Ti Amo, Italia

AH! Italia. Mi piace molto.

It has been amazing to use my Italian again because I SERIOUSLY thought it was gone. I mean, tre anni fa! Three years ago! Haven't had much opportunity to use it, and what goes unused generally becomes forgotten. I will make a point to join an Italian Club or something after this though...because my Italian is live and well, and has loved being used in Milano, Firenze, Sorrento, Ercolano, Pompei e Positano ;) mainly for ordering gelato but gradually for actually having conversations.

FIRENZE
Thank. God. We. Made IT! After 24hrs of travel you would think that we'd both be in our horacrux moods, biting each other's heads off, or at least begging for sleep. One look that the Duomo, however, and our spirits were lifted and goosebumps all over. What a site, and even though I'd visited Carol and Allie like a dozen times back when I was studying abroad almost getting USED to the spectacular buildings, seeing it again was good for my soul. We dropped off our junk at the hostel down the street from the Duomo, I immediately bought a beautiful leather side-satchel purse (per te! solo €25!) from a store named after Michelangelo's David, we were promptly invited to dine with the owner of the shop at a local restaurant in 20 minutes, walked around the Duomo to take it all in and back to the shop to meet the owner, Sasha.
Now THIS was an interesting dinner. First off, we thought it would be more than Megan & I on a date with just this old man... he sort of inferred that there would be others joining us. Alas, just us. He was hilarious though, and kept talking about how much money he had and how he knows Roberto Cavalli and all his connections in the USA. He literally told us how genuine of a person he was, like, 8 times. That led us to believe that he miiight not be so genuine. I mean, an honest person wouldn't shout from the rooftops "I am so honest!" and I have a feeling this works the same way. Genuine or NOT, however, we had a MOLTO BUONO cena. Lasagna, ensalata, vino, parmeggiano melanzane, pane, tiramisu, limoncello, caffé! Seriously, we had 2 bottles of the chianti and they were €50 a piece...when we tried to offer to pay for some of it, he only accepted €10. How I love Italy! The only issue after this was getting rid of him, because we had only a few hours the next morning to do all of Florence and didn't want to stay up late. So we said we had to go back and pay our hostel (which was TRUE) before midnight (not true) and that we would meet up with him after (really not true). I was torn between feeling bad and really not wanting to have to spend more time with this old man, so I decided to call it even and buy myself a gelato in the morning. Problems solved.
The next day was entertaining, to say the least. We did the Uffizi in the morning (SO MANY ASIAN TOURISTS) and then after walking the Ponte Vecchio and getting my well-deserved gelato it started turning from drizzling rain to pouring rain. But...I was NOT giving up on my kebab from Mr. Marina, my all-time favorite kebab location from when I studied abroad. No words can describe this meat, and I am salivating just thinking about it. So as we ran the streets of Florence looking for the kebab location and realizing that we were cutting it VERY close to our train time, we started slipping in our shoes. Almost fall-on-my-face slipping. So off the shoes went, and run like the wind we did...with Italians cheering us on from the overhangs as we got drenched in the rain, running barefoot and getting thoroughly soaked!! Sitting on the train to Naples (yes, we made it!), we ate our kebabs with very satisfied grins.

POSITANO
There really aren't words to describe the beauty of Positano. Seriously...beautiful is too vague, charming too trite. Finally winding our way along the Amalfi Coast in the big, blue SITA bus, catching the first view of Positano sent a shiver down my spine. I had worried that I was talking it up too much to Megan ("You think this is beautiful just wait until Positano! You think these stairs are steep just wait until Positano! This beach is beautiful but it isn't Positano...") but naah. Not possible. And to top it off, walking down the narrow streets and trying to find Casa Caldieri, our family friend Letizia's apartments, I SERIOUSLY was magical. There are dozens of stairways down off of the road, and somehow...I have NO idea how I did this because we always took the ferry, which wasn't running yet...I look at Megan and go "Ok, let's take this one," then after 4 flights down I passed a narrow passageway and did a double-take. Stared at this gate below for a full five seconds before walking down to it and...ECCOLA! Casa Caldieri! How did I do that?! Maybe I called the name of the stairs and it brought me to the door I wanted...but I think its more of the magic that Positano and I have when we are together ;)
Unfortunately it was slightly cold the first two days we were there, so we took side trips to Sorrento to get our train ticket to Vienna (advance is KEY) and Ercolano/Pompei (Herculaneum and Pompeii). Sorrento was beautiful and we just walked the streets and ate gelato. Typical Italian experience. Herculaneum and Pompeii were SO fantastic, and walking the ancient streets made history dorks like Megan and I giggle with excitement and take wayyy too many photos. Plus I re-enacted the ash falling onto Pompeii but for some reason I'm smiling. I have a feeling that the Pompeiians weren't feeling giddy or happy when they were being smothered by ash and lava...at this point we started getting rained on too. But the show must go on, and a little rain won't hurt anyone. Unless its raining ash from a volcano. Then notsogood.
The last 2 days were AMAZING beach days, lying in Fornillo and getting invited to eat family-style lunch with the family that owns the chairs and bar at the beach. Bellissima! Megan now looks like a Mexican with her dark tan, but somehow an old man on the beach convinced me to sit for a sketch for him...I think its the blonde hair, yet again. And I have learned that I am not good at sitting still so my facial expression looks kind of awkward in the sketch...I will have to upload it when I can!!
We also ultimately made it to Music on the Rocks, the one club in Positano, after going to the fancy Le Sirenuse hotel and having €16 bellinis...talk about expensive!! They even gave our first round to us complimentary, which is good considering that we usually only spend €16 on overnight accommodations! At Music on the Rocks, however, I succeeded in dancing on the dancefloor with my drink out in front of me, and FLINGING my drink onto the floor, where it shattered. Alas, this is yet again a typical Mathilde thing, so I was not too surprised and just continued dancing. Oopsidaises!

Italy is amazing, wonderful, all that jazz. I cannot wait to return here (and I am IN Roma, at an internet cafe, typing this) in June to visit Rome and Cinque Terre. Ti Amo, Italia!!!!!!!