Katie a la Española

ITALIA
Well, as is typical. I fail at keeping up with the blog! But, I will give you some random stories/details of my trip to ITALY!!!!

Day 1 (Monday, September 17th): Travel timing really doesn't work out so well for me. I had to take a bus that arrived at the airport at 1:30 p.m. for a flight that didn't leave until 6 because the next one wouldn't arrive until like 5:20, which I suppose doesn't allot enough time to do the whole check-in, go through security, and board the plane ordeal.

Stories/descriptions from day 1:
RYAN AIR: So, after booking my flight, but before I left for Italy, there was that whole scandal about Ryan Air only carrying the bar minimum amount of gasoline (complete with scary images on the news of turbulence and oxygen masks dropping). Needless to say, every time there was turbulence on the plane, I had a minor heart attack and prayed that there would be no oxygen masks dropping. On board, the flight attendants announce products for sale and then come down the aisle carrying said products to see if passengers wanted to purchase them. Long story short - Ryan Air has class.

PIZZA NAPOLETANA: Ok. So, every other place that I have gone has a pizza called "napolitana", which is tomato and cheese. My first night, at Hotel Martini in Verona, I was a little lonely and decided that I didn't want to deal with leaving to sit in a restaurant by myself and try to figure out how to communicate with the employees in Italian. I went downstairs to the front desk, where I was told they could order me a pizza. The ingredients of the menu were all in Italian, and since I didn't know a lot of the words, I got excited when I saw "Napoletana" and asked them to order that for me. When the pizza arrived, I opened the box, expecting a nice little pizza with tomato and cheese, but (much to my despair) the pizza had anchovies and (green olives or potentially green peppers?). Gag.

View from hotel room!

The hotel room! First time I have traveled alone!

WHAT IS THIS BOLOGNA?! I thought I ordered Napolitana! haha

THE LOCK: The lock to my hotel room was old fashioned and I couldn't open it. It was SO STUBBORN! And then, embarrassingly enough, the doorman came up to open it and did it with no problem at all. I guess turned the key three times to the left just didn't cut it - I had to turn it a litttle bit more for that final "click".

Day 2: Verona

Tuesday, I did the whole touristy bit in Verona. I went to Juliet's house and saw the balcony and all of the professions of love written on the walls leading up to eat. I went to Castel Vecchio, which had some awesome views and to see the arena (definitely felt like I was in the coliseum...but wait, that's in Rome..).

THE EMPLOYEE AT THE GELATO SHOP WHO THAT I WAS SPANISH: BONUS! I went to a gelateria and was trying to order ice cream but had no idea what to say, so I was kind of pointed and saying "Pequeño?", etc., guessing at what the Italian version of the words would be. After pointing to the flavors I wanted and trying to pronounce them (most likely with a hint of a Spanish accent), the guy working there said "Española?". No, no I am not from Spain, but thank you very much for the compliment!

THE GUY WHO "THOUGHT I WAS ITALIAN": Walking back to the hotel to get my bags and catch the train, there was a guy walking nearby who turned to me and said something that I didn't understand in Italian. When I gave him the deer in the headlight look, he said "oh, I thought you were Italian" and proceeded to say that it's a beautiful day and asking me what I had done. He probably noticed that I wasn't amused (and also didn't believe him one bit that he thought I was Italian when I had my astronomically sized camera around my neck and was wearing socks with shoes that shouldn't be worn with socks) and said his goodbyes.

THE GIRL WHO THOUGHT I WAS ITALIAN: Round two of the deer-in-the-headlight look came on the train from Verona to Mezzocorona, where a girl asked me in Italian (something about the train, I presume?). When I sat down, she apologized, saying "I'm sorry, I thought you were Italian". To the first guy's credit, at least he wasn't the only one who that I was Italian.

View from Castel Vecchio

Some girl on Juliet's balcony. I didn't feel like going inside the house because it was reallly crowded.

locks at Juliet's house!

My time in Mezzocorona:

Activities: Touring Trento, picking grapes, visiting Lake Garda tasting grapes, tasting wine, seeing the process of making wine, bike ride, learning how to make "priest stranglers" and canederli (typical dishes from Mezzocorona!), lots of gelato (hazelnut and nutella flavored...yum!!!!). I had a wonderful time visiting the Postal family in Mezzocorona! Also, introduced them to dubstep! I was able to listen to a lot of Italian while I was there, and was able to pick out words, but didn't understand most of the conversation.

A little Italian lesson:

Per Piacere- please (if you just say piacere it means "nice to meet you")

Prego - "How can I help you?", "Go ahead", "You're welcome". Such a versatile word!