italy pictures - milan
posted by Sam at
10:33 PM
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1 comments
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
el último día
I just took my last exam, my bags are packed and my plane leaves Sevilla at 7 tomorrow morning. So today is my last day here and this is my last entry on this blog. It’s entry #141. I type up everything in MS Word before posting it, and the Word document of the entire blog is 92 pages long (single spaced in size 12 font – holy crap!).
I left the US on August 25 last year and will return 286 days later. I am curious to see how I’ll feel when I’m back, what I’ll like and dislike about the US and what I’ll miss about Sevilla. I’ve been wondering for a while what it will be like to go back and see everything with a new perspective.
I had so many incredible experiences. Sharing a small apartment with twelve Spaniards for nine months is certainly one thing I’ll never forgot. There were so many things, such as going to class at a 500-year old university in a giant building surrounded by a moat, riding a camel in Morocco, interviewing the Turkish ambassador in Madrid, catching an opera in Vienna with Charlie, going to a sunny black sand beach with Martha in December, publishing articles, celebrating dozens of birthdays at home or with friends in bars, driving a little Citroën through the Basque mountains, seeing a symphony in Prague, and dancing sevillanas with the Delahunts and my Spanish family – all were unforgettable.
And the food! I enjoyed pizza in Italy, crepes in Paris, cod in the Basque country, waffles in Belgium, Cruzcampos and tintos in the streets and bars of Sevilla, herring in Denmark, red wine at a small bodega in la Rioja, bratwurst in Germany, Heineken at the brewery in Amsterdam, fish and chips and meat pies in London, tapas in Spain, goulash and pivo in Prague, fresh fruit in the Canary Islands, couscous and mint tea in Morocco, and fresh lobster and crab in Lisbon. Surprisingly, I’m not coming home any heavier than I was a year ago.
I saw and did a lot while traveling– I went to 13 countries outside of Spain -- Morocco, Portugal, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden (I am counting Sweden – I spent all of 15 minutes there). I have over 7400 photos of Europe on my computer. Some were taken by other people but most of them are mine. And I’ve collected a lot of postcards from every country and a map of almost every city I’ve been to.
I learned a great deal of interesting things, such as the versatility of olive oil – it can be used on toast in the morning, drizzled on the popcorn sold in movie theaters, used to fry eggs or to make omelets (with a little olive oil mixed in with beaten eggs they don’t stick to the pan), used to make desserts, soups, sauces, and fried food, or used to rub on your skin for a healthy shine. And some people actually go olive oil tasting and drink different olive oils. I learned a lot just by experiencing a different way of life.
I also learned the value of a three-hour afternoon nap after going out until 6 a.m. the night before. I realized that big houses and cars are frivolous. Spaniards have taught me that family time, leisure time and just having a good time are the most important things in life. I grew a taste for wine, coffee, tea, and beer (none of which I really liked before) and good food (I’ve always like food, but now I’m more sophisticated). I stayed out way too late many times and I ate my fare share of ham and drank a whole lot of cheap wine. I took nine classes in Spanish. One other class, teaching English, was in English. I learned a lot of Spanish language and culture – from art and history to phonetics and literature.
So now it’s the US and everything about home that seems foreign and unfamiliar. It’s hard to remember things about home, it’s been so long.
One thing that always strikes me is the first picture in my photo album. I had Charlie or Martha, I can’t remember which one, take a picture of me holding my bags (which are now much heavier going back) standing in the back room of our house just before I left. I put this picture in my “Spain” album in iPhoto because I consider it the first picture of my experience in Spain.
Throughout the year, whenever I add photos to my Spain album on my laptop, I scroll through the new ones and when I get to the last of the new pictures, it jumps from the last picture to the very first one – the one of me standing in my house on August 25th with my two backpacks and a giant duffel bag. I always react to seeing that picture. At first I would say to myself “it’s home!” with some feeling of nostalgia, but quickly everything in the picture started to seem more and more distant and hazy.
Now every time I see it I think “that’s me!?” It started to look more and more like a ten-year old photo of some time and place that had begun to slip from my memory. It’s weird to think of that room, the garage and the yard in the background, to see the clothes I wore for the flight over here and recall the thoughts that were going through my head as I walked out the door. I didn’t look any different back then, but I feel that I was in some ways a different person back then. And I certainly had no idea what I was about to experience over the next nine months.
I do have a record of what I thinking that day back in August. I started my Spain journal/blog on my laptop while sitting in the international terminal at O’Hare. I never posted this on my blog. So, here it is, unfinished and unedited:
˝Day 0
O’Hare Airport
The plane starts boarding in one hour. I’m thinking about how much I will have changed when I am back at O’Hare, 9 months from now. I’ll be fluent in Spanish, a senior in college, well versed in European culture, and I will be able to buy a drink at the airport bar – that’s a big change.
I’m in the middle of the hardest part of the experience, saying goodbye to home and my family and enduring the long haul of two flights and hours of sitting around in airports. Well, leaving Spain and coming home is probably the harder part though. But it will take a couple of weeks to adjust to the new time zone, language and living situation.
This is going to be, without a doubt, the best year of my life. I’m looking forward to nine months living in an awesome city as a student, weeks and weeks of travel, seeing many new countries and meeting a lot of new people. A lot lies ahead of me, too much to take in all at once. I still don’t know exactly what to expect, either. My memory of what Spain is like is getting rusty, but I think I will get right back into the Spanish way of life quickly.
The people waiting at gate L8 for the flight to Madrid are either very Spanish or very touristy Americans…˝
After every trip, even a nine-month long one, you end up back in the same place. Home. So I guess it’s appropriate that my Spain photo album always takes me back to that picture of me at home. It’s hard to believe, but I will be standing right where that picture was taken in a short time. Home will be more or less the same as it was when I left, but I won’t be.
Adios España.
I left the US on August 25 last year and will return 286 days later. I am curious to see how I’ll feel when I’m back, what I’ll like and dislike about the US and what I’ll miss about Sevilla. I’ve been wondering for a while what it will be like to go back and see everything with a new perspective.
I had so many incredible experiences. Sharing a small apartment with twelve Spaniards for nine months is certainly one thing I’ll never forgot. There were so many things, such as going to class at a 500-year old university in a giant building surrounded by a moat, riding a camel in Morocco, interviewing the Turkish ambassador in Madrid, catching an opera in Vienna with Charlie, going to a sunny black sand beach with Martha in December, publishing articles, celebrating dozens of birthdays at home or with friends in bars, driving a little Citroën through the Basque mountains, seeing a symphony in Prague, and dancing sevillanas with the Delahunts and my Spanish family – all were unforgettable.
And the food! I enjoyed pizza in Italy, crepes in Paris, cod in the Basque country, waffles in Belgium, Cruzcampos and tintos in the streets and bars of Sevilla, herring in Denmark, red wine at a small bodega in la Rioja, bratwurst in Germany, Heineken at the brewery in Amsterdam, fish and chips and meat pies in London, tapas in Spain, goulash and pivo in Prague, fresh fruit in the Canary Islands, couscous and mint tea in Morocco, and fresh lobster and crab in Lisbon. Surprisingly, I’m not coming home any heavier than I was a year ago.
I saw and did a lot while traveling– I went to 13 countries outside of Spain -- Morocco, Portugal, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden (I am counting Sweden – I spent all of 15 minutes there). I have over 7400 photos of Europe on my computer. Some were taken by other people but most of them are mine. And I’ve collected a lot of postcards from every country and a map of almost every city I’ve been to.
I learned a great deal of interesting things, such as the versatility of olive oil – it can be used on toast in the morning, drizzled on the popcorn sold in movie theaters, used to fry eggs or to make omelets (with a little olive oil mixed in with beaten eggs they don’t stick to the pan), used to make desserts, soups, sauces, and fried food, or used to rub on your skin for a healthy shine. And some people actually go olive oil tasting and drink different olive oils. I learned a lot just by experiencing a different way of life.
I also learned the value of a three-hour afternoon nap after going out until 6 a.m. the night before. I realized that big houses and cars are frivolous. Spaniards have taught me that family time, leisure time and just having a good time are the most important things in life. I grew a taste for wine, coffee, tea, and beer (none of which I really liked before) and good food (I’ve always like food, but now I’m more sophisticated). I stayed out way too late many times and I ate my fare share of ham and drank a whole lot of cheap wine. I took nine classes in Spanish. One other class, teaching English, was in English. I learned a lot of Spanish language and culture – from art and history to phonetics and literature.
So now it’s the US and everything about home that seems foreign and unfamiliar. It’s hard to remember things about home, it’s been so long.
One thing that always strikes me is the first picture in my photo album. I had Charlie or Martha, I can’t remember which one, take a picture of me holding my bags (which are now much heavier going back) standing in the back room of our house just before I left. I put this picture in my “Spain” album in iPhoto because I consider it the first picture of my experience in Spain.
Throughout the year, whenever I add photos to my Spain album on my laptop, I scroll through the new ones and when I get to the last of the new pictures, it jumps from the last picture to the very first one – the one of me standing in my house on August 25th with my two backpacks and a giant duffel bag. I always react to seeing that picture. At first I would say to myself “it’s home!” with some feeling of nostalgia, but quickly everything in the picture started to seem more and more distant and hazy.
Now every time I see it I think “that’s me!?” It started to look more and more like a ten-year old photo of some time and place that had begun to slip from my memory. It’s weird to think of that room, the garage and the yard in the background, to see the clothes I wore for the flight over here and recall the thoughts that were going through my head as I walked out the door. I didn’t look any different back then, but I feel that I was in some ways a different person back then. And I certainly had no idea what I was about to experience over the next nine months.
I do have a record of what I thinking that day back in August. I started my Spain journal/blog on my laptop while sitting in the international terminal at O’Hare. I never posted this on my blog. So, here it is, unfinished and unedited:
˝Day 0
O’Hare Airport
The plane starts boarding in one hour. I’m thinking about how much I will have changed when I am back at O’Hare, 9 months from now. I’ll be fluent in Spanish, a senior in college, well versed in European culture, and I will be able to buy a drink at the airport bar – that’s a big change.
I’m in the middle of the hardest part of the experience, saying goodbye to home and my family and enduring the long haul of two flights and hours of sitting around in airports. Well, leaving Spain and coming home is probably the harder part though. But it will take a couple of weeks to adjust to the new time zone, language and living situation.
This is going to be, without a doubt, the best year of my life. I’m looking forward to nine months living in an awesome city as a student, weeks and weeks of travel, seeing many new countries and meeting a lot of new people. A lot lies ahead of me, too much to take in all at once. I still don’t know exactly what to expect, either. My memory of what Spain is like is getting rusty, but I think I will get right back into the Spanish way of life quickly.
The people waiting at gate L8 for the flight to Madrid are either very Spanish or very touristy Americans…˝
After every trip, even a nine-month long one, you end up back in the same place. Home. So I guess it’s appropriate that my Spain photo album always takes me back to that picture of me at home. It’s hard to believe, but I will be standing right where that picture was taken in a short time. Home will be more or less the same as it was when I left, but I won’t be.
Adios España.
posted by Sam at
6:41 AM
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6 comments
Sunday, June 04, 2006
the engagement party
Alicia’s “fiesta de pedida” – engagement party – was last night at our house. The family spent two days cleaning and reorganizing the entire house in preparation for a dinner party with 30 people. Tables and chairs were rearranged and flowers were placed everywhere. The kitchen was taken over in the preparation of a bunch of tapas so we had Telepizza for lunch. A student from New Jersey moved in yesterday and I moved into Amancio’s room and am now sleeping in Pedro’s bed. The new student, Ben, is here for two months and is taking two classes.
Manolo, his sister and her boyfriend and their parents and grandparents came over. So there were four sets of grandparents and a few aunts and uncles. We ate, drank and socialized through several courses of food. Trini and Bernardo were kept busy pouring drinks for everyone. A lot of the guys watched Spain play Egypt in a pre-World Cup friendly match. Everyone gathered in the dining room and Manolo’s dad and Jesús each made a speech and approved of the engagement. Alicia and Manolo received some gifts and gave each other the engagement ring for Alicia and a watch for Manolo. Then we popped champagne bottles and gave a toast to the couple. Afterwards I went out with Alicia, Manolo, Pepe and his friend, and Pedro and Amancio and their girlfriends.
I have a lot of pictures from Italy, my birthday, and the party last night but the internet is really slow so I’ll try later or just post them when I get home.
Manolo, his sister and her boyfriend and their parents and grandparents came over. So there were four sets of grandparents and a few aunts and uncles. We ate, drank and socialized through several courses of food. Trini and Bernardo were kept busy pouring drinks for everyone. A lot of the guys watched Spain play Egypt in a pre-World Cup friendly match. Everyone gathered in the dining room and Manolo’s dad and Jesús each made a speech and approved of the engagement. Alicia and Manolo received some gifts and gave each other the engagement ring for Alicia and a watch for Manolo. Then we popped champagne bottles and gave a toast to the couple. Afterwards I went out with Alicia, Manolo, Pepe and his friend, and Pedro and Amancio and their girlfriends.
I have a lot of pictures from Italy, my birthday, and the party last night but the internet is really slow so I’ll try later or just post them when I get home.
posted by Sam at
6:11 AM
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1 comments
Friday, June 02, 2006
Italy
Last Wednesday I flew to Bergamo, a small city in Northern Italy, on Ryanair, a budget airline, and took a train to Bologna. I met two friends there, Chris, who is studying in Milan, and Matt, who came to Italy five days earlier from Madison. I met them at our hostel where we hung out for a bit and caught up on everything. They had been to Milan, Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento and Rome earlier.
We went to a little pizzeria and got a pizza and calzones to go and ate in a park across the street where kids were playing basketball and soccer. We walked around the city and later watched some Italian TV in our room. The next day we walked all around Bologna and saw the Basilica and the two medieval towers that have survived. The University had a really cool feel, there were tons of little bookstores, cafés and art shops and the campus was made up of beautiful red buildings like the rest of the city. It’s the oldest university in Europe; it was founded in the 11th century. I had a really good falafel near the University and later had a curry lentil soup at a Pakistani restaurant.
That night Chris went back to Milan to go to some classes the next day and Matt and I stayed in Bologna for a second night. The next day Matt and I went to Verona which was a nice town but overrun with tourists. We walked by a long dark archway that was full of people so we went inside to check it out. The walls were covered in graffiti and notes scribbled on scraps of paper were stuck to the wall with chewing gum. The wall was covered in markings and notes, despite the plaque clearly stating, in five languages, that “it is forbidden to deface the walls... offenders will be faced with imprisonment with up to one year or fined up to €1032.91.” I have never seen more graffiti before in my life. I guess the ban is very loosely enforced.
We walked along the river, had a picnic lunch in a big piazza and then got on a train for Milan. We checked into our hostel and then walked to Chris’ dorm. There were a lot of people out and Milan was very big and dirty and had a lot going on. It was very Italian – lots of Fiats, nice ristorantes and pizzerias and high fashion Italians. We cooked dinner at the dorm. The dorm building used to be a hospital and there were old oxygen hookups in the walls of the dorm rooms. There was a mix of Italian and foreign students there. We watched some soccer on TV and used the internet before going out.
We went to a street along a canal (Milan has two unused canals for some reason) and went to a bar with live music – an Italian guy who sang covers of American rock songs - and we each had a pint of really good beer. Matt and I took the subway home. We went one stop and transferred to another line only to find out that we missed the last one. It was 12:30 a.m., we were too late. So we ended up walking most of the way back.
The next morning Chris met us at the hostel, we went out for cappuccinos and croissants and then Matt took a bus to the airport to fly back to Madison. Chris and I got on a train for Bergamo, which is about one hour east of Milan. We dropped our stuff off at a hostel and then took a bus to the Citta Alta – “the high city” – the old part of Bergamo up on steep hill overlooking the Citta Bassa – the new part of the city. The old part was really beautiful. We walked through the narrow old streets and went by a lot of pastry and pizza places. We stopped at one place and ordered a slice – I got a veggie pizza and Chris got a potato pizza. It wasn’t a normal pizza – it was made on top of thick and flaky olive oil soaked focaccia bread. It was the best pizza that I have ever had. I then got a frozen yogurt chocolate sundae.
We went to a museum that had all kinds of animals and birds that are found in Italy and few exotic animals from around the world. There were also lots of rocks -- not as interesting as the animals. We walked to the city wall at the edge of the cliff – there was a great view of the city and you could see Milan’s skyline on the horizon. We walked around the new part of the city and then to a bowling alley that we had seen earlier. That was the first bowling alley I have seen in Europe. Earlier that day I saw a golf course from the train – another thing that I had never seen in Europe before. The bowling alley was really expensive so we skipped it and went grocery shopping for lunch the next day and then went to a pizzeria and had a tuna, artichoke, caper, black olive, and mozzarella pizza fresh from the wood fired oven. I learned that “pizze” is the plural of pizza and the word means pie in Italian. I also learned that what we call bowtie pasta, also known as “farfalle,” means butterfly in Italian. Pizza is everywhere – we would count the number of pizzerias we saw everyday. We counted a couple dozen each day.
The next day we took a train back to Milan. The trains in Italy are really cheap and run frequently so it was really easy to get around. We walked from the train station to the Duomo – Milan’s giant Gothic Cathedral. Along the way we walked by the finish line of the Giro d’Italia – a month long bike race that is the most important bike race after the Tour de France. The last stage of the race was going to take place later that day. People were busy setting up the course, the stands, stages, advertisements and TV cameras. We walked around some shopping areas, including the Galleria – the oldest shopping mall in the world, and the huge piazza in front of the Duomo.
It was the only place in Milan where I saw tourists and there was a ton of them. I thought that the Cathedral was cooler than Sevilla’s Gothic Cathedral. The Duomo is made of marble and the outside is covered in statues. The inside had tons of huge paintings suspended from the ceiling – not hanging on the walls, and lots of stained glass.
We stopped at Chris’s dorm and then headed out to see the Giro. We walked along the course until we got to the finish line. There was a huge screen near the finish line showing the race live as the bikers made their way to Milan. There was lots of Giro gear and other companies selling stuff, lots of ads, and a lot of free stuff being given away. We had no idea how long it was going to take for the race to reach Milan so we stuck around and picked out a spot near the last turn, a block from the finish, and right behind a fixed TV camera.
We waited there for about two hours. The course wasn’t totally sealed off so lots of people were walking through the course and equipment cars and trucks drove by. Every once in a while a random person who happened to be on a bike would go down the course and everyone would cheer. At one point people started making some noise further down the course and cars started to drive by. We thought the race was coming but it was just a long line of cars and trucks plastered with ads honking their horns. The parade of advertisements made a couple laps.
The course was finally cleared and the street was empty and quiet for a few minutes before dozens of police motorcycles roared through in pairs, and then a few official cars and camera crews on motorcycles came and then the racers in one big pack, followed by all the team cars carrying spare bikes. It was the last stage and the Italian Ivan Basso had a seven or eight minute lead so there was no race to the finish. They stuck in a group and did about ten short laps around the city. Like the last stage of the Tour de France in Paris, it was anticlimactic. But we got to see the race go by several times. We moved to a less crowded part of the course and stood right next to the barriers. The bikers were really close, just a foot or two away from me as they went by and I could feel a blast of wind from the pack. Are you jealous, Charlie?
Back in Bergamo that night the town was celebrating a win by Bergamo’s soccer team with fireworks and singing in the streets. Since it was a Sunday, almost everything was closed and I had a hard time finding food. On a quiet street I found an awesome Chinese restaurant and got takeout – fried wonton and spaghetti curry (it was rice noodles, not really spaghetti) and ate in a park where police in riot gear were gathering because of the soccer celebrations but I don’t think anything got out of hand. The next morning I shared a taxi to the airport with a German guy who was on my flight to Sevilla. It was really easy to get to Italy – just a 2.5-hour flight. I love Italy – some of the best food (and espresso) in the world, cool cities, mountains and cultural sites, and the same laid back lifestyle as in Spain.
This week I have been studying a lot for my final next Tuesday. I’ve also started to pack. My family is taking in an American student who will be here for a summer program. He moves in tomorrow so I may be in a different room for my last four nights here. So things are really finishing up fast. I can’t believe that I will be in Milwaukee in just five days and at camp in ten days. Its weird to even think about being in O’Hare or Whitefish Bay or in my bedroom. Just over 100 hours left in Spain…
We went to a little pizzeria and got a pizza and calzones to go and ate in a park across the street where kids were playing basketball and soccer. We walked around the city and later watched some Italian TV in our room. The next day we walked all around Bologna and saw the Basilica and the two medieval towers that have survived. The University had a really cool feel, there were tons of little bookstores, cafés and art shops and the campus was made up of beautiful red buildings like the rest of the city. It’s the oldest university in Europe; it was founded in the 11th century. I had a really good falafel near the University and later had a curry lentil soup at a Pakistani restaurant.
That night Chris went back to Milan to go to some classes the next day and Matt and I stayed in Bologna for a second night. The next day Matt and I went to Verona which was a nice town but overrun with tourists. We walked by a long dark archway that was full of people so we went inside to check it out. The walls were covered in graffiti and notes scribbled on scraps of paper were stuck to the wall with chewing gum. The wall was covered in markings and notes, despite the plaque clearly stating, in five languages, that “it is forbidden to deface the walls... offenders will be faced with imprisonment with up to one year or fined up to €1032.91.” I have never seen more graffiti before in my life. I guess the ban is very loosely enforced.
We walked along the river, had a picnic lunch in a big piazza and then got on a train for Milan. We checked into our hostel and then walked to Chris’ dorm. There were a lot of people out and Milan was very big and dirty and had a lot going on. It was very Italian – lots of Fiats, nice ristorantes and pizzerias and high fashion Italians. We cooked dinner at the dorm. The dorm building used to be a hospital and there were old oxygen hookups in the walls of the dorm rooms. There was a mix of Italian and foreign students there. We watched some soccer on TV and used the internet before going out.
We went to a street along a canal (Milan has two unused canals for some reason) and went to a bar with live music – an Italian guy who sang covers of American rock songs - and we each had a pint of really good beer. Matt and I took the subway home. We went one stop and transferred to another line only to find out that we missed the last one. It was 12:30 a.m., we were too late. So we ended up walking most of the way back.
The next morning Chris met us at the hostel, we went out for cappuccinos and croissants and then Matt took a bus to the airport to fly back to Madison. Chris and I got on a train for Bergamo, which is about one hour east of Milan. We dropped our stuff off at a hostel and then took a bus to the Citta Alta – “the high city” – the old part of Bergamo up on steep hill overlooking the Citta Bassa – the new part of the city. The old part was really beautiful. We walked through the narrow old streets and went by a lot of pastry and pizza places. We stopped at one place and ordered a slice – I got a veggie pizza and Chris got a potato pizza. It wasn’t a normal pizza – it was made on top of thick and flaky olive oil soaked focaccia bread. It was the best pizza that I have ever had. I then got a frozen yogurt chocolate sundae.
We went to a museum that had all kinds of animals and birds that are found in Italy and few exotic animals from around the world. There were also lots of rocks -- not as interesting as the animals. We walked to the city wall at the edge of the cliff – there was a great view of the city and you could see Milan’s skyline on the horizon. We walked around the new part of the city and then to a bowling alley that we had seen earlier. That was the first bowling alley I have seen in Europe. Earlier that day I saw a golf course from the train – another thing that I had never seen in Europe before. The bowling alley was really expensive so we skipped it and went grocery shopping for lunch the next day and then went to a pizzeria and had a tuna, artichoke, caper, black olive, and mozzarella pizza fresh from the wood fired oven. I learned that “pizze” is the plural of pizza and the word means pie in Italian. I also learned that what we call bowtie pasta, also known as “farfalle,” means butterfly in Italian. Pizza is everywhere – we would count the number of pizzerias we saw everyday. We counted a couple dozen each day.
The next day we took a train back to Milan. The trains in Italy are really cheap and run frequently so it was really easy to get around. We walked from the train station to the Duomo – Milan’s giant Gothic Cathedral. Along the way we walked by the finish line of the Giro d’Italia – a month long bike race that is the most important bike race after the Tour de France. The last stage of the race was going to take place later that day. People were busy setting up the course, the stands, stages, advertisements and TV cameras. We walked around some shopping areas, including the Galleria – the oldest shopping mall in the world, and the huge piazza in front of the Duomo.
It was the only place in Milan where I saw tourists and there was a ton of them. I thought that the Cathedral was cooler than Sevilla’s Gothic Cathedral. The Duomo is made of marble and the outside is covered in statues. The inside had tons of huge paintings suspended from the ceiling – not hanging on the walls, and lots of stained glass.
We stopped at Chris’s dorm and then headed out to see the Giro. We walked along the course until we got to the finish line. There was a huge screen near the finish line showing the race live as the bikers made their way to Milan. There was lots of Giro gear and other companies selling stuff, lots of ads, and a lot of free stuff being given away. We had no idea how long it was going to take for the race to reach Milan so we stuck around and picked out a spot near the last turn, a block from the finish, and right behind a fixed TV camera.
We waited there for about two hours. The course wasn’t totally sealed off so lots of people were walking through the course and equipment cars and trucks drove by. Every once in a while a random person who happened to be on a bike would go down the course and everyone would cheer. At one point people started making some noise further down the course and cars started to drive by. We thought the race was coming but it was just a long line of cars and trucks plastered with ads honking their horns. The parade of advertisements made a couple laps.
The course was finally cleared and the street was empty and quiet for a few minutes before dozens of police motorcycles roared through in pairs, and then a few official cars and camera crews on motorcycles came and then the racers in one big pack, followed by all the team cars carrying spare bikes. It was the last stage and the Italian Ivan Basso had a seven or eight minute lead so there was no race to the finish. They stuck in a group and did about ten short laps around the city. Like the last stage of the Tour de France in Paris, it was anticlimactic. But we got to see the race go by several times. We moved to a less crowded part of the course and stood right next to the barriers. The bikers were really close, just a foot or two away from me as they went by and I could feel a blast of wind from the pack. Are you jealous, Charlie?
Back in Bergamo that night the town was celebrating a win by Bergamo’s soccer team with fireworks and singing in the streets. Since it was a Sunday, almost everything was closed and I had a hard time finding food. On a quiet street I found an awesome Chinese restaurant and got takeout – fried wonton and spaghetti curry (it was rice noodles, not really spaghetti) and ate in a park where police in riot gear were gathering because of the soccer celebrations but I don’t think anything got out of hand. The next morning I shared a taxi to the airport with a German guy who was on my flight to Sevilla. It was really easy to get to Italy – just a 2.5-hour flight. I love Italy – some of the best food (and espresso) in the world, cool cities, mountains and cultural sites, and the same laid back lifestyle as in Spain.
This week I have been studying a lot for my final next Tuesday. I’ve also started to pack. My family is taking in an American student who will be here for a summer program. He moves in tomorrow so I may be in a different room for my last four nights here. So things are really finishing up fast. I can’t believe that I will be in Milwaukee in just five days and at camp in ten days. Its weird to even think about being in O’Hare or Whitefish Bay or in my bedroom. Just over 100 hours left in Spain…
posted by Sam at
8:42 AM
|
1 comments
