What I learnt in Bologna

 I’m now in the final phase of my time in Bologna and I cannot believe how fast the time has flown by.

I’ve had to buy a second travel diary after cramming the first one full of new experiences and wonderful memories. I have seen people come and go and my Italian is getting to a point where I can at least make myself understood, even if only at a basic level.

I have visited Ravenna, Ferrara, Florence, Cinque Terra, Venice, and I still have plans to spread my wings even further.

But as time slips away maybe now is a good time to take a step back from the adventures that lie ahead and reflect on how far I have come and what I have discovered about both the world and myself.

1)   People are nice (and the same)
One of the most important things I have learnt on this trip is that wherever you are, if you are open, friendly and kind, people will be nice and you will have great company.

There have been some real moments of clarity since I’ve been here in that you don’t have to settle for less when it comes to having people in your life.

So often we accept the company of those who don’t really help to build us up out of a feeling of “comfort” in the known or a kind of sense of responsibility or even a fear of being alone, but you never have to be alone.

Sitting in my classroom and at coffee the last few days, I have been the only English person sat among Bulgarian, Chinese, Ukrainian, Swedish, South African, Italian (Obviously), Brazilian, Canadian, American, German and French students… it has truly been amazing.

And yet despite our different roots, languages and cultures, the topics of conversation remain the same namely; boy troubles, current affairs, art and at one point the pros and cons of boob jobs!

We are all the same and there are millions of people out there to be-friend and get to know. Don’t settle for those who make you feel “less”, chase those who make no effort or worry that you will be lonely – amazing people are out there waiting for you to say hello (or in my case, Ciao! Followed by mistake-ridden attempted Italian). 

2)   Italian is hard, but your will is harder

Following on from that last point – the Italian language is hard!

I have never been good at languages. I struggled with French at school and I only lasted for two years taking Spanish classes before dropping it like a hot potato. It just isn’t my gift.

So why did you go to Italy to learn Italian (!?) I hear you cry.

Well the truth is, I didn’t come to Italy to learn Italian, I came to experience Italy. Learning the language would just give my day structure and help me to assimilate better – plus I thought it would sound quite sexy.

I hate to disappoint any men out there but when I do speak Italian it does NOT sound sexy!  It sounds like a three year-old with a weird accent trying to put together words that it doesn’t know the meaning of.

However, I am getting better. The turning point was realizing mid-lesson that the concept I was finding easy was the same topic I had had a panic attack about a few weeks earlier, not to mention that I was in a class with people who have been studying for months (and in some cases years – all be it once a week) to be at this level.

Yeah, it is hard.

The best advice I have been given and the best description of where I am at this point came from a classmate who likened learning a language to swimming in the sea.  At first it looks all calm and serene then you wade further in and you get caught by the surf – it’s all choppy and sometimes the waves pull you under and you cant see.

But swim a little further out and it becomes all calm and serene again and you just float. This part right now is the surf, and with four more weeks ahead of me I am hoping to find some kind of calm so I don’t drown when I come back home. 

3)   Italy is easy

So while the language may be hard, the culture of Italy and the lifestyle is so easy-going, it’s the  main reason I don’t want to come home. The balance is perfect, the weather is warm and sunny and the food… Jesus that is good! Even the salads taste nice (I’ve been trying to cut down on the pasta).

I’ve been having a bit of a crisis of confidence about coming home, I don’t want to slip back into old habits or find myself living a life that just seems dull or unimportant again.

Life is easy here because it’s colorful and vibrant. There are always distractions and things to do. I’m forever meeting new people and challenging myself. That motivation and willingness is easy to harness in a place like this, it’s not so easy in the grey, rain-drenched centre of Bolton.

If you are a few minutes late to the class, the world wont end and you’re expected to take an hour (or even two) for lunch, and actually go and have lunch!

Work finishes at 6 and then its time for aperitivo (the greatest invention ever) and you can then just sit and bask in the sunshine – beautiful.

I realize this may be a slightly skewed version of reality, but the fact still remains that life here is easy because they value balance. It’s not work, work, work, gym, gym, gym; life is about pleasure and prioritizing quality over quantity.

That should be an easy thing to do!

4)   Life shouldn’t be easy

However, in direct contradiction to the above point, life itself  shouldn’t be easy.

If it’s easy you get bored.

As my time here is comes to an end (only 18 days to go) I am facing the reality of coming back down to earth. This wonderful experience will then just be stored away in memories and two lovingly written travel journals.

I mistakenly thought that this trip would clear up a few questions I had about who I want to be, what I want to do, where I want to be but it has actually ended up doing the exact opposite!

It’s expanded my horizons and raised a multitude of new options that I had never contemplated before. And while I am still returning to England unsure and unable to predict the future, I will be returning in a much healthier and stronger mental state that will make all those questions a lot easier to answer (eventually).

I know now that for life to be worth living, it has to be challenging. You cant just live a life sipping Aperol spritz in the sunshine, you have to go out and explore! Meet the people, take the experience and, yes, work hard.

The best part about this trip is that it has given me the confidence to be myself and to take like by the horns instead of simply letting it pass me by.

And actually, I’m really excited for the next chapter now. 

Italy is out there Pt 2: The Tourist Issue

So as we have already seen from my last post – I have been exploring Italy beyond Bologna, but I had still stayed relatively close to home.

This has since changed as I have become more and more comfortable using the electronic ticket machines at the station and met people who will accompany me on what I am calling ‘boundary pushing’.

S* was the first companion.

Now S* is someone who you meet and immediately like; she is kind, generous, and (genuinely) one of the most inspiring people I have met on this trip. Not only because she is living a life in numerous countries without seeming the least bit stressed, but she has this great way of bringing you down to earth with her and, on top of that, she is incredibly intelligent.

Okay, enough swooning!

S* is currently working on her PhD which has a collection of five Italian villages known as “Cinque Terre” as its focus.  In particular, she is studying the role of tourism in that area in the aftermath of the mudslides which decimated the area in late 2011.

Her research requires her to visit Cinque Terra regularly and so when she asked me if I wanted to come with her, I couldn’t possibly say no!

I mean obviously it would be a huge personal sacrifice to go on wine tastings, sun myself on the beach and swim in the clear blue ocean surrounded by luscious green hills and vineyards’ – but I was willing to put that aside for a new friend.

So, with the Air BnB booked, off we went. We stayed in La Spezia, a 10 minute train ride away from Cinque Terra. This was mostly due to the extortionate costs of staying actually IN Cinque Terra during the tourist season, and that is secondary to if there was anywhere actually available.

La Spezia is a large port city and it seemed to be where all the young people who worked in Cinque Terra actually lived (a fact we gathered as S* spoke to more and more people) and, as a result, the nightlife was pretty good!

However, I have to admit that when we finally did make it to Cinque Terra I was awestruck.

It. Is. Beautiful.

The postcards don’t even do it justice. It is the most interesting mix of seaside quaintness and lush green mountains, adapted to work as vineyards. One minute your looking straightforward to crystal clear surf but then you look up and you see this:

It really is a sight to behold. It’s hard to believe that only a few years ago this whole area was four meters deep in mud. It took the hard work and resilience of the Cinque Terra people to dig themselves out and re-build their lives; quite inspiring really.

The tourism aspect, however, is something that needs discussing. It was heaving with people.

Trying to get on the train to the next village one day was a feat of personal willpower and human bulldozing on the part of S* and I and it is easy to see why some of the locals can get a little peeved.

But, in this way, it is also a double-edged sword as during these four or five months of heavy tourist traffic, they arguably make their entire annual salary.

It does seem a shame that this wonderful part of the world is slightly tarnished by the sheer volume of people but, honestly, I didn’t think it mattered.

When I visited Florence a few weeks ago, the image I had in my head of this beautiful romantic, renaissance city, was ruined by the tourist hoard. In Cinque Terra, it has still managed to keep its seaside charm and rustic aesthetic.

Admittedly there are a lot more “tatt” shops and American accents but you still cannot fail to be blown away by its beauty – Florence had lost that I thought. 

There were a couple of real “pinch me” moments on this adventure. The first was when S* and I were sitting on the terrace over looking the sea enjoying a “Wine Experience” where the sommelier had picked three key wines for us to try followed by Sciachettra (a sweet digestivo wine, only drank on special occasions – it was a Saturday after all).

We just sat soaking it all in; the sea, a new friend and incredible wines, I couldn’t help but feel like it was all a bit fantastically un-real.

The second moment of grace was experienced lying back and floating in the ocean in Levano (admittedly not one of the Cinque Terra) surrounded by the mountains and just thinking how utterly lucky I am to be having this experience.

We packed a lot into those two days; a boat trip, a lemon festival (yes, really), two villages, two towns and plenty of beach hopping, but one of the most beautiful parts was exploring the lost stairways and speaking to the community there.

A part of S*’s research requires her to integrate with the community and by doing this, she opened my eyes to so much more of Cinque Terra than I would have ever discovered on my own.

It’s important to leave the tourist trail and find your own path when visiting these places (or any place really); talk to the locals, go down the path leading away from the crowds… in the immortal words of Robert Frost:

“I shall be telling this with a sight

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

So from natural beauty to the man-made; next on the hit list was Venice!

I was the initiator this time, with a new Swedish guy from the school wanting to visit on the same weekend.

Before the trip, and during the train ride, I have to admit I was a little nervous. I had this image in my head of what Venice should look like – created and carved out from hours of film watching and book-reading.

I didn’t want it to be another Florence.

When we arrived it was predictably busy – it was a bank holiday weekend here in Italy - and the queue for the water bus outside the station was ridiculously long. We only had a day, I was not going to spend it in a queue even if I am British!

However, after walking a little bit further down we found another terminal, which wasn’t nearly as busy as the first, and we got on a boat within a matter of minutes.

I wasn’t disappointed.

All the stereotypes of crumbling romantic buildings, gondola oars-men in striped shirts and all that Venetian beauty was real and from the water it looked magical!

This slightly faded when we got off at Piazza San Marco, there was a swarm of people, all you could see were heads and bodies. We didn’t even try to enter the church because the queue was even longer than the one to get the water bus tickets, but as as soon as we slid off down a backstreet and started exploring that way – it was just breathtaking.

Narrow, winding little alleyways opening up onto deserted squares, hidden boat mooring points and shuttered windows - it was a dream to get lost.

You may think you miss out on “must-see” sights when you get lost, but the one sight I was really keen to see we stumbled upon our ambling travels:

Support by Lorenzo Quinn.

In reality, both Cinque Terra and Venice do have the ugly scar of tourism running through them, but they have both managed to maintain their beauty in spite of this.

They have kept their personality, and have refused to be ground down into amusement parks (except in some key areas). On the whole they remain inspirational and heart-wrenching places, which make you believe that life is out there. The tourist issue is only an issue if you conform to it. 

Go outside now and get lost, it works miracles.