Tom Cruise is My Brother
MONDAY, February 27, 1995.
Hello from Parma, home of (surprise!) Parmesan cheese, a hefty
wedge of which is now in my stomach. Because of "the great
Roman job fiasco of '95," I never got a chance to fill you
in on the final week in Siena.
In some ways, it's hard to believe that my 7 weeks in Siena are
over already, but in other ways, it seems like I was there forever.
Siena is a small city, and there's no forgetting it. It was basically
impossible to go out and not see lots of familiar faces - which
is nice I suppose, but only for a while. This New Yorker-at-heart
likes his anonymity. The shortage of things to do (I could only
allow myself to eat so much panforte and drink so much cappuccino
- especially on top of the dinners that Signora Provvedi fed me)
and the limited number of faces around town led to a sense of
monotony - I think this is the feared feeling which prevented
me from applying to small colleges. Plus, school was really getting
dull.
Friday night was my "last" night in Siena (given that
most of my stuff is still there, I'll be going back) and even
though I knew I had to get up at 5:30am to catch the train to
Venice, I went out with my friends for a last hurrah. Friday nights
at the "Red Baron" include live entertainment ranging
from the pretty good (the band that did great U2 covers) to the
pretty bad (the band this Friday was totally cheesy, way too much
drum machine, way too little talent). And so Michele, Lonni, Malina,
Natalie, Stefano, Marianne, Malina's boyfriend (visiting from
Germany), a friend of Marianne's visiting from Switzerland, and
I sat around, made fun of the band, sang along anyway, and drank
wine for the last time together. The atmosphere was cheerful and
we were all happy to have had the time we shared together. The
good-byes included several variations on hugs and kisses - customs
vary from country to country.
A definite moment for the highlight film was Michele climbing
up and kneeling in the middle of the table to give me a kiss good-bye.
OK. Li-Whei pointed out that I talk about Michele quite a bit
- no, we're not dating. We're just good friends, although we have
fun flirting with each other - yes, there's plenty of flirting,
and it's fun, fun, fun. Also, for those who might care and don't
already know, Elizabeth and I have broken up for a variety of
good reasons that I'd rather not go into.
Anyway, by the time I got home and into bed it was 2:30am! Gulp!
So on 3 hours of sleep, I dragged my ass out of bed and made it
to the train station for my 6:30 train. I was supposed to travel
to Venice with Natalie but her uncle called and told her that
he was coming for a weekend visit with only one day's notice!
She'd already bought her train ticket and everything! Bummer for
her. Also a bummer for me because it meant I was going to have
to start my solo-travels one day earlier. Luckily, some of the
"American girls" from school (have I mentioned them?
about 10 American girls from various universities - mostly around
New England) had gone to Venice the day before, and we planned
to rendezvous at the post office at 3pm. At least I'd have some
company for part of the day.
A hotel room in or near the city was nearly impossible to find
because this past weekend was "Carnevale" in Venice.
Many cities around Italy have "Carnevale" at this time
of year. As far as I can tell, the carnival revolves around costumes
and confetti, live music, tasty treats and big crowds. I'm not
sure what the origin of the tradition is, but I suppose that without
Halloween, they need some excuse to get dressed up. Some of the
costumes are really beautiful and ornamental, although some kids
were dressed as super-heroes (Batman seems popular) and the like.
I hope my photos come out. I called every hotel listed in Let's
Go for Venice, Padova, and Treviso (2 nearby cities) and everything
was booked. I called the tourist office in Treviso many times
to get info on more and more hotels and finally found a room in
a hotel, that amazingly turned out to be really nice. Persistence
paid off! And I made all those phone calls in Italian!
On route from Siena, I had to stop in Florence, where I went for
a walk to visit the Duomo again before continuing on to Venice.
Because of Carnevale, Venice was flooded with people, although
luckily the floods were limited to people - there was no high
water. Given the mad-house conditions and the cold cloudy weather,
I was glad to stay for only one day - although it couldn't have
been more different than Warsaw (the last place I definitely wanted
to leave after a day). People everywhere. Festive. Colorful. Music
in the streets. I think that someone who has spent their entire
life in Warsaw would have had a coronary and died instantaneously
from the shock.
After arriving in Venice, I checked my pack at the train station
and headed out. Standing just outside the train station, I was
surrounded by Americans - one of them shouting, "It's just
like Disneyland!" There's some truth to that statement, although
Disneyland is cleaner, has better crowd control, and lacks the
depth of character. It was really cool to see the Venetian gondolas
that I've seen so many times in pictures or movies but never in
real life. They are a beautiful shape and the men who guide them
with one long oar do so very gracefully. Due to the crowds and
the expense, I didn't ride in one, but I did ride on a water "bus"
- the number 82 from the station to the Rialto (one of the few
bridges over the Grand Canal, quite a sight). When I thought I'd
boarded the bus, it turned out I'd only boarded a floating waiting
area! Boy, did I feel dumb.
The "American girls" showed up on time in front of
the post office. Can we say "rendezvous," boy and girls?
I was impressed given the crowds and my reading of their personalities.
So I spent the afternoon and evening with Pam, Chevon, Britton
& Lisa - and later on, Susan and Crista. Great for me to finally
get the chance to hang out with some "normal" American
college women - something I didn't experience at MIT (Candy, Jeanine
- take this as a compliment).
Piazza San Marco was beautiful and literally packed with people
- many wearing incredible costumes. I saw live and in person the
cover of Let's Go Italy - although Chevon noticed that while on
the cover of Let's Go, only one of the columns has a sculpture
on top, when in reality, both do. I wonder where the lion on the
other column went when the cover photo was taken? Perhaps, he
went on vacation to the New York Public Library to visit his pals?
Lisa had the spotlight at dinner (quite a tasty meal at a seafoodppasta
restaurant, although a bit pricey) dancing with the restaurant
owner to the live accordion music (fun music - but I'll always
be thinking of that incredible guy in Munich when I hear accordion.)
Even if you've think you've seen it all, the Basilica of San Marco
is yet another of Europe's unbelievable churches - the mosaic
and gold work is truly incredible and actually (believe it or
not) earned an audible "wow" from me.
Apparently, Venice sports Europe's oldest Jewish quarter (I find
this a surprising location for such a thing). Further, bagels
are available in parts of town. This is the first time I found
bagels in Italy. The mere mention of a bagel in Siena brought
confused and empty stares. Unfortunately, I did not have time
to sample one, so I cannot provide a review.
After dinner, we walked together through the festive streets (and
over a few bridges, of course) back to the train station. I took
the 10:28pm train out of Venice to Treviso to find my hotel. I
was lucky to be able to buy my train ticket - the station was
packed with people - but all the ticket windows were closed (can
we say Italy?- uh, gee, do you think they could consider having
special hours during Carnevale?) There was one semi-functioning
automated ticket machine - but the bill-taker was broken, much
to the dismay of the many drunken people on line ahead of me.
Luckily, I had enough change. I arrived in Treviso at about 11:15
and then had to wait 30 minutes in the cold for a taxi. By the
time my head hit the pillow at 12:30, I was completely exhausted
- remember, before all this, I'd gotten up at 5:30am on 3 hours
of sleep! What a day!
It was certainly exciting to see Venice and at least some of its
treasures, but the weather was cold, damp, and cloudy, and the
streets were way too crowded. I think the city merits a return
visit later in the Spring when it might be warmer, sunnier, and
less mobbed.
Not too surprisingly I slept right through my alarm in the
morning, although luckily I woke up before check-out time. I took
the bus back to the train station and bought a ticket to Bologna.
After some confusion and an unwanted extra stop in Vicenza (look
a lot like Venezia - Italian for Venice - to you? me too), I arrived
in Bologna. I walked up and down the via Independenza (quite a
hip arcaded shopping street) looking for my hotel, where I finally
found a dirty, smelly room waiting for me. I decided to try my
luck and look elsewhere. At about 4pm, I found a beautifully clean
and non-smelly room at another hotel and decided to lay down for
a minute. I woke up this morning at 7am! After the long day in
Venice, and lugging my pack through the streets of Bologna and
up 5 flights of stairs, apparently, I'd had it.
I hit the streets of Bologna just before 8AM loaded down with
my pack (which isn't the lightest thing in the world). I walked
around the city, through the University campus (the oldest in
Europe) and sat in the Piazza Maggiore (the heart of the city)
in front of the Duomo. The Duomo (surprise!) is quite impressive
on the inside - although I actually found the facade a bit ugly.
Apparently, the cocky Bolognese wanted to build a Duomo bigger
than St. Peter's in Rome but had their effort sabotaged by the
church. I saw a leaning tower whose top had already broken off
- I guess Pisa is not the only city with a leaning tower! Apparently,
the Italians had some trouble with foundations.
Bologna is filled with movie theaters (at least 10 current American
films were playing), Burghy franchises, and a McDonald's thrown
in for good measure. However, when lunch time rolled around (after
a long 4.5 hours lugging my pack around town), I had trouble finding
a restaurant. I never thought this would be a problem in Italy.
I must've have either been temporarily blind or looking in completely
the wrong part of town. Anyway, I finally found a place near the
train station to enjoy some tagliatelli bolognese before hopping
the train to Parma.
Parma is not too exciting. You've tried the cheese, skip the city.
Wandering the streets during the evening passeggiata, I met a
couple of Mormon missionaries from Utah! Well, isn't that special.
While I was talking to them, a group of about 4 young teenage
Italian girls overheard us speaking English. When they heard I
lived in California (the "where are you from?" question
continues to be a hard one for me to answer), they of course wanted
to know if I was from Beverly Hills or if I knew Tom Cruise. Sure,
I know Tom Cruise, he's my brother... I should've asked them if
they knew the Pope.
Not much else to say about Parma. At dinner I had a plate of Tortellini
parmigiana (unfortunately, the restaurant I found didn't have
eggplant parmigiana - one of my favorites) - and drank some Lambrusco
- the local, red, sparking wine (or should I say local, sparkling,
red wine? oh, who gives a flying fuck anyway...)
TUESDAY, February 28, 1995.
Pisa is cool. The leaning tower is amazing - makes the leaning
tower I saw in Bologna look like a twig in the sand at the beach.
It's a beautiful tower and it really is leaning way the heck over
to one side. They seem to be doing everything they possibly can
to prevent its collapse. Wish them luck, they'll need it. The
area surrounding the tower is beautiful as well - the Duomo and
a bunch of other buildings including a neat little round one called
the Battistero stand in a field of amazingly well-kept, green-as-can-be
grass. Today was sunny and warm - not a cloud in the sky. I sat
in the sun for about an hour, leaning against the Duomo listening
to a guy play guitar. It was a moment worth living for.
It must be completely off-season because I didn't spot or hear
another American anywhere in town. I didn't know it, but today
was Pisa's Carnevale. Plenty of people to keep things festive
- but not the mad-house that Venice was. Really, it was perfect.
A ReggaeFFrenchMMediterranean band kept me dancing in the street
for about an hour. An Italian woman started smiling at me, so
I smiled back, and over the music we spoke a bit about where we
were from, what I was doing in Italy, and the tasty sweets in
Siena. She's from Livorno and was in town for the Carnevale. We
danced a bit, and I thought about asking her to coffee - but "her
man" showed up and they left. Oh, well. It was fun. And my
first "mingle" with an Italian woman.
Wanted to check my e-mail this evening because I was hoping for
news from Switzerland. However, this was no easy endeavor. I asked
downstairs at the hotel (no phones in the rooms) if I could plug
into their phone jack. Once they finally understood what I wanted
to do, they said no because they don't have a phone unit counter
and didn't believe me that the call would be charged to my AT&T Credit
Card. I suppose I don't blame them for fearing what they don't
understand, but it was frustrating none-the-less. They suggested
that I try the fancier hotel on the next block. So I went there
and after explaining everything again, (the basic Italian I know
doesn't include a good explanation for wanting to plug the modem
in my portable computer into your phone jack, but don't worry
it won't cost you anything) - they also refused. Anyway, I just
started wandering the streets looking for something... anything.
I saw a computer store with modems in the window and went in,
hoping they might be curious about my equipment and let me use
their phone jack. No. I'd pretty much given up when I walked by
a store called "Technocasa" (technology house). The
people in there were extremely amused by my Italian and by my
unusual request and let me use their phone jack! Cool. Unfortunately,
no news yet from Switzerland (although I should hear this week).
WEDNESDAY, March 1, 1995.
It's Wednesday, so it must be Lucca. I'm not sure why I'm
traveling around at such a whirlwind pace given all the time I
have on my hands. Moving around gets expensive, so probably I'll
pick a city and rent a room with a family again - perhaps for
2-4 weeks before moving on. But where? Perhaps Rome anyway. We'll
see.
Lucca is another beautiful little city in Tuscany about 30
minutes outside of Pisa. The city wall has a park on top with
playgrounds, picnic benches, grass, trees, and a little road circling
the city. I rented a neon-yellow colored bicycle and pedaled two
laps around the city (less than an hour), gazing at the mountains
in the distance (some of them snow-capped) and the various towers
and Duomos in the city.
I've started translating a children's book I bought - for ages
10 and up... well, it's hard! It gives me something to do, but
it's so slow going that I get frustrated and want to stop. It's
a vocabulary builder, though.
Enough for now.
Copyright 1997 by Bradley Edelman
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole
or in part in any form.
E-mail: Brad Edelman