In Fair Verona

This past weekend was absolutely fantastic. I got to see Kristen and some of the other Americans, whom I haven't seen for over a month! It's hard to believe how quickly time passes..





Friday


Friday, I was planning on taking the 3:00 train to Milano Centrale. Usually, I go to Milano Porta Garibaldi, but after the host family switch, Kristen lives closer to Centrale. My plans were to leave school at noon, like I usually do, go to church, stop at a bar and get something to eat, and then walk to the station. I always give myself plenty of time to go to the station, because I always get lost on the way. I've never arrived at the station the same way twice.





Like I planned, I left school at noon, and walked to the church, but was dismayed to see it was closed. The bar I had wanted to try was closed too. I went to a second bar, but the bartender told me they didn't have hot chocolate, so I left and went to a third bar. This bar, luckily, had hot chocolate. Only it was three euro, which I didn't know. After drinking the teeny cup of hot chocolate, I went to pay, and was shocked when the woman at the register told me how much it was. Now, you can find six euro hot chocolate in the touristy cafes in Milan, but prices shouldn't be inflated in my little city. I grudgingly paid, and without anything else to do, decided to make my way to the train station.





This time, it took me all of three minutes to get to the station. By then, it was one o'clock, and my train didn't leave until three. I texted Kristen, and she said I could come on an earlier train. The next train to Milano Centrale was at two, so decided to just wait on the platform. Tickets to Milano Porta Garibaldi are usually 3.50 euro. Again, I was surprised when I asked for a ticket to Milano Centrale, and the man at the ticket window told me it was 6 euro. Again, I sighed, shelled out the money, and went to wait on the platform. The minutes crawled by, and an old man kept coming over to ask me when the trian was coming. Finally, the train came, and before I knew it, I was in Centrale. There were no "Uscita" (Exit) signs, like there are in Porta Garibaldi, and I had no idea which way to go when I got off the train. It didn't help that I was the first one off, either. I looked around for a minute, then followed a group of people, until I found myself in the main part of the station. I walked outside, met up with Kristen, and we walked to the bus stop together.



I've ridden the bus in Monza before, but never have I ridden a bus as crowded as that one. After a few stops, it was a little less crowded, and I was able to breathe again. Kristen and I were having a good old time singing "Popular" from Wicked. A man, dressed in a nice trench coat, holding a briefcase, started singing along. We both looked at him, wide eyed, and he said "Wicked! Good show! America!" in a heavy Italian accent. We all laughed, and he started humming the flinstones theme song. His son was sitting in a seat near him, rolling his eyes, looking annoyed. Kristen and I got off at the next stop, and the man said "Bye!" and waved.



We walked to Kristen's house, dropped off our things, and decided to go exploring for something for Kristen's computer. We went to four electronics stores, but didn't find what she was looking for. She did, however, see a one of those dogs that you can plug into your iPod, and it dances and lights up and remembers your favorite music. Then she saw, on the display, that there was a penguin, too, this particular store didn't have it. We decided to go to Fnac, a huge media store near the Piazza del Duomo, which was a good 20 minute tram ride away. Fnac didn't have it either, so we wandered around, and decided to go back to her part of the city for dinner.



Kristen had seen a restaurant near her house that she wanted to try. It advertised Chinese, Italian, and South American food. We walked in, got a table, and the waitress brought over a menu. For Milan, the prices were really low, 2-4 euro per dish. We decided the dishes were probably really small, and ordered 5 or 6 things, to share. The watiress brought over full-sized meal after full-sized meal. Not all of the plates fit on our table. The food was good, though, and we finished what we could. After dinner, we walked back to her house, and passed the evening talking until midnight.



Saturday



Early Saturday morning, I was awoken by Kristen's alarm clock. I decided to ignore it, and continue sleeping, but Kristen badgered me until I got up. We groggily got dressed and ready for the day, and were about to go downstairs to find something to eat, when Kristen's host father told us it was time to go. We all got into the car, and after about 15 minutes of silence, Kristen pulled out her iPod. We shared the headphones until Kristen's host father told us we could plug it into the car, so we could all listen. For the next hour and a half, we listened to bad '80s music (according to Kristen, it was bad. I like '80s music, though) and the Beatles.



We got to Verona at about 9:00, had a pastry and some coffee in a bar, and figured out how to get to the center of Verona on the bus. As Kristen's host father was explaining how to get there to us, the bus we needed to take passed. We walked to the bus stop, looked at the schedule, and realized another bus wasn't coming for an hour. Busses run slowly on Sundays. We talked, the bus finally showed up, and we asked someone to tell us when we reached the center. They told us we had to change busses at the station. Oh, joy. Actually, it wasn't a big deal at all. We waited another 15 minutes for the bus, and asked the driver to tell us when we reached Piazza Bra. A few minutes later, we were there, in the picturesque center of Verona, looking at the Arena.



We spent the rest of the morning exploring the back streets of Verona. We found Romeo's house, we saw Juliet's balcony, Kristen bought a bag, and we stopped for some pastries. The day was absolutely beautiful, not too cold, but cool enough to need a coat. Verona is clean and colorful too, and I completely enjoyed the morning. At about noon, Kristen's host parents called, and told us to meet them near the fountain in the center. We met them, they showed us some of the sights we had missed, and we all went to a little cafe for lunch. We took the bus back to where they had parked the car, I was harrassed by some idiot, but Kristen's host mom told him off, which made me feel smug. I fell asleep on the car ride home, and woke up completely re-energized.



When we got back to Milan, we all went to Mass, then walked back to Kristen's house. We ordered pizza, and Kristen's father set up the home theater in the basement for us. Kristen and I watched "Across the Universe," one of her favorite movies. I didn't get as much enjoyment out of it as she does, but it was nice just to hang out, watching a movie, eating pizza. We went to bed late again, but we didn't have to wake up early Sunday morning.



Sunday



I woke up at 10:30, and Kristen was already awake. We went through the whole "whadda you wanna do? I don't know.." ordeal, before we decided to call David and Taylor, two of the other Rotary guys, and ask if they wanted to go to lunch. Plans were made to meet in front of the Duomo at noon, but the tram was late, so Kristen and I arrived twenty minutes late. On the tram, I asked Kristen if she liked Babybel cheese, which she had never heard of. When we got to the Piazza del Duomo, there were people dressed in cheese costumes, handing out samples of Babybel. We met up with Taylor and David, ate some cheese, then started walking towards the panzarotti shop. Panzarotti are like American calzones: mozzarella and tomatoes in dough. The panzarotti shop was closed, but David knew another place to eat.



We went to this restaurant, which was buffet style. It reminded me of those cafes in musems, where you walk around with a tray, wondering if the food tastes as good as it looks. I got lasagna, which was delicious. I also got a roll, and a pat of butter to put on the roll. It was the first time I've eaten bread and butter since I've arrived in Italy. Who knew Italians didn't put butter on bread? I thought that was a world-wide thing.



After lunch, we went and got dessert at the Tre Gazelle. I got Sacher torte, which is chocolate cake with chocolate mousse and apricot jam. It's quite good. Taylor got a cute little teacup made of chocolate, filled with gelato, and Kristen got plain old gelato. With nothing else to do, we decided to explore. We stumbled upon the artsy part of Milan, called Brera. It was a little bit like Verona, actually, clean and colorful, and pretty. Much to my delight, we also discovered a Mexican restaurant. Next time I go to Milan, that is going to be the first place I go.



The afternoon passed quickly, and before I knew it, I had to be on a train heading home. Kristen and I caught the tram back to her part of the city, and she did laundry while I packed my things. We took the tram and metro to Garibaldi, because the tickets cost less. I had hoped to take a 4:30 train home, but if I missed that one, there was another at 4:45. We arrived at the station at 4:30, and we went to buy a ticket.. only to discover that there was a strike, and the trains wouldn't run until 5. The next train to Gallarate would leave at 5:30. Kristen stayed with me, and we went to a cafe to get ice cream. Five-thirty rolled around, I boarded the train, and was on my way home.. but since the trains hadn't run all day, the train stopped at every single station on the line from Milan to Gallarate. It took twice as long as it usually does, but I got home alright, which is all that matters.

The weekend was thoroughly enjoyable, as it always is when I hang out with Kristen. Pictures will come soon, of course!

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend as much as I enjoyed mine!