Ferdaminni from Italy
I've been back in Norway for a couple of days now, and thought it would be fun to write a few (or many) words about the fabulous bella trip to Italy. 'twas the journey of my life indeed. Spelling mistakes and strange Norwegian-esque sentences will appear, you'll just have to live with it.
As a punishment for my godless life, I got the flu just two days before I was going to leave – it looked very dark for a moment, as this flu involved a great deal of fever, vomiting, and a bit of unconsciousness on top of that, just to make it really interesting. I did, however, manage to get my butt on the train to Sandefjord (where the ryanair planes go from). On the train we (that's me and guitarist Anders and bassplayer Lars, or Lorenzo as he was later called) ended up with the worlds worst person in front of us. He looked a little bit like a fake-o operasinger or a very dubious priest. Anders said he also smelled bad, but I didn't notice that because my nose wasn't working properly. This guy both snored very loud, and talked in his sleep…where do these guys come from? Apart from not smelling this man, a good thing about the flu was that I didn't have enough energy to worry a lot about the flight – I am really dead scared about flying, but this time I didn't really care.
We landed in Bergamo, where Alessandro picked us up. I think he must be the greatest and kindest person in the world. And I'm not exaggerating.
We then went to Brescia, and Fabio's house. It was a really beautiful house, and we ate pasta there which was good, but I ate so slowly it was embarrassing… There seems to be a lot of rules about when one eats and drinks different stuff in Italy. It's quite cool actually, a bit different from us nouveau riche barbarians.
We slept a bit, and then Anders and Lorenzo did the soundchecking, while I slept a bit more. The gig was ok I guess. Quite good if one takes in mind the state I was in. We even sold quite a few cd's. This was the first time I saw my cd. It's really beautiful, with a very nice cover drawn by Frida from Rough Bunnies. She's really good at making nice cover art! The cd is called 'Sometimes I wonder if you have a heart' by the way. A quite suitable title I think.
The next day, Thursday the 15, I woke up to fantastic weather. It was a bit like early summertime in Norway. We were going to Cesena, and made some stops along the way, because it's quite a long journey. First stop was in Mantova, this was cool for me, as this is where Romeo is banished in Romeo and Juliet. This was where we ate our first Italian prosciutto, very nice indeed. There was also a lot of nice dogs running around in a park, among them several dachshunds. Later on we stopped in Bologna, where we visited the first beautiful church on the trip. I got tears in my eyes. We also got a cappuccino, even if it was after lunch, because it was a cold day (the rules again, very cool!).
The gig that night was at a place called Lego. Smashing place! Very stylish, and one of my two favourite places we played. It was very small, but I think that was just an advantage, as the place looked really crowded for the concert. This night was great fun for me, as people wanted more songs when the show was finished, and they wanted me to sign the cd's and take pictures and stuff. I felt a bit like a star, and it was fantastic!
The next day we walked around in Cesena. Beautiful city! And nice weather also. Anders, Lorenzo and Ale went to see a castle or something of that sort, but that was on top of a hill, and my lungs just said "no"…haha, it made me feel really old. I called my mum instead.
Later that day (the 16.) we drove to Vicenza. By this time I had gotten more used to the roads in Italy, which I found very scary the first day. But really there is probably much safer than the Norwegian roads, as there is almost always something separating the cars going different ways - so one avoids the front-crashes that we get a lot in Norway. We also saw a lot of road kill – or road pizza as the more cartoon-esque term is. This day I was really tired as I couldn't sleep the night before. Probably due to too much coffee and excitement…The Italians know their coffee. I think I would have liked my job in the coffee bar here better if more people ordered just espresso…the coffees with milk is boring to make and takes too long time…
The gig was…uhm…well, the place was a bit too big I guess, and the people there was busy with a big demonstration that was going to take place the next day. For this reason we also had to leave quite early the next morning, because they were going to close all the roads. I slept like a rock that night, while the others were drinking whiskey and talking. I felt a bit like a kid not invited to the party, but I needed to sleep (yes, I am dead boring).
Saturday the 17. of February we drove to Firenze. My heart was leaping from joy, because I've wanted to go to Firenze and see the Botticelli painting The Birth of Venus since I was 15. Firenze was as great as I thought, and a bit more. First we saw a bridge with a lot of shops that sold only gold – it looked strange, but nice. There was also a dachshund on the bridge, yup. We were hungry and I ended up eating something which was a cow's stomach. Very weird, but it didn't taste bad at all. Anyway, this means all you guys saying I'm not adventurous in food can just shut up, hehe. I also ate some great ice cream. There were some nice horses in Firenze, very nice to look at, but I'm a bit afraid of horses so I didn't get to close. Anders said hello to one of the horses. We then bought tickets for the Uffizi – I was dancing on the inside. We had some spare time, so we went to see the church, or cathedral is perhaps a better word. Man, that was huge! So beautiful, and it looked a little like it was made of candy (only makes it better!). I'm a big fan of visiting churches when I'm travelling.
Then it was due for the Uffizi… One of the biggest experiences of my life, clearly. The painting was a little bigger than I expected, and even more beautiful than I could imagine. Especially the hair of Venus was beautiful, and much more gold in colour than my poster back home. I think I was struck a bit by the Stendhal syndrome.
The rest of the Uffizi was too big, and we all got a bit tired. I would like to come back and take some more time in that great place. What a day!
After this we drove to Circolo arci Ponterotto, which was the place where the gig was. Great place. They had a ping pong table, but I didn't play as I'm such a bad loser, and I don't really find the game that funny either. But, they also had an arcade game there – Puzzle Bobble! Yeah, I was in heaven, as I love the old bubble bobble games, and this was great too! I played until my head started to hurt a bit.
The concert was fun! Very little but very nice crowd, and there was balloons. People bought a lot of cd's.
Last day: Sunday the 18. We didn't have to get up early, so we didn't. And then we drove to Ferrara. Also a very beautiful city. We went around a bit, drank some coffee, and bought some things. This city also had a nice church. And a castle. The place we were going to play was called Zuni, and was a bit like Lego, only bigger, very hip places and nice! We all fell in love with the girl working in the bar.
The gig this night was nothing short of great. I had so much fun. Lots of people, a great audience. Some even knew the words for the songs. Fantastic!
After the gig we ate, I was so hungry! And then in the end we had to leave. We drove all night to the airport. I didn't want to sleep, because if one sleeps the time goes faster, and I wanted to stay for as long as possible.
Saying goodbye to Ale was horrible. I didn't want to leave him, 'cause he's such a great guy, and he took so good care of us. I was very very very sad. I hope I can come back to Italy real soon. Lorenzo played sad songs for me on the mp3 player on the train back home. *snufs*