Flirting with death, and Italian boys (and yes they are different things)

It was the beginning of a wonderful weekend. I had successfully made my way to the airport (the correct airport too!) and was on my way to Venice, Italy! I sat down next to a few lovely school teachers from county Cork, and had a great conversation about Ireland while flying across the European landscape. They even gave me mints to suck on when we took off (to help with your ears – although I think I chewed mine up before the plane even started moving). However, just as I was about to receive my second mint for our descent into Italy, our plane began to rumble. Thinking it was just some turbulence, I popped the mint in my mouth. However, before I could even swallow it down the plane sudden dropped, then rose again – dropped even more sharply, then rose again. My new mint-loving friend and I exchanged glances. The engine suddenly went into overdrive and we rose up sharply, shook around, then made an even bigger drop! THEN the lights all shut off – a few people gave a little shriek. My neighbour sucked down about 4 more mints. The girl in front of me jokingly exclaimed “we’re gonna die!” – so not funny. I simply sat there, closed my eyes, and said a prayer, honestly thinking for a moment that I really was going to die. Yet, just as I was trying to convince myself that the ice cream in heaven is probably better than Italian gelato anyway, the engine calmed down, and the plane levelled. The lights stayed off – apparently that’s normal when you are landing at night (good thing we were all aware of that). God knew I wasn’t quite ready heaven ice cream just yet…
So shortly afterward we made our landing, and everyone’s faces returned to their normal warm tones. Yet, just as I thought I was safely on the ground, I was rushed onto an even more deadly mode of transportation – I giant shuttle bus that would take us through Italian traffic to the city center of Venice. Luckily we made it there in one piece, and I quickly checked myself into a hostel. The next morning I had made arrangements to leave early on a train for Florence, not getting much of a chance to see Venice (but I plan to later in December!). I arrived in Florence around noon, and I got to do something that almost made my whole trip worth it --- I took off my jacket! Yes, the sun was shining and I was actually able to bear my pasty white arms! Taking advantage of the great weather, I put my stuff away (at a hostel) and went for a hike up to the mountains to get an amazing view of the city! Taking as many side streets and long routes, I was able to explore the less touristy parts of the city, and got more of a local feel of Florence. However, it did not prevent me from acting like a total tourist – taking pictures of everything I saw, constantly referring to my map, and of course – buying gelato!
Being an obvious traveller, I was an instant target for the bold and ultra friendly Italian men. As I was walking down the street, holding my map out in front of me, an older Italian man grabbed my map and said ‘come here’ and led me into his leather clothing store and spent 5 minutes with me circling all the places in Florence I needed to see. The owner at the hotel did almost the exact same thing, made me sit down and told me that if I needed a ride to any place, he had his mo-ped with him and could take me there. Then in the grocery store another younger Italian boy helped me pick out a bottle of wine (although I was actually just looking for some olive oil for a salad dressing), then bought me a cappuccino. He told me we were going to drink the wine together later, but I told him I was going to meet up with friends and needed to go!
This actually ended up being true, when I came back to the hostel, and heard some girls talking over how to get back to Shannon, Ireland on Monday. Turns out these girls were on my same flight home, and they were American students studying in Galway! Erin and Katie, two girls from New York, suddenly became my new travelling partners, and new buddies! We went out for some fabulous gelato that night and agreed to see the statue of David at the academia. We waited in line for nearly an hour, but met some really funny old women, who giggled and took pictures with the postcard pictures of David’s you-know-what. Once inside, we stared in awe at the enormous David, and (his giant you-know-what) – as well as many other sculptures. Then we spent the rest of the day exploring the town areas, taking photos, and finally ending up in the central market area where all the street vendors were located. Again I felt the wrath of bold Italian men, selling fake Prada purses and leather belts. My best advice: look straight into the ground – one glance even remotely in their direction will cause them to assume you are extremely interested in what they have to sell, and will not stop asking you what price you would like to pay until you’ve reached the end of the block.
After our market experience we were quite exhausted, so we settled for another cup of gelato, and then went inside the supermarket to buy a baguette, cheese and little bottles of wine for dinner. We ate outside in the streets soaking in the cool Italian night!
The next morning the girls got up rather early to head to Venice, but I decided to stick around Florence for a few more hours. I had a lovely jog, a giant breakfast, and then slowly walked the streets of the market place again. This time however, because it was a weekday (Monday), the market opened up even more and offered a huge food market as well! Making my way through stacks of cheese, rows of fresh olive oil, and even hanging chunks of raw meat, I settled for a dried fruit stand, selling nearly every kind of dried fruit you could want. I picked a variety of dried cherries, strawberries, kiwi, passion fruit – even dried limes! So on my train ride back to meet the girls in Venice (and to sadly head home) I munched on my fresh dried fruit, nuts, wine all while rolling smoothly through the Italian countryside. It couldn’t have been a better way to end the trip…
But it did get even better! I had some spare time to walk around Venice before meeting the girls at the bus station to take us home, so I attempted to navigate my way through the maze that is Venice. After almost giving up hope, I actually ran into the girls again, also in the same predicament. However, we put our lost minds together and found that we were not far from the waterfront – as well as a great gelato stand that my travel book had recommended!
So my trip really ended like this: I purchased what is called “glandulotto de passeggio” (in the picture!) – basically a brick of chocolate-hazelnut ice cream dropped into a giant cup of – get this: WHIPPED CREAM. To make it even better, we got to sit and eat our treats just as the sun was setting along the water (although Venice could have been burning down in flames for all I cared – I had whipped cream!). I questioned whether my plane really did crash, and I truly was in heaven. Luckily I will be returning to my gelato-filled nirvana later this year. I’ll just be sure to pay extra attention to the planes emergency exit – just in case!

as for the Italian boys - well they aren't so bad after all - here is my new italian friend Paulo from next door, who says that all italian boys are liars - except for him of course!