10[ish] days of summer...

So before embarking upon the blogging journey of my time in South Africa, I wanted to give a brief recount of my summer. Exams for first semester were officially over July 8, but honestly my summer started before that. One of my best friends, who is living in Florence and who I’ve had the good fortune of being able to see quite a lot over the past few months, came to see me the weekend before exams so that we could enjoy my last weekend in Bologna together and partake in the beginning of the infamous July sales. So I spent my last weekend in Bologna with a dear friend enjoying my dear city, eating lots of Bolognese cuisine, and not actually buying much of anything since I lack funds, but still loving life. Then during exam week, I managed to hop over to Parma and Modena for the day to enjoy my region of Emilia Romagna a bit (and do a little bit of shopping outside the city…). In Parma we saw some strikingly beautiful churches, the kind that make your heart drop and your soul ache for something more. Then instead of staying and melting away in the humid hell that is summer weather in Bologna, two friends and I escaped to Ancona to enjoy a little 2-day seaside vacation. We went to the Riviera del Conero and swam in turquoise sea and ate an awesome dinner of seafood pasta and friend sea creatures and wandered around the old port city scattered with Roman ruins and even observed (but did not partake in…) some drunken chaos in an aptly named Piazza del Papa (the Pope’s Piazza). After a final whirlwind day in Bologna, during which I was sick with a nasty cold and felt like dying in the humidity as I packed up my Italian life for good, I hopped on a 6 hour Intercity train bound for Frosinone to spend my final days in Italy with my dear dear crazy friend Carlotta whom I may not see again for a long while. After a few lovely days enjoying the mozzarella di Bufala of the region (if you have never tried this amazing version of Mozzarella, you really must because it is to die for…) and taking in some sun and sea on the Lazio coastline, I boarded a Turkish Airlines flight in Rome bound for Istanbul. Now Istanbul in the summer is just about my favorite thing ever, so to only have 3 days to spend enjoying it was kind of painful, but I made the most of it. I only saw one friend, but my family friends were in town and we enjoyed the Bosphorus, the mall, and a nice long day out on a boat at the Prince’s Islands just off the coast in the Marmara Sea. I may have only had 10 days of summer, but I must have spent at least half of that swimming in the sea. And then, at 7pm on the evening of July 19, a “tan” Giovanna boarded a final plane on her way to South Africa. And thus a new adventure began…

Life is a Broken Heart

And so she felt as if she belonged everywhere and nowhere, all at once. So she felt like her heart existed broken so that it may leave pieces of itself in all the places she had loved so dearly. In a piazza in Bologna next to an obscene fountain, on a strait next to a bridge in Istanbul, on a beach in sunny San Diego, there were jet-lagged jagged-edged parts of her heart hidden in the crevices, waiting in the cracks to be picked up again. She learned then that hearts don’t just break for love lost; a heart will break just as harshly, if not more so, for love gained.

Sorry I haven't been blogging. It's been a hectic month of moving and enjoying life and now I lack internet. Will update you all soon.

Much love,

Gio

I heart Roma

Last week I had to go to Rome for the day to visit the South African consulate to inquire about my student visa for study in Cape Town next semester. Now the process of getting that visa [or not getting the visa as it turns out to be] is not something I want to go into here [due to the sheer ridiculousness of that situation], but I did want to talk a bit about my obsession with one of the most beautiful cities in the world: ROMA.

Now those of you who know me well know that I'm not one of those girls that just falls in love easily. But this only holds true for people. Places, on the other hand, have the power to sweep me off my feet. Cities steal my heart in a second. I find myself dreaming about places I love like a 13 year old girl dreams about her middle school crush. And Rome, OH ROME, how I swoon for Rome!

Just as Istanbul is the culmination of Turkey, Los Angeles is California and Cusco is Peru, ROME is Italy. Rome is the Italian stereotypes; the beautiful, the dirty, the men on the streets whispering "ciao bella" as you walk by, the smiling square-sliced-pizza vendors, the friendly directionally-challenged police men, Roman ruins at every turn...Rome is Italy and I love it. Whereas other tourist spots in Italy such as Florence and Venice are overrun with tourists, especially the particularly loud American tourists, tramping on the culture and stealing tastes of the "bella vita" in disgusting mouthfuls of bad pasta, Rome is surprising REAL. I mean of course the Vatican has hoards of tourists pushing their way through the giant cathedral doors and the forum is crawling with gawking foreigners, but wander down streets, even streets in the dead center of the old city, and there are Italians everywhere living their lives. Winding down side streets and sitting in piazzas, you can feel as though you're truly in Italy and truly in the former capital of the Romans, a population that dominated Europe for a thousand years.

This trip, I decided to go to a museum that somehow I had missed during my time in the city: I Musei Capitolini. It is a museum all about the Roman empire, especially its' elite and its' emperors. I'm usually not very interested in Roman statues, but these were definitely the best

Roman statues that exist. There were

giant heads of Constantine that used to sit on bodies and thrones in the old city, a giant horse mounted by Marcus Aurelias, and the official busts of all the emperors. I walked among these faces of old Rome seeing in their facial features images of modern Italians, big noses and curly hair. Beautiful greek statues that adorned rich gardens of senators and tombs of people that lived 2000 years ago. To top it off, the museum has a fantastic view of the forum spread out in front of the hill just as it was all those generations

ago, minus a few pillars and roofs here and there.

One thing that struck me this trip to Rome as I was looking around at all the tourists taking pictures and enjoying the sights, was my complete bafflement on how these people are probably in Rome for the only time in their lives. So many of these people come to Rome for a day or 2 or maybe 3, see the sights, and then leave, never to come back again. I can't do that. Every time I come to Rome, it just makes me want to come back again and again. It's like a drink of the most delicious nectar that I find myself craving more and more of. The idea of never being able to come back to Roma makes me sick. The city gives me this feeling of comfort and wonder at the same time. Despite my troubles at the consulate in the morning, the day in Rome made me feel so good, so refreshed. These past few months back in Italy have made me a little dissillusioned about life here, with lots of frustrations and a general homesickness for my fully-functioning California, but with one day in Rome was enough to reignite that flame of love in my heart and make me dread that day in 2 weeks that I leave Italy, most likely never to live here again.

So here I pledge my undying love for the eternal city, and I promise you, Roma, that I will return to visit you again.

Marina di Ravenna and the Italian summer weekend phenomenon

Coming from California, I must admit, I'm a little picky about my beaches. Nothing really compares to the expansive sand beaches of the Pacific coast, nothing like those huge crashing waves. Yes, the water is a little cold, but by mid-summer, the San Diego beaches are a tolerable temperature and the La Jolla shoreline near where I did my undergrad studies at UCSD is some of the best in the country. And I have also spent some time traveling Europe during the summer; from the Turquoise coast of Turkey to the famous coastline of Croatia to the Cote d'Azur...I have seen and swam in my fair share of beautiful sea.

Marina di Ravenna is not one of these classically beautiful seaside locales. When you look out into the water, the color is a muddy brown green. The waves range from non-existent to miniscule. The water is a strange chilly temperature. When you enter, you can't see your feet below the surface. As the Italians say, "fa schifo" (it's gross) and I must say, I kind of have to agree. But Marina di Ravenna has 2 things that a lot of places on the coast don't: a decent sand beach and a distinctly Italian nightlife. When combined, this creates a particular phenomenon that makes for a great mini-vacation weekend getaway. And this is indeed how many Emilia Romagna region residents spend there summer weekends starting in late May. Many locals own summer houses or just simply drive for the day/night to this seaside hotspot tailored to draw you despite the fact you won't even want to touch the water once you are there. The city is hot and the air is humid, so crowds flock to the fresh sea air to indulge in a little summer fun.So this weekend, some friends and I went camping at Marina di Ravenna in search of our own little Italian summer vacation. My one friend and I took the train earlier to spend the day on the beach while the others came in car later. With traffic and campsite set up, the others were ready just in time for something called Super Happy Hour. This is a fun Marina di Ravenna tradition at a particular "Bagno" called Toto. (a "bagno" here means a private beach club. Beach spots are privately owned and all along the coast there is beach club after beach club with fun names like "Baci Baci" and "Saint Tropez") At Bagno Toto from 6-7pm, drinks are buy 1 get 1 free and there are fun Italian classics blasting on the sound system. No American music, no Eurodance...only Italian goodies! And as you know from my previous posts, Italian music is a bit "special". So Italians, who don't dance and are notoriously particular about their clothing choices (boots in May just because it's not technically summer yet? pants and coats in 80 degree weather??) are jumping around in their skimpy bathing suits, barefoot and enjoy the summer. And thus is the Italian beachside experience. All along the seaside, Marina di Ravenna provides happy hour after happy hour until the entire thing closes at midnight and the party moves to the center of town. (We skipped that part and spent the late hours of the night sitting on the beach and enjoying the fresh sea air) All I could think the entire night was how very Italian the whole thing was, and I couldn't help but smile. And then we had fried fish from a street vendor for dinner and my smile got even bigger.

The next day we sat on the beach some more, surrounded by baking brown people of every body type and Speedo color, before heading back to the heat of the city and the heavy air.
Ciao Marina di Ravenna, magari ci vediamo presto...