Farewell

As we travel somewhere for some time, we get used to that place and those people who surround us. We also become a little part of their culture, because we are curious about the way they live and we want to know about it. Visiting Italy for few weeks, showed how small cities can be enormously different from big cities.
It also taught me how every culture is unique and how people see everything totally differently. Let me give you the most simplest example. In Toronto, when we go to the bar or restaurant we are most likely to tip the waiter/waitress who served us because that's how it is for us. In Italy, tipping the waiter is totally something big, because their wage is as high as the wage of an engineer so it wouldn't matter for them at all.
Shopping boutiques and grocery store would close early on the weekend.
All these small, different, unique and cultural things we learn make us understand and learn more about the culture and also get used to it very quick.

As my amazing trip ended in Italy, I can say that Italy stole my heart. I may not be Italian, but as they say "Home is where your heart is." My home is in Gaeta now. I'm planning on living there happily every after! :)

North America in Italy

I honestly never saw so many people talking about North America in Italy. Who would ever think that everybody there knows about Canada? Sorry, US are too mainstream these days. Just kidding.

I went to the bar with my friends one of the nights (Trinity College Pub in Rome, the most amazing bar ever! I HIGHLY recommend), I ordered margarita, and as I know in Canada they taste much sweeter and better because margarita in Italy is totally a different drink. I didn’t know that! Don’t make the same mistake there, so order margarita cocktail instead. 

(Unfortunately this is not the photo of the margarita I was stuck with)

Anyway, I came up to the bartender and I asked him to “exchange” the drink since I didn’t like it. As I said that, he stopped doing what he was doing, stared at me and smiled. I didn’t know what he was smiling about so I asked what’s going on. First thing he tells me “Are you from North America?” Since I’m originally not Canadian, I was totally surprised why he asked that. After that he tells me this “I know people in North America can exchange their drink if they don’t like it. Here, in Italy, if you order, you don’t like it, then you have to finish it.” Ugh. Yes, I wasn’t an exception, so I was stuck with that drink. If you’re ordering a drink, make sure you order it carefully; otherwise you’ll be stuck with it.

Another time, as my friends and I were taking a walk at the beach in Gaeta, we started talking to the guard that worked there. His English wasn’t perfect and I don’t speak Italian, but we had a nice conversation. Of course, he guessed where I was from. As I told him I was from Canada, he right away asked if I’m from Toronto. I was speechless. Toronto is known in Italy? He told me that Toronto is the place that every Italian would love to visit and that Toronto is on the news, newspapers, Internet and everybody talks about it.

I actually felt very honoured, because I didn’t know that North America was so popular in Rome and a small city like Gaeta.

Gianicolo Hill

Since I was in Rome for a week, I had to visit all tourist sights, it was a must! One of my friends did a research about Gianicolo Hill, and we all decided that this must be viewed from early morning when sun starts rising. Gianicolo Hill is known as of one the tallest hills in Italy. We looked at some picture on Internet and we were so stunned and excited for the sunrise n Gianicolo Hill. We woke up at 4 o’clock in the morning, and jogged to the hill. When we got there, luckily it was still dark. Every 5-10 minutes I was taking pictures. The view was one of the most incredible views that my eyes ever witnessed. You can overlook most of the city from the top of the hill, which makes it a very breathtaking view, especially to see the city's dome and skyline from far. Also, you could see the mount Vesuvius! Isn’t it so incredible? I never saw anything so beautiful! The hill contains very historic sights such as San Pietro in Montorio that is a very unique design of Roman architectural history. There's also the fountain (Fontana dell'Acqua Paola) It is a monumental fountain that was made from marbles and located right beside San Pietro in Montorio church.  Spending almost 3 hours just looking at the beautiful sunrise was absolutely gorgeous! I tried to make a collage from the beginning of the sunrise and the end, but honestly if you see it with your own eyes it’s so much different and breathtaking! Gianicolo Hill is a must in Rome :)

Street performers of Italy

As me and my friends were exploring Rome,
mostly Vatican City and near Colossus, something amazingly weird at the same
time caught our attention. As it was tourists’ sight, we saw many shocking and
inspiring street talents. You know how you go to the centre of your city and
there are people singing, dancing or drawing something? Yeah. Rome is known as
the city incredible beautiful architecture. While my friends and I were in
those “talent areas” we realized how many people were taking pictures and
looking at the street performers. I have seen many amazing and weird street
talents before, but this one was the craziest so far. Or maybe I’m just
exaggerating? Basically it was two men, one was sitting in the Lotus pose while
he was holding his partner, who was sitting on some piece of wooden stick. I
know it sounds crazy, but there’s a picture for the better description of what
I’m trying to say. 





I’m sure that hand is fake, because those men
were not moving at all. I actually would never think that I would be amazed by
something like this. What do you think about this?























Fortunately we were not the only ones who stared
them down for couple of minutes just to understand the structure and the trick
of it. We actually seen couple of those “weird” street performers and they
looked the same for some reason, which is more strange. The things they do just
to shock tourists! :)

Tourist problems in Italy - Tips

Rome, Italy is a lovely place to travel in summer time. The weather is amazing compared to unstable Canadian weather (where I live) when one day rains and another day it's humid.

All you need there is comfortable summer stylish pieces. Here's a TIP for ladies of course, do NOT ever take any kinds of heels with you!!! I learned it hard way. I grabbed few heels with me, because I thought I would need them at some point of the trip...But... I never wore them. Next time, I won't even bother taking heels with me. Unless you really cannot go a day without heels, then you might prefer taking wedges. The streets of Rome are old fashioned (you can see it in the picture),

which makes it impossible to wear any kinds of heels. I remember when I was wandering around with my best friend, we were wearing some kind of fancy shoes, and all we did is look down so we wouldn’t trip or fall, but of course we couldn’t avoid it…

Whoever traveled to Italy knows my pain and whoever is planning to travel in the future, keep that in mind! :)  It’s probably the major issue of travellers who are loving the architecture and trying so hard not to fall while walking around and being busy taking pictures.

Besides that, Rome is beautiful. I got very lucky to live 7 min away from the heart of Rome, Vatican City.

Since you’ll be a tourist, you may need to get used to seeing people coming up to you and telling you to buy flowers for your friends, or buy tickets to skip the lines (which are insanely long and tiring) to museums, buy a bottle of water because it’s very hot and stuff like that. That’s something I couldn’t get used to personally. My friends and I tried to escape those “sketchies” but at the same time we enjoyed the moment of being most valued tourists in Rome.