Tuesday, October 7, 2008

I went to Italy, and all I got was this stupid cold

That is not even remotely true. Well, except for the part where I went to Italy and I caught a cold. I spent the past extended weekend in Italy with my Uncle Mike, Aunt Sam, and cousins Noah and Abe. It was beautiful- beautiful weather, beautiful cities, and beautiful time had by all. For the crowd not in the know- the fam' lives in Vicenza, Italy, a city very close to Venice and with charms all its own. In one amazing weekend, I was able to see Venice, Vicenza and my family. On Saturday we went into Venice and had fun getting lost. Well- Mike, Sam, and I had fun getting lost- the boys not so much. We wandered the old and windy Venetian streets- basking in the sun and the 70's.



Oh my, so warm after so much cold! We walked in the old Jewish Ghetto and I had some fun reading the local Chabad chapter's banner in Yiddish. It being Saturday, however, I didn't find anyone to practice my Yiddish with. It would have been interesting speaking Yiddish with them, I wonder what they would have thought?

On Sunday I was able to go to Noah's school- Catholic- for a special mass to welcome the first grade class. It wasn't quite- I learned that Italians don't do quiet. Germans do. The Italians I met were amazingly warm and all wanted to cook for me- very nice and cute. I guess I'll just have to go back, oh wait, I am going back, at Christmas.


I did, however, get a cold. I am lying in bed and trusting whatever German medications the pharmacist recommended (even for over-the-counter medication you have to talk to a pharmacist here), but she gave me tea because I was so pitiful looking.


And a note to the wise- Germans don't have smoke detectors in their houses, I guess personal safety just hasn't caught on that much here. But smoke detectors do have their uses- like when you are sick and disoriented and accidentally turn on a stove burner that has an empty pot on top of it, and then an hour and a half later you go into the hall and smell smoke. Hey, nice knowing you plastic handle on the lid! Yeah, smoke detectors are handy.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hello! I am currently writing a screenwriting treatment for class and the story is set in the Venetian Ghetto. As I was trying to find the name of the one of the bridges, I stumbled across your rather wonderfully sarcastic blog. I would love to know though, do you know the name of the bridge in your first photo of this blog post? Sorry to hear about your cold on a trip to Italy! Ah, the irony.

-Willow