Lauretta and Anarella in la Bella Italia

September 05, 2012

Lauretta and Anarella in la Bella Italia

Hey guys! Wassup! Long time no see huh? Hope you are all alive and well because we are! I'm not sure if everyone knows what exactly we're doing here so I'll just do a quick recall of the plan for everyone:

Since we live in a place that's so full of little unique countries called Europe we thought that even though it might get expensive we wanted to get to know our extended home better. Which is why we booked (pretty spontaneously I have to admit) three flights for 30 bucks each: one to Rome, one from Napoli to Nice and one from Toulouse to Madrid. There you go, a backpacking trip with open end through south europe with a new travel buddy, Laura. We've known each other back from school and had an awesome sailing trip together once so we thought let's do this! So here we are,

right now with an Italian Couchsurfing guy in Napoli trying to play Lauretta's favourite song on his pianoforte just having had the most awesome pasta and red wine dinner.
I love Italy!
It has Spaghetti, Carbonara, Gelati, Mortadella, Stracciatella, Pistaccio, Mamma Mia, Romeo and Giulia and last but not least PIZZAAAAAAAAA...

but it's far more than that! It's also free Pasta Party in the Hostel, cheap Italian beer, the Forum Romanum, getting invited to a free tour and then spend three times as much for the Vatikan museums and the Sixtin Chapel as you would have to.
It is eating the worst and the best pasta ever, eating buffalo mozzarella on the streets of napoli, getting lost in the same streets and discover you are right where you want to be, eating litres of the best gelato ever, chilling out in some park with bangladesh guys and eat freshly plucked figs.

Last but not least, pompeji. This town is great. I love Italy, but it's so hard to believe it's actually still european. People here are so chaotic, especially in Napoli. And yes, it is dirty here.
Actually, our host Antimo is living in one of the little shady roads of a part of town that you wouldn't want to visit after darkness falls on your own.
There's millions of scooters surrounding you, threatening you, the only way to cross a street ever is to just start walking.
And, of course, there's the Italian macho man. I don't think I've ever reconsidered actually wearing hotpants before...but here you get so many guys whistling and calling after you it's not even funny any more. My favourite were these two nearly sixty year olds sitting in a cafe in Ercolano asking and gesticulating to us that we should use our umbrella (it was raining) and whether we were staying in the town for the night. I am still wondering what their plans for us would have been if we would have... :D But I don't really mind, really. It's just a few facettes more to this big picture that Italy is and that we've only seen a few parts of so far.

We've only been away for a week now but I already feel like I could fill a guide book with the things we've learned so far. It's so much, and every day has new things for you to learn and to surprise you with. Plus, I can't believe I have to say goodbye to this awesome coffee and the Italian food in general so fast again...