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.

La Grotta del Turco or Montagna Spaccata

When I was visiting Gaeta for a week, I always wondered if this small city had any historical mysteries. As I did my research I found out about Grotta del Turco or “Montagna Spaccata” as Italians call it. It’s a mountain split in half located right beside the church.

My best friend and I were at the beach and we decided to ask people around where it was located. When we asked a man who worked at the beach, he had no idea what we were talking about. I tried to explain somehow in English since I do not speak Italian and their English isn’t perfect. Few minutes later, his friend jumped into the conversation and surprisingly said: “Si, si! Montagna Spaccata!” He showed us where it was. And guess what? It was right beside our beach!!! We found out about it two days before we had to leave. Even though it was really hot, we got some gelatos and started our little trip. As we got there, we saw a very pretty church. We had to pay €1 each to get to the Grotta del Turco. Luckily, few guys who were walking ahead paid for us. How nice of them though! :)

As we entered the gates, we had to go down the stairs. I counted about 276 steps… I think. When we got there, the view was amazingly beautiful! I took couple of pictures of course, but photos are different than reality. There were a lot of people, you could totally see the sea and people on the shipping just swimming by. It was a very precious view. I definitely recommend this to anyone who ever visits Gaeta. Hands down you’ll love the view!!!

There is also a photo of how la Grotta del Turco looks from the seaside. 

P.S walking back upstairs was a good workout too!

American flag

As our journey finished in Rome, we were on our way to Gaeta, south side and seaside of Italy. Prices for trains are cheap. It all depends on timing. Prices for train tickets are fairly cheap. The train ride was about two hours.

As we arrived, it felt like we were in another country. Formia, Gaeta was so much different than Rome. Well, I guess it was because more rural and more naturalistic I would say. The view of Gaeta is incredible. It’s a perfect mixture of nature, sea and architecture. I feel like Gaeta stole my heart, because I fell in love with that small city that you could probably walk around in couple of hours.

Since it was south of Italy it was less crowded, and not too many tourists. However, when we went to the beach, it looked like half of the world’s population was there. There were a lot of people. Who would not want to enjoy the beautiful weather on the beach?

Water was crystal clear and warm. The funniest part about that beach was when I saw American flag… right beside Italian. It’s common sense why there was Italian flag, but I was wondering why American flag was hanging there. It was so random and I had to kill my curiosity. I asked a man who was picking up the garbage at the beach, because he looked very non Italian, as we spoke, I find out that he works for US Navy and that there’s a big ship in the sea. That’s why there was an American flag.

P.S That's an American ship in the picture