WonL

The random thoughts of an architect-turned- lawyer from the deep south living in Washington, DC...

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Ciao Italia


(Note: this is from yesterday, but I just now got internet.)


As I looked at my ticket to London at the airport, something dawned on me: today is July 8th. I arrived in Italia on July 3rd. Five days. That's all. Five days of inhaling everything Italian without once breathing out. I have experienced Italian people, land, water, buildings, religion, and food. In five short days, I fell in love with Italia.


I walked the dirty smelly cobblestone roads of Napoli for five hours dodging cars and trying to understand how these poor people live.


After Italia beat Germania, I watched the people of Napoli celebrate in the streets.


I had three delicious feasts with mi familia Italiana.


I rode along the Amalfi Coast and stopped to take in the breathtaking views that the southern tip of Italia has to offer.


I walked the shops of Positano and watched a man make shoes.


I enjoyed Lemoncello and mozzarella Sorrentino, two delicacies of southern Italia.


I stood in the center of the Ampitheatre at Pompeii and thought of all of the bloody bodies dragged out thousands of years ago.


I saw the cast of a man who was buried in ash under after the wrath of Vesuvio almost two centuries ago.


I gazed at the Italian countryside on a train from Napoli to Roma.


I stood in awe of the magnitude of the Colloseo as I was told legend has it, if the Colloseo falls, then Roma will fall, and if Roma falls, the world will fall.


I experienced the creepiness of Italian men.


I got a bit turned around and upon crossing the Tiber river, actually lost my breath at the site of Basilica di San Pietro. (St. Peters Basilica in Vatican City.)


I somberly walked the tombs under San Pietro and shed a tear at the tomb of Pope John Paul II.


I saw actual remnants of the cross that Christ carried.


I took a photo in the Capella Sistina (Sistene Chapel) with a man yelling no photo over my shoulder.


I stood at Piazza del Popolo, the entry gate to Roma from the North, and looked out on the tridente of streets carved into the fabric of the city.


I received the Sacrament of Penance by an Italian priest at San Maria Maggiora only feet away from the manger that held Christ.


I sat at a café and sipped the best cappuccino I have ever had as I watched the people move about.


I fell in love with Italia.