Iniziamo ultimi giorni

Every day in Venezia has been more beautiful than the last. Really, I could not have discovered a more gorgeous city for my last month in Italia. Taking the vaporetti to the little islands that surround Venezia proper is my new favorite pastime, and each is a strange world of its own. My favorite island might have been Sant Erasmo, with its strange abbreviated island farms and its lovely little beach and park and ONE lone little bar on the shore. Of course, I've also gone to the Lido a few times, to set my feet in the Adriatic Sea. Burano with all of the colorful buildings is also serene, especially if you're willing to slip away from the main drag and follow the docks around the island. I sat in quiet park on Burano and watched the sparkling water of the lagoon for hours one day, and made some of my best creative writing in a while.

Tomorrow, our history teacher (who is a REAL Venetian, but more specifically a Muranese, but still VENETIAN, goshdarnit, but also a Muranese! Get it right) is taking us to Murano to see a fornace or glass-working studio that members of her family own. She is from one of the old glass-making families of Murano, who have read their family name in an ancient golden book of glassworkers from the 16th century (imagine being able to trace your family that far!). Her perspective on Venice has been fascinating to observe, but a little sad as well. She was talking to us about the long, slow decline of the once-great Venetian empire when she said, "Siamo destinati a morire" - we are destined to die (referring to Venice).

I saw the beginnings of the Italian Alps last week in Trento and Bolzano/Bozen and Oberbozen. It was really fascinating - the tirolean culture is totally Austro-German, but was influenced by Italian culture after it was annexed by Italy. Now everything in the area is translated in both German and Italian. My father is of Italian descent and my mother is of German, so I felt like the city sort of represented me! It was a mix of the best of both cultures, from food to friendliness to festivals (it was the festival of flowers when we went). Viewing the Alps (called Dolomites in this particular part) was the most calming, serene, silent experience of my time in Italy so far. Peace just seemed to lay across the valley that we rode across in the cable car, and when we reached the top of the hill at Oberbozen we couldn't make a sound to disturb the calm of those mountains. The next time I come to Europe, I want to go to the Alps again to experience that calm. I think I'd like to live by mountains very much.

Finally, last weekend, I spent some of my final days in Italia going to the place where my great-grandfather took off from for America some 100 years ago - Palermo, Sicilia. Today, there are 5 million people living in Sicilia - and 18 million Sicilian-Americans. Many, many Sicilians immigrated to America due to mafia violence in the 20th century. Now, Palermo is far safer, and it's finally starting to open its doors to a small bit of tourism. The island was absolutely mind-bogglingly beautiful to me. I couldn't even process it. Mountains embraced the shoreline and the sun was so close and warm and comfortable there, I could have basked in it all day and done nothing else. My roommate Jill (who is also part-Siciliana) and I stayed in a B&B run by a friendly Siciliano named Claudio, who taught us quite a bit about Sicilian history but even more about the warm hospitality of the Siciliani. He made us breakfast each morning - homemade bread and croissants and fresh fruit and olive oil and cheese and tomatoes. We walked all over the old city, seeing everything Claudio told us was important, and in the evening we danced in the big outdoor market like all the young Palermiani do. Seriously, the whole piazza became one huge party, with good music and great food and more fun than you could imagine. I felt so embraced by the whole experience, and it was the perfect way to begin to wrap up my time here - by going back to the very start, to the very port that my great-grandfather left from decades ago. Somehow, it just felt like the perfect culmination to all I've learned and seen.