"When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie that's amore..."

I fell in love

...with an entire country. Let's keep this between you and me but I love Italy more than Spain. I. AM. SO. IN. LOVE. The people were kind, the food was beyond amazing, and the monuments and history absolutely indescribable. I could sit here and write about the Colosseum and the statue of David and the amazingly well-dressed models I encountered but why bore you with generic stuff. Of course I saw all the well-known sites and monuments in Italy and they are much better in person but my favorite part of this long trip were the people. I am just constantly meeting people from every corner of this world. I can be on the best beach resort in the world and all alone and have a terrible time or I can be in a shitty small hostel and have the best experience ever.

I met so many people on this trip, so forgive me if I forget names and details. This was an extremely long trip and the hostel life is definitely rough. I always miss my bed back home in Sevilla and having all my personal belongings. The lady at the airport in Valencia threw out my favorite face cream and I didn't pack enough warm clothes. Italy, especially Rome, was a lot colder than I expected. I ended up buying a hoodie at a souvenir shop and wearing it almost everyday, as you can see in my photos. I looked like absolute shit the entire time but this so far has been my favorite trip. Somehow every trip manages to out do the one before. However, I always come out with meeting kind and wonderful people.

Okay so let's start with Rome. We had a 6 a.m. flight and when we arrived were told we couldn't check in until 2 p.m. We immediately began exploring Rome because we only had two days in Rome. I was so exhausted but in freakin' Rome! We had to check off as many things as possible. Surprisingly we got lots done. As 2 p.m. rolled around we had to get to our room, take a nap and grab some food. When we arrived to the room it was just me and my friend and two more empty beds. I took a much needed nap and then we walked across the street and had the BEST pizza ever. It was crowded. People were standing shoulder to shoulder and yelling. You had to pull a number and wait your turn. You'd tell them what pizza you wanted and how much. You paid by weight. It was exactly how I imagined a good Italian pizza place would be. There were tons of men in their suits and such on their lunch break. Seeing so many people in this joint made me confident that this was a good pizza place. And Boy, it sure was. I absolutely love Pizza hut and frozen pizzas but this was incomparable. Anyways, after stuffing my face with delicious authentic Italian pizza we go back to the hostel and our hostel mates had arrived. They ended up being two Brazilian guys that were on vacation. Great, I was the only girl in the room with 3 guys. Luckily, they weren't creeps and we ended up having a great time with them. We even taught them how to play King's cup like they were some college kids (even though I'm sure they were in their late 20s). Who knew I'd be in Italy bonding with some random (but very nice) Brazilian dudes. We had great conversations and watched the soccer match between Madrid and Barcelona with them. I'd like to consider myself to be a friendly person but this I did not expect. I knew immediately this would be a great trip because it was so easy to meet people. Two days quickly flew by and before you knew it we were bidding goodbye to our new Brazilian friends. Of course they assumed Daniel( my traveling buddy) and I were dating, and when one of the Brazilians found out the night before we left Rome that we were not dating he told Daniel he wished he'd known we weren't. How incredibly awkward. haha. Glad he didn't know because I wouldn't have felt so comfortable sleeping in the same room as him.

I'll skip all the other wonderful people I met haha and jump to Milan. But everyone in Italy was so nice and I love that they greet you with 'Ciao Bella' and say goodbye in the same way. I fell in love with Italy because the people were so kind. They smile and love tourists. In Milan, we didn't stay at the greatest hostel. It was my least favorite in Italy with Florence being my favorite out of the 594 hostels I've stayed at this semester. The hostel in Milan charged us 5 euros for sheets and the room we stayed in was cramped. I believe at least 6 beds were stuffed in there and they were dirty old mattresses. There was only one bathroom and no toilet paper when I initially came in. It was run by two young girls and maybe their boytoys. Things were very unofficial and not run like the previous two hostels. However, the girls were extremely nice and even made us free dinner on night one. We ended up loving this hostel because it was so easy to meet people. It was a cozy little hostel with no more than 20 guests. You'd always find someone in the living room/kitchen area just chilling. We met a mother and daughter from South Africa and a couple of American girls on vacation like us and many other interesting people from all over the world. My favorite people that I met were a French girl and Greek guy. The Greek guy, who was headed to France for a course, stayed in our room and checked in very late on night one. He woke me up from my sleep so initially I was not very fond of this guy but only because I was grouchy and in desperate need of sleep. However, after meeting him the next morning he easily became one of my favorite people on this trip. He was incredibly nice and friendly. We somehow ended up walking around Milan with him and got to know more about his life. I was amazed by his genuineness and openness. He told us a lot about his family and his life in Athens. We decided to go a soccer match together after we met a French woman in the hostel who told Daniel she was going to the AC Milan game that night. We definitely wanted in. I hadn't gone to a soccer match yet( even though I live 5 minutes away from one in Sevilla!). The tickets took an hour and 1/2 to get at the bank that sold them but they were cheap and well worth it. All thanks to the Greek guy who did all the talking in Italian and took care of the logistics. It seemed like the French girl wanted to go alone when we suggested we should go together so she would have people to go with. I didn't think she liked us or was very nice at first. It didn't seem like she wanted to make friends, but she turned out to be one of the sweetest people I've ever met. The four of us went to the soccer match and had a great time. The game was so much fun, despite AC milan tying with Palermo.
I don't understand why it's not more popular in the States. Futbol aka soccer matches are so much fun. You can bring your own snacks and shit into the stadium so you don't have to worry about overpriced hotdogs and nachos. The amount of testosterone and team devotion in that stadium is priceless. If you think football fans are hardcore you should see soccer fans. I wish soccer was more popular because I really enjoy going to the games.
After the game we stop by a restaurant on the way back to our hostel and grab two pizzas to-go. We sat in the hostel and laughed and talked for a while. The Greek guy had to catch the train in a couple of hours but didn't care and stayed up to talk to us. I checked out the earliest because I was exhausted and went to bed. Before the Greek guy left a few hours later he came in to say goodbye. It was so sad. He told me if I were ever in Greece he'd be happy to host me and that we'd see each other again some day so to not worry. I hate that we make friends on these trips to only realize the chances of me seeing them ever again are slim to none.
I hope by some chance I'll run into them somewhere around the world.