Italia 2011: Leaving Italy

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan

AAARRRRGGGHHHHHH I'M HOME! IT'S DEVASTATING!

Our final night in Florence was a hoot. We opted to go out for the pub crawl again since, hey, we had a blast the first time. It just got better! There were about 45 people out. Our crawl guide Matt made sure that I was around when they ordered hot wings at the Red Garter, since he knew how badly I've been craving them. Long story short, the night involved a TON of walking. I was prettymuch crippled by the next morning... My feet were seriously swollen to about double size, you couldn't make out any bones in them, and they were in excruciating pain...

The last few days in Milan with my friends were grand. We took it easy once we got there as we were all in various stages of being sick. One day we went out to see some Milan sights like the duomo (the second largest cathedral in the world, after St. Peters at the Vatican, and the largest gothic cathedral in the world), and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele (a 19th century glass-domed mall). We had a great lunch at the Obika Mozzarella Bar on top of the Rinascente department store beside the duomo, and got to do a tasting of three different mozzarellas (the smoked one won). In the evenings we went out to the navigli (canals) district and had apertivo (where you pay about 10 euros and get a drink and all-you-can-eat hors d'oeuvres). Milan is weird in August... it really is like a post-apocalyptic ghost town... there are no people and everything is closed, but the navigli district was hopping at night and it was especially great for people watching. On our second night there, our new French aerospace engineering friends joined us and we walked the city til the early morn.

Yesterday we took the train from Milan to Rome. Stacey and Tamara went out for one last walk around Rome while I stayed in and attempted (unsuccessfully) to sleep off my sickness. We had dinner near Trastavere, ordered too much, gave our leftovers to a very grateful homeless man, and then called it an early night.

Today I flew back direct from Rome to Toronto. The plane was daycare central, but the screaming kids didn't bother me as much as my own congestion. Fortunately I had some good movies to distract me from my misery (I highly recommend Never Let Me Go, but don't watch it on a plane if you don't want strangers to see you crying...).

Now I am home. I'm so dazed that it hasn't totally hit me yet, but I know that I am absolutely 100% not ready to be back here. It's going to be so so hard adjusting back to "real life"... Although I am psyched to see all my friends and get incredible wings tomorrow! Wish me luck... (And thanks for reading my blog this summer!)