Ciao Italia! (Italy)

My next stop was Italy.  I had two weeks left where Jared was still in French Polynesia, and I decided to do a homestay in Italy to learn some Italian and Italian cooking!!  Traveling through Italy would have been fantastic, but expensive, so I decided to find a family to host me.  After a lot of searching, I found a small family in a teenie town called Monte San Vito; the closest large “city” was Ancona.  Most people have asked me how I settled on the family and town, as it is really in the middle of nothing, with no major cities very accessible; the answer is easy friends: it was cheap.  Once I decided on the family and location, I focused the priorities of this part of traveling, less on tourism and more on learning.  I wanted to live with a family rather than in a hostel because I figured it would give me the best opportunity to learn the language and maybe get a few cooking lessons. 
Traveling to Italy got off to a pretty crappy start with the delays in Paris, but once I got on the plane, things went pretty smoothly.  I arrived into the Rome airport at about 11pm, and nestled up in a corner to spend the night.  I didn’t want to figure my way around Rome at midnight with my huge bag and limited mobility; the safest choice was actually to just sleep in the airport. 
The next morning, I woke up early and got on the cheap bus into the city.  I picked a hostel for that night really close to Roma Termini to make the whole journey from the airport and later to Ancona a bit more simple.  The hostel was easy to find after a short walk, but the hostel itself was pretty crappy and shaddy.  There was a ton of random people coming in and out, which always sort of raises a red flag for me.  Anyway, I was pretty tired from a restless night at the airport, so I just decided to take the day slowly, grab a coffee, study some Italian, and use the good internet at the hostel to chat with my family, whom I had not Skyped with in months!  That night I ended up going to bed really late after having bank account issues and trying to internationally Skype my bank, ug, followed by one of the most awkward showers, in what felt like a coffin, before getting into bed.

The next morning, early, I set out to the train station to catch my train to Ancona.  It was a short trip across from the west coast to the east coast of Italy.  The matriarch of the family with whom I was staying, Francesca, picked me up at the station right on time.  Right off the bat, she was incredibly friendly and welcoming.  She spoke English very well, which helped a lot.  We were both a bit nervous; I was only the second person to stay with her.  She had been a member of the website I used to find a homestay family for two years, and the only other person to stay with her was a 17 year old guy from New York about a month before me.  She was around 7 month pregnant, so I would be her last visitor.  She drove me from the station to her home in the country.  She lived with her husband, Danielle, and seven year old son, Davide.  All of them were very welcoming.  Danielle was a bus driver in the area and a great cook; he didn’t speak as much English as Francesca, but did speak more English than I spoke Italian.  It was good to spend time alone with him, because I was really forced to learn new Italian words to communicate; Google Translate was a God sent for that.  Though after a while, he seemed to be more interested in using me to learn English than help me learn Italian, but it was still helpful.  Davide never really warmed up to me too much, but I could tell her starting taking a liking to me when he would ask me to help complete building his train tracks with him; he was a sweet little boy.

Most of my time in Italy was dedicated to menial things.  I ran often, which allowed me to get a good look at the neighboring towns.  The area where I was actually staying was completely surrounded my farm country, so there was absolutely nothing within a 30 minute walk of the house, so unless I wanted to pay for the buses everywhere, running to get to know the town was my best option.

One day I took the train inland to Genga to see the Grotte di Frasassi, which were limestone caves, much like the ones we saw in New Zealand, which was neat.  Natural wonders are always interesting to see.  The family introduced me to something called BlaBlaCar, which was a website to organize getting a lift from a person with a car driving from one location to another.  One day, I used it to get from Ancona to a town called Macerata a bit south of us.  The whole trip cost me $7 (euro), which was a lot less than the train.  It was a great idea as it’s cheap and allows you to meet new people, and especially for me in that situation, learn a bit of Italian.  My ride, named Andrea, picked me up in the morning and we drove to Macerata for the day. I arrived early and walked the town, including the old city inside of the Roman established city limits, which was kind of neat.  I went to the Sferisterio, which was the Roman amphitheater, and a few museums, lots of churches and town squares.  However, I think I got there around 11:30am and we left at 6:30pm, which was wayyyyy too much time to visit such a small town.   The last two hours I spent at a café sipping coffee and reading my book, but it was still nice to get out of the house and see something different.  Another day I rode with Danielle on the bus he operated.  He drove me around his bus route and I hopped on and off at different town centers to walk around a bit.  I liked that some of the towns still have remnants of Roman architecture that have just been incorporated into the modern town layouts and edifices.  I visited two towns and the whole thing probably took about 3 hours, before I headed back to the house. 

Both Francesca and Danielle worked full time, so I was able to have a bit of quiet time, but Danielle’s shift schedule also allowed for time to cook together and learn Italian.  One night, they treated me to dinner at a great local restaurant for Danielle’s mother’s birthday.  There was a big groups of us, wine, great food, and a good atmosphere, until things got straight up Jerry Springer.  There were these goofy MC’s running around, I think because there was a huge group of people there for a birthday.  We called the MC over and when the MC asked how old the birthday girl was turning, Francesca's mother blurted out "82", at which time Danielle's mother SMACKED her in the face.  Wow, just wow.  Anyway, Danielle’s mother initially seemed cordial to me, but after hearing story and story of her over the next few days, she sort of sounded more like a nightmare, but Francesca has been able to take the high road with her mother-in-law.  I went out with the family twice more, once to a small town called Osimo and then to dinner at a pizza place and again another night to Danielle’s brother’s home for Sunday dinner.

The rest of the time, I spent relaxing, socializing with the family, and doing prep work for a particularly annoying future leg of our travel plans, Papua New Guinea, and other internet-requiring tasks that are especially difficult when on the road. 

Overall, my stay was really enjoyable.  The family was very welcoming and Francesca was such a wonderful breath of friendly fresh air.  I learned a few new recipes I’d like to try and I think my Italian improved quite a bit!