pre-trip thoughts.

I'm 2 days away from my 3rd trip to Italy in 4 years. Today is packing day, and as exciting as that is, I feel that I'm just about ready to take a nap. Going on a European vacation is a whole different ball game as a working adult. I don't have that college student carefree feeling anymore! I'm sure italy will return it to me, though :)

I've been doing a lot of mental preparation - reviewing some of the basics of the language, watching the Travel Channel, Everybody Loves Raymond, and - embarrassingly - parts of The Lizzie McGuire Movie. I also watched It Started in Naples (I rented it from Netflix) twice just so I could hear more of the Italian dialogue.

I decided to keep a blog for this trip because there are too many people who I wanted to email details of my adventures, and since I have the new "global" Blackberry, I will have constant (unlimited) internet on my phone. I probably won't have any way of posting pictures until I get back (which, considering where I'm going to be, is a REAL shame), but at least you can hear the stories and what strikes me the most. Hopefully I can share some of my Italian learning with you.

I just was able to re-read some of the emails I sent to Katie during my first trip to Italy in 2004, and they are hysterical - here are a few bits & pieces for your reading enjoyment:

"May 25, 2004

so far rome is ugly. it looks like downtown philly and all we've seen are apartments and graffiti and little closet shops. anyways... i'm sure it will get pretty when we see ROME rome. you know, like the colosseum. by the way, they gave us this HUGE apartment but didn't even give us toilet paper. nobody speaks english. we're going to go to the supermarket soon to get toilet paper and hopefully find some place that sells adapters and extension cords. we went to the tabacchi store, just a small hole of a store that sells shampoo and postcards, basically. anyways, that's where i got my phone card. i asked the guy 'quanti minuti?' (how many minutes?) and he said 'non lo so' (i don't know). silly TABACCHI MAN!

i also got made fun of (in a sweet way) by the landlord. i asked 'chiuso?' and pointed to the door on the way out - like should i close the door? and he launched into this big italian shpiel. and i tried to tell him that megan & i took italian for four years but i didn't even know how to say THAT. haha.

so i have jet lag and a headache and i'm starving and i'd kind of like to poop in the toilet like a normal person but we don't have toilet paper and our electricity is funky... I NEED TO WASH MY HANDS. i'm scared of the water. when the woman tested it, she said it was scalding. i am gross and so is rome.

p.s. rome isn't probably really gross, but right now it is."

"May 27, 2004

GUYS we have a date with italian men!!!!! ... guys are so different over here. you can tell they view women a lot more respectfully." (HAH! What was I thinking?!)

"May 31, 2004

then we went up to the palatine hill (there are 7 hills in rome, surrounding the center... actually rome is the whore of babylon in the book of revelation, but i can explain all of that when i come home) and saw the remains of the palace of domitian or somebody something. haha. you know, an emperor guy. it was pretty cool. the view was pretty. the gardens were pretty too. there is a medeival castle lower on the hill. then under that is the house of the vestal virgins - THEY are interesting. there is the goddess vesta, who is supposed to be the goddess of Rome (or was supposed to be) and inside her temple there was a flame that was tended by the vestal virgins. they all lived together and their families were automatically made wealthy and respected. the only thing is, if they 'misplaced' their virginity (haha, that's what my tour book says, i found it funny), they were BURIED ALIVE. there's a story for the grandkids!"

"June 2, 2004

during the meal a bunch of americans from missouri (i'd say about 10 of them) came by and asked alessandro (the other waiter) for directions to get back to where they were staying. he kept begging them to stay and have a beer or a capuccino. so they sat down because he said the tram wasn't coming for a half an hour. five minutes later it came and they missed it (which was hysterical). so they bagged it and just stayed and got beer and everything. lol

our waiter (i don't know his name) got a hold of a guitar and he sat down with us and the missouri group and he started playing all these american oldies, like 'tutti frutti' and 'twist and shout'. he also played a bunch of other songs, and an italian song that was written by a fisherman who whenever he fished he could only think of the woman he loved and that was the song he sang... it was really pretty.

anyways, before the guy started playing the guitar, alessandro (see above if you forget which one he was) told us the story of the princess and the pea, italian style.

so his story was that the princess woke up and she saw this GIGANTIC pea... so she started climbing until she fell, and she fell into a forest and fell asleep. the prince woke her up and told her he loved her and the pea was small again and he offered it to her. (i guess as an engagement gift. lol)

the only hitch was that the pea would grow everytime they lied. so they would say "i love you" and the pea would grow. they would say "you look so good" and the pea would grow. and their whole relationship was lies, lies, lies.

'but they had good sex.' the end.

so we had that big american singalong with the waiter and alessandro was dancing and then he grabbed my hand to dance with me and i was going 'oh no, oh no, oh no' and i almost fell out of my chair 'cause he insisted. so we dance in front of the colosseum. it was to some ray charles song, although i'm not really sure it was a ray charles song, but it was familiar, but i can't remember it. then he dipped me. then i sat back down. lol"

"June 5, 2004

these drunk italian boys two tables down were TOTALLY flirting with blonde lauren. they brought lauren over 'flowers' which were really just the decorative things that go in desserts, and a packet of mayonnaise (haha, THAT was funny), and then one of the guys offered her the key to his apartment for life (in other words, proposed)."

Knowing Erica & I, we're going to have a lot more of those silly scenarios to report. In the meantime, I have a lot to do, so...

Arrividerci, i miei amici!