I recently met up with my
friend Kristin and her dad Bud to begin a six-day roadtrip full of fine wining
and dining acorss the northern stretch of Italy. We took in Venice, Lake Como,
Milan and Torino along the way and I owe a very, very big thanks to Bud for
looking after me and making the trip so great.
Everything in northern
Italy seems so neat and orderly, so much so that I thought we'd stumbled into
Switzerland. Venice, of course, is beautiful and I could almost make out its
impressive buildings, cobble stone streets and canals through the sea of
American tourists. Milan is made for hanging out and being cooly cosmopolitan.
In fact the only 'touristy' thing we did there was visit the city’s Duomo.
Intricately designed inside, outside and on top, it's one of the largest
churches in Europe so seeing it all doubles as a great cardio workout. It also
calls for an evening of red wine on Via Dante while munching on a monstrous
platter of free snacks and perving on the Milanese as they stroll by. Yum.
Next, Kristin and I headed
to Torino, famous for its chocolate and its successful bid to host the 2006
Winter Olympics. It rains quite a bit there, so if you do get stuck here's what
we suggest you do: check out some of the food and craft markets around the city
and eat free samples while deciding what to do for lunch. Then, if you're
feeling adventurous, choose the lunch menu that contains all the Italian words
you don't recognise. After dinner, take in a French film with Italian audio and
spend the journey home comparing notes on what the hell just happened.
Bidding Kristin farewell, I
caught a train to my favourite city in Italy. Of course, one of the reasons I
love Rome so much is that my sister Marijana and her boyfriend Massimo live
there. I don’t get to see my sis that often so I’m thankful for every day of
crashing on her couch and being a little sister again (Awww…)
I spent a good chunk of my
two weeks in Rome wondering around Trastevere and Campo de’ Fiori fighting a
temptation to buy and/or eat everything. But mostly, as I turn my mind to my
next destination, I've been frantically trying to learn some Spanish. I just
hope 'muchas gracias' and the Spanish script of Notting Hill helps.
While I gear up for
Argentina, here are some pictures of bella Italia.
Arrivaderci,
Di.
