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Italy was one of the countries that was first on my priority list even before considering coming to Europe for an exchange. Being half Italian on my Mom’s side, I was raised with a big Italian family whom I see at most cousins’ birthdays and major holidays, and since its my Mom who is Italian, I get all the great food that comes with the nationality. So I was raised in a very Italian setting, definitely more so then my Iranian half (although I would love to go to Iran one day), so Italy has always been on the top of my to-go list. When I arrived in Italy with Tighe, he stayed with us for a couple of nights; he headed back to Prague to catch a flight to New York, where as I stayed in Italy and started my one month long Italian adventure. I lived with family in Mola di Bari, which is just south of Bari, headed to Rome to meet up with Horatiu, lived in Bari for another week and took a break from Italy to see Greece for ten days. On our return from Greece, I lived in Bisceglie for six days or so, and from there I went on my backpacking adventure through Naples, Florence, Pisa, Rimini, and finally Venice.

Last of Tighe in Mola di Bari

Mola di Bari

Mola di Bari is a small city in southern Italy located on the Adriatic Sea, just south of Bari, and it is where my Nonna (grandmother) was born and raised. She moved to Canada after meeting my Nonno for a short period of time, and moved away from Mola only to return a few times in her life. My Nonna’s cooking was for me always number one, but due to Alzheimers, it just hasn’t been the same. Incredibly, the family I went to stay with in Italy made all the various dishes my Nonna made the exact same way - braciole (horse meat), focacci (bread, herbs, and tomatoes), meatballs, and most importantly the pasta. They fed me like a king every day that I spent in Mola, and I was not disappointed, it was almost equivalent to my Nonna’s cooking, and thus, it was some of the best eating I have ever done in my entire life.

As you can see, I’m really enjoying myself

And this right here is why

Besides the wine drinking, the olive eating, the fresh tomatoes and the delicious main courses, there was plenty of fun to be had in Mola as well. Waiting for Tighe and I at the ferry was my Mom’s cousin Franca and her son Luigi. Luigi is about my age and was the only one in my family who could speak decent English, so he was the one who I spent most of my time with in Mola. During the day, Luigi would take us around, bring us to a beach, drive to a nearby town, grab ice creams, and hang out with friends. I was in Mola for a grand total of twelve days, four with Tighe and eight with Horatiu, and on almost every single one of those days, we went to the beach and had an ice cream. Life in Italy, I found, was much simpler than in North America.

Mola’s beach - As you can see the chunks of sand are very large

In the evening after eating a dinner that would fill me to the brim, we would head out with Luigi and his friends. The night would start off with a giro (which was basically driving around the main city center in multiple loops just for fun), and we would park and either hang out at the square, the castle, or one of the two popular bars, mostly Bux, the American bar. Most of his friends spoke very little English, I got lucky to happen to have my cousin as one of the best English speakers in town, but I could still get by with the combination of my broken Italian and their broken English. My cousin introduced me to a lot of friends, and brought me to a couple of Italian parties, and I had a great time overall. There are a lot of people I would like to visit again in Mola, and a lot of people that I hope come to Vancouver as soon as possible.

Left to Right: Isabela, Me, Tiziana, Vito, Antonio (or Popeye, as we called him)

Left to Right: Popeye, Luigi (my cousin), Horatiu, Tony, Tiziana, and Me

Mola was great to me; amazing food, I had really fun nights out with my cousin whom I had just met upon arriving to Italy, ice cream, the beach, the people, the culture. Italy so far had been everything I was expecting and more, and I’m glad I went to discover my roots. I plan on coming back and making sure I know enough Italian at least enough to talk to everyone without requiring a translator. Oh, and did I happen to mention this is the city that has the highest percentage of gorgeous women, overtaking Sarajevo for the lead? Yeah, its true, you can confirm with Tighe or Horatiu.

Storm in Mola

Rome

At one point in time during my stay in Mola, I took four days to go to Rome. Horatiu’s flight from Germany was landing there, so we took the opportunity to visit one of the most legendary cities in the world. Rome was nothing short of spectacular - the Colosseum, the Mediterranean look, the Vatican, the food, the people; everything about that city makes me confident that I will be back as soon as humanly possible.

Before I talk about how spectacular Rome is, I’d like to talk about the not so good part of my stay. We stayed in M&Js place, and I would absolutely NEVER recommend this hostel, even to the people I’m not particularly fond of. The hostel was riddled with bed bugs, had incompetent cleaners, pay per hour internet, no A/C, ridiculously terrible showers both in terms of the actual shower and the difficult layout of the bathroom, and one of the worst staffers I’ve ever met in my life. Upon arriving to Rome, I had realized that I forgot my shoes, as I just came in my sandals, and since my sandals were giving me very large blisters on the bottom of my feet, I decided to buy a pair of shoes. Well, it turns out the shoes I bought gave me blisters that were ten times more painful, so when it came to the end of the day when I was going to return the shoes, I came back to find out that the cleaners had thrown out my Nike bag, which contained the box and receipt. Idiots. Oh, and for all of you staying in hostels, before you pick a bed, check the seems of the mattresses, if you find bed bugs, find a new place to sleep. When staying in this hostel, I had at least fifty bites, all of which are significantly worse then the mosquito kind.

Just one of the many bed bug trails on my body

Rome is one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been to. The streets are filled with hanging plants, lots of clothes hanging out, and the smell of freshly made pasta makes you wonder why anyone would consider leaving this place. The colors are also have a very Mediterranean setting, which is a nice change from the color scheme of the Eastern European countries. There is also no shortage of history in this city, we were able to see the Colosseum, the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel, the Spanish Step, and more that I can’t think of off the top of my head. I’m not much of a history buff, but these things were pretty cool, and we even happened to get our own free tour guide in the Sistine Chapel due to the fact that we met some random American girl who couldn’t stop talking about Michelangelo. We even got to see a mass with the pope, which was really cool.

The Pope in all his glory - riding around in his Pope-mobile

On our second night in Rome, we were hungry and decided to head off to get some food. We found a small restaurant that was open late, so we thought we’d give it a shot. It turns out that ravioli was something I could have made better in Prague, and Horas meatballs were riddled with bones. We were not impressed, but, knowing that Rome is suppose to be known for spectacular food, we decided to do some research and find a great restaurant with reasonable prices. We found a review in the New York Times called “Da I 2 Ciccioni”, which started you off with a plate of bread, beans, tomatoes, and a bottle of wine. Afterwords, we were served the first main course, a plate of pasta, which was then followed by the second main course, salad and chicken, and finally some biscuit. Oh, and the wine was homemade, and almost limitless. All of this for about twenty-five Euros, which is a good price considering the amount of food, and the expensiveness of Rome itself.

Fantastic food

I had no idea what to expect out of the nightlife in Rome, but I was pleasantly surprised. In our search, we found a ton of outdoor bars were there are many people who sit and chill on a couple drinks. Afterwords, we found an Irish bar, headed inside and ended up meeting a ton of students, both Italian and American on exchange. We also happened to meet a couple of older guys from London who we chilled with, and they also bought us a couple of beers. It was a fun night. One of the things I regret was not going on the Pub Crawl. I didn’t go because of how hard the one in Amsterdam sucked, but after traveling for weeks, one of the things everyone tells me who has been to Rome was that the Pub Crawl was something not to be missed. Disappointing, but Rome was one of my favorite European cities, I’ll do the crawl the next time I’m here, which is hopefully very soon.

Rome in all its glory