Unless you are blind or haven’t been on Facebook in a week, Olivia and Derek are here! (In Europe) They arrived in the beautiful Barcelona May 15th and we spent three days there in my newest and most favorite home. We did the usual tourist junk like La Rambla, Boqueria, Beach, Tibidabo, Hop On-Off Bus, but left Parc Guell and Sagrada Familia for when we go back to Barca for one day and night. My last day and night…
Before I cry thinking about leaving my Spanish life, I will “quickly” summarize Paris. Olivia, Derek, and I arrived in Paris May 17th and wasted no time seeing the sights unless you consider a pre-sightseeing 2 hour 73 euro lunch a waste of time (and money). Anywho, on our way to find Notre Dame we found the Lock Bridge where we bought a lock to wish Coco a very happy 98th birthday and let the world know the Perruccis were in Paris. After we locked our love down we wandered to the Louvre where we took the classic pictures “touching” the tip. So cliché and overdone, but were you really at the Louvre if you didn’t pretend touch the tip? We then went into the Louvre just to see Mona. No offense Ms. Lisa, but you were pretty underwhelming, but nonetheless happy I saw it. We decided we would take a water taxi to the Eiffel Tower after, snap some pictures, and eat some pastries. The last stop of our first day was Notre Dame, which was closed but we were able to watch some hilarious street performers. The second day in Paris we went somewhere I have always wanted to see… Versailles! If you know me, you know gardens are my thing so I definitely enjoyed my time there even though the actual palace was closed. So we were 0/2 on activities being open. But Versailles is so enormous I don’t think one day would have been enough to go in every building and see all the gardens. We took a cute little train through the might as well call it a forest, but a very symmetrical and very well kept forest. After we (Derek) rowed a cute little rowboat in the Grand Canal. Versailles was amazing and I wished I lived there just so I could hang out in the acres of green grass all day. After Versailles we went back to the Eiffel Tower (Olivia wanted to walk up the stairs, but D and I were not too keen on that especially since we had to pay to walk) and then Notre Dame again to just look at it because it was closed… haha. Had dinner, tried to shop, but all the stores were either closed or just ridiculously overpriced. No thank you Paris. The last day we figured maybe we should go to Notre Dame when it was open. We went in the cathedral then waited on a solid two-hour line to pay to walk up the stairs (paying for torture yet again) to see a panoramic of Paris. Even though I was sucking wind about five minutes in the climb, the view was great and I don’t regret the two-hour wait in the rain. Mostly because I bought the cutest and cheapest Paris umbrella, the big kind that I have been carrying around with me everywhere I go like a cane (definitely helps with my enormous backpack). We also tried to go to these catacombs, which are like dead people’s bones? I am not too sure, but I went to see something along those lines in Prague so I was really excited to do that. Unfortunately it was closed so we ended the trip 0/3. That’s enough about Paris.
We got to Geneva, Switzerland late at night to discover that our sleeping arrangements were not exactly what we were expecting. We were sleeping on the hardwood floor on a comforter and our beach/bathing towels. We did have really loud but pretty comfy pool rafts that me and Olivia ended up combining to make a somewhat blow up mattress type thing. Honestly I slept well all three nights so no complaints here minus some snoring. Geneva isn’t exactly the most exciting and activity filled city, but it is definitely a very beautiful and wealthy city. Within 10 minutes of walking off the bus like peasants we saw at least 3 Ferraris, one Aston Martin, and a Maserati. Porsche, BMW, and Mercedes are common people cars. I had to wipe the drool off of Derek’s chin. 95% of the people were dressed so well I felt like a homeless person in my Brandy dress and flip-flops. But anyways besides the obvious amount of wealth, Lake Geneva was super pretty, but in all honesty not as beautiful as I imagined. As I am riding the train now to head to Genoa, I am looking out the window seeing amazing views of lakes and mountains. I regret not taking a day trip to a more rural town, but we had one day where it was pouring and cold so we did not really have time and that is okay. I am enjoying the train ride that we missed, but then somehow didn’t have to pay for another one and got on a later one…if that makes sense.
Moving on to my favorite part of the trip; Genoa & Rossi. When we were planning our trip Italy was an obvious destination. Our cousins, Katie and Jake, had gone to Genoa to visit our relatives in a nearby “town” called Rossi and highly recommended we go. I say “town” because there are give or take ten houses in the whole town. Rossi is 45 minutes away from Genoa up a mountain. I am still not positive exactly how we are related to these wonderful people, but Lidia (our relative and main tour guide) explained completely in Italian something about our great-great-great grandfather and her great-great grandfather. We met her at her apartment bright and early and because of a tiny typo we were waiting at the wrong apartment, ringing every single apartment bell asking for Lidia. Thankfully she came sprinting over after realizing the mistake and we were on our way up the mountain to meet the rest of the fam. We went through a couple different towns on our way up Tasso, Tasso Alto, Cornego, Tassorello, and others. Lidia took us to the Tasso cemetery where our great-great-great grandfather, Antonio Serrada is buried. It was awesome to be able to meet our grandfather (writing out the great x3 is tiring). After Lidia took us to a small little church off the road and then finally we were on our way to Rossi. Our first stop in Rossi was Lidia’s friends house, who actually grew up in Rossi, but lives in Weehawken. How weird? Finally about an hour and a half later we made it to the Gardella residence! Olivia, Derek, and I were able to meet Lidia, Silvana, and Aurora, all sisters, and their mother Olga. Everyone was super sweet and friendly even though we both could barely understand what the other was saying. None of them spoke English so the whole day I was the main translator because Spanish and Italian are supposedly very similar… they’re not as similar as people make them out to be. They thought we were coming the next day but still had a delicious lunch and cake waiting for us! We were all famished so we finished as much as we could, but like typical Italian mothers they all kept trying to feed us more. I don’t know if I would be the same size I am today if I had lived in Italy. After some food and cake, they offered us coffee or tea. None of us like coffee or tea so we kindly declined, but apparently if you don’t drink coffee or tea you have to have alcohol… So we all took a shot. Yum. After hanging out there, laughing, and having a great time despite the language barrier, Lidia took us around Rossi, which took only 15 minutes. She showed us her beautiful horse, Blue, and some cows. We were also lucky enough to see where Antonio Serrada actually lived for some time in his life, which was incredible. Also Frank Sinatra’s mom is from Rossi so we saw her house. After our tour of Rossi we went back to Olga’s and met Elisa and her boyfriend James. They are learning English so finally we had somewhat of a translator!! What I thought was the funniest moment was when Lidia was telling everyone (in Italian obviously) that I am very nice because even when I don’t understand I nod my head and pretend I understand. And she thought I didn’t know what she was saying, but I understood and called her out. The look on her face was priceless. We decided we should go back to Genoa and explore the city because we only had one day there. Elisa, Lidia, John (Gian?) Carlo, Elisa, and James took us around the city to some churches, some shopping, the port, and dinner. The port was so crowded with a million little kids doing various activities. I don’t know what was so important about this weekend or if every weekend is like this, but it was very entertaining. For dinner we had a special pizza you can only get in Genoa. I forget what it was called and can’t look it up because I am thousands of feet in the air, but it was made of chickpeas and was surprisingly really good! Once again they made us eat until I was so full one more bite and I would’ve blown up. 12 hours later we were on the bus on the way back to our hotel. Exhausting doesn’t even describe our day. My brain was fried. Having to intently listen to everything someone says and trying to translate it without knowing a word in that language is a very tiring task. Lucky for Olivia and Derek they were sleeping in the car in the backseat and I sat in the front seat attempting conversation. Realistically, Lidia spoke and I listened. Lidia is great. We were definitely on the same wavelength and it was easier to understand her than everyone else. She is a crazy person, but so am I. At dinner, Elisa, James, Lidia, and John Carlo gave me the nickname the bomb. They described it as that Olivia and Derek are tranquilo and I am * bangs on table with fist 3 times *. Olivia’s brain hurt too though. So much that she could not even speak that night while we were going to bed, and I still am making fun of her for it.
It was a shame that such a fun, amazing experience in Genoa/Rossi had to be followed by such a frustrating and horrible time in Milan. We arrived in Milan in the afternoon and decided we’d try taking the metro…I wish we hadn’t tried. There were gypsies literally guarding the ticket machines harassing people. They were pretending to help them and then would steal their change or ask for money. I saw this and told everyone that they were gypsies and to just ignore them and say no. This one chick would not take no for an answer. Olivia, Kiara, Derek and I were all standing in front of the machine and one girl came up to us and was like English? And we kept saying no thank you over and over and she wouldn’t leave us alone and was pressing the buttons for us. We continuously said no politely, but she wouldn’t stop so I got angry and I really didn’t want to get angry but even when I turned my back to her and blocked her from machine she pushed me and was trying to do it. So naturally I was pushing her back and moving her hand away. I told her to go away and Derek was yelling at her too. We put in our money to get the tickets and she went to grab our change so I put my hand in too and was trying to grab all the money away from her but she had some in her hand. Now I was FURIOUS. I grabbed her arm to pry her fingers away to get the coins. Then some other gypsy came over and started hitting Derek and I and yelling at us like we were doing something wrong. We think we got all the change back, but we were so beyond furious and walked away before I threw some punches. Thank god for Olivia and Kiara though if they weren’t there we wouldn’t have any witnesses. (They didn’t help) But the main problem at hand was the lack of police in the metro and those gosh darn gypsies. So, great start in Milan! We get off at the metro stop and can’t find our hostel so hop in a cab and tell him “Via Bertoni”. He says “Via Bertani”. Kiara shows him the address and he says okay. We get to Via Bertani and he goes oh wait what’s the number, looks at the address and goes, “Via BertOni not Bertani… this isn’t your street.” 13 euros later, are you kidding me? Classic taxi driver taking advantage of clear tourists. We’re not 100% sure he took advantage of us because he let us pay 10 euros instead of 13, but he still got more money then he should have. By the way, we were one street away from our hostel when we got off the metro. Just another way we threw money out the window this trip. We get to our hostel, exhausted and cranky, we deal with a sassy, sarcastic front desk person who isn’t very helpful. When we finally leave to explore the city we went to get some yummy food in a the restaurant doesn’t take credit cards… what restaurant doesn’t take credit cards?! Schwag. So now three annoying experiences later we’re like what could possibly happen now? We attempted to site see. By attempted I mean we used a map that I don’t think was a map of Milan because we tried to find like 3 different things and just could not find anything. We finally decided to take the metro to the Duomo, which was clearly marked and there was no way our map could fool us this time. Too tired to explore anymore, we got some gelato sat down by a monument and then walked home. I didn’t even bring my camera out in Milan because it was dead, but I really don’t even care that I have no pictures. I don’t need to remember what happened there. Sorry Milan, but not sorry at all.
Now we are on the plane going back to Barcelona and the captain just informed us of stormy, rainy weather in Barcelona. I am going to cry anyways because I am leaving Barcelona, but now I don’t even get to experience one more beach day in Barca. That is all I wanted. There is little violin playing for me somewhere. Okay updated on my plane ride back to America, which I will just not talk about in fear of crying.
The weather ended up clearing up for the day!! I was very happy even though it was very cold, like winter cold… 65 degrees. Olivia, Derek, and I got our final souvenirs, had some lunch, picked up my suitcases, and then headed to the Kormans in Sant Cugat (the next town over from theirs) to have a nice Italian meal together. I was very glad I was able to see them before I left. They have been a home away from home for me and I could not be more grateful. Barcelona, it has been real.
Before I cry thinking about leaving my Spanish life, I will “quickly” summarize Paris. Olivia, Derek, and I arrived in Paris May 17th and wasted no time seeing the sights unless you consider a pre-sightseeing 2 hour 73 euro lunch a waste of time (and money). Anywho, on our way to find Notre Dame we found the Lock Bridge where we bought a lock to wish Coco a very happy 98th birthday and let the world know the Perruccis were in Paris. After we locked our love down we wandered to the Louvre where we took the classic pictures “touching” the tip. So cliché and overdone, but were you really at the Louvre if you didn’t pretend touch the tip? We then went into the Louvre just to see Mona. No offense Ms. Lisa, but you were pretty underwhelming, but nonetheless happy I saw it. We decided we would take a water taxi to the Eiffel Tower after, snap some pictures, and eat some pastries. The last stop of our first day was Notre Dame, which was closed but we were able to watch some hilarious street performers. The second day in Paris we went somewhere I have always wanted to see… Versailles! If you know me, you know gardens are my thing so I definitely enjoyed my time there even though the actual palace was closed. So we were 0/2 on activities being open. But Versailles is so enormous I don’t think one day would have been enough to go in every building and see all the gardens. We took a cute little train through the might as well call it a forest, but a very symmetrical and very well kept forest. After we (Derek) rowed a cute little rowboat in the Grand Canal. Versailles was amazing and I wished I lived there just so I could hang out in the acres of green grass all day. After Versailles we went back to the Eiffel Tower (Olivia wanted to walk up the stairs, but D and I were not too keen on that especially since we had to pay to walk) and then Notre Dame again to just look at it because it was closed… haha. Had dinner, tried to shop, but all the stores were either closed or just ridiculously overpriced. No thank you Paris. The last day we figured maybe we should go to Notre Dame when it was open. We went in the cathedral then waited on a solid two-hour line to pay to walk up the stairs (paying for torture yet again) to see a panoramic of Paris. Even though I was sucking wind about five minutes in the climb, the view was great and I don’t regret the two-hour wait in the rain. Mostly because I bought the cutest and cheapest Paris umbrella, the big kind that I have been carrying around with me everywhere I go like a cane (definitely helps with my enormous backpack). We also tried to go to these catacombs, which are like dead people’s bones? I am not too sure, but I went to see something along those lines in Prague so I was really excited to do that. Unfortunately it was closed so we ended the trip 0/3. That’s enough about Paris.
We got to Geneva, Switzerland late at night to discover that our sleeping arrangements were not exactly what we were expecting. We were sleeping on the hardwood floor on a comforter and our beach/bathing towels. We did have really loud but pretty comfy pool rafts that me and Olivia ended up combining to make a somewhat blow up mattress type thing. Honestly I slept well all three nights so no complaints here minus some snoring. Geneva isn’t exactly the most exciting and activity filled city, but it is definitely a very beautiful and wealthy city. Within 10 minutes of walking off the bus like peasants we saw at least 3 Ferraris, one Aston Martin, and a Maserati. Porsche, BMW, and Mercedes are common people cars. I had to wipe the drool off of Derek’s chin. 95% of the people were dressed so well I felt like a homeless person in my Brandy dress and flip-flops. But anyways besides the obvious amount of wealth, Lake Geneva was super pretty, but in all honesty not as beautiful as I imagined. As I am riding the train now to head to Genoa, I am looking out the window seeing amazing views of lakes and mountains. I regret not taking a day trip to a more rural town, but we had one day where it was pouring and cold so we did not really have time and that is okay. I am enjoying the train ride that we missed, but then somehow didn’t have to pay for another one and got on a later one…if that makes sense.
Moving on to my favorite part of the trip; Genoa & Rossi. When we were planning our trip Italy was an obvious destination. Our cousins, Katie and Jake, had gone to Genoa to visit our relatives in a nearby “town” called Rossi and highly recommended we go. I say “town” because there are give or take ten houses in the whole town. Rossi is 45 minutes away from Genoa up a mountain. I am still not positive exactly how we are related to these wonderful people, but Lidia (our relative and main tour guide) explained completely in Italian something about our great-great-great grandfather and her great-great grandfather. We met her at her apartment bright and early and because of a tiny typo we were waiting at the wrong apartment, ringing every single apartment bell asking for Lidia. Thankfully she came sprinting over after realizing the mistake and we were on our way up the mountain to meet the rest of the fam. We went through a couple different towns on our way up Tasso, Tasso Alto, Cornego, Tassorello, and others. Lidia took us to the Tasso cemetery where our great-great-great grandfather, Antonio Serrada is buried. It was awesome to be able to meet our grandfather (writing out the great x3 is tiring). After Lidia took us to a small little church off the road and then finally we were on our way to Rossi. Our first stop in Rossi was Lidia’s friends house, who actually grew up in Rossi, but lives in Weehawken. How weird? Finally about an hour and a half later we made it to the Gardella residence! Olivia, Derek, and I were able to meet Lidia, Silvana, and Aurora, all sisters, and their mother Olga. Everyone was super sweet and friendly even though we both could barely understand what the other was saying. None of them spoke English so the whole day I was the main translator because Spanish and Italian are supposedly very similar… they’re not as similar as people make them out to be. They thought we were coming the next day but still had a delicious lunch and cake waiting for us! We were all famished so we finished as much as we could, but like typical Italian mothers they all kept trying to feed us more. I don’t know if I would be the same size I am today if I had lived in Italy. After some food and cake, they offered us coffee or tea. None of us like coffee or tea so we kindly declined, but apparently if you don’t drink coffee or tea you have to have alcohol… So we all took a shot. Yum. After hanging out there, laughing, and having a great time despite the language barrier, Lidia took us around Rossi, which took only 15 minutes. She showed us her beautiful horse, Blue, and some cows. We were also lucky enough to see where Antonio Serrada actually lived for some time in his life, which was incredible. Also Frank Sinatra’s mom is from Rossi so we saw her house. After our tour of Rossi we went back to Olga’s and met Elisa and her boyfriend James. They are learning English so finally we had somewhat of a translator!! What I thought was the funniest moment was when Lidia was telling everyone (in Italian obviously) that I am very nice because even when I don’t understand I nod my head and pretend I understand. And she thought I didn’t know what she was saying, but I understood and called her out. The look on her face was priceless. We decided we should go back to Genoa and explore the city because we only had one day there. Elisa, Lidia, John (Gian?) Carlo, Elisa, and James took us around the city to some churches, some shopping, the port, and dinner. The port was so crowded with a million little kids doing various activities. I don’t know what was so important about this weekend or if every weekend is like this, but it was very entertaining. For dinner we had a special pizza you can only get in Genoa. I forget what it was called and can’t look it up because I am thousands of feet in the air, but it was made of chickpeas and was surprisingly really good! Once again they made us eat until I was so full one more bite and I would’ve blown up. 12 hours later we were on the bus on the way back to our hotel. Exhausting doesn’t even describe our day. My brain was fried. Having to intently listen to everything someone says and trying to translate it without knowing a word in that language is a very tiring task. Lucky for Olivia and Derek they were sleeping in the car in the backseat and I sat in the front seat attempting conversation. Realistically, Lidia spoke and I listened. Lidia is great. We were definitely on the same wavelength and it was easier to understand her than everyone else. She is a crazy person, but so am I. At dinner, Elisa, James, Lidia, and John Carlo gave me the nickname the bomb. They described it as that Olivia and Derek are tranquilo and I am * bangs on table with fist 3 times *. Olivia’s brain hurt too though. So much that she could not even speak that night while we were going to bed, and I still am making fun of her for it.
It was a shame that such a fun, amazing experience in Genoa/Rossi had to be followed by such a frustrating and horrible time in Milan. We arrived in Milan in the afternoon and decided we’d try taking the metro…I wish we hadn’t tried. There were gypsies literally guarding the ticket machines harassing people. They were pretending to help them and then would steal their change or ask for money. I saw this and told everyone that they were gypsies and to just ignore them and say no. This one chick would not take no for an answer. Olivia, Kiara, Derek and I were all standing in front of the machine and one girl came up to us and was like English? And we kept saying no thank you over and over and she wouldn’t leave us alone and was pressing the buttons for us. We continuously said no politely, but she wouldn’t stop so I got angry and I really didn’t want to get angry but even when I turned my back to her and blocked her from machine she pushed me and was trying to do it. So naturally I was pushing her back and moving her hand away. I told her to go away and Derek was yelling at her too. We put in our money to get the tickets and she went to grab our change so I put my hand in too and was trying to grab all the money away from her but she had some in her hand. Now I was FURIOUS. I grabbed her arm to pry her fingers away to get the coins. Then some other gypsy came over and started hitting Derek and I and yelling at us like we were doing something wrong. We think we got all the change back, but we were so beyond furious and walked away before I threw some punches. Thank god for Olivia and Kiara though if they weren’t there we wouldn’t have any witnesses. (They didn’t help) But the main problem at hand was the lack of police in the metro and those gosh darn gypsies. So, great start in Milan! We get off at the metro stop and can’t find our hostel so hop in a cab and tell him “Via Bertoni”. He says “Via Bertani”. Kiara shows him the address and he says okay. We get to Via Bertani and he goes oh wait what’s the number, looks at the address and goes, “Via BertOni not Bertani… this isn’t your street.” 13 euros later, are you kidding me? Classic taxi driver taking advantage of clear tourists. We’re not 100% sure he took advantage of us because he let us pay 10 euros instead of 13, but he still got more money then he should have. By the way, we were one street away from our hostel when we got off the metro. Just another way we threw money out the window this trip. We get to our hostel, exhausted and cranky, we deal with a sassy, sarcastic front desk person who isn’t very helpful. When we finally leave to explore the city we went to get some yummy food in a the restaurant doesn’t take credit cards… what restaurant doesn’t take credit cards?! Schwag. So now three annoying experiences later we’re like what could possibly happen now? We attempted to site see. By attempted I mean we used a map that I don’t think was a map of Milan because we tried to find like 3 different things and just could not find anything. We finally decided to take the metro to the Duomo, which was clearly marked and there was no way our map could fool us this time. Too tired to explore anymore, we got some gelato sat down by a monument and then walked home. I didn’t even bring my camera out in Milan because it was dead, but I really don’t even care that I have no pictures. I don’t need to remember what happened there. Sorry Milan, but not sorry at all.
Now we are on the plane going back to Barcelona and the captain just informed us of stormy, rainy weather in Barcelona. I am going to cry anyways because I am leaving Barcelona, but now I don’t even get to experience one more beach day in Barca. That is all I wanted. There is little violin playing for me somewhere. Okay updated on my plane ride back to America, which I will just not talk about in fear of crying.
The weather ended up clearing up for the day!! I was very happy even though it was very cold, like winter cold… 65 degrees. Olivia, Derek, and I got our final souvenirs, had some lunch, picked up my suitcases, and then headed to the Kormans in Sant Cugat (the next town over from theirs) to have a nice Italian meal together. I was very glad I was able to see them before I left. They have been a home away from home for me and I could not be more grateful. Barcelona, it has been real.