Tuscan Ghosts and Strawberry Pasta

My sister left two whole weeks ago and I still haven't written a blog about the rest of her time here. Worst. Blogger. Ever.

As far as traveling goes, we didn't do much. We were planning on doing a lot of traveling but had some bad luck. First, Avery twisted her ankle playing soccer in the park. Her ankle actually looked more like a knee. A really gross and swollen knee. Since visiting any city in Italy requires a lot of walking, we just stayed in Bologna for the weekend which happened to be Easter Sunday.

Since all of my roommates were out of town for the holidays, Ave and I threw an Easter brunch at my house with several of my American friends and a few Italians. We had great food and great music - here's Avery and I rocked out to "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" Ohhhh yeah!


To further prove my point that Italians don't really understand "brunch", this was the conversation that I had with my Italian friend Benedetto the day before.

Bene: So, should I bring a first course or a second course?
Me: Anything you want, really. We already have banana pancakes and eggs.
Bene: What are pancakes?
Me: They're a traditional American breakfast food, kind of like crepes. We eat them with maple syrup so they're pretty sweet.
Bene: Well then why do you eat eggs with them? (The infamous "salad and sweet" problem.)
Me: Because that's what people eat for brunch! Pancakes and eggs!
Bene: Oh, that's a second course then? Should I bring a first course then? Some pasta? Baked pasta maybe?
Me: Sure, I mean I'm not sure how well that will go with the banana pancakes, but whatever you want!
Bene: Oh. I guess you're right. Well... what about broccoli, do you guys like broccoli?
Me: (trying not to laugh) Yeah, broccoli sounds great! Maybe we can make some broccoli pancakes!
Bene: Yeah, maybe!

Gotta love it. He showed up the next day with a baked broccoli pasta (best of both worlds, I guess) which was delicious until it got all mixed together with the strawberry pancake topping that we'd made...(Yes, those are banana slices with peanut butter on tooth picks. We're so clever...)


For the next few days, until Avery's foot felt better, we stayed in Bologna and relaxed at the park. We had a few beautiful sunny days, until the rain came back on the same day that Avery could walk again. Go figure.

Of course, we took advantage of the bad weather - how, you ask? Godfather marathon, baby! Three days. Three movies. Three incredible actors who were just meant to play mob bosses. Seriously - Marlon Brando, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro? It was almost too much badass to handle. They speak Italian (and, more specifically, Sicilian) which was cool since I can understand what they're saying now.

I may have mentioned before that we extended Ave's stay in Italy by 10 days so that she could come with my friends and I on a road trip through Switzerland. We were all really looking forward to it, until about 3 days before the trip when I came down with what appeared to be a flesh-eating stomach virus. I actually thought I had made a full recovery and even spent an afternoon at the beach with Avery - but then on the morning that we were supposed to leave, I woke up with flesh-eating stomach virus: the sequel. We were all really disappointed, especially me since it was technically my fault. I ended up being sick for a total of about a week. On day 5 a doctor came to check me out (house-calls still exist in Italy) and said that if it lasted more than 48 hours longer, I would have to go to the hospital - then, almost exactly 48 hours later, my symptoms disappeared. Turns out it was just your standard 7-day plague, no biggie.

Since we weren't able to go to Switzerland, we were able to go to a choir concert in a tiny village in Tuscany - directed by my roommate, Andrea! The concert was great and they even performed a piece that I sang in high school, Morten Lauriden's "O Magnum Mysterium."

After the concert we went to a party, hung out with Andrea and his friends, then headed back to Andrea's place for the night. Or at least, I thought we were headed back to Andrea's place for the night. Instead, we went to an abandoned Tuscan villa in the middle of the countryside! I should probably specify that by "abandoned" I mean that the owners got "too old" (Andrea's words, not mine) to live there and just left, leaving the house to a historical organization which has been maintaining the property ever since. Since Andrea's grandfather is a part of that organization, Andrea has been watching the house. Once again, I should probably specify that by "watching" I mean letting all of his friends and roommates sleep there! :)

It was really incredible. Andrea told me that the house was originally built in the 1500's, although it's undergone a lot of reconstruction since then. It was still completely furnished, with photos and paintings hung on the walls, books on the shelves, papers on the desk, even a grand piano. Everything was completely covered in dust, but I think that just added to the mystery of it. The house felt like something out of a ghost story - since everything was still there and so perfectly preserved, it still felt like a home... a very old, very lonely home. Even the beds were still made! I slept in my sleeping bag - I was afraid the ghosts might be angry with me if I slept in their sheets. In a place like that, there have to be ghosts, right?

The house was huge, with stone staircases and so many bedrooms that I actually lost count as I was exploring. At one point I opened a door expecting to find bedroom #12 or bathroom #5 or something, but was amazed to find myself in a tiny chapel complete with a bell-tower. I'm assuming a priest lived there or something - all Andrea told me was that the guy was somehow affiliated with the Vatican. It was beautiful, but also incredibly eerie. Like the rest of the house, the chapel was filled with dust and there was an a bible still lying on the podium.

We were only in the house for a few hours, since we got there so late at night and had to go back to Bologna in the morning, but hey, not many people can say that they spent the night in an abandoned (and most likely haunted) Tuscan villa!

On the train ride home, as we passed through dozens of teeny little Tuscan villages nestled away in the hills, I daydreamed about living in my own Tuscan villa someday. No ghosts, though. Sort of like "Under the Tuscan Sun" but not as mind-numbingly cheesy.

My sister and I had a great time during her last two weeks here even without doing a lot of traveling, and I was sad to see her go. I miss her attempts at speaking Italian with my roommates, and especially their attempts at speaking English with her. Hopefully we'll both have a chance to come back again and see the cities that we missed this time!