Italy

My journey to Italy began with a drive from Banchory into Aberdeen to catch a Mega-Bus that would take me to Glasgow. The Mega-Buses were rumored to be about the worst experience one could have but I was surprised with the ease and comfort of the trip. When I got into Glasgow my friend Stuart Glegg met me once I was off the bus. We walked to his flat (apartment). Stu had offered me a ride to the airport in the morning because he had a car to give me a lift in. Neither he nor I knew that the airport was about a 45-minute car drive away from actual Glasgow. To make things worse for Stu, my flight was departing at 7:10 am. I told him he didn’t need to give me a ride but he insisted so we woke up at 5am and made our way to Glasgow-Prestwick Airport.
Once the plane landed I knew I was in another world. I have been away from America for a good amount of time now but I have only been in English speaking places. I immediately noticed I was somewhere foreign and could not read a thing. In my head I kept replaying what my friend Peter Chalmers had told me about what to do to get from Pisa, where I was, into Florence, where he was and I was to meet him. I managed to get a train ticket and got on. I was quite nervous being on a train in Italy and not really knowing what to expect. I had to get off the first train and get on another at Pisa Central to go to Florence. I saw some people who looked “American” and listened in on their conversation to make sure they did indeed speak the English. They did and I found out they were going the same place. We became friends real quick. We found the second train and before I knew it I was in Florence. I stepped out of the train and was met by Pete and two nice Florentine cakes. We made our way to his flat to drop my stuff off and we were on our way to exploring Florence.
That day Pete took me all over the place. He was on a mission to take me to see every inch of Florence. Florence is not the largest city but defiantly no Banchory either. We hiked up to a beautiful look out point to see all of Florence and to take pictures. That first day it seemed like we saw every street, every building and even managed to go in a few churches as well. That night we eat at Pete’s and went out to a Piano Duet recital. It was brilliant. There were two women playing in this little church with a packed house. It was some atmosphere. I felt very cultured and sophisticated but Pete and myself were both humbled when we attempted to follow along with the order of the pieces being played. It turned out that they played the entirety of the pieces rather than just one of the movements, I mean who would have know. It was great cause we heard a lot more than we had expected. The older lady sitting next to Pete was quite tuckered and dozed off onto Pete’s shoulder a few times so that was the comical aspect of the night. We turned in after a fantastic first day of Florence.
We woke up the next day and went to the largest if not also most famous art galleries that Florence has to offer, The Uffizi. It was so cool because the reason Pete is in Florence is to go to galleries and be inspired and then to paint and create art of his own. He earned a scholarship that has paid for his flat, food, art supplies and has also given him a pass to not only get into galleries for free but to skip the lines. I had to pay but was able to skip the lines with Pete and while inside Pete was my personal guide. We did not have heaps of time to spend in the Uffizi because we were meeting his parents and sister in the early afternoon but Pete guided me to pieces that he particularly enjoyed and showed me the ones that everyone goes to see. Even though we did not spend time at each individual painting I felt like I saw it all, couldn’t necessarily take it all in but saw some amazing pieces of art and really enjoyed myself and Pete’s company.
Later that day after Pete’s parents and sister got settled into their hotel we journeyed around Florence a bit more. We visited two different beautiful churches that just took my breath away. The sheer size of the sanctuaries themselves were something to be talked about but how they were decorated in such extravagant ways was just over the top impressive. There were so many things in Florence that were due to the craftsmanship of the one and only Michelangelo, but there were so many other artists that were nearly as impressive to my untrained eye. After the churches we went to see the David. We had seen the David but hadn’t seen The David. Outside the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence there is a replica of The David where The David was standing till 1873 but to see the actual David we had to go to the Accademia Gallery. I hadn’t realized how amazing The David was until I saw it in Accademia Gallery. It was the first time I stood at the foot of David. I was getting ready to describe how I felt and what I saw but felt like I should restrain myself due to the lack of sculptural knowledge, which would cause me to end up sounding like a fool, which is fine but will be left for later. Basically it was BRILLIANT!
An excellent thing about Pete’s parents and sister being there other than either amazing company was I had just about everything paid for. It was such a blessing. After seeing The David we went out for dinner and before I knew it I was asleep at Pete’s flat.
This trip to Florence was supposed to be a shared time. I was planning on visiting with Pete for a few days and then hanging out with my friend from home, Nick Gross. I thought that Nick was spending the semester in Florence and it was just going to be perfect. However I found out two weeks before flying out that Nick actually was in Rome. After hearing that I still wanted to see him and hang out with him so decided I would take a train down to Rome and then back up to fly out of Pisa because I had already purchased the tickets.
The train to Rome was a long one but a good one. I had plenty to do and lots of Italian countryside to look at. I arrived at the Rome Termini Station and expected to see Nick…He was nowhere to be scene. I started looking for him, 30 minutes passed. I continued to look for him; an hour went by, still no Nick. The whole time all I could do was laugh at this ridiculous situation I had gotten myself in. I was alone in the middle of Rome at a train station. See the major problem here was that Nick had lost his cell phone. There was no real way to communicate with him. The only way I had communicated with him at all for the little planning this trip to see him was through Facebook. I decided to take a stab in the dark and texted my friend in Scotland, Craig for him to go on Facebook and see if Nick had tried to contact me. He had! Craig texted me back saying that he was looking for me but couldn’t find me so he went to and Internet café. I told Craig to tell him I was below the McDonalds sign in the middle of the station. Yeah, good old McDonalds coming through when it really counts. Nick had given me his roommates cell phone number so I called it but he had no idea where Nick was but told me he would try to find out and for me to call him in ten minutes. Ten minutes passed and I called him back. No answer. His phone had fan out of batteries but right before it shut off Craig had called him. Craig texted me saying that Nick’s friend was coming to look for me and he was in a pink shirt and that he would Facebook Nick to tell him to go home. Right when I get the text I saw a guy in a pink shirt and knew it had to be Nick’s roommate. It was and we made it back to their apartment.
The first meal I had in Rome was McDonalds. A super good way to experience Rome, I know right. We didn’t really do that much that night other than go to an Irish pub that showed all American sports. This pub was one of the weirdest I’ve ever been to. The price for a 30-ounce beer was 3 Euros and the price for a 20-ounce Diet Coke was 4 Euros. Although I have never been to a bar in the states I have been in my fair share of pubs in Scotland and have only ever ordered Diet Cokes and every single time I have ordered a Diet Coke it has been a bit over priced but has been about a third of the price of anything alcoholic. But I guess when in Rome…I know it’s quite funny being in Rome and going to an Irish pub to watch American sports, but that’s what we did. We watched a lot of football and went home to sleep.
We woke up the next morning and went to the Vatican. It was pretty sweet other than the massive lines and people cutting those massive lines to make even massiver lines <(I do realize massiver is not a real word and Word helps me out with the little red squiggly underneath it but I feel it does justice here). Again there was laughter. We had to go to Nick’s “school” because they were taking a course photo. I got in it, which was pretty cool. We went and had lunch and I had a nice Roman pizza. Very good. But Nick had to get to class so I was left to wonder Rome with my tourists map to see the sights. The map wasn’t the most helpful and Rome is quite large but I ended up seeing some pretty cool things. I saw the Pantheon and Fontana di Tervi. Both very cool and very worth while. I took my time getting there and back and then it was nighttime. It was Nick’s roommates birthday so we went out to dinner with him and some other people in Nick’s school. It as a fine meal and after we went back the apartment and went to sleep.
Nick had classes the whole day basically the next day so I woke up and made my way to the Coliseum. Again I waited in a massive line and again people blatantly cut the line, and again I laughed. The wait and the fee were well worth the extraordinary spectacle that was the Coliseum. I felt very touristy taking a billion pictures and even pulled the most famous loner tourist move by turning my camera around to face me with my arm extended and took photos of myself with the Coliseum as the backdrop. I felt very cool…
I left the Coliseum a satisfied man and made my way back to Nick’s school to meet him before his next class. We hung out for a bit but Nick had to get to class I was again left to explore Rome solo. I made the long walks from Nick’s school to Castle Saint Angelo. I got there and looked in my wallet and decided it was cool enough on the outside and that I didn’t need to spend money to see the inside. So I hung out there by the river for a while and headed back towards Nick. I got back to his school and said goodbye and was on my way back to Pisa.
I got to the Rome station and found my train. This train was way different form any of the other trains I had been on. There was assigned seats. I was so lost and just confused but found an English-speaking woman who directed me to where I needed to be. The train was a clear shot from Rome Termini to Pisa Central, but there was a question as to how I would get from Pisa Central to Pisa Airport. There was a family from Brazil who was doing the same thing as I so we tried to find out together. In route to find the transport to the airport I found out that they were going to Scotland as well and were even going to Aberdeen. It was really cool to have some people to chat to while waiting. It turned out that there was a bus that took us to the airport so that was great. We got to the airport around one in the morning and I was so ready to lay down on the airport floor and sleep till six in order to take up and get on my flight. My plan was shattered when we approached the front doors of the airport and they didn’t open. There were about 10 of us who had gotten off the bus and we all looked at each other. In disbelief we walked to the side door to see if it would open, I mean there might have just been something wrong with the front door. We get to the side door and I don’t even try it. I see when I rounded the corner about 20 people sitting on benches and the ground. I began to laugh. This time my laugh was softer; it didn’t have the force it had the previous three times. I was tired and I was discouraged. I took a seat and began to read. Oh, I hadn’t mentioned up until this point that the weather in Scotland during my week away in Italy was nicer than Italy. The funny thing is that I packed like I was going to be in 75-degree weather. I had one sweatshirt in my bad and I was in shorts at the time. And needless to say it was cold in Pisa at one, two, three and four in the morning. I was met with met with a great deal better surroundings when it struck 4:01am when the Pisa Airport officially opened for service and I was able to walk inside with my 30 new friends and take a seat in a heated building.
Around six in the morning I saw Pete’s parents and sister who just happened to be on the same flight as I was so I told them about my adventures and we were soon on the plane to Scotland. I was so ready to be back in Scotland. I had had enough of Italy, for now at least.