We would be spending the day at Anna's cousin's house which was about 10/20 minutes away from Anna's apartment. After a very stressful morning of everyone trying to get ready on time, we were only 10 minutes late getting in to the cars. The journey took us out of the town and in to a private village backing on to the beach. The sweet little streets of houses looked so pretty, even on a cloudy day!
Our four course meal was, of course, outstanding. It began with bread, ham, focaccia and pepperoni. The second course was spaghetti bolognese and this was followed by lamb and potatoes. Even though I was so full I thought my stomach was going to pop, my lamb and potatoes disappeared almost instantly. It was one of my favourite dishes of the holiday. The meal was finished perfectly with small cups of strawberries. As much as I enjoyed the food, I couldn't help but feel sad that this was one of my last meals in Italy. I didn't want to leave the food!!
We spent our afternoon walking along the sea front and watching Filippo and McPake play Fifa. It did not go down well when Filippo won the first match 1 - 0 but McPake's triumphant 4 - 0 comeback was received even worse. I don't think it helped that Gigi was blowing an air horn and shouting every time something exciting happened. What a man.
 |
| I'm not even sure why this happened |
Our thirteenth and last full day in Italy began just the same as the others, cappuccino's and biscuits at the table with Meryn and Anna. It was more subdued than normal; the reality of going home the next day made our last breakfast together rather bittersweet. I hadn't realised just how much I'd enjoyed starting my day like that until then.
What followed was some of the most fun I've had in a school that wasn't mine. We stood at the front of the classroom and we spent 15 - 25 minutes being questioned by the room of children. They were initially shocked to find out we were "English" but they quickly found the courage to ask us questions.
They were encouraged to ask us questions in English, to practice what they were learning (we were told to answer in the same) but sometimes their excitement got in the way and we would have a rush of Italian to try and understand. We had a range of questions from Do you like Barletta, animals, One Direction, Michael Jackson, Italy? to What's your favourite animal, singer, food, subject? A couple of questions were misunderstood with very funny results.
One girl put her hand up and asked if we liked cheese. I thought she said "Jesus" and wanting to avoid an awkward moment (I suddenly became very aware of how Catholic/religious Italy is), I tactfully answered "Uh... he's alright?" Her confused face soon showed my mistake but even so, I'm very proud of how well I handled that situation. If you ever need anyone to awkwardly answer questions vaguely, I'm your girl.
The best had to be an answer given by Meryn. Annoyingly, I can't remember what Meryn actually thought she heard (I didn't write it down!) but here's how the conversation went:
Small child: Do you like the drums?
Meryn: Yes, I also like to eat the fish!
I just stared at her, trying to figure out what on earth she was on about but I can't even think about it without laughing. It was so funny!
We left the school to a chorus of Hello's and Goodbye's (I think the fact we have two greetings and they have one was a bit too confusing) and walked to Anna's mother's school. Walking to her Mum's classroom involved stairs and being led by someone who worked within the school so it took us a bit longer to reach it than we thought.
When we arrived, we walked in and were introduced to the class. One boy at the back of the room promptly declared that we weren't actually "English" and that we could understand every Italian word he was saying. It took a while but I think our confused faces and Anna's constant translating convinced him we weren't part of some conspiracy.
This class were a lot more shy than the previous one but it wasn't long before they had all crowded around the desk and were firing questions at us faster than we could answer them. The questions were mainly in Italian but they did ask us a few English ones taken from their English textbooks. We had some normal questions (How old are you, What's your name, Where do you live, What do you study?) and some wonderfully random ones (What is a traditional Welsh holiday? Do you celebrate Thanksgiving? Do you believe in the Loch Ness monster?).
My favourite question was asked by a nervous boy who had to repeat himself three times before we could hear what he was saying. His question was What is our dream? and it was scary and exhilarating to discover that the three of us didn't actually have a definite answer to it. The best bit was when we asked everyone else the question. It was so sweet to hear all of their answers. There were a lot of professional footballers, a goal keeper, a scientist, a traveller and one boy answered that it was his dream to not have to go to school anymore.
All too quickly it was time for us to leave and a chorus of Ciao's followed us down the corridor. Our journey out of the school was delayed when we became surrounded by oggling children who were amazed at the fact we were speaking English. As someone who isn't the biggest fan of children, I was terrified and very very glad when we were back outside in the sun.
After a lunch of pasta and tuna in tomato sauce and second helpings of the aubergine dish, the flight fiasco happened. I won't go in to too much detail but basically, Alitalia is one of the (if not the absolute) worst airline I have ever experienced. They rang all of us to tell us that the flight was overbooked and we would have to change flights. Those of us who didn't answer their phones were okay but unfortunately for me, Alitalia rang my house phone and took my Mum's answer of "I really don't know, you will have to ring and speak to her because I can't speak on her behalf" as an "Okay, do whatever the hell you want" and put me on a flight that would take off at 7am on my own. This was not the end of them messing us all around but the end result was that all of us managed to get the same flights (7am, 1pm) and Alitalia ensured that none of the 6 of us would ever fly with them again.
The stress of sorting out the flights meant that we were more than glad to help make pizza dough for dinner later that night. Anything to take our minds off what had happened and off course, food! We left the dough to set and headed to the supermarket. We would be buying food for the flight and I was going to buy as many packets of biscuits as I could possibly fit in my suitcase.
We got back to the apartment before Anna and her sister (they had gone to see their Aunty) which meant it was a bit more difficult to help make the pizza's than we originally thought. The three of us managed to communicate effectively though and it wasn't long before 10 pizza's were decorated and waiting to be cooked. There was a variety of different toppings but I played it safe with 2 pieces of ham and 2 pieces of pepperoni. I avoided the fish pizza and the mushroom pizza and sat in amazement while the boys tried the chocolate topped pizza. A bold pizza topping choice but I don't think the boys thought it was that tasty.
Our fourteenth and last day in Italy started at what I can only describe as the middle of the night. As a student, the only time I've seen 4:00am is when I'm still up from the night before. I do not understand anyone that considers that an acceptable time to be awake. A very stressful "morning" followed our ridiculous wake up time and I was very glad when we all crawled in to the cars at half 5.
Checking in went without a problem. Our last moment with Anna's parents ended with McPake saying "Ciao principessa" (goodbye princess) to Anna's Dad. As a longstanding joke between the 6 of us, this was such a funny way to end our time with them.
No one was sat next to anyone else on the plane but the views from the windows made it bearable. I was gutted to find out that I missed McPake kissing the ground when we landed in Rome. That would have been so funny to see!
As we were walking passed the shops, I spotted McDonald's in the distance. Before I tell you what I did next, please remember that I had been up since 4am, I was very tired and I was facing an 18 hour day of travelling... Got all that? Okay so, when I spotted the McDonald's I may have run all the way down the walkway to it. Totally normal under the circumstances okay?!
The rest of our time was spent eating, napping, shopping or revising (that one was just me... I was tired but cursed with an inability to sleep). It took us 15 minutes to walk to walk to our gate (who knew airports were so big?!) and even though there were an abundance of free chairs, McPake decided to maintain his habit of lying on the floor. Not at all embarrassing. Seriously.
Thankfully they calmed down for the majority of the flight which allowed me to have my mini existential crisis in peace. The rest of our journey was fairly unexciting and you can read about it here.
And that ends my retelling of my trip to Italy! I had some of the best two weeks of my life out there and I'm so excited to go back next summer (as long as we're still invited!). It is a holiday that I will always remember.
No comments:
Post a Comment