A picturesque weekend

Last weekend, my UNC/LDM peers Blair, Emily and Nicole had a picturesque weekend at Fiesole, a small town overlooking Florence, and Cinque Terre, a series of five towns with a 7-mile hike between them with beautiful views. This is a picture of the view from Fiesole. We took a bus there for the purpose of watching the sunset, and along the way we saw the sun dropping and were nervous we'd miss it. We got off the bus and tried to run up this hill, thinking we were missing everything. None of us ran more than 20 seconds up this steep hill before quitting, a sign that our far walks to and from class aren't maintaining our stamina. Fortunately, our anxiety was uncalled for and we proceeded to watch the most beautiful sunset imaginable for about two hours. I took close to 40 pictures that don't do it justice, but the one above was one of the first. It was raining beneath the clouds to the right in the picture, appearing like a pink mist from a colony of blue and orange clouds.



This is post-sunset, a view of Florence. Lightning flashed in the rain mist that was then bluish purple.











At Cinque Terre, the four of us hiked to three of the five total towns. As in Fiesole, every time we saw a beautiful, once-in-a-lifetime view of the quaint cities by the sea, we popped behind the viewfinder. There's a well-worn trail that we hiked on, though every now and then we would have to hug the hillside so that the many other hikers could squeeze by us.

On the way to the third town it started pouring. It was wonderful to have a burn in the thighs, and I love getting caught in the rain. It makes everyone a little more vulnerable and on the same page, since no one's cute clothes or done hair will make it through.

It took me back to Alaska a little, though I was in the rain for only about an hour and not four days straight, my backpack was about the quarter the weight, and I reached civilization within a few hours after embarking on my adventure where I had the richest hot chocolate of my life. It might have been a melted chocolate bar with a creamer.

The more distance I have from Alaska, the more I miss it. Americans complain a lot here. Maybe it's this setting, a foreign place but with accommodations that draws this from people. There's too much pasta, no one speaks English, the streets are narrow, there are so many mosquitoes, etc. I remember, while kayaking in Prince William Sound, Levi saying something was hell, and I asked him what and he said everything. Everything was just another ring of hell. It really was the hardest 28 days of my life to this point, sometimes I shared his sentiments, but I'd go back in an instant, and I really can't think negatively about the food and shelter in Italy after that. But sometimes I'm a little intolerant of others complaints, and sometimes I wonder if when I talk about conditions from that trip if it seems patronizing to others. Even living alone in Atlanta, I didn't really have anyone to lament to. Though here I am, futilely complaining about complaints. The beauty of a blog with an almost nonexistent following.

Here's a man jumping into the water in Cinque Terre. I was testing my zoom power on my camera. He looked like he was having a lot of fun.

This week's dinner gang

Going clockwise: Swedish woman in the pink, Anna, Japanese couple, Aussie boys, Doris, Torre, my empty seat, and Darlene

Doris and her tiramisu. I asked if I could take a picture of her with her gift from the boys and she asked "Would you like it in my mouth?"

"But I'm still hungry"

I live in a hostel-like set-up with Anna, an Italian woman in her 60's. I also have a roommate who's my age, Torre, from Long Island. Darlene, who is post-retirement trying to get MA in art, is also here for four months in a different bedroom. I believe there are 9 beds between four bedrooms, and last night I saw that Anna was sleeping on the sofa to open up another bed. People come and go that are trying to learn Italian. Last week there were four girls from Trentino, an Italian region with heavy German influence. They were around 17 years old, and when they forgot or tire of being courteous to Anna or me, they'd speak German. They were touring Italy with their school that I believe was a hospitality school, they said that they wanted to work in hotels in their area. They said they wanted to visit New York or Las Vegas one day, so they were more excited to talk to Torre about her home than mine. I've come across very few people that know of North Carolina. I specify it as between New York and Florida.

Currently, there's a Japanese couple in their 50's, a Swiss woman approaching 70, a Swedish woman in I believe her 60's, and three Australians in high school at dinner.

The first night I came late to dinner with the full crowd Doris, the Swiss woman, leaned over the table with an eating utensil upright in her fist and asked curtly "Who are you?" She's overweight and missing a tooth, which she explained was the dentist's mistake, but I couldn't hear the whole story across the table. Last night she told Anna, after saying her name about 6 times to get her attention, "Anna, but I'm still hungry. Ho, ho-ho fame." (Everyone stutters a little with Italian, but Dori is especially bad.) Anna brought her a tiramisu the Australian boys had made at school that day, which she ate by herself, and the rest of us shared the other tiramisu. When Anna asked Doris if she ate it all by herself, shamelessly Doris said well yes, it was a gift, not caring that she ate the equivalent of what 6 others shared. Twice Anna has taken wine from Doris. I've never met anyone so upfront or audacious, it's impossible to capture her in writing. Quoting the Swedish woman, "The world is full of boring people. Doris, she's not one of them, and it's a wonderful thing."

The Japanese couple (I don't remember most names, none of us do) have been here for an extra week. They smile and awkwardly laugh a lot when they don't know what's going on an punctuate their epiphanies with "Aaaaaaahh" in an expected Japanese way. When I gave the man my email address we had to practice the letter "r" a few times.

Two of the three Aussie boys have Italian parents and therefore are much better at speaking the language than anyone, though they spend most of the time speaking English with Doris. The Swedish woman speaks to Darlene or Anna most of dinner, practicing Italian. Torre and I straddle the middle. I'm torn between wanting to learn more Italian or to tap into the once-in-a-lifetime chance of watching Doris entertainment. Doris and the Swedish woman are leaving this week, so hopefully short two cultures dinner won't get boring.