Week's End

We learned earlier this week that the weekend in Italy begins officially on Wednesday (although in summer it is supposedly always the weekend). Because soccer games are traditionally on Wednesday nights and Italians love soccer, it serves as an excuse for everyone and anyone to make the focal point of the work week a time to relax until the wee hours of the morning.

Last night, Chiara and I decided to check out the scene in the main piazzas. We both live facing this one piazza/parking lot where people assemble in front of a bar that serves drinks until 2 am. I had tried to go to sleep with the windows open around 11.30 pm but the whitenoise of chitchat kept me awake until I closed the windows. So last night, we went to check out the scene. Italian cities are always so beautiful at night because their white marble duomos are light up and glow in the darkness (I’ll bring my camera one Wednesday night, promised). The piazza della Cattedrale was packed with chitchatting slightly drunk Italian young folk.

At a certain point we met up with Chiara’s Italian roommate who introduced us to all his friends, now pleasantly tipsy. Each one would chat up a storm and ask many questions so that we never felt awkward, or alone, or in silence. There is a warmth that is contagious in these people. So the chaotic jabbering and meeting continued for about an hour and a half before chill set in and whisked my classmate and I home.

It is Thursday and thus ends the class week for us ‘American’ ragazzi. With Friday off, I’ve decided to take the long weekend out to Milan where I will reunite with my family and friends of summer, chill out, hang out and then return to another place that I will call home.