Monday, June 18, 2012

List: Things I want to do + Places I want to visit

Places I Want To Visit + Why (part ONE):
Lake Como In Italy; I was riding in a Yellow Cab one gloomy morning. It was a terrible day. i was at my internship, things were falling apart, I was getting homesick, fighting with friends…etc, etc. Well, I was sitting in the back seat of a cab when the driver started talking to me. He was a friendly old man, probably around 70 or something. Definitely not like the other taxi drivers I've had before. He had a heavy accent and I asked him where he was from. "Italy" he replied, proud of his heritage and hometown. Soon, I couldn't help but to tell him about my upcoming trip to Paris. At that moment, it seemed like Paris was the one light at the end of the tunnel that kept me from quitting everything and returning home. It was my prize. He was genuinely thrilled for me and immediately told me a list of places to visit in Paris. See, he had lived there himself when he was younger. In fact, he met his wife of 50 years there while he was working. Soon our cab ride was more of a friendly outing than a simple transaction of services. We eventually landed on the topic of his hometown: Lake Como. He told me that his family's house is 2 miles from George Clooney's vacation home. He swore it was beautiful--the people, the culture, the food, the sights. He made me swear that I would go, and I agreed. He seemed to know a lot more than I did so, why not? 


Florence, Italy; This pasty year I studied Dante's Inferno, one part of three in the Commedia collection. It is said that the gates of hell are found here in Florence, although it is completely a myth. Yet, the book was very interesting, largely captivating, and entertaining to say the least. Dante was exiled from his hometown of Florence, and thus it is stated that he based many of the landmarks in his work off of this city.