Day 1: On Our Way

Carson and I planned a trip. A big one too. Canada to Italy: YVR-MUC and then MUC-NAP. And we're staying in Italy for a whole month, enough time to "get used to it" you could say. On October 2nd, our friend Allie dropped us off at the airport and neither of us could really speak more than a few sentences without letting either our nerves or our excitement seep into our words.

As I began to draft this post, we were flying over northern Canada at 500 miles an hour. The screen in front of Carson's seat on the plane flipped between the different "views" surrounding us. From the cockpit to out the plane windows to 360⁰ to where we were in the world. It was helpful, and disheartening. We had a long trip ahead of us lol

Our flight left sometime in the evening of Sunday October 2nd after a 1 hour delay. Going to Munich, we were on a German flight which served us a little in-flight dinner at about 9pm, Vancouver time (PCT). Hot pasta, a bun and some lemon goo - yum. After some melatonin and some adjustments to the seat, I woke up at 1:25am PCT, just as we were flying over Greenland. The plane's shutters were down as we were technically moving ahead in time, racing towards sunrise. We peaked out to try and see anything interesting through the sunny clouds 35,000ft below us before attempting to sleep away the last 3 hours of the flight.

Nearly 10 hours on a plane. In the same seat, no less. Leads to some restless feet and a lack of feeling in your tush. Somehow, I never got up to use the washroom. The snoring couple behind us made up for that though, taking turns getting up and bumping our seats I swear every hour.

The time change from Vancouver to Italy is 9 hours. It's close to 10:30am right now, nearly mid day. We tried getting to sleep earlier the past couple days at home, but it really doesn't make sense to shave more than a few hours off the time difference. So melatonin will hopefully help us dim down the effects of jet lag a bit. It'll be a little adjustment that's for sure.

Transfer time was 40 minutes in Munich, but our pilot is rushing us in somehow and cutting down about 45 mins worth of flying time. A shortcut maybe? Carson and I need all the time we can get because our connection turned from 2 hours to 45 minutes when our first flight got delayed. Hopefully we can make this connection no problem.

MUNICH

A flavourful bean and rice wrap and some Greek yogurt were served for breakfast on the plane, even though it was about 2pm in Germany at this point.

As we snacked, I thought about where we were headed and what it would be like. 'Cibo Italiano' - Italian food awaited us. Though we'd been warned that the complete change in culture may be overwhelming, I was less worried about that than I was about just finding our way around. I've spent all of my life in one of the smallest cities in Canada. And I've only lived within the city limits for a couple of years so I've hardly been exposed to a bustling city atmosphere.

The pilot brought the plane down at 2:54pm, Germany time. I didn't get a good look at the city, but saw the lovely countryside instead, dotted with small fields outlined by dark green trees. The houses were primarily white with dark red roofs and stood out against the different greens of the fields. I love views from the air like this, reminds one of how small we all actually are.

Landing went smoothly and we exited our giant plane out onto the tarmac. We made our way to our next gate, got asked a few questions from a German police officer at the passport check, and onto the next plane we went. Traveling with only carry on bags was the smartest thing we could have done, or else we wouldn't have made our connecting flight.

ITALY

Once on the plane, it was just a short 2 hour hop over the Alps, then the Mediterranean, and with a lovely view of Mt Vesuvius we found ourselves landing in Naples. Excitement became apparent, and then I could feel both Carson and I prepping for the expected harassment of "taxi" drivers just outside the terminal. Somehow, there were only 3 dudes yelling at us as we made our way to our airport shuttle bus and they didn't even follow us down the sidewalk or anything. Easy.

It was imediately overwhelming, to say the least. The bus ride was simple enough, but we had to take a little detour into Napoli Centrale to snag some free wifi from McDonald's before walking to our AirBnB.

I couldn't look at everything if I wanted to. There were little street tables and people hanging out and talking on the ground everywhere once you left the main streets. They didn't really bother us and we didn't dwell to look at anything to find out. Traffic buzzed by constantly, down every street. Creating 5 lanes out of 3, with scooters weaving through everyone, including people when we were forced down more narrow streets. They'd give a little "meep, meep" as they merged and wove in-between each other. Italians also walk with no fear, seeming to will traffic to stop as they start to walk into this crazy traffic, oblivious to the Fiat slamming on their brakes in front of them. Ballsy.

The hum of chatter also doesn't stop. I quickly developed a theory that in each pair of individuals, one of them was chatty. And I don't mean sharing a conversation and looking for a response from the other person. I mean yelling a long stream of words into their friends ear as they fly by on a scooter. Or continuing to rattle through their story as their friend stops to ask the bus driver for 2 tickets instead of 1, seemingly without a pause for breath. It's remarkable.

We met our Air BnB host on the street and she took us a few doors down a darker, more narrow road to the little apartment. It's adorable. One room with a small bathroom with a sliding door. There was a kitchen tucked in the back which was fully stocked with snacks, tea, coffee, a kettle, a microwave, and even a small mini-fridge. Our host left us and let us know to call them if we needed anything. Both Carson and I said 'Grazie' with big smiles that we couldn't seem to wipe off our faces - we'd made it!!

After checking out a few of the pamphlets on the counter and changing into some lighter clothes (it was 24⁰ outside), we decided to wander around and find some food. Dusk had fallen over the city, but the amount of people seemed to have doubled since we were last out. Looking down one of the sloping city streets you could see it was packed with people and scooters jetting around. They'd weave through traffic and you could feel them breeze past your shoulder. Cars were like that too, inches away.

We hadn't walked very far when my grumbling stomach spoke up and we decided to duck into the first pizza place we saw. Carson had just been talking about how fried pizza is a Napoli food that we had to try and sure enough, we'd entered a fried pizza joint. Through some basic (and non-existent) Italian we grabbed a seat inside and ordered our pizzas. They were out within minutes, piping hot and huge. I'd ordered provelona and tomato and Carson got a Classico with different kinds of meats, cheese, and veggies. Oh, it was so tasty! My cheese was so gooey and the sauce was so tangy and perfect. Carson and I could barely finish them off and when we did, we needed a minute before heading back out onto the street to wander around.

We basically just followed where interesting people and noises were. First, down a very busy street where a large flag had been dropped across the entrance. We passed by half a dozen more pizza joints, some dress shops, a wine, cheese and bread place, and more. Plus, churches. We probably walked past at least 3. Large stone columns and arches made them prominent against the skinny shop fronts.

We only got yelled at by two people on our evening stroll. The first, a lady calling out for people to come in and have some "pasta e pizza". Who knows if anyone listened to her shouts. The second, a kid on a scooter chastising us for not stopping for him as we walked across the street, almost colliding with him. Whoops.

Arriving back to the little apartment at just after 9, we both decided it was time to get some sleep. It was quieting down outside our door but our apartment did open up directly onto a street so the hum of cars was still there for a while. A busy first few hours in Italy to say the least.