Pisa to Napoli

Greetings to everyone from a train moving up the Italian coast! I decided to take a breather in Naples for about a week and forgo my plans to go to Croatia - the ferry from Bari to Dubrovnik wasn't running this early in the year, taking away the part of Croatia that I was most excited for, and I really needed a rest. I am now on my way to Venice, where I stay a few nights before heading into the German-speaking part of the European continent. Thank God for Italian food. My taste buds have been happy in the last few weeks.

Here's what I've been up to:

PISA, ITALY - MARCH 1-3
It was snowing when I got to Pisa and didn't snow again after my first day there. I may have left it behind me! Until Vienna at least. Pisa is small and basically a giant tourist trap.

Highlights include:
- Jamming in the hostel with three Brazilian girls. One played the piano (the hostel had one in the common area) and I had my guitar. Eventually the two of us were making terrible musician jokes. We got through a bunch of Beatles tunes and a few modern pop songs before they all went to bed. And we were singing in harmony! I miss raising my voice with others.
- Meeting Patty, a lawyer turned street musician from Ireland. Most of the full day I had in Pisa I spent wandering around with him, drinking beer and playing small sets in the street. When we said goodbye, I said, "It's been a pleasure spending the day with you. I hope someday you will be a line in one of my songs and I will be a line in one of yours."
- The elephant bracelet salesmen. They come up to you, put the bracelet on your wrist, say it's free, then walk away. They come back less than a minute later to ask you about yourself and then leave again, then finally come back the third time and ask for money for their baby. When you refuse, they take the bracelet back. It's a long game that I played many times in Italy.
- Learning "spoof," an English pub game involving guessing the number of coins in the group's closed hands.
- LOWLIGHT ALERT: An older man in my four person dorm room in the hostel tried to French kiss me as we were all turning in for the night. I rejected his advances but he still got his tongue all over my face. I had a hard time sleeping that night because he was sleeping just a meter away. In the morning I pretended to be asleep until I heard him get in the shower then packed up all my stuff and got out of the hostel as quickly as possible. Is this what girls deal with all the time? If so, I'm sorry, y'all.

FLORENCE, ITALY - MARCH 3-6
One of my favorite cities that I've been to so far. The architecture is beautiful, the food is good, and (thankfully for this extrovert) the people in the hostel were friendly. I'm going to come back here.

Highlights include:
- 2 free walking tours over different parts of the city. My first guide in particular was born and raised Florentine and is currently doing her masters in art history in Florence. She would take us somewhere and point out the different layers of architecture in a single building - a church with a facade from the 15th century, the main body of the church from the 13th century, and a single remaining wall from the 11th century. Her tour was focused on the Medici family, who have always fascinated me.
- Making friends from all over the world: an American, an Australian, an Austrian, three Canadians. We all ended up hanging out for almost three days straight. I traveled with the Australian to Rome and met the Austrian and the American there. It's good to have some continuity between cities.
- Seeing my cousin Claudia for lunch. She's studying abroad in Florence. I have seen her now in South Carolina, New York, and Italy. Talk about providing continuity!
- Seeing the Medici corridor, an enclosed hallway in the sky built by the Medicis that crosses practically the whole city. They wanted to move between their two houses without having to interact with the common folk.
- Gelato every day.
- Apertivo, a great Italian practice where you buy one drink and then get access to a free buffet dinner. I think most older people use it as "little bites to go along with a drink," but most of us young guns use it as "all you can eat, baby!"
- Listening to a man play accordion on the street while the bell of the Duomo chimed.

ROME, ITALY - MARCH 6-10
Rome is an old city with layers and layers of history. Its modernity combined with its desire to preserve the history of both the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church makes it a totally unique ecosystem.

Highlights include:
- Pasta Carbonara. It's a Roman specialty. I've had it many times in my life, but the best two were certainly in Rome.
- Going to a small local venue one night and seeing some performance art: live music, a poetry reading, and a theater skit. All three for the price of one!
- Karaoke in the hostel bar with new friends. I sang the Pokemon theme song and Mr. Brightside.
- Seeing friends from Florence in a new location. (Wow, the train is passing through Florence as I am writing this, what a coincidence!)
- Seeing the classic tourist sights: the Coliseum, the Piazza Venezia, the Fontana di Trevi, the Vatican, the Vatican museums.
- Hearing "Ave Maria" played on a Renaissance era harp by a street musician.
- Praying in the Vatican. My Italian Catholic great-great-grandparents, looking down from wherever they are, would be happy to see me there on my knees.
- Another free walking tour, this one given by a man with a masters in Classics. Knowing the history of a city helps to contextualize everything else you see.
- Elephant bracelet sellers! They're everywhere! I even got hassled just outside the gate of Vatican square.

NAPLES, ITALY - MARCH 10-18
Ahh, Napoli. I extended my stay from three nights to eight nights because I was having such a good time. The water is beautiful, the food is cheap, the culture is laid back and friendly, and there are incredible islands just a ferry ride away. Not to mention Pompeii! Also important to me, the culture at the hostel where I was staying was the best of any hostel I've been in. The volunteers all hung out in the common area at night, playing cards and drinking and getting to know the guests. It made it much easier to get to know everyone because there was such an established place to do it. I am thinking of going back and volunteering there for a few months depending how my life in Oakland shakes out when I return.

Highlights include:
- Going down to the seawall and dunking my head in the Mediterranean.
- Fried pizza, a Napolitan specialty. I ate two of them this week.
- Playing soccer in the piazza (plaza) just outside the hostel with some Italians. We were all juggling in a circle. As one of the Italians said when we finished, it is truly a universal sport.
- Taking a day trip to the island of Ischia. I found a small table overlooking the Mediterranean and was able to sit and write for a few hours.
- The hostel employees and the culture in the hostel. The employees were from Ireland, Greece, France, America, Argentina, and Holland. They were all so welcoming to me and everyone else who checked in. I spent a lot of nights with them in the piazza when the hostel closed at midnight - including a 4am evening on St. Patrick's Day.
- 3.50 euro for a pizza margherita at all the mom and pop shops in the city.
- Two family dinners with the hostel staff at restaurants nearby. I felt honored to be invited.
- Pompeii. It's pretty incredible that such a vibrant place can be destroyed in just a few days. Seeing the plaster molds of people was mindbending. Humans think we are so high and mighty but Mother Nature is the true power on earth.
- LOWLIGHT ALERT: I learned on the ferry ride back from Ischia that the relationship I was in is very much over. I thought maybe it would have a bit more juice, so that's been hard. But, as I write below, I have been learning to let go through this journey. This is a good way to practice that.

I feel like I've been traveling for a long time. Sometimes I forget what it was like back at home. Sometimes I build up the idea of home as this gleaming paradise when I know in my heart of hearts that that isn't true. I think I'm looking forward to going back, but at this point the idea of staying in one place for an extended period of time seems almost as foreign as each new city I land in.

Ultimately, traveling has been teaching me to let go. Let go of my possessions. Let go of my ideas of what I need to be happy. Make friends for a night or two, and then let them go as well. Know you will never see them again and be OK with that. Enjoy the time you have rather than thinking of the future. Don't cling to the idea. As the Buddha said, it's the clinging that brings the unhappiness for what could have been. Most things in my life are quite obviously impermanent right now, and I am becoming more and more OK with that. Hopefully I can bring that attitude back to a more grounded and stable life as well.

May the wind be ever at your back.