Weekend Adventures in Como, Bellinzona, & Torino: PART ONE

This weekend was absolutely crazy. I was able to see and do so much and by the end of it I was absolutely exhausted. I have never felt so accomplished in my travels, especially considering I have done this with a small group of peers. I have always had adults planning my travels for me and preparing all the transportation accommodations and hotels, etc. Instead, it was all on me and to be quite honest I feel like it has been such a rewarding and challenging experience. I have to give my parents and other adults I have had the privilege to travel with credit for all that they put into traveling. It is frustrating and exciting and nerve racking and often very challenging, but when you are able to do it yourself it is ultimately rewarding. I feel as if I could travel anywhere in the states now after doing some of the trips here. Why? Well, it is hard enough planning a trip on your own or with a few friends but it becomes a little more interesting when you have to figure it out in another language that you can barely scrape by with. For example:

A man came running up to us at 1:45am at the Chiasso train station on our way back from Torino. We were exhausted and slightly delirious and suddenly this man who had clearly missed his stop at Como (the stop before Chiasso) came up to us speaking in elaborate Italian. He was distressed and frustrated and looking to us for help. We stumbled and I eventually said "Non parlo italiano benne" or I don't speak italian well, so he says "parle francais?" "No, je ne sais pas parler francais bien. desolee." No I don't know how to speak french well, sorry. And finally, "inglese??" [english?] "yes!" and finally the language barrier was broken, slightly, because he then continued to explain his situation in a mixture of english and italian. He wanted to know when the next train was and unfortunately it was the last train, so we directed him to the bus and wished him luck.

That didn't really affect our traveling but there are so many situations where we aren't sure how to get somewhere and we have to sit and think about how to ask someone in italian how to get there. I can't walk up to people and ask directions or simple questions without knowing how to ask them in italian or whatever language speaking region I'm in. It's frustrating but exciting as a 20 year old student studying abroad, but at the same time it makes New York City look like nothing at this point. Being in a strange Italian city at night with two other friends trying to find the train station and a place to eat makes New York look like a walk in the park. It also makes traveling locally around the states seem possible and doable.

Anyway....on to my weekend.

Thursday:

So instead of having class on Thursday, we took a day trip to Como, Italy to see this incredible Roman museum that also contains artifacts from a wide range of time periods. We mainly went to focus on ancient Rome for our Roman Town class. We looked at inscriptions that discussed the Plinys, who are known because they are great primary sources for history. Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger are very important historically speaking and are important sources for historians especially in Classics. Pliny the Elder actually died in the eruption of Pompeii. Anyway we walked around and looked at inscriptions and artifacts from the Roman period. It was pretty fantastic. We also saw the Duomo di Como which was this fantastic church architecturally and was absolutely gorgeous. We weren't able to go inside but we walked around the outside and paid special attention to the Pliny statues on the facade of the church.

After that we had free time to wander the city. We were responsible for getting back to Riva on our own, which meant we had as much time in Como as we wanted. A side note, Como is where George Clooney has one of his Italian villas, which is pretty nifty. So my friends Amber, Kate, Matt, Marty, and I went down to Lake Como, which is absolutely gorgeous with mountains that have houses and buildings nestled in the side, and we had lunch there on the benches. After that we made our way to the bus station which was interesting to say the least. We had to figure out how to catch a bus that went to Mezzegra where Mussolini's grave marker is and it's just outside of Como. Trying to communicate to the bus station ticket lady in broken Italian while still being confused about which bus to take and how much to pay was beyond confusing and frustrating to the point where we almost gave up.

Eventually we figured it out and waited for our bus which arrived shortly after. We took an hour long bus ride through the narrow roads around Lake Como which cuts through these amazing little towns that are so cute. The houses are stucco with shudders and are situated right on the hillside with bridges that cut over the roads over to the other side of the street. Stone walls line the roads and people are out walking around talking and shopping. I definitely want to return to this little areas to explore the next time I make it out to Como. So while on the bus we realized that there were no signs or indicators letting us know which stop was what. The bus would stop at a bus stop which had no signs indicating what town it was. The classic quote was when the bus was careening around these narrow roads honking at passing cars (literally inches from hitting the car and killing us all....I never felt so close to death) and we had no idea what stop was next or previous when Matt goes, "uhh....I have no idea where we are going." It basically summed up our adventure to Mezzegra, but luckily a man across the aisle helped us out and yelled up to the bus driver telling him to stop at Mezzegra and he let us know when to get off the bus. We arrived and walked up this hill cutting through this town and randomly we stumbled upon Mussolini's grave marker. His grave marker is this black cross with his name, Benito Mussolini, and the date of his execution. This grave marker is on a stone wall conveniently located next to someone's driveway. This site is really interesting because when the fascist regime in Italy was being overthrown, Mussolini tried to escape to Switzerland and then onward but was caught by anti-fascists in Como and executed at this place in Mezzegra which the simple marker denotes. After he was executed, him and his mistress were taken to a gas station and hung upside down on meathooks and then taken to Rome where his body was stoned by the people and completely destroyed. It's an amazing story which makes our crazy bus ride out there completely worth it because we saw something so unique and interesting.

After we took some photos of this location we walked back to the bus stop area and went inside this great cafe where we got cappuccinos for one euro (super cheap!) and hung out and chatted it up until the next bus came. We got back on the bus and then arrived back to the center of Como where we walked around and enjoyed the sights for a little bit until we headed back to the train station so we could catch dinner at the villa. Later that night we went to the Carnevale opening parade in Riva san Vitale which was basically where all the kids from high school to elementary march in this parade dressed up while marching bands play. There are all sorts of tents out which have make shift bars and are run by the local bar owners of Riva. There was confetti and lights everywhere and it was so nice to be able to mingle with the locals for such an exciting occasion. Oh and Carnevale is this celebration in February that lasts about a week and it is basically a combination of Halloween and Mardi Gras. People dress up and I mean everyone dresses up and their costumes are always elaborate and crazy.

Friday:

Okay so after our adventure to Como we were excited to finally sleep in Friday. Well, Amber Kate and I ended up waking up at 9:30am so we decided to go for a run through Riva. We ran a little over a mile through town, which felt great because the weather was spectacular. The Lake Lugano in the morning is so beautiful and the people of Riva are walking around or hanging out in their little gardens. I absolutely loved my Friday morning run. After arriving back at the villa we debated going on a hike but decided instead to do yoga with Alyse in the main classroom. Yoga was awesome. Alyse and I decided to start doing yoga every Tuesday/Thursday and whenever we have free time. After that I showered and relaxed at the apartment and read some Harry Potter in bed while Amber and Kate napped.

Then we did the craziest 30 minute bike ride to Mendrisio to get our Carnevale tickets at the train station there, because the one in Riva didn't sell them. The bike ride there was almost entirely uphill and down this main road. We went through several rotaries and cars do not care about bike riders, so it was pretty intense being passed by cars and trucks that were flying down that road. Also the bike seats were the most uncomfortable bike seats in the world and for the past two days my butt has been feelin the pain. When we finally got there out of breath and my legs crying in pain from the run & yoga on top of the uphill bike ride, we got our tickets and hung out for a bit then headed back. Luckily the ride back was all downhill making it not so bad.

Friday night after dinner we started the preparations for Carnevale in Bellizona. As I've mentioned before, Bellinzona is the capital of the Canton of Ticino (the Italian speaking portion) of Switzerland. So the Carnevale there is pretty huge and everyone always says it's this huge blow out. So we got dressed as crazy as we could with what we had so we would blend in. When we got on the train there weren't many people on but the ones that were on the train were decked out in Carnevale costumes. As the train made more and more stops there were loads of people cramming onto the train with alcohol everywhere and yelling. It was insanity. We only stayed in Bellinzona for a few hours before heading back because we had an early morning. But basically Bellinzona had made all these huge tents which had bars and dance clubs in them and there were people everywhere wandering the streets. Any place that was open was either a bar or a dance club. There were lights strung about everywhere and people in the most amazing outfits. It was quite the experience. We got back to our apartment a little after midnight covered in glitter and confetti and went straight to bed because we had our train to Torino to catch at 7am the next morning.