday.  On Tuesday we had another new addition to the class.  A 19 year old Chinese girl, who quickly became one of the most widely disliked people in the classroom.  She was a dead ringer for Yoko Ono, and just like Yoko I feared she was going to break up our band, because she had such a destabilising influence on the class.  She had this knack of derailing any topic of conversation and either making it about her or being a complete fucking child about something.  I later found out that she had only transferred into our class so she could perve/try to score with the oddly dressed Japanese guy who had his last week that week (and who quite comically came into the class late one day, bemoaning the fact that Wall Street had tumbled the day before and he might have lost some money maybe), the girl was also petrified of the class next door because her ex was in there (yet she persisted with sitting in that seat and getting a glimpse of the lucky gentleman (I say lucky because he is now an ex and doesn't have to deal with this girl anymore)).

We would normally play games in class, for example, at the end of the class for the final 15-20 minutes.  This girl was needlessly competitive... I like winning as much as the next guy, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't competitive in some of the games, but to me they were just that... Games... And after the game ended I'd tip my cap to the winner or try to have a bit of fun with the loser... Regardless, I didn't take them seriously... Until this girl came along...

That Tuesday when we played our game she didn't quite grasp how the game worked.  When you had the answer for your team you were meant to say 'Stop' and then the answer would be heard... Instead she just screamed answer after answer until I casually raised my hand, said 'stop' and gave the correct answer from the litany of answers she'd thrown out during her screaming.  After the 4th round, when she still hadn't learnt, I basically gave her the gift of understanding by making a joke at her expense telling her to say stop first... She didn't take it very well, shot me the daggers a few times, but to her credit (and regrettably, to mine as well) she did learn and for the rest of the week would scream 'STOP!!!!!' at the top of her lungs during every game for the rest of the week.  That week I apologised to the teacher after class on 4 of the 5 days.

On the Wednesday when we played our games it was two teams as always, but it may as well have been 3.  My team, the other team, and her... She basically removed herself from the other team by yelling stop and giving an answer (even if wrong) before their team had a chance to consult.  By Wednesday I'd given up caring about the outcome and was either actively not caring, or actively trying to make things difficult for her.  There is 'gamesmanship' and there is 'sportsmanship', she showed neither of these things for the entire week she was in class.

On the Thursday it became apparent that the girl was wearing on everyone in the class, and friendships were formed due to the bonding over our collective dislike of this girl.  But it was also revealed that she would be leaving on that Friday to return to her old afternoon class (apparently much to the chagrin of the afternoon class) because she no longer had the male incentive to be in our class.  Turned out also that Friday was her birthday...

Friday came, and she was no where to be seen... There was a celebratory mood in the air as we all knew it was her final day with us, and a lunch to celebrate had been hastily organised... This girl walked into the class 25 minutes late looking nothing like the girl she did the day before... Gone was the unkept hair, football shirt and massive glasses, instead there stood a 20 year old who had dressed like it was her birthday and she could get dressed up if she wanted to... I began to feel really bad and a little bit guilty in celebrating... But true to form she had some moments in the Friday class, and after a week of counting the days until it was over, it was finally over. 

I felt bad for the teacher most of all, because she had to be nice to everyone in the class, despite the clear divide that had formed and despite the difficulty that existed in her doing her job. 

But we did go out to lunch, and we all ate and were merry and happy... A few of the girls were forced to give her the slip to avoid her from joining out celebration of her leaving, but this is all a part of the game...

To illustrate the feeling of the class, the best comparison would be when the teacher lead us in an Italian rendition of happy birthday, and everyone joined in but begrudgingly, as opposed to one week later when another member of the class had a birthday and everyone sung with gusto... My housemate and I bought cake along, and others bought chocolate as a direct gift to the girl... 

That week I also had a disagreement with some good friends in Australia, so it really was my one bad week in Italy; all of the others have been thoroughly enjoyable, not all without incident, but enjoyable.

Me, Iuliia, Natsuki & Kaiwen

Celebration

 Roma - La Città Eterna

I spent a weekend in Rome with Marina, one of my Nona's friends who had graciously helped me out when I arrived in Milan and had spent some time with me on a few other weekends in Milan.  This time I caught the train down to Rome on a Friday evening to stay at her house and again visit the Eternal City.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Frecciarossa for the ride down was direct and didn't stop in Bologna and/or Firenze before arriving at Roma Termini, so the ride was as short as it possibly could be.  I arrived to find it raining in Rome, but Marina was there with a car idling (and another woman doing the driving, I can't remember her name, but I am not sure this will be read anyway, so harm but no foul), and I was taken on an impromptu tour of Rome at night.

The following morning I got taken to a tram stop by Marina, and we met one of her friends (again, whose name escapes me), and the friend and I caught a tram into Rome and went on a bit of a walking tour.  We began walking around some Roman ruins, and it was explained to me that the city of Rome, as it was back in Roman times, is somewhere between 7-20m beneath the streets of current day Rome.  We then headed through Campo di Fuori, to the Fountain of the 4 Rivers, then to the Pantheon where the Kings of Italy are buried.  We walked to the Spanish Steps and then had some lunch (which similar to the Firenze experience, was pseudo-buffet-pre-heated-style and really was an average experience... Though I didn't choose the restaurant this time)... We saw the under-renovation Fontana di Trevi, and then made our way to the Altare della Patria, then walked down the grand boulevard to the Colosseum and then on to the Circus Maximus where we chose to call an end to our walking tour.

There isn't much in the way of story there, but the photos will I'm sure tell more than words...

Roman ruins

Fountain of the 4 Rivers

The Pantheon

The Pantheon

The resting place of the King of Italy Vittorio Emanuelle, guarded by believers in the monarchy

Guarding the tomb in the Pantheon

The Pantheon

Italian Parliament

The Trevi Fountain in all its glory without water and a proper view

The Spanish Steps

The Altare della Patria

 

Clouds forming over Rome - The brown building behind the square was there Mussolini used to give his speeches

The road to the Colosseum

Parts of the Roman Forum

Parts of the Roman Forum

The Colosseum

Constantine's Arch

Constantine's Arch and the Colosseum

The next day it was raining, so I had lunch with Marina's family (including really thin sliced bits of uncooked beef steak which were really good... Although I'd still take a medium steak from the Beefstouw every day of the week), and then on our way to drop me off at the train station we made a stop by one of the hills overlooking Rome and then one at Vatican City.

Rome

Rome

Vatican City

St. Peter's Basilica

At the train station I thanked Marina for all she had done for me, said my goodbyes, and headed into the train station.  Regrettably the train was about 30 minutes late... I was asked for money by this one bloke (not out of the ordinary in Italy) and told the guy in English that 'I don't speak Italian' (this has been my tactic, feign ignorance) and the bum replied in perfect English... I guess when you only need to learn one phrase you can learn any number of languages...

The train to Milan took longer than advertised, and once my phone has run out of juice it was a real pain in the backside... The metro in Milan didn't do me many favours either missing trains at both Centrale and at Cadorna... But thems the breaks... It was a wonderful weekend in Rome and I do look forward to being able to go back.

Inter's European Adventure

A few friends in class were trying to organise an outing to a museum, and I mentioned that I was unavailable due to going to the Europa League tie between Inter Milan and Wolfsburg.  This sparked their interest and we ended up going as a group.

Sport is best enjoyed in the company of others I find... This is true for being at home and being overseas... I can enjoy a game by myself but it is a lot easier to share the enjoyment with someone who has been with you.

We met at the apartment and caught the 49 bus to San Siro, walking a few blocks to firstly go and buy tickets and then to go and sort out some dinner.  We arrived a fair while before kickoff.

Agreeing on the tickets to purchase proved a bit of a task, as not everyone was keen on my 70 Euros for good seats idea and so we collectively decided to buy 30 Euro seats up on the first deck.  We had front row seats, but as was my fear (after understanding how the stadium was set up) we had somewhat restricted view seats, as we were sat right on a walk way and right behind a large railing protecting fans from falling over to their death.  Though, this was something we would discover later, as we first headed for dinner.

We found a local place which was near where the bus dropped us off (and near where the girls bought scarves for the occasion, although, they would later have to turn them back in as one was very dirty), and sat down for some pizzas.

Iuliia, Natsuki, Marco & I

It is this kind of thing that makes me enjoy sports.  The sport is wonderful, as always, but the ability to be social and enjoy a night out with friends, old and new, is one of the major reasons I enjoy it.

San Siro

 

Europa League

An enjoyable night with some wonderful people

"Never relegated" is a very Adelaide Crows mentality

Not a bad restricted view, but you get what you pay for

Teams enter

The few hundred travelling Wolfsburg fans welcome their team with flares

Inter v Wolfsburg

 

Inter were chasing a 2-0 result, but ended up losing 1-2

The match was entertaining, with Inter requiring a 2-0 win at home to go through on away goals (as they'd lost 3-1 away in Germany the week before), they were attacking and were unlucky a few times, but went down 1-0 before drawing level and ultimately going down 2-1.  One of the Inter fans near us had a few too many and beaned himself on the rail, but he was treated with absolute kid gloves by the stewards and was treated more as a lovable amusement by the locals near us.  We did enjoy a few laughs at his expense and spent some time watching him instead of the game.

The announcers were interesting as well.  As in the final photo above, the 'Welcome to the match' is in English, and it was never in Italian or German.  But all the subsequent verbal announcements in the arena were made in Italian and then in German (although, there were one or two German specific ones that were made).  As the last Europa League game was Glasgow Celtic I was able to listen to everything in English and understand the more complex crowd requests, so the German was understood, but only understood based on previous context.

Getting out of the arena with 3 others is a lot more difficult than it is when I am by myself.  We all found our way to the metro station after a walk, but did manage to get there, and even more fortuitously managed to get seats on the train (an unheard of thing after a football match in my brief 6 game experience in Milan).

Natsuki and I got home later to fresh popcorn made by one of our other housemates (the other Japanese girl... The other resident was a girl from Angola who I saw 3 times in about a month and never bothered to learn her name) which was a nice surprise and made for a midnight snack before bed.

Good night out at the football, and a wonderful final experience of top flight football in Europe before returning to Australia.

A weekend in Tuscany

For my final travel weekend before I headed home (which, even though it was only a week ago, feels like an eternity for some reason) was spent with family friends in Tuscany.

Like the previous weekends I took the Frecciarossa and for this particular trip had to take a second regional train from Firenze ending up in the small town of Pescia.  The people I was staying with were friends of my mother, Silvana and Sandra, who are Australian but both married Italians and live in Tuscany.  It was good to have English as a fall back, but I felt like I handled myself fairly well as far as Italian went.

Some days conversing are better than others though and I do feel like some days I am just bloody awful and I've learnt nothing during my time here... I know this is untrue, but some days it certainly feels that way.

In the 2-3 days I spent there I reckon I ate enough food to last me 3 weeks!

On the Saturday I went to Montecarlo in Tuscany and saw some amazing views of the surrounding hills and meadows.

Tuscany

Tuscany

Thin streets of Montecarlo

This was followed up by a trip to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  I'd been to Pisa before, but not for many years.  We parked the car and were immediately beset upon by African men trying to sell their shit, from selfie sticks to sunglasses to bracelets... These guys exist everywhere in Europe, peddling their wares to whoever will buy it, but I've never seen a group of 10 peddlers hanging out in a carpark.

Pisa as a place is nice enough, but there are always a shitload of tourists, and it is one of the funniest places on earth watching everyone having their photo taken holding up the imaginary tower so it looks like they're holding up the real tower.  I had just as much fun mocking them as I did enjoying the sights and cafes of Pisa.

Pisa

Trying not to be a tourist

So many tourists/Nazis

After Pisa we headed to Lucca for a walk and an ice cream, and then headed back home.  That evening I was going out with Sandra's oldest son Dario and his friends to a steakhouse.  Anyone who has heard me speak about 'The Barn' in Mt Gambier will know about the 1kg steak I ate while working at EY, this restaurant (I think was called) 'Toscana Bistecceria' had steak which was as thick as my fist, and was at least 2kgs I would estimate.  Between 6 of us we only just knocked it over.  Amazing times.

This was one of those times I was pretty pleased with my Italian skills, but it may have been that the people I was speaking to were being very patient and asking me questions simple enough for me to answer.  We then left the restaurant, the others went drinking for a while, then we drove back from Pistoia and got home at something like 2:30 AM.

4 Italians, an Australian and a Spaniard walk into a steakhouse...

The following morning I packed my bag, had a very large lunch with their families, and then I was taken to the train station and headed back to Firenze, before catching the Frecciarossa back to Milan.  I was particularly keen to jump on the Frecciarossa because I had a Business Class seat, however when I boarded I found that someone was asleep in my seat, and I had unluckily been seated next to a family of 5, with 3 kids younger than 5... The comfortable Business Class ride home quickly became loud... Still comfortable, but the seat was mostly to thank for that one...

Karma is a Bitch

Every morning for the last 3 weeks there has been this bum waiting just inside the Inganni Metro station, every morning I ignored him and he said 'Ciao' in one of his most practised voices, and every morning I resented him being there. One morning I decided to get rid of some American currency, a penny and a nickel, 6 cents, by giving it to the guy in the Metro.

I walked by, casually dropped 6 American cents in his cup, and headed on to the train.

All was funny...

Then the train stopped for no apparent reason at Gambara...

Natsuki and I both didn't really understand what was going on and we ended up having to walk for 3 blocks and catch the bus to school.  As we waited around for 5 minutes while all around us headed for the exits we missed one bus by a matter of seconds... Although, all in all, being 20 minutes late for class was a damn good result considering...

That'll teach me for giving a gift which was worthless to a bum who is a member of a broad network of bums who are working together to scam people (refer to my: "guy begging for food was eating a sandwich" post on Facebook).

It is nice to be loved

As the week just gone was my last week at Scuola Leonardo in Milan it was a busy week for me, but also a week where I was very social with others (which is not entirely diverse from other weeks, but I did cram a lot in to one week).

From heading to aperitivo with Marco, Natsuki and Iuliia early in the week, to having a lunch on my penultimate day with these 3 and Ana, and Rupert (followed by a trip to the Magnum store in Milan), to my final day where Natsuki, myself and Tove brought in cake to celebrate the last day for me and Tove (and Natsuki gave me a very nice card as I left the apartment for the final time), the week was amazing from start to end.

I am so very happy that I have been able to undertake 3 months in Milan and study with some wonderful people, and people I am sure I will keep in touch with and hopefully see at some time in the future, either in Australia or in their country (2020 Olympics in Tokyo, get keen).  It is not often that you have a class where everyone gets along with/likes everyone, but the class we had (with the obvious exception of the one week described earlier in this post) was just this, everyone liked everyone and as a result it was one of the most enjoyable classroom experiences I have had for many, many years.

Penultimate Day lunch

The Magnum Store in Milan... Devo I didn't know about this until so late in my stay!

Magnum toppings

The types of chocolate for the dipping

A few of our creations

Duomo on my penultimate day

The Galleria on my penultimate day

The school has been enjoyable for the vast majority of the time, and regardless of how much I have learnt in the last 3 months from a purely language point of view I have gained a valuable life experience and have a greater appreciation of the difficulties others face in learning our language.

My teacher, Sara, who was my teacher for 8 or 9 weeks out of the 12 was absolutely wonderful.  Honestly one of the best teachers I have ever had, as all the lessons were enjoyable (even when they were frustrating because I didn't understand a concept), she always had a smile on her face and she had a wonderful sense of humour, 'sto scherzando' was often heard.  She kept everyone involved and nicknamed everyone with something they did outside of school or something they said a lot in school (for example, I often said 'it isn't important', and this became a sort of pseudo nickname for me).  I had as much fun studying in Sara's class as I have studying anything in many years, she was a wonderful teacher and I really do thank her for the time, patience and interest she showed in my learning.

Thank you letter... Google Translate is still a friend, even after 3 months

Last day in class

Sara and I

If I ever have the chance to do something like this again I certainly hope to have a class and teacher as wonderful as those I have enjoyed on this trip.

L'ultimo Fine Settimana

The final weekend in Italy has been spent with Monica, Ivan and Alessandro, where we enjoyed wonderful Spring weather on Saturday, went to watch Alessandro's football match in the afternoon near Monza, and went out for pizza in the evening; on Sunday we drove through the Swiss and Italian Alps, stopping briefly in St. Moritz, Switzerland, and then for a few hours in Livigno, Italy (where there is no tax for some reason).  It is an amazing part of the world.

Let the pictures tell the story...

Amazing spring day in Valtellina

Junior sport in Italy

The quality was on par with the A League

The Alps near the Italy-Switzerland border

St. Moritz, Switzerland

St. Moritz

Livigno, Italy

Livigno, Italy - The old and new of housing/shopping

Livigno, Italy

Livigno, Italy - I thought being able to rent a 'fat bike' was funny

Livigno, Italy

Livigno, Italy

Livigno, Italy

Sondrio, Italy

March Madness - Final Foreign
This will be the final post of this blog from foreign shores.

I hope it has been an enjoyable insight into my trip, the things I have been doing and where my mind has been at during these last 5 months.  I have enjoyed writing it, and I hope you enjoyed reading it (though, at this point I am not sure how many people are even still reading this post, let alone this blog as a whole).  I look forward to being able to talk about the stories and event described in this blog with you in person in the coming days, weeks and months.

I am unsure as to whether or not I will write another post once I get home, just to sum up some of the things I liked and really enjoyed, and I guess to speak briefly about the 18+ flying hours I am about to enjoy, I probably will, but for now I will leave it here.

So, at the time of posting I am 19.5 hours from departing Italy...