Italia--Part II

Here it is, finally—Part II! Hopefully soon I’ll have up Clisson/Vineyard/last days in Nantes and then once I get home I can focus on telling everyone about my mini-adventures in Germany and Giverny!
It wasn’t until this drive back to the house that I learned of a certain Icelandic volcano whose name is entirely too long and Icelandic to look up and write here (you don’t know any other Icelandic volcanoes, though, so this should work). My flight, however, was not until Sunday afternoon so I was not yet concerned.

The next day, though, things changed a bit—Paris airports were all closed down until Monday. It turns out this volcano was the biggest thing to come out of Iceland since Bjork and its ash cloud was looming all over northern Europe, rendering airplanes too dangerous to send up. Thus a four-hour search for a way back to Nantes ensued, involving as many as two computers and four people at times (thanks!). Eventually, even thought the websites tried to tell us that trains to northern Europe didn’t exist until Wednesday, I was able to get something for Monday and Tuesday that would leave me in Nice for a night. It was a lot of stops and changing trains, but I was ready to take whatever I could get. The next day was spent seeing a few last bits of Rome, working on my Vatican II paper, and packing for our 3:30 AM departure from the house to get to the train station early enough.

We definitely made it early enough—not much by way of lines at the ticket pick-up machines—but what was once a humble train station had turned into a combination train station/hotel for everyone stranded there, scattered about the floor using naps to hold their places in line to be first to get a way back north. After about 10 hours on various trains (including one I didn’t have a ticket for…oops) I made it to Nice. I had a nice conversation (in French!) with the man at the desk of Chez Patrick, the hostel I stayed at (I’m guessing he was Patrick?) and was completely flattered when the first nationalities he guessed were English and—wait for it—Spanish. Yeah, and he already knew my name, as in, the Germanyist name there could be outside of Germany. Anyways, as you may know from my previous posts on Spain I’m completely in love with the place so that was fine with me, however confusing….Patrick (?) also complemented me on being an American that takes an effort to learn a foreign language so, uh, go me. My plan then was to explore Nice for the few hours of sunlight that remained and then spend the night working on my essay, all night, so I wouldn’t accidently oversleep and miss my very important train.

From what I saw of it, Nice was really pretty. The architecture, especially, was very cool to see, though kind of hard for me to describe. I think it had a sort of old-world charm about it with a relaxed beachy-cool flair, if that makes any sense. Then I had an eggplant pizza for dinner and commenced the paper writing. My mom also gave me updates on Dancing With The Stars once that came on in the US—it was 4 AM here…However, then my plan was to sleep on the train the next day on the way to Nantes and that’s exactly what I did. Pair that with another late night to finish the paper and the adventure was complete.

And now on to a very important Part II of the post, the part where I talk about….FOOD.

Friends, unless you have been living under a rock your entire life, you should know that Italy is world-renowned for its food. And not just its food—it’s the entire culture that comes with it: the late-night dinners, lingered over in sweet succession from antipasto to primo piatto to secondi…and then of course the at-that-point-completely-unnecessary-but-so-completely-delicious dessert (gelato anyone?). And let’s not forget the perfect cap-off: an adorable little coffee cup halfway full with Italian coffee (its fortitude is implied in the name).

First things first: Food in general. Pasta, pizzas, paninis, it’s all there and it’s all delicious. Marcela taught me how to make Eggplant Parmesan, caprese, and super simple lemon pasta and all will be guaranteed to be made this summer (actually, I’ve already made the caprese at IES for lunch one day…). The late-night meals may, if able, be transferred across the Atlantic, as it looks like that’s going to work best for my schedule this summer :)

And then: coffee. It comes after the dessert, so it’s like a dessert to the dessert (meta-dessert?), and it’s in a simple demitasse and savored quickly as the evening transitions away from meal time. Of course, coffee isn’t restricted to after dinner (what kind of world would we live in if it were?!). There’s caffe latte (usually only for the morning), macchiatos, cappuccinos—noticing where Starbucks pulled the names for its own coffee treats? Typically, the Italians will drink their cuppa standing at the bar—just order, sip it down, and go.

And finally—hospitality. When a country has food this good, of course they’re going to share it! I think I’ve already mentioned a few examples but I can’t stress it enough. I swear, there must be a picture of people eating dinner in Italy next to the dictionary entry for hospitality.

Which brings me to my next point: If I have any advice for any of you out there travelling to somewhere new, this is it: find out the tipping protocol beforehand. For example, do not accidently forget that even though service is included in restaurant prices in France, that doesn't necessarily mean it is in Italy (oh, and for that matter, that charge they added for you sitting there, that's not the service, that's actually a charge for you sitting there, whether they're technically allowed to or not). This will help you avoid feeling horrible after not tipping someone who gave you great, accommodating service where they can’t even speak their own language to you (and are super nice to you in your attempts to throw some random Italian out there—really, they enjoy it!). So hopefully since Katie and I went our entire time in Sicily before learning this from her friend, hopefully we can prevent that from happening for others!

PS--pictures probably coming soon, the internet is too slow here for me to upload :(