The Rest of My Italy Trip

Because I'm going to the great City by the Bay (Chicago). I'm posting the rest of my Italy trip.


Saturday, April 21:
We woke early, so we could begin the 4 hour bus ride to Capena. We saw more of the beautiful Italian countryside that was very mountainous and had many castles and ruins. We stopped for lunch around 1130 at one a fast food delis. We did this a great deal during the trip while driving through the countryside. The deli resemble the Atlanta Bread Company or Panera Bread, but they also have groceries and other items. I believe it was at one of these places where we got hooked on those candy bars that a mentioned earlier. Most of the places have real good deli style sandwiches. The sandwich I usually got was the panini [I just remembered that while typing this up…almost 5 yrs after the trip]. On our way to Capena we stopped at ancient Roman ruins. These were ruins of a small town that was formed by the ancient Roman civilization the Etruscans. Actually, this was the first civilized people to inhabit what was later known as the Roman empire. The Etruscans lived about 7000 years and up to 2000 years before Christ. I guess they got conquered or something around 2000bc. But anyway, the ruins were very interesting. You could see where they had houses and buildings and even a little arena for plays and shows. Their artwork, such as sculptures and pottery, is what was so interesting about their culture and lifestyle. They had beautiful and very artistic pottery. And their sculptures and busts were very talented. They were the first culture to show smiling faces in their artwork. Which, I found to be the most interesting thing about their society. It shows they were happy and whatnot. I found the whole thing very fun and interesting. We left the ruins and headed for the tiny and mostly unknown town of Capena. Capena, though extremely old, is not a tourist attraction by any means. Its just an Italian village. It has some great qualities about it. It located in the mountains and the whole town is filled with hills and great lookouts. Its also very wooded. There were a lot of trees around the town. Our whole point of going to Capena was to play with the local band and to march through the town. We were actually guests of the town and everyone came out to greet and listen to us as we marched through the streets. After our march we gathered a played some tunes with their band. They were small but much better than us. It was fun, no one cared at our suckiness. We changed out of band uniforms in a local school gym and began to walk to our buses. Then one of the greatest experiences of my life began to take shape. I noticed Chris was getting mobbed by a group of local Capena girls. I laughed and gave him a jealous thumbs up. Then they saw me. Before I knew it, I stole much of Chris’ mob of girls. They were saying all this Italian stuff to me, I had no clue what they were saying. I noticed some were actually speechless at the sight of me. Mr. Hallman yelled at Chris and I to get going and stop flirting with the girls. So we, with as much delay as we could make, gathered on to the buses to hear everyone laughing and cheering. I looked out the window and blew some kisses. And that was the last I saw of Capena and the ladies that live there. I will be back. While Chris and I were getting treated like rock stars, my brother Matt was getting treated like a revolutionary. He bought a Che Guevera shirt while in Florence and decided to wear it while in Capena. I thought it was a pretty cool shirt so I bought one too. But, understandably, he had no idea the reaction it would get in Capena. On the most part no one in town really cared. But a few, teenagers and young adults did. They started to talk to him and offered him some drugs and then they handed him a flier. Evidently, they were part of the Italian communist party or something like that and they were trying to recruit him with drugs. He said he was pretty scared because when he turned down their offer of drugs, some weren’t too happy. He got away from them though without any serious incident. I think he still has the flier and he still has the shirt too. I don’t think he has worn the shirt since. We took the buses to the place where we were going to eat with the band and some of the locals. This turned out to be the best meal of the whole trip. Everyone was relaxed with hanging out with each other, so everyone was having a great time. Plus, it was the last meal before we left for home. And, we got see our tour guide, who was a great companion throughout the whole trip, sing. We also got to eat with our bus driver who chartered us around the whole trip. This was no ordinary bus driver, he spoke 5 languages fluently and he had a degree in engineering and his name was Ermino. Ermino is my idol. It was another great time (I know I’ve said that so many times throughout the journal but its hard to put my feelings of many situations of this trip into words). We loaded our buses and headed towards our last night in Rome. The bus ride was nice. Ermino put in a The Beatles album. So now, every time I hear The Beatles I think of Italy. It was here for the first time that I kind of felt homesick and ready to get back. I guess the feeling was brought on by the fact that our journey home was very near. We arrived at Hotel Purgatory one last time. This time my room was at the top of the hotel. It was a really big room with a working TV but, a whole lot of us slept in it. We got to bed about 12am.

Sunday, April 22:
Aaah yes, the feeling of waking up at 3am. Well, its our last day in Rome and in Italy. It went by extremely quick and LITERALLY was nonstop fun. There was not a dull or crappy moment the whole time. We all scrambled and got on the bus loaded so we could head to the airport. I remember the morning was somewhat cool and crisp and it was still dark outside. We arrived at the airport very very tired. We sat, waited, and slept at customs while our instruments were being cleared. We loaded the small Swiss Air jet and flew to Zurich early in the morning. Then we waited some more at the Swiss airport and all of us very very loudly loaded our large plane for Atlanta. The steward were rather perturbed with our rowdiness but oh well. I pretty much tried to sleep the whole time during this flight. I got very little, I remember only dosing off a few times briefly only to awake right away again. For most of the flight I sat with my eyes closed in when of those semiconscious states in between sleep and consciousness. The flight ended up being about 10½ hours long . The landing was rough and scary for me. After this long ass flight I never wanted to see a plane for at least a couple of years. We had trouble in Atlanta with customs and it took a while to find some of people’s bags but we did and all bags were eventually accounted for. Then we loaded the buses, one last time, and headed for Mobile. The ride home seemed very quick because I slept like a baby pretty much the whole time. We stopped at McDonalds for some dinner and went on to Mobile. The whole ride felt like it took 15 minutes. We got to Mobile about 9pm to see all of our parents waiting anxiously for our return.


Wrap-Up
It took a full week to get back into the swing of things. Sometimes I would wake up at 4 in the morning fully awake and hungry. The time zone messed with my head and appetite a good bit. I was jet lagged for a good day afterwards too. The trip on a whole changed my life. I made many new friends and bonded with people that I never thought I would get to know. I also became closer to God and had a religious revelation. It also began my fascination with Rome and the Italian culture and history. Most of the facts I stated in this journal came straight from real books (not Dan Brown’s Angel and Demons) and videos that I have studied and watched on my own time. People often ask if I will go back to Italy. Its not a question of if, for me, but when. I WILL go back to Italy.
Some great things came from my trip to Italy. The greatest and most notable is that of Chris and Kathy beginning their relationship, which started out as puppy-love and now it has evolved into an engagement to get married. Besides the fact that they are perfect for each other, any relationship that starts out in Italy is bound to last forever.

Here are some things you should google to get a better view of what I saw, my words don't give any of these places the justice they deserve.
St. Peters Basilica (duh!)
Hotel Pergola
Trevi Fountain
Piazza Navonna
St. Francis Chapel and Tomb
Assisi
St. Catherine’s Head (a must)
Palazzo dei Priori Hall
Palazzo Vechio (a must also)
Etruscans (another must)
Capena