Verona.

Ahh. Well. Here I sit, in my room in Favara, Sicily. Exhausted from the intense mental, emotional, physical stimulation of a week of amazing sights, tastes, feelings. As I watch the blue bar slowly move on my desktop, uploading the pictures from the week, and watch the little thumbnails of my photographs, it is so odd to think that I am back in Favara, sitting where I sat 8 days ago looking ahead excitedly to the week ahead. I feel pretty sad.

Verona is a magnificent city. The first time I walked into the main piazza, surrounded on one side by an ancient Roman arena, a massive “comune” building (government), beautiful apartment buildings, and outdoor café’s, I thought to myself: this must be Italy! The people are so fashionably dressed, many riding old bicycles, sitting outside café’s drinking espressos or wine. I instantly fell in love with the city, and throughout the week, this fascination grew and expanded, making it really difficult to leave this morning to return to Sicily.

I really, really, really lucked out with my host family for the week. Parents were Fabio and Roberta, kids were Leo, 4, (eerily similar to Simon, to the point where I got chills seeing a picture of him on the wall, thinking it was my real little brother), and Alessandro, 17, who I instantly made friends with, finding a ton in common. They live about 15 minutes outside of the city of Verona, in a town called Bussolengo, which looks like a normal, Californian, suburban town with a lot more Vespa’s and Fiats. Fabio has a Nuova 500 Fiat 66’, a classic Italian car which is really popular in Sicily, but I had never had the pleasure to take a ride in. Very sweet, very historical car. Upon entering the house, I immediately noticed the collection of cd’s and dvd’s. Some of my favorites: The Essential Bruce Springsteen, Fugees, Pearl Jam, and for movies: Seven, Apocalypse Now, some Begnini films. I felt instantly at home!

Our AFS group was as usual an amazingly diverse: Australia, Turkey, Thailand, Germany, Finland, U.S., Honduras, Brazil, Paraguay, and China. Pretty fascinating, as usual, to see the interactions was very interesting. We had a good time together.

So, what we saw. We spent a lot of time in Verona, exploring the old streets, churches, visiting “La Casa di Giuliette,” the Arena, and visiting the political center, where we met the mayor. We did a day in Milan, saw il Duomo, the actual “The Last Supper,” which is unbelievable, and affected me much more than I ever expected it to, and had a chance to walk around the city a bit. It reminded me at times of Paris. The weather wasn’t being cooperative, but we were all “troopers,” in Abranowicz / Raisfeld terms. Maybe the best day for me was the long anticipated trip to Venezia. I was truly blown away. It is so fun just to walk around the city, which is like nothing I have ever seen in my entire life. We did the touristy but fun gondola ride, and my favorite thing, seeing the Grand Canal, which I have always seen in photographs, Kevin Burger’s paintings, and the movie Casino Royale. So beautiful and overwhelming. I witnessed a strange thing that day as well: I was sitting in a café with some friends, with a view of one of the bridges, when I saw a woman throw her phone into the canal, totally emotionless. I thought, “that’s kind of weird,” and then watched as she threw her umbrella in. She then went on to have a full blown epileptic seizure, which I had never seen before. Very sad and scary. I visited Lago di Garda twice, once with the group, and once with my host family. The second time I went, with the family, we took a ferry across to the other side with the car, to a town infamous for being one of the final Fascist strongholds in WWII. Fabio knows an amazing amount of history, and it was so great to go around with him, because he was such a fountain of knowledge on everything we saw. Dates, history, legends, etc.

That day I ate three gelatos.

So back in Favara. A little (maybe more than a little) sad to have left Verona. I really fell in love with the city, the family, my host brother’s friends, etc. I had a package with tea, a lift ticket from my birthday (!!!) and a twizzler waiting on my desk, as well as a letter from Nana and Poppy, which was wonderful to return to. Feeling tired, as I said before, and am planning on watching a movie later tonight, just relaxing.

Miss everyone so much, and am amazed that it has almost been halfway. It was an amazing week, but every amazing week has to end. It is nice to think that soon I will depart for Romagna for a trip with the school!

Ciao! Zander in Italy

Listening: “The Hazards of Love” by the Decemberists, and “And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out” by Yo La Tengo

Reading: L’Uomo Vogue (bought in Milano!)

Watching: “It’s Always Sunny in Philidelphia”