CHAPTER II: ITALY

A Grand Canal Of A Gesture

I was eager to put the rocky start of France behind me and start fresh with a clean slate in Italy. I’ve always wanted to go to Italy. It’s been high on my bucket list since my early teens after learning so much about the country’s history and culture during high school.

It was the country I was most looking forward to visiting and because of that, I decided to spend a large chunk of my European holiday in Italy. Over a 3 week period, I planned to explore Italy from top to bottom, starting in Venice and venturing as far south as Catania, Sicily.

If my time in France was remembered as a snowball of stress, then Italy was the time of endless escapades of elation and exuberance.  I could not fault anything from my experience. Italy exceeded my wildest expectations and my good fortune immediately started in Venice.

When I arrived in Italy, I was still finding my feet with everything travel, especially anything related to navigation which constantly made me nervous and second-guess myself. Wanting to make sure I was heading the right way to the Grand Canals of Venice, I asked the stranger next to me on the bus for confirmation (thankfully I was). This was the only interaction I was expecting between us. However, a few minutes later, the stranger randomly handed me their phone and gestured to glance down at the screen. When I looked I was taken aback. 

The stranger had typed down a list of recommendations that covered things from the best route to take to suggesting quality eateries that weren’t tourist traps. Even though this may have been a tiny gesture on the stranger’s part, it meant the world to me, especially since I was still shellshocked from the interaction I had in Paris a few days prior.  The stranger’s generosity gave me hope that this was the beginning of my luck turning around and that what I had experienced in France was just an outlier.

Today I found out that a stranger’s kindness does still exist. A local woman not only helped me with directions to the Grand Canals but also wrote a ton of recommendations in their notes app for me including the details of “the best pizza place in town”. Even though this gesture probably meant next to nothing to her, it meant the world to me because I would be lying if I didn’t say I was still a bit rattled from Paris and wary of strangers’ intentions. But this interaction has given me hope for the future. I’m knocking on wood that everyone in Italy is as nice as Alexander the German exchange student.

~ Venice, Italy: Day 1

My First Friend

It’s no secret that a big reason why I didn’t have an enjoyable time in France was because I was all alone. My inability to befriend a single person during the first week of travelling came as a shock to me because making friends is something I don’t particularly struggle with back home (luckily). 

However, this concern only started to grow as I was closing in on 2 weeks of travel without a new friend. That’s until my final night in Florence when I met Claudia.

I’m still finding my feet when it comes to making friends as a solo traveller but today, I took a huge step by making my first “international friend”. Ironically, it’s a person from the country where I couldn’t make a friend to save my life: France. Their name is Claudia, and she is fantastic. I first saw her as she was checking into the hostel reception and later bumped into her in the kitchen. We made small talk and it was immediately clear that from our chit-chat, there was some (platonic) chemistry. We grabbed a quick bite before spending the evening wandering the streets of Florence and despite a clear language barrier between us, we were laughing the entire time. I couldn’t have asked for a better first friend.

~ Florence, Italy: Day 3

Although I had a great time hanging out with Claudia, unfortunately, this would be short-lived as we were both leaving the next day: I was heading down to Rome while she was heading west towards Cinque Terre. This was the first teaching of the toughest lesson about making friends while travelling: you have to say goodbye… and usually, it’s forever.

I felt sad saying goodbye to Claudia. She was the first person I got along with and spent any time with. Now I’m immediately back to being solo, unsure of when I’ll make my next friend. Although I’m a bit down about what feels like a premature separation, I’m glad we got the chance to meet and hang out.

~ Rome, Italy: Day 1

My Late Night Rome

If my European travels were full of peaks and valleys, then the first night in Rome may have been my Everest as what was planned to be a quiet night turned into one of my favourite memories ever. So much so, that I ended up getting a tattoo dedicated to it a few months later in Bali.

I arrived at my Rome hostel eager for a quiet night. I had a very late outing with Claudia the night before and had to back it up by taking a two-hour train from Florence to Rome. A night full of rest was something I needed and something I was looking forward to. However, the complete opposite happened, and I ended up staying out until about 5am. This is the story of My Late Night Rome.

I checked into my eight-bed dormitory and was greeted by one of my roommates: Rachel. She had checked in not long before me and we started making small talk. While we were chatting, another roommate joined the conversion, Scarlett, and quickly a bond was formed between all three of us. It was as if we were a triangle: each side connected with the other two and collectively we formed a formidable shape.

We tested our cohesion by grabbing dinner before heading to a nearby bar for some quiet drinks. After a pleasant few hours, it was getting close to midnight and we thought it was best to call it quits now before rekindling the next day. It was looking like our day had ended… until we encountered some lime e-scooters outside of our hostel.

I’ve only used an e-scooter on two occasions and both times were after midnight: the first time was when they initially arrived in Melbourne (my friends and I rode around the docklands area for two hours) and now Rome.

I believe it was Scarlett who suggested it would be “funny” to rent the e-scooters and ride to all the different tourist attractions. Before this joke of an idea could get dismissed, we were collectively listing the different pros of doing so: there would be no crowds, the monuments would be lit up, when in Rome etc. It took very little convincing for all of us to download the Lime app and pair our phones to our respective scooters.

The next few hours were dare I say a movie. With as much traffic present as a post-apocalyptic world, we could do as we pleased. It was as if we were the modern-day Roman rulers. We would ride in the middle of major roads to reach iconic landmarks where a private viewing awaited us

No words can describe how special this night was and I sometimes struggle to believe it was real. Only because there’s footage from the night I know it wasn’t a dream.

I think I just had the best night of my life. I met two solo travellers named Rachel and Scarlett who I instantly clicked with. On our walk home from dinner, we joked about renting e-scooters to see the typical tourist sites. Considering it was getting close to midnight and I was tired from a long travel day, I probably shouldn’t be out too late. Well, that didn’t go to plan as I’m writing now at about dawn having just returned from riding e-scooters the past few hours. I know it’s cliché but last night was a movie. I thought (and hoping) I would have some cool experiences with fellow solo travellers on this trip but tonight exceeded all my expectations. It was perfect.

~ Rome, Italy: Day 1

My Hindsight Reflection

My memories from Italy are still so vivid today. Although the first stint in Rome is my top highlight, there are countless fond memories I could recount (and perhaps I will as part of a spin-off) like singing along to the “Italian ABBA” (Ricchi e Poveri) in a car full of strangers or climbing two active volcanoes in the span of three days or staying out till the crack of dawn with my Russian roommate on my 24th birthday. I was very lucky to have an Italian trip of a lifetime that left me jumping for joy and excited to continue this momentum into my next travel chapter: Portugal. However not everything goes to plan.