italy and back. my super duper trip!
I just returned from one of the best experiences I’ve had abroad to date: a quick weekend trip to Italy. The short and sweet story of what Andrew T, Andrew N and I experienced…
We left Los Angeles with a short (6 hour) layover in Miami and visited two really good friends, Bert and Laura who let us shower and get a few hours of sleep in their beautiful Miami condo. Our red eye out of LA put us in to Miami around 6:30am Thursday morning where we had breakfast on the beach with Burt & Laura before heading back to the airport to our next stop, Munich, Germany.
I spent a solid week in Berlin last September and although I wasn’t able to go out and explore Munich, I did manage to get a quick photo outside the airport before we headed to our final destination, Milano (as the Italians say) Italy.
So what can I say about Milan? As a first timer to Italy, I wouldn’t recommend spending much time in this city. The food was ok and it was heavily commercialized. There was little to see and the only real tourist attraction is a cathedral called Duomo di Milano, which we didn’t have time to tour (but did see) because we were in and out of Milan the entire 3 days we were in Italy (think of Milan as our homebase).
Having slept less than 5 hours over a 36 hour period, our first night I only got about 3 hours of sleep before getting up the next morning at 6am and heading to the trains (Trenitalia) for a 2 hour trip to Venice (running on adrenaline kept me going).
Venice was amazing! It was everything I expected and more when I think of Italy. The buildings were hundreds of years old and the food, well, the food was amazing (try the tapas and avoid the cafe’s which are designed for tourists). We arrived about 9:30am and spent the whole day doing all we could. We shopped, ate, drank, ate some more and drank some more. Andrew N spotted the Cipriani boat pick up point and we snagged a really cool boat ride to the private grounds of the Cipriani hotel (the original) where we had drinks poolside and caught up on everything from our perspectives on life to what we hoped to do with our lives in the coming years. Was quite a spectacular day for me.
Hopping on a two-hour ride back to Milan, I think we all realized that had we done it over, we’d have stayed at least a night in Venice.
As I write what we did on day three, I must say that I was not prepared for what we experienced. My view of Italy comes in the form of small towns/villages, Mediterranean architecture and landscape and some of the best Italian food you can eat and our day trip to Lake Como and the town of Bellagio was unbelievable.
I think that what made this experience so amazing was how it started off when we arrived by train to Como. It was probably 70 degrees, the air was slightly foggy and the reach of the sun was poking through the sky highlighting several beautiful mountain caps and casting a silhouette on the lake that was like something straight out of paradise.
We boarded a high-speed boat and headed off to what is probably the most beautiful place I’ve ever visited: Bellagio. As the boat prepared to take off a 20-something guy who almost missed our boat was allowed to enter. He was quite good-looking, boyish and had a mysterious charm about him that reminded me of my ex. He stayed close to the three of us, never saying anything and focusing on where we were headed. Before we reached Bellagio, we made a stop to another town where this boy got off and ran to what we think was his girlfriend because they hugged and walked off together. It was pretty cool and put me in to this romantic mood to which I could only think of how special this trip would be had I been with someone I was in love with.
As we pulled in to Bellagio, you couldn’t help but realize just how spectacular and stunning this mountainside town really was. It was paradise. We spent the entire day eating, drinking and exploring Bellagio. We managed to hike up the mountainside and back down again; taking some of the most breathtaking photos my eyes have ever seen.
I’ve decided that one day when I meet the person I will spend my life with, I want to take him here; maybe a honeymoon or even better, buying a villa and calling it our vacation home. I can only imagine us arriving by boat and spending a few weeks together away from the realities of life with our two or three kids. I patiently await this day. Yes I do want a life that affords these luxuries and I’m working hard to make it possible.
So the day began to turn to night and we headed back on the boat to the lakeside town of Varenna just 15 minutes away where we boarded a train back to Milan for what was our last night.
I couldn’t have asked for two better jet setting buddies to take this trip with. While we all got along well, we also connected through our own life stories and the path in life we all hoped to achieve.
As if the experience couldn’t get better, the day we flew out to head back to the states I forgot my phone at the hotel so I had to go back and get it. Here’s where it got interesting. We had only allowed ourselves a 30-minute cushion for our travel back to the airport, which entailed over a one-hour train and a bus ride.
Without getting in to the details, I had to make two trips back to the hotel from the train station, which caused Andrew N and I to miss our scheduled bus ride to the airport (Andrew N stayed back with me). Luckily Andrew T made it on our scheduled bus so he took my luggage while Andrew N and I both waited for the next bus to come.
Our flight took off at 10:20am and after a lot of sweating and a bit of anxiety, Andrew N and I made it to the Milan Airport at 9:18am. We were two minutes away from missing the flight but this story works out to a happy ending. Our 19-hour trip back to Los Angeles was long, exhausting and sort of bittersweet (because I wanted more time in Italy) but I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything.
My parting advice: go see the world when you can. You can’t live a fulfilled life (IMO) if you don’t experience another culture outside of the “world” you might live within. We live in the best country in the world but the jewels that exist outside of the US no doubt together out number the opportunities you’ll experience if you never leave the US.
Through two friends, lots of food and wine and the sharing of our life’s stories together I found a little more of myself. I’m proud of who I’m becoming yet I see so much more I want to do and accomplish. Italy is no doubt a country for lovers and this experience showed me how excited I am to be back in love again one day.
So for now and until that happens, I will keep working my ass off and doing the things that brings happiness to my life. The dreams that I’ve had my entire life continue to come true and the stars that once felt so far from reality seem to be getting a lot brighter.
Ciao!
PS. Eat all the Gelato you can! Drink all the wine you can. Don’t look back and keep going forward. Pappies, ciao, prego and buongiorno!
