Straight No Chaser

So I realize that I must be the worst blogger in the face of the earth.  As the hassle and chaos of school starts to take over my schedule, blogging quickly took the backseat. School has been harder than I was expecting and on top of everything else I have had roommate issues that have reached some new levels of crazy. As far as traveling, I have been many places since the last time I wrote. I will try to break it down as short but descriptive as I can. As my girl would say I am giving it to you “straight no chaser”.

Btw, I am going to for now on start trying to give each city I go to one word that describes it. If you have read Eat Pray Love you will know what I am talking about. I feel that it is a good way for you to understand the attitude and atmosphere of the places I have been. Rome’s word is obviously SEX. Rome is just a sexy city. The buildings are sexy, the people’s attitudes are sexy, all the men think about it sex.

Padua, Verona, Venice

This was the first school lead trip I had taken. I went with my girl slash roommate Crystal (aka Barbie). We took a bus to our hotel which was in Padua, a small city that was just West of Venice and Verona. It was a cute town but not much to explore. When we got off the bus we were automatically rushed into a tour of the city. We got done and had a two hour break until dinner. Me and Barbie decided our time would best be spent shopping since there wasn’t much to do. This lead to the purchase of an AMAZING pair of boots that I fell in love with, great day. Later that night we had dinner at a local restaurant with a three course meal. The first course was pasta that had a light colored sauce with chicken and turkey in it. It was delicious. Next we had pork with cute buttered potatoes that are shaped like triangles. Tiramisu was of course for desert… and I of course didn’t eat it.

The next day we took a train to Venice. While I loved Venice, beautiful city, the weather was the worst you could ask for. Right off the bus we were put on a tour of the city. At first it didn’t seem that bad but the more time we spent outside the colder it seemed. Two hours later we still had another tour scheduled. By that my feet were so cold they had gone painfully numb, it seemed the only thing I could concentrate on was how cold I was. I found myself ducking into nearby shops just to warm up. It was a couple weeks until carnival (what we consider Mardi Gras in the states) and masks were everywhere. The masks for the majority of the stores were handmade in Venice and they were amazing. Lunch and free time lead to exploring which lead to getting lost. With only 20 minutes to make it back and a route that was supposedly 30 we put our power walking to the test. Barbie found that she had to run ahead to get a head start to keep up with me. We did make it on time and headed back to Padua. Venice’s word is Murky.

The following day we checked out of our hotel and took our bus to Verona, where Romeo and Juliet lived. We did tours that showed us where they were believed to have lived and outside Juliet’s house there was a statue of her, which it is believed that if you touch her breast you will have good luck with love. I didn’t touch her dirty boob, I don’t want her help.  I didn’t care too much for Verona. I have two theories for this: One, it was right before Valentine’s Day so everyone felt the need to decorate in red… good way to get my distaste and two, because the whole city was like a gooey post card. Just wasn’t a city for me. The word for Verona is Love. 

Barcelona

The next trip that we took was for Barcelona, Spain for my birthday. Me and my roommates left on Thursday night and got in close to 2am. Our hostel was outside of the center of the city but it was only 3 minutes from the Metro, so it made our commute very simple. On Friday we woke up early and went down to look around. Two of my roommates have an addiction to shopping so we spend the day in and out of the stores. That night after we ate dinner, we went back to drop off our bags and get ready. When we were going upstairs to change we hear American music being blasted, two boys were pre-gaming. One who lived there permanently worked for HP and was from Germany. The other was visiting him and was from Austria. We started conversation and they found out shortly that my birthday was Saturday. When the clock struck 12 we all cheered with a bottle of champagne that they opened for the occasion.  As a group we then decided that we would go to the disco (club) together.

The next day we got a later start than we wanted or expected to. Never the less we headed out to see some of the sites that Spain had to offer. We finished off the afternoon by going to a fancy dinner in honor of my birthday. We all ordered paella, a traditional Spanish dish with sea food and rice. We then followed dinner by buying some sangria, also something Spain is known for. The servers were adorable when they came over trying to sing happy birthday to me in English, they also brought me a crème Brule on the house. That night we headed out to the popular street that was suppose to contain all the clubs and bars. We found a couple places to entertain us with, one of which my two roommates met two French men who no joke, were in love with sex. They were funny to say the least.

I definitely would love to go back to Spain, the atmosphere was very different. It was a beach town and felt very relaxed but you could tell that the people still knew how to get down.   I feel that cities such as Madrid would also provide a different cultural feel that could be greatly appreciated. I loved how they performed in the streets and everyone seemed friendly. My roommate said Spain made her feel at home, it was definitely more Americanized than Rome is. Barcelona’s word is jocund.

Naples, Capri, Sorrento

We began this trip on a rough start. Running late when we arrived at the train station Termini we could not find our train listed anywhere. With 10 till departure we begin to ask some polizia, where they informed us that there are TWO train stations and we were not in the correct one. We spent about an hour traveling back and forth trying to find where and what we could do with our tickets. Finally we got on a 1037 train heading to Naples. Upon arriving we decided that we were starving and wanted to see out the Pizzeria de Michele which was the same one in Eat Pray Love in addition the one that Julia Roberts ate at for the movies. Her picture was in fact on the wall. We got there early enough to beat the crowds, and the workers were wonderful. After pizza we decided to get some gelato from the place that was also mentioned in the book. After completing that we decided to head to the porto to depart for Capri. Naples isn’t much to look at sadly; the mafia has designated it as the “trash” disposal city. The whole town is covered in trash and is covered in graffiti. Naples word is Trash.

We took a ferry to Capri, when we pulled up I was struck by the beauty. It is hard to explain what it is like to be there, but it was probably one of the prettiest places I have ever been. We took a bus to the top of the cliffs and headed on an adventure to find our hostel. The owner met us halfway down the road to show us exactly what house it was. The view of the hostel was amazing. You could see the whole city. That afternoon we went walking around in Anticapri. The island basically consists of two “villages”: Anticapri and Capri. After we saw what there was to see in Anticapri we stopped for dinner, where I tried Meloncello for the first time. Now Lemoncello is very common in Italy. It is a shot that is made from lemons sugar and vodka. It is usually very sour but delicious, most people sip on it. Meloncello was even better, the perfect combination of alcohol and sweet melon juice. This was a Capri made drink. The next day we first went to do the chair lift that took you to the highest point on the island. While it was cold outside, the beauty of the scenery made that irrelevant. After we made our way down to Capri where we stumbled upon a trail that takes you down to the rocky edge of the water. A 300 meter climb back up seemed like torture but it was worth it.  We left for Sorrento that afternoon. Capri’s word is bellissima.

Finally we spent the last night in Sorrento, an Amalfi coast city. While there wasn’t much to see touristic wise, it was a pretty city to spend time in. I don’t have many stories for Sorrento for we spent the majority of the time wandering around looking at shops and the sites such as the well in which was consider the most fertile place for ferns. The well was several meters below normal level and was covered in green. It was interesting to say the least. Sorrento’s word is Charming.

Siena

Siena is a small city in Tuscany. This was a day trip that we took through the school. We met in Piazza Trilussa at 6am. From there we took a bus and headed north. Upon arriving, we began our tour of the city. The guide was very interesting and easy to tune into. She explained that Siena was home of the oldest bank in the world. She proceeded to tell us that the entire city pretty much revolved around the bank. They have a saying “you either work at the bank, you use to work at the bank, or are waiting until you get to work at the bank”. This famous bank was located right next to this very strange building that had random heads… yeah there was no significance to the heads? Why would someone do that! It is just creepy if you ask me. We visited one of “the most beautiful churches” according to the guide. The inside was covered in black and white marble and the floor had designs and pictures embedded into the floor. In had a second portion to it that was supposed to be finished to make it in the shape of a cross from above. The buildings that were supposed to become the walls were not strong enough to withstand the weight of the roof so they left it undone. Finally we ended our tour at Piazza del Campo, their famous Piazza in the center of the city. It was not a normal piazza because it wasn’t in fact square. Instead it was shaped like a sea shell. The flat part of the “shell” was where the tower that held about 500 stairs to get you to the top to the highest point. I wouldn’t mind going back to Siena, it word is an Italian word of tranquillo.

Florence

Florence was another day trip to the Tuscany area. This was again a school lead trip that I signed up for. Cities such as Florence and Siena seem so small in comparison to Roma. We began our tour with a basilica that is famous for it contained several tombs. We then continued on to see the sites of the city including the piazza with all the statues of the Mythical gods and heroes. When we got our free time we decided to check out the open air markets that were selling genuine leather made locally. Upon looking at the different carts we ran into two different characters. One was selling purses right outside the restaurant we had lunch at. He started up conversation telling one of my friends he wanted to marry her and other shenanigans. Then he proceeds to ask me to take my glasses off so he could see my eyes (I had my aviators on). He then asked his friend “what do you think” as he stood next to me his friend is like “like your sister” haha he did not think this was an acceptable answer. “I am trying to get with her and you tell me she looks like my sister!” haha they were crazy. So then we start heading down the road a bit and we run into a stand selling wine and pasta. In this selection of items there was a label with “sexy pasta” on it and a bag full of…. Well you can see from the picture, only in Europe. Then the guy who was at the shop begins talking to us and again asks me if he can see my eyes. I ask him why and he says that “the eyes make the whole thing come together, that I could have Chinese eyes under there and it would change the appearance of me”. I took my glasses off and told me how beautiful my eyes are. Then as we were talking he shares that he is helping out a friend and that this booth wasn’t his. He owned a leather purse and jacket booth down the way. I laughed and said I think I know your friends. The greatest part was that he did in fact work with the original guy at that same booth. Great friends think a like I suppose! In addition I do want to mention that there is a bore that they say if you put a coin in his mouth and rub his nose you will have good luck and one day return to Florence. I am hoping that is true, good luck is always a good thing. Florence words are “sexy pasta”.

Bringing it back home

Ok I am wrapping it up I am back in Rome until next week when I begin my adventure for spring break. I am planning on going to Istanbul, Sofia, Budapest, Prague, and a day trip to Munich. I am super excited. I spend a lot of my free time wondering around Roma hoping to stumble upon something I haven’t seen before. I have also ventured off to the bar district call Testaccio along with some pub crawls at the local bars close to my residencies.  I am sure I have had funny stories in these encounters but none that come to mind. I guess that is what happens when you don’t write them down right away. Until next time… hopefully it won’t take me another two months….. Ciao bella! 

"You are very Handsome"

SCHOOL
In case you did not already know, I am studying abroad at John Cabot University which is located in Trastevere, a neighborhood that is west and right next to the Tiber river. The college has two campuses, Guarini and Tiber, in addition they also offer on site classes such as art history related classes as well as photography. I am taking four business classes and they are located in the Tiber campus which is located further away. My Italian class is located in the Guarini (pictured below) campus which is closer to my residencies (which are considered the "on campus" ones). They offer other housing "off campus" which are anywhere from 15 minutes to 30. If you go out of my apartments and take a left you can reach the Vatican approximately 20 minutes (walking) north of us. The Colossseo is located across the river and takes 20 minutes (by bus and metro). I am located near the oldest part of the city. For as I discussed in my previous blog the Isola Tiberina is where it all began.

I have three Italian professors, two of which teach my business classes one who obviously teaches my Italian. They are a little hard to understand at time but seem like they will be good teachers. I have really enjoyed my Italian class and I find that because I am submerged in the culture I want to find ways to use it. I find myself doing strange thinks like mixing the limited amount of Italian words with my English. Some one will ask me a question in English and I respond "Si". Just imagine four months from now after a whole semester of basic Italian I will be able to construct sentences and hopefully understand small conversations. When you are learning Italian my professor says you have to emphasize the vowels. It made me realize that you really can't hear that we have vowels in our English words. In addition I have one professor from London and another from America. I have heard that classes are suppose to be easy but while I can see that in some respects, I do feel they will be hard and require as much effort. I don't have more than 30 people in any of my classes and they are all discussion based. We have group projects and essays that we have to write and NO multiple guess in any of my classes. My teacher all have essay topic we will write about on the final examination.

SHOPPING
Now keep in mind that I am in a big city, and just as in New York, there isn't space to have a Walmart center or shopping mall in the center of the city. You also have to consider that Rome is centuries older than any city in New York. The ruins are so precious that they will always remain untouched. All the shops and even Pubs are small and I swear sometimes can't fit more than 30 people in there comfortably. I have been to two different grocery stores since I have been here. One of which is called Despar, it is a small store located across the river about 5 minutes away. Of course everything is in Italian but they have similar brands. I can't wait until I have to buy detergent because the softeners and detergents all look the same. It is always an adventure if you are going to buy something that you don't want. By the way Despar are like mini everything markets, they contain toilet paper, dog food, laundry soup, and food all in a building the size of about Red Raider Outfitters (the one on Broadway). If you aren't from Lubbock, trust me this is SMALL. So the second grocery store we went to was quite a big larger, kind of looked like the size of a gap. It was located in the basement under a Clothing store.

I have you know that I have never seen so much Wine and Cheese in one place in my whole life. It is IMPOSSIBLE to find cheap cheese here. they have cheese that is 20 Euros for a tiny block of cheese the size of my palm! (Mind you that 20 euros is about 26 USD) There is always always an entire isle dedicated to olive oil, balsamic vinaigrette, and olives... No joke that is all they have on an entire isle. Yes those can get pricey as well. Oh and nice job America at developing ceaser salads... yeah they don't have salad dressings or croutons here. They also charge like 3ish Euros for Iceberg lettuce (which is 4 plus USD and is only 1.50 in the US). When you buy fruit, you have to stick everything you get on a scale, push the number (which is located on the sign) in order for it to tell you the price you will pay at the register. You can imagine how annoyed the lady was with me when I had pineapple bananas, kiwi, and apples all without stickers (By the way I am so sad they don't have cantaloupe here). "Stupid Americanos".

Nutella is like the best thing since butter to them, it is in sizes as small as ketchup packets and as big as a Sam's Club size condiment. In addition I know everyone has heard about Gellato, well they take Gellato shops to a new level. I went to one store called Blue Ice and there were over 50 flavors, I swear! I have not made it to the "shopping street" yet which is located I believe by the Spanish Steps. That is definitely on my to do list though. Now I made my first home cooked meal the other day and I have to say it was delicious. I made chicken with sauce and Gouda cheese (yes just like in Shes the Man) and brussel sprouts. Now I had never had brussel sprouts before because my mother says they are normally bitter and no one likes them in my family. I will have you know they are not bitter here and they are quite delicious! Now you may wonder, how do they not gain weight with all these pastas and pizza and pastries. Their Italian is nothing like ours. They don't use a lot of sauce, some pizza doesn't even have sauce, others don't have cheese. The crust is thin and crispy. The portions are smaller and they don't fry hardly anything. Bread is not complimentary, you have to pay for it. That combined with all the walking you have to do to get to anywhere leaves some skinny Italians. I have you know America is a sad society when you look how fat we are. I have you know I have not seen one overweight Italian since I have been here.

"MY ITALIAN GETS BETTER WITH WINE"
Now I am done talking about all the technical stuff. We now will move on to boys, food, and wine. So as discussed in my first blog I have met quite a few nice boys when we have been out on the town. My roommate is well on her way to having an Italian lover (she speaks Italian and he doesn't speak English). He on Tuesday night (01/18/11) took us to the Colosseo at night time which, if even possible was even more amazing! After this he decided to escort us to meet up with some friend we had made for dinner (we didn't oppose this for safety reason of course). The great thing about this group date that we were about to endure was that only one of the four boys who would be attending spoke English. They took us across town to a restaurant I can assure you I still don't know the name of. it had checkered color table cloths that reminded me of the American pizzerias that you find in New York. There was a bottle of wine already on the table (and I would like you to know that it is very common here to NOT use wine glasses). The menu was all in Italian and I had no idea where to even begin on trying to order. Finally after the boys ordered wine, sparkling water, and regular water, we asked for English menus and thankfully they had some! The conversation was the most interesting thing I have ever witnessed. It was like the boys were on a date with each other carrying on a conversation in which we would all stare with blank faces, oblivious to what was being said. Then in exchange we would have conversations that they would listen and not understand. The one boy who spoke a little bit of English told me he can not understand us when we talk so fast (which is not the first time I have been told this, to no surprise I am sure). When you order they bring your pasta first, then your vegetable and potato or meat. If you order a pizza they bring it out first. They thought it was weird when I received my pizza and I sat and waited for everyone else to get their food.They informed me it wasn't rude there to eat your food when you get it. That the pizza was not good cold and to eat up (I have you know I think that would be good no matter what). Four bottle of wine and a pizza later we all seemed to find a way to communicate without understanding. they were teaching us words by pointing at objects and we would in return teach them the English. I swear I will learn Italian before I leave here! Leaving dinner they took us on a side trip to a top of a hill that overlook all of Rome. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. It was interesting though because they continued to explain to us that Rome is a beautiful place but very corrupt. "The rich stay rich and the poor stay poor" is the motto of the city. The small shop holders pay so many taxes that they can not get rich and the rich pay no taxes at all. It give you a whole new appreciation for America. As it became later they returned us home to our residence and with a double cheek kiss and a bid goodnight. I will let you know that we are having another dinner with them on Friday.

"YOU ARE VERY HANDSOME"
Ok this is my last story before the weekend. I can assure you I will have more after the weekend. I had my wine tasting yesterday night (01/19/11) where we learned the differences in the smell, look, and taste of the good and bad wines. We had three white, cheese and crackers, three red, and then one dessert wine. After my friend and I decided that we wanted to go out for a little bit. We headed towards Campo di Fiori to see what was happening. It was filled with a mixture of JCU students and Italians. As we were walking to the club I met the crazy couple of boys from Switzerland I have ever met! They spoke English and were just cracking jokes about everything. They called me B. Spears (as most of the boys here do because that is what they associate my name with) and Jessica Simpson (because of the boots I was wearing). In the process they also managed to tell me I was very handsome. I could not hold back the urge to laugh and tried to explain to them that handsome is for men. I will also let you know they were cracking "that's what she said" comments. One of which didn't make sense so I said "she wouldn't say that" and they thought that was the greatest thing in the world and then repeated it after they said "that's what she said". Needless to say I don't think they understood the concept of the joke. Finally, I have nicknamed my roommate Barbie, because on the way to a club one night an Italian man shouted out "Ciao black Barbie!". The culture is so different here, when you order a drink the bartender responds with your changer "here bella" meaning "here beautiful". the compliments are never provocative, talking about body parts or anything. They compliment your beauty or sincerity. However, they think that within the first five minutes of speaking to you that it entitles them to a kiss, which is a clear violation of MY rule of thumb. I do love it here though. It is amazing. I will have more for you later.


--L'amore e riguarda--

And the Adventure Begins, Activities of Weekend #1

Ok first I am not a writer so please excuse me if my blogs are boring? It's fine you will grow to love it. Second, This first blog is going to be very long for I will try to describe my life in Rome to the  best of my ability. Ok here we go...

It has been an exciting couple of days. I have only been in Rome for 6 days and it feels like longer. I know that since classes started I will begin to get a weekly routine in order and then time will not be able to go by slow enough. I encountered so much since the time I stepped off the plane. I didn't know how I felt about the situation at first. I wasn't really excited yet because it didn't seem real to me. I had a small feel of butterflies in my stomach. Upon arriving it was pretty easy to navigate there were people there from John Cabot to tell us where to go and what to do. The next two days reminded me of freshman year at Tech. We had multiple seminars that were so boring you wanted to sleep through them all. The jet lag was at it's fullest and it felt as though you are a zombie who just stayed up all night studying for a final and when the exam finally came you couldn't care about anything but going to sleep. They had lots of activities to help you meet people and it was just like orientation as a freshman, everyone clicked off within the first ten minutes of being there and didn't want to branch out. I of course do as I always do and tested the waters in several groups. I finally settled on a solid group of friends, three of which are my roommates. The school provides several trips throughout the semester, wanting to make the most of the cheap rates I signed up for everything they offered. Of course I plan on having some of my own trips, first of which I want to plan for my birthday weekend.

The weekend was the first time we started to feel like we had a chance to explore. I didn't venture very far into the city for I knew I had two scheduled tours the school would provide for me on Sunday. The streets are so narrow and the drivers are crazy. The cars look like toy cars, and every street is made of big cobble stone. I don't understand how the women wear heals! I swear I would get my heal stuck or roll my ankle, but then again I am not the most coordinated person so that probably isn't saying much. Since Wednesday I had made it to Campo di Fiori which is pictured on the right. This is "the square" as I refer to it. It has a bunch of restaurants and bars and this statue in the middle. This is also the location of the Pub that I watched the Jets beat the Patriots! The beer was very good and the game was even better! J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets!!

Friday night we (the "we" I keep referring to is my group of friends) decided to venture out and find some sort of bar or club. The first place we came upon was a bar called Dee Jay which was just right down the road from our residency. It was tiny and once we made it inside I could not even walk so we decided to leave and find something else to go to. As we were walking around there was a lady handing out club promotions for a place called Mood. After circling Campo di Fiori we passed a bar called 18 18. It wasn't very packed but we were in a big group so we decided to sit for a while and have a drink. I got a screwdriver for it was the only thing that didn't have sugar in it. After about and hour or so we decided to give the club a shot so my friend Alicia, who has been our savior for this trip for she speaks Spanish and Italian, went to a local and he pointed us in the right direction. The club was so crowded and there was definitely a 1 to 3 girl to boy ratio. We got on the dance floor first, it was so crowded that you could hardly move. We ended up leaving at 5am with so much to talk about. The Italian men are so different from American boys. American boy tend to buy girls drinks and then ask them to dance in hopes that they will get lucky. The Italian boys just have this aggressive attitude that they come up behind you and start dancing with you and two minutes later expect a kiss! You try explaining that that is not an American custom and they give you this confused face as if they don't understand why.  Luckily I learn the most important club phrase which is "No baci!" haha which means no kisses. One boy told my friend that he had found the one and that he couldn't believe he went his whole life and finally found her today, the quote of the night was "If only I wasn't Buddhist" I told her she would find the only Buddhist Italian in Rome. The behavior they present is quite humorous, it is as if every girl is the only girl in the room, and the aggressive behavior is why they say the Italian women are dismissive. You have to be in order to be able to breathe from all the love they are throwing your way. One boy did ask me to a cinema the next day. I said sure gave him my number and went on my way. The next day when he called me I had a change of heart and decided to pass (my friend are shaking their heads at me because this is normal behavior for me).

Saturday night Andy, a former JCU (the name of my school John Cabot University) was giving a night tour. Andy is the same guy who is planning side trips to Prague and Dublin during St Patty's Day, also places like London, Paris and Barcelona.  (He took us to see the Pantheon which is pictured on the left.) On the way we also had several fountains. When we were in the inside I was taking pictures and an Italian man asked me and my friend Jasmine if we knew why there was a hole in the middle of the ceiling. I said no and he began explaining that in the summer exactly at 12, the sun fills the hole in the top of the building and Illuminates the whole inside. He then lead us to 

his favorites restaurant. The group we were with was 60ish kids and me and my friends decided that we really didn't want to wait that long to get some food so we started walking around the Pantheon for something to eat. we settled on a restaurant where the server seemed to be funny. we all got wine with dinner and toasted a good trip in Italy. After dinner we headed home to get ready to go out on the town again. We all decided that we wanted to go back to Mood for we felt it was a good place to hangout. We got there early (which in Rome is before 1230, everyone here doesn't go out until about 1230 and don't go home until around 5 or 6) so it wasn't very crowded. Side note: We also met some boys who were stationed in German who were in the Air Force. They joined us at the club and for all my ROTC friend one of them brought up "Chair Force" and gave me a high five because I knew what he was talking about is when he said you mean the "...... Force" I was like Chair. hahaha. Those same boys joined us on Sunday at the pub to watch the Jets game. I talked them all into cheering for the Jets! Ok back to the club, It started getting packed and we had our dancing shoes on. My friends were hungry an hour into the club so we headed across the street to see if we wanted to get some food. The girls asked a lot of questions about prices and the man got very agitated with us and started rambling in Italian. When we finally paid and went to go eat at a table we got kicked out. Then we crossed the street to go back to the club where a bunch of Italian boys asked us if we would say they were with us so they could get in. Being nice we said Si and headed inside. While dancing the best thing to do is to avoiding eye contact with any boy who I did not want to be near. Italian boy see eye contact as an invitation to come dance, dance and look down is the best policy haha. The boys from the door did end up taking pictures of us when we first got in and I danced with a boy who was very nice. His name was Stefano and he worked on the Isola Tiber (second picture), which is where Romulus and Remus first began Rome. It is now a hospital and a very prestigious place for the rich people to have their babies. I plan to have lunch with him one day in hopes that I can pick up some Italian as well as find the hidden wonders of Rome that you don't know to look for as a tourist. We again didn't begin to make our journey home until 5am. 


I will write a separate blog to describe the grocery stores, my classes slash school, and the tours I took.
--L'amore e riguarda--