As you have probably found out from my incessant complaining that I want to go back, I spent the past week in Italy. No, I did not go to Rome, Milan, Venice, or any place like that. The place where I went was in the Reggio di Calabria and was called Sellia Marina. This part of Italy is at the southern tip, nuzzled right along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. You may be asking yourself how I ended up in such a small, fairly unheard of area. Well, my Uncle's wife was originally from this town and she still has family who live there. After talking with my Aunt Patty as a liaison, Sarah and I were finally ready to head to the one country that I've been dreaming of going to for as long as I can remember.
Our flight was booked to leave at 6:05am and with the Stansted Airport being two hours away and the trains and underground not running past midnight we knew that we would have trouble making it to the airport, but we did not know how much. As we stood awaiting the 2:18 bus we realized that we were a the wrong stop and had just missed the one that we needed. We then sprinted for about a half mile with luggage in our hands only to catch the wrong alternate bus. After being on this night bus for over an hour on a Friday night with nothing but drunk people, we decided just to get off. So there we stood, confused, and with literally no direction. The clock was ticking so we hailed a cab knowing that it would cost us a pretty penny, but we had no other alternatives. We made it to the airport with minutes to spare but for some reason or another it was jam packed. We waited and waited in line to check in our luggage only to find that we were in the wrong line the entire time. Cue panic. We just knew that we would miss our flight. Luckily, we found our way in the nick of time. We checked in our baggage and noticing our panic, a nice old man working at the airport let us skip line for the security check. Every other time I've gone through a security check I've just had to walk through, but when I'm in a hurry is that the case? Of course not. I had a full body search which lasted all of less than a minute but seemed like a lifetime. Sarah already had my stuff in hand and we then sprinted through the crowded airport. (I would like to note that I generally make fun of the people who do this. Karma.) After all of this, we still managed to find two seats on the plane that were next to each other, what a relief. After having not slept for over 24 hours I was exhausted but completely ready for what awaited me. Arriving in Italy we knew that two people were waiting to pick us up. We had assumed this would be a fiasco to find them since we knew they didn't speak English and we do not speak Italian, but somehow they could tell who we were. Apparently being American has a quite obvious look.
Driving along the Italian countryside for an hour was surreal. It was so strange to see the lemon and orange trees, the sheep along the rolling hills, the road tunnels built into the mountains, and the sun shining so brightly. I was already in love with the country. We got to Sellia Marina where we met the owner of the Bed and Breakfast that we stayed and he showed us to our room. Italy at last. I had never been more excited. We walked around confused, hungry, and tired but would not let that stop us from exploring the new territory. We walked up a large hill into town center which overlooked the sea. It was breathtaking.
That night the owner picked us up and took us to a bar in town where we met a group of guys our age. Immediately there was a language barrier. What's more awkward than a bunch of 21 and 22 year old guys and girls meeting for the first time? The answer to that would be not being able to understand a single thing that anyone says. There was one guy there that knew quite a bit of English so that alleviated some of the awkwardness but it all went downhill when I began to speak so much broken Spanish/English to them to that they told me to just stop. I'm embarrassing in every country -_-
The next day was Easter and as we were in Italy, yes, the entire country shuts down. We laid in bed a slept for most of the day because we did not know if walking around would appear to be disrespectful to anyone. We had bought some frozen cordon bleu the day before only to find out that we did not know how to operate the stove. Starving and in desperation we decided to eat the frozen patties. It was as disgusting as you could assume. After this we went back to sleep for the remainder of the day.
The next day the boys that we met the first night invited us to a barbecue with them on the beach. Apprehensive due to the language barrier, we agreed. When in Rome (Sellia Marina) right? The boys had brought a puppy to the barbecue which obviously made the lack of communication less tense because we played with it the entire time as the boys cooked us not one, not two, but EIGHT courses of meat on the open fire. I had never eaten so much food at one time in my entire life. It was delicious but I was completely stuffed but fortunately for me, I had only had three bites of a frozen chicken patty the day before so there was room. Somehow we had made a heap of friends in Italy already, I knew I would love this place.
The next few days were filled with napping on the beach, playing around in the waves, eating a bunch of pasta, panini's, pizza, and gelato and hanging out with our new friends. It was the perfect vacation. On the last day Sarah and I were very nostalgic as we packed to leave. We decided to take one last walk around Sellia Marina to soak up as much of the beauty and 60-70 degree weather that we could before trekking back to London. On our walk we were able to see a handful of the people we had met one last time, unfortunately that made me more sad. I didn't want to leave those people. They had welcomed me as one of their own faster than anyone in any other place I have ever been. As we got into the airport, I shed a few tears but soon though to myself, why? I didn't cry when I left the States to move to London and I was leaving behind my family and best friends so why now? I do know why, because the thought of never seeing the people who made that one week the best week of my life ever again was devastating.
I will go back to Sellia Marina and I will see them again. That place will forever be in my heart as the best kept secret in the world. I've always heard that when you fall in love with someone, you get a certain feeling and you just know that you're supposed to spend the rest of your life with them and I now believe this saying can also apply to places as well. I am supposed to live in Italy. That area has everything I could ever want and so much more. The people that live there may not agree with that statement but no one ever fully appreciates where they come from. As a young girl I never really had the urge to travel outside of the United States aside from Italy and now that I have traveled I knew that it's the place for me and I apparently knew all along. There's and Italian phrase that I appropriately titled this blog with and it is "la bella vita" or rather "the beautiful life" and that saying sums up the week that I spent in Italy and I cannot wait until the day I am able to go back and see what else is has to offer but for now I have less than two days to rest and then I am off to Ireland.
Arrivederci!
No comments:
Post a Comment