Italy 2009 : Conclusionary Post

My first trip has come to a close! Upon my return, this blog's purpose was instantly validated. Many of you told me how much you enjoyed it-- thank you for reading! Furthermore, when I'm asked, "how was Italy?!" my responses are just as short, awkward and poorly formed as I expected they would be, so I'm glad that my friends and family can look here for an answer to that question in a medium that's easier for me. And it's a heck of a lot easier to build and maintain than a scrapbook is. So, I expect to continue using this. Check back in December for trip #2...

So how WAS Italy? It was great. I enjoyed the food, the landscape, the History, and the people. I wanted to go to Rome because of all the old stuff. In this country if something is 200 years old it's impressive, and if it's 300 years old, it's ancient. In Rome that is nothing. You can walk where Julius Caesar did and gaze at near two-thousand year old ruins as tall as your apartment building. The Roman empire stretched further than the boundaries of Eurail. So, I saw a lot of old and impressive stuff, and that was everything I wanted it to be.


Naturally my second largest travel-related interest is food :) Sadly some of my best meals escaped photography, but here's pizza slice I enjoyed overlooking a venetian canal :) (see below) For more, see the Siena post. In regards to food, I definitely enjoyed myself. Whether it was a pizza slice and beer on a piazza, or an expensive meal in one of Rick Steves' splurge picks. And you can't forget the gelato. They make icecream like you wouldn't believe- it is gooooooood.

Of course there's more to travelling than sights and food, right? Aren't you supposed to come back with a deepened understanding and a broader worldview? I thought that I might. But this didn't really happen. I think in part it's because I did so much research that not a lot surprised me. Or, maybe it's because I already visited Europe (though in a very different kind of trip), or just because of a broad education. Maybe it's because I hit touristy places in a country that, on the larger scale of things, isn't that culturally different from here. One night I watched about an hour of Italian TV. Gameshows, reality TV, news, very familiar stuff. Oh, and several familiar faces. Two channels seemed to be dedicated to American programs dubbed into Italian. Law & Order seemed slightly less dramatic in Italian ;) (Also- Italian spongebob squarepants!)

Of course, there were many, many fun surprises. One was self inflicted: although I had a vague idea of what some of the places I was going to see looked like before I left, I avoided looking at too many pictures and/or watching too many Italy travel shows before I went. So when I saw something, it was that much greater of an impact.

Another was that as in movies and stereotypes, Italians really DO burst out into song, seemingly out of nowhere, for no reason other than self-amusement. The first time it happened in Rome I thought that it was a gag; that maybe this guy just wanted to mess with the heads of tourists. And in some cases I still believe this is part of it. But, the more it happened, the more I let down my skepticism and believed it to be true. Old men walking along a canal, hotel staffers bored at their desk, taxi drivers, and to my delight, a guy making pizza. Little things like this add spice and fun to the trip.

On the subject of music, I was often amused at the attempts of people to make Americans feel more "at home." I appreciate it, but it was a little funny when, for example, my taxi driver switched his radio to some hideous American pop I would never in a million years listen to. In another restaurant in the Cinque Terre (recall: Rick Steves' influence has made about 70% of tourists who come through here American...), even though it was a very lovely and refined place, they started to play Kelly Clarkson! I'm not making this up. Live performers on Camp de' Fiori played an odd reprise of "Somewhere over the rainbow," and another restaurant I was at in Cinque Terre had some odd orchestration of that song at the end of Titanic going.

Partly you can explain away these things as globalization, but you might also say
these are signs that I didn't get as far off the beaten path as I could have. True, but getting onto the road less travelled is quite a bit easier to say than to do. Any popular guidebook that mentions a great local eatery or off-the-beaten-path attraction broadcasts that place to zillions of people-- so it's hard to use guidebooks to find a true hole in the wall. On the other hand, the few times that I walked off the street into a random eatery Rick Steves' hadn't mentioned, I was often dissapointed. So it's hard, restaurant-wise. And site-wise, well, the popular things are often popular because they are awesome. Sure, the Colloseum isn't off the beaten path. But your first time in Rome, are you not going to go there? So, I don't feel guilty about this.

Even so, one way to get a more genuine experience, I think, is that I'm going to look for more tours led by locals. Alessandro's tour of Venice brought me to several little places that I loved, staffed by people who spoke little English, and which were devoid of English conversations beyond our own. That was cool. Even so, I think that using guidebooks to plan both the broad picture and the details is a must, especially if it's your first time somewhere, and you don't know the language. You can tell from these posts that I'm infaturated with Rick Steves, and it's because he led me to a lot of places that became the highlights of my trip.

The exception is hotels. I won't be using the RS books to pick rooms, next time. He finds small places with fair prices and good "customer service." Except, his definition of customer service is really really different than mine. While Rick might prefer to be given his keys by a kind nun in Rome, or to sleep in a remodelled 500 year old building in Venice, I've discovered that I prefer exactly the opposite things. I found the nuns creepy, and remodelled buildings to be cramped and low on amenities. The only room which I really liked was Hotel Pasquale in Cinque Terre. It had a spacious room with a flatscreen TV and a modern looking bathroom, and a genuine reception desk which was always staffed. Oh, and the amazing view helped :)

I've been back for awhile now and I want to do further trips abroad. One thing I want to do is to visit a few places in America here and there. It would be good travel practice, you know. I had a great time in Italy but I was very tense, feared to deviate from the Itinerary, and maybe a little too cautious. One could argue that when you don't know the language or any people within thousands of miles, that's a good attitude to have. While I mostly agree with this, I think I should try to loosen up just a little more. A weekend in New York "practicing" could be beneficial. I have something larger for December in the works... but I'll wait to announce it until I'm sure it's happening :) Stay Tuned!