Wrapping it up

O.K., since I'm now writing this several months after the fact, I'm going to try to sum up my last few weeks in Italy. After my riding adventure I was left with just about one week before my scheduled flight home to California. I was now back at my house, but I was going to have to find another place to stay because all the rooms were now booked up. Evi had decided to have a party in the garden since it was her last day there and invited a bunch of people from her music school. At the party I was talking to a Greek girl named Eleni whom I had met a month ago at the last party here. When I mentioned I had to move she told me I could come stay at her house with her and her roommate David, an Italian guy that I had also met before. The next day I said goodbye to Evi, my housemate and friend for the past three months. I'm glad I got to know her while I was here. She is really sweet and I really enjoyed our homemade dinners at the house, it really made it feel like home for me. Eleni and David had an empty room and let me stay there for free for most of a week until it was time for me to go back home. It was a real help for me, and I spent a lot of time with Eleni and we got to be good friends. Since all of the friends I had made here so far had all returned home by now, it was nice to make new ones. I really didn't want to go back home yet, and it really hit me hard on my last night. I went with Eleni to our friend Susann's house for dinner. Also at the house was Nadine from Germany and Jana from Prague. Now, having dinner with four nice girls from four different countries is good in itself, but Susann's apartment made it even better. It was located in the very center of Rome, right in the middle of everything, and on the top floor with a terrace and skyline views of everything, it was absolutely amazing. This is basically the equivalent of a penthouse in New York and not easy to come by. Fortunately for Susann she knew someone who knows someone, and she was living there for next to nothing. Wow. At any rate, this apartment, in this city, with these girls, was just too much like a dream and I couldn't let it end the next day. So that night I rescheduled my flight at the last hour and gave myself a few more weeks in Italy. (pancakes for dessert!)

The next night when I saw all the girls again they were quite surprised and happy to see me since they thought I had gone, it was great. By the end of the week a room came available in my house so I was able to stay there again. I spent a lot of my last three weeks with Eleni, and also with the other girls. One day Eleni and I took a day trip to Perugia and Assisi. We arrived in Perugia and got on a bus to the city center which was on top of a hill. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a place to buy bus tickets before we got on (actually tried to get a ticket this time) and when the bus stopped at the main square a controller came onboard and checked for tickets. I tried to explain that we couldn't find a place to buy them, but he said too bad. Fortunately he only made us pay one fine for the both of us instead of one for each, but it was still 30 euro. So after paying we spent about an hour looking around Perugia, which I thought was a nice town. We then made a very brief trip to nearby Assisi, with almost no time before we had to catch the last train back to Rome. It was a lot of traveling for not much sightseeing, a common occurrence when relying on public transportation.

I also spent one day with Susann in Naples. I have been there very briefly in the past, but this was my first real trip there to see things. Every Italian I have ever mentioned the word Napoli to has told me to watch myself because they have a reputation for crime there. It's also a pretty dirty city, filthy actually when you get out of the train station, but when you go further into the city it does have a lot of character. There are a lot of people living in a small space and it has a very old world feel to it, very raw. Most people either love it or hate it, I think I like it alright, but I think I need another trip someday to be sure. The food was good though. Susann being a German and used to things being a lot more orderly didn't care too much for it, but we had a good time nonetheless. (no I didn't ride them, it was closed)

I had a nice day exploring a large park on the outskirts of the city with Susann and Jana, which led us to the old Appian Way. This is the 2000 year old road, the first of it’s kind, that the Romans built to connect Rome to the eastern world, originally stretching from Rome to Bari on the east coast of Italy. The weather was beautiful and there were people walking all over, it was very nice.

I saw Eleni often. We went out dancing many nights and we always had fun together. We spent one evening at a Greek restaraunt. We arrived pretty late, close to midnight I think, and they were having a show in the restaraunt that night. We managed to get a table and she ordered a bunch of Greek food for us. While we waited we watched people doing traditional Greek dances right in front of us with music and lots of clapping, it was a lot of fun. Then the food came and it was excellent. It was a great evening, made special by the fact that I was in good company with the only Greek person in the place besides the cook and waiter. It would not have been the same with anyone else I think.

I also got to meet Eleni's cousin Michalis and his friend Vasilis from Greece when they came to visit her here in Rome. I had a great time hanging out with them for a couple days, they are a fun couple of malakas (a Greek word, far from a compliment, but O.K. for guys to use this way). They both play in a funk band and their favorite band is Tower of Power from Oakland, so they thought it was cool that I come from that area. They live on an island in Greece called Lesvos and they invited me to visit them this summer, and I think I will. After knowing her since my first week here, I finally got to spend some time with my friend Charlotte from England. We never seemed to be able to catch each other at the right time before since she was often busy studying opera (she sings), but we managed to meet on my second to last day. We spent some time in the city center and had a nice dinner just talking about random things. It was nice to talk to her, especially since I could just speak English (I speak Italian with most of my friends here), and she is really sweet. I told her of my plan to rent a scooter and spend my last day riding around the city and she asked if I could take her for a ride. So the next day I picked up the scooter and spent the morning just seeing everything in the city I wanted before meeting Charlotte in the afternoon. She was coming from school and had decided to wear a long white skirt that day, forgetting about the promised scooter ride. No problem though, it's Rome and everybody dresses nice and rides scooters. I gave her a helmet and a few Italian guys watched smilling while she got on the scooter.

Charlotte wanted to ride around the Coloseum, so we did. It's a truly memorable thing and you really feel Roman after doing that. She then told me about a hill across the river where you can get a great view of the city, so we went there and it was nice. You can see above everything, and we could also see the storm that was coming at us in the distance. What, you didn't think I could go for a ride and not get rained on did you? So shortly after, the storm was upon us and we had to get off the bike and take cover. We went into a cafe and had a drink and a snack while it proceeded to hail and rain like crazy outside, but it was actually a nice break. The storm passed after about a half hour, so it was then time to get the scooter back to the rental place, but by the time we got there they had already closed for the night. I had to be at the train station by about 5am the next morning to go to the airport and fly home, but now I was stuck with this scooter and not sure what to do with it. Hmm, I know, lets ride some more! So off we went for another short giro. So now I'm riding a scooter through Rome with a pretty English girl, her white skirt blowing in the wind, as she sings opera aloud for everyone to hear. Just another one of those moments that could never be planned or even imagined. Eventually I had to say goodbye to Charlotte and go back to my house to get my things together. I had a great time with her and it was a nice way to spend my last afternooon in Rome.

I had decided to not sleep that night since my flight was early, and I needed the time to pack anyway. Eleni offered to stay up with me while I got ready to leave, so I picked her up with the scooter and we hung out most of the night. It was really nice to have her company that night since I wasn't too excited to leave. When it was time to go I took her home and said goodbye. I was actually glad I had the scooter still since I had to be at the train station before the busses start running and needed a way to get there. Fortunately the rental place is across the street from the station so I just left the scooter with a note and caught the train to the airport.......

I had an amazing three and a half months in Italy. I saw many beautiful places and did a lot of things I never dreamt of doing. When I came here I thought it would be all about Italy and seeing everything, and in a way that’s just how it was, but in the end the people I met and the friends that I made are what I'll remember most. It was a truly fulfilling experience and one that I will never forget. To me this is what life is about, living everyday to it's fullest, taking a chance now and then, and most of all just enjoying the moments when they arrive. The world is an amazing place and the more I see of it the more thankfull I am to be alive and more fortunate I feel to be able to do things like this. I can’t wait until the next trip.......