Party at 3000 meters

Can I say something? Italy is awesome.

Again: Italy is fucking awesome. How I could have forgotten it is so awesome, I have no idea. But I was reminded how awesome it was last weekend when I made a weekend trip out of London to Bormio last weekend. One of Anna's best childhood friends, Francesca (one of many of her friends named Francesca), got married last Saturday in Bormio, and I was (luckily) invited.

After a long day of travel (tube-tube-train-plane-bus-train-train-bus), we finally arrived in Bormio late Friday night to a delicious sandwich and a glass of Mazer and a grappa. Despite traveling all day, we managed to have a nice time and see a few things along the way: we had a delicious panini and a caffe correcto in Bergamo, and had a stroll on the shore of Lake Como during a train switch in the evening.

Anna in Lecco

The next day we were up early and dressed for the wedding, which began at 10 o'clock. Or so we thought - Anna had read the invitation wrong; we were an hour early. No problem, the weather was beautiful, we had a drink from the piazza fountain, and went and had an espresso in a nearby cafe. Some wedding guests rolled in not too long after us and began the celebration early, toasting with prosecco and chatting excitedly.

Bormio

Damn fresh water.

We went back to the church just before eleven and took our places in the back, standing room only. The service lasted just over an hour, and although my feet began to fall asleep, I have to admit that even thought I didn't understand anything of the Mass, it was quite beautiful.
Afterwards, the bride and groom got showered with rice as they exited the church under arches of antique skis (the groom, Pietro, is a ski instructor).

After the wedding, the wedding procession made its way along the meandering road up to Santa Catarina, a few miles away. There, we all took a ski lift up the mountain to a ski lodge, where the reception was going to be held. At the top of the mountain 3000 meters up, the view were breathtaking - literally. I had never been that high before and found it a little bit difficult to breathe at first, and found myself quite tipsy after a glass of champagne, but I got used to it soon enough.

Cute Alpine abode.

Mountaintop reception lodge

Reminiscent of Caspar David Friedrich...?

After savory appetizers and champagne, we all sat down to dinner. I can't really tell you how delicious it was since I'm not good at describing flavors, but I'll tell you what was on the menu. We started with a chestnut pasta with a porcini mushroom sauce, followed by apple sherbert, then a medallion of the best beef I've ever eaten with grilled vegetables, followed by a cheese plate and topped off with a delicious ice cream and fruit dessert. Of course, all of this was washed down with glass after glass of delicious local wine. It was a long dinner, however, as the guests (particularly the men, who were properly tanked by this point having been drinking since before the wedding) began singing songs and toasting to the newlyweds, their family, friends, and....well, everyone within eyesight. They danced on the chairs, made the waitresses drink, and hoisted the mother of the bride to glass after glass of wine. And this was all hours before everyone started dancing on the dance floor. Really, I've never seen anyone party so hard or have such a good time at a wedding before. An Italian wedding makes a Turkish wedding look like a game of foursquare between retards. It was awesome.

My name, in Italian

Anna & Francesca

Sometime before the main course

Another toast to the bride's mother

Yummy dessert

We didn't leave until 11 pm, in the pouring rain, because they hadn't started the lift back up again, and even then, we only left because we had to get up really early the next day to get back to Milan for our flight. Of course, the next day when we got to Tirano, we discovered the regional rail network was on strike, and we had to hire a van to take us to Milan. The upside of this, however, was that we had some extra time to see some of Milan, so we went to the Duomo and the main high street where everyone goes to buy their Gucci and Armani and whatnot. The Duomo was beautiful, but I have to say Milan was very ugly with a lot of dodgy-looking people, and I don't recommend a visit of more than a day, should you have to go.

Duomo

I'm sorry I only got to get a little more than a day in Italy. When can we go back, amore?

New York - The Awesome State

I think for the last few weeks of the summer I had just been passing the time, waiting. I had filled my time with various odd jobs and halfhearted attempts at preparing for my master’s course, but really I was bored and anxious. Until a couple weeks ago, the summer hadn’t been boring, just uneventful – exactly what I had wanted, but now it was time for a change.

So when Anna came – delayed by the hurricane – that change finally arrived: it was what I had been looking forward to all summer, and meant that my final days were upon me – final days in the States, that is. But first my objective was to show her a good time, and enjoy it together, before heading off to London.

I had to make a plan. I love being a tour guide. I’m not a good one, but I like it. Now for someone coming to the States for the first time - and to New York, nonetheless - there is much to be seen and done, too much for 10 days, but I pieced together a decent plan and grumpily waited for Irene to pass.

It wasn’t until late at night that her flight came in to Newark and we were happily reunited. Ciao, amore!

The next morning, we had coffee and bagels on the dock. I think Anna was a bit startled by the view of the river from the bedroom, and the dock and the boats passing by; having coffee and bagels on the dock that first morning, she said, “This is paradise! I never want to leave!”Later on, JR agreed to take us to the beach on his boat. Previously I had told him that Anna wanted to cook for us, so I think that the anticipation of this made him eager to take us over. The weather was perfect, as was the ocean, and Anna seemed thrilled by the beauty of the beach, and the bouncy adrenalin rush of the ride in J’s boat.

The following day we threw a few Coronas in the cooler and went down to Sunken Forest on the boat. The name is a bit of a misnomer, a friendly ranger explained to us; most likely when Europeans came upon the beach and passed over the high dune to discover a low forest beyond it, it appeared to be “sunken”, hence the name. We had a nice walk along the wooded walk through the forest and then spent some time on the beach. The water again was gorgeous, and we enjoyed a delicious sandwich for lunch.

It's a robin, guys.

Since I hadn’t seen too much of my sister or father this summer, we all agreed to go up to Ithaca to visit Margaret. It was nice to see the new place she lives in, and to see Ithaca in the summer time. It was so green, idyllic, and peaceful that Anna said she wanted to move there.

Upon our arrival, Margaret took us to a hidden park around the corner for a barefoot hike. A barefoot hike! I was in raptures because if I can be barefoot, I’m there. We walked along the cool grass trail through the pastoral ochre meadows to a trail that lead into the forest and down to a large pool where two streams met. The cool water and shade felt good, and it felt almost like stepping back into a primeval forest. On our way back to the car, we encountered a large, natural beehive which Dad was tempted to molest. Lucky for us, he just wanted a photo op.

Much to her horror, Anna discovered a corpse on the trail.

Love the sinister look.

Now this particular weekend was a beery weekend, as the fifth annual Ithaca Beer Fest was being held, and Margaret had gotten us VIP tickets to the festival because she works for the Ithaca Beer Company. Saturday we were up early and set out on a hike to Tunghannock Falls. It was beautiful, but I thought it was more beautiful when I visited it in December and it was covered in ice. After that, we went to the brewery to taste all the beers they produce, and Margaret gave us a tour of the brewery, beer in hand, of course.

We then set out for the beer festival. Now I’m a beer nut, but with over 50 beers to sample, it was even a bit too much for me. Ironically, Margaret, who never used to like beer, has become even more of a beer nerd than me. Even more surprisingly, Dad has begun to share this enthusiasm for craft beer; he and Margaret hit the tents hard as soon as we got there, although throughout the duration of the festival they didn’t get too drunk. Myself, well, normally I would have gotten properly tanked, but I didn’t want to do that this time, so I volunteered myself to be the DD at the end of the festival so I would pace myself and drink lots of water. I did drink a lot but surprisingly, I didn’t get drunk, which proves that you don’t need alcohol to have a good time (but it sure as hell helps!!).

Down for the count after the fest

We returned to the Island on Sunday in overcast weather. On Monday, despite incoming rain, I took Anna to the lighthouse because she had wanted to go there. The weather held, and although it was windy, there was a decent view, and we enjoyed it. It later became overcast, and we made it home in time to start making gnocchi, which had the family gastronomically intoxicated at dinner. Grazie, amore.

We made it out to the city on Wednesday, finally. I know Anna had been dying to go there since she came, if not most of her life, and we had gone past the city a few times already, much to her chagrin, I imagine. We stayed in Prospect Heights with her ex-cum-best friend Luca and his boyfriend, Paolo. They were very kind, and they had us over a barrel one night over a Tibetan dinner arguing about “levels of hotness” (I have to say Luca made a good point). Hilarious.

Anyway, I tried to show Anna the city as best as I could. We did some touristy things, and non-touristy things. Pictures are better than words (sometimes) so I’ve included a few here to illustrate our city-escape.

Every state is the US has a nickname - New Jersey is "the Garden State", Pennsylvania is "the Keystone State", Florida is "the Sunshine State" and so on. I had such a great time with Anna here and, going around New York, I realized what a vibrant, diverse, and fantastic state it is: big city, empty beaches, idyllic mountains, wide rivers and lakes, and vast forests with abundant wildlife. And now I can see what New York's nickname is: truly, it is "The Awesome State".