Italy 2001

With Nagla we planned a 3 week trip to Italy. We bought Eurodomino tickets. This was similar to Interrail ticket but it is valid just for one country. You could buy a number of traveling days inside one month. We bought 5 days but while these tickets were not that often conductors on trains didn’t know how to validate it and we used it a few more days.

We started from Ljubljana with Tanja. Our ride to Trieste was half price. From there we continued to Mestre and further to Milan. We met with Antonio at the train station and moved to his apartment. His roommate was an artist so all around we could see his pieces. One I remember was a heart made out of firecrackers. While it was summer in Milano, sleeping during the night was not possible. All that concrete would radiate heat accumulated during the night. So we would sprinkle some water on us and use a miniature fan.

While it was working day and Antonio was at work we went out with girls to the city center. While there was a time of sales girls turn into shop and me with Nagla went to the first bar. We ordered a beer on the terrace, they brought it together with canapes. We thought to ourselves that they were really nice. On return girls asked us why we sat there. We soon understood the question. The bill for two beers was 48,000 Italian liras. We round it to 50,000. That was equivalent to 50 German marks, my daily budget. We were around the corner from Piazza del Duomo, main touristic attraction. I went inside the cathedral, it was impressive inside as from outside. Nagla stayed out while his shirt wasn’t appropriate. Also, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele was beautiful. What I liked in Italy was small snacks throughout the day (olives, omllet, …).

Over the weekend we went to the north, into nature. We swam there in the cold river under a waterfall. Later we visited Antonio’s cousin in his cottage in the countryside. There we had a picnic. We tried tartar made from horse meat made by his Filipino wife. In the evening it was like in Hitchcock movie Birds but with mosquitos – zanzare. It became unbearable after half an hour, so we returned to Milano.

Our next stop was in Tropea, a coastal town in Calabria. This train ride was really long. Good that we took advice from Tanja and reserved seats. Shnapps helped to survive this long trip. Somewhere in between, we waited for a few hours while the train hit one person on a bike. Finally, when we arrived in town we moved to the beach that is bellow town on a cliff. In camp, we stayed for a few days. We met there a lot of people, partying, enjoying the beach, … 4 piccoli villaggi, Lepa sela lepo gore, Stanković, beer for food, …

We moved to Sicily from there. We were on the train on a ferry on our way to Messina. We quickly moved from there to Syracuse. We found one eco-camp, far away from everything. I had one big rock under my sleeping bag. The next day Nagla found roasted chicken so we had something to eat. The bus was late. In Siracuse, we went to one ancient site, saw some strange church and we moved on.

Rome, the eternal city would be our home for next few days, even a bit longer than expected. On arrival at the Termini train station, we got a flyer for a Deep purple hostel so it was instantly decided where we would be staying. A manager there was named Majid, a great guy with advice like She a little bit dry, but … The first night I tried to beat Nagla’s record of not sleeping but I would end up sleeping on the bus. The next day we would walk around the city seeing some of the great monuments, like Colosseum, Spanish stairs … But the Vatican was closed for Mary’s assumption and we were too late for catacombs. Later that night we met Eduardo and Ricardo, brothers from Venezuela. Ricardo was a victim of bad vine waiter cautioned him about. But in general, all the roommates in the hostel was interesting and bringing their stories to the table. Last night we went out and while walking barefoot we came across a rat in the middle of the road. I slapped it with my sandal but it wouldn’t budge so we quickly moved away. Almost went swimming in the fountain but a penalty was too high.

Finally, it was time to move to Bologna to girls we met in Tropea. From there we moved to Modena and further to a small village they were from. One of the girls had insomnia. I run out of money so my sister would send me additional funding via Western Union, they took a huge commission.

The last stop before crossing to Slovenia was Trieste. We were quite exhausted by then and we couldn’t even form normal sentences, Los Bebos.