Road trip through Italy

A road trip? What's that?

Yes, I know that we are writing in Spanish (original version of this text) but on a social network which is as international as this one, I think that everyone should know what the word "road trip" means. Even though I am a big defender of using words in Castillian Spanish rather than English words, but no one can deny that "road trip" sounds a million times better than viaje por carretera de larga distancia or "a long-distance trip on the motorway". The thing is that my friends and I had gone almost a year not seeing each other, so I decided to organise a trip through Italy, taking advantage of the fact that I was in Florence working and that our other friend had several houses through the North of Italy (he must have been from Milan).

Our stops

The plan was the following:

• My friend from Milan picked up all of the others from Milan airport.
• They went to see an important volleyball match in Modena.
• They came to Florence to see me and spend a day there.
• They picked me up and we all went together to Camogli, a coastal city.
• We all went to Busca in the countryside, which is very near to the Alps.
• We visited Milan, then everyone went back home.

I planned out everything really prettily in my diary.

Day 1: Modena

In theory, I was meant to work this day, but a series of events or the universe itself agreed to give me a day off. Also, there was a place to go and watch a volleyball game. I didn't think about it for more than a second, I went straight to Modena to meet up with my friends and enjoy watching a volleyball match. Some would call it luck, I call it karma.

To get from Modena to Florence, I took a train from the Santa Maria Novella de Florencia Station and then I had to change in Bologna centre. From here, I took another train which took me to Modena, where I waited for my friends to pick me up and go to the match together. I was really happy because it had been so long since I had last seen them. When I saw them, I couldn't stop hugging them.

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In Modena, we had a bit of time to look around the city. Well, I say we were doing tourist things but what I actually mean is getting a bit lost in the city centre when looking for something to eat. The truth is that the city doesn't have a lot and it was empty, I don't know if it was because everyone was working or because they were having a siesta - or if there really wasn't anyone in this city. However, it was very pretty with its colourful houses and cobbled streets.

When we arrived at the Town Hall Square we couldn't stop laughing. There was a small area of stagnant water which had a reflection of the square in it. So here we started to muck around to take the perfect photo, well if you get down, now you stand on this side, now do this...

Then, we went to the sports centre where the final of the National Volleyball League was being played. We found our seats in the stand and we enjoyed two intense matches: France against Russia and Italy against the United States. I had never been to a professional volleyball match before and it was surprising. The points are long and the players are very good and strong. There were even little songs for every event and at the end of the day I was the first one to jump up and scream, to moan and to celebrate the points!

When the game was over, it was time for us to go back to Florence and sleep, I had to work the next day.

Day 2: Florence

I had to face the biggest early morning of the century, but I didn't care. Whilst I was working, my friends went to do some tourism around Florence.

It was the birthday of my friend who had come on the road trip, so as soon as I finished work I literally went back running to celebrate it. Our Italian friend who already knew Florence took us the terrace of Hotel Cavour to have something to drink. The hotel was right in the centre and it had incredible views, especially of the sunset. On one side, we had the Palazzo Vecchio, and on the other side you could see the incredible Brunelleschi's Dome.

The price of cocktails was a bit expensive, but the truth is that it was worth it. Firstly, for all the effort that they put in to make them, for example, a wine under a cloud of smoke. And secondly for the incredible views of the city. And it wasn't even full, so we were happy and there wasn't a racket. I seriously felt like a VIP.

Later, I took them to a pub which was famous for attracting a lot of tourists in Florence, the Red Garter. As we are a very diverse friendship group, each one of us with a different nationality, I thought that this pub which played American chart songs would be perfect. The only problem? That it was very full and with how hot it is in Florence, it can become unbearable.

On the way back home, something unbelievable happened. Let me explain. Florence is a tourist city. Very touristy. Too touristy. Also, Florence is a small city. Very small. Too small. With narrow streets and not much space to walk. During the day it is full with tourists and it is impossible to cross the Duomo square without being crammed in with loads of people, or to take a photo without anybody bothering you. It is even impossible to speak normally, because there is so much noise that you can't hear the person next to you. During the night though, my friends, it is a whole other story. In the evening, all the tourists that have spent their day going around the city are peacefully sleeping in their beds, relaxing and recharging their batteries for the next day. In the night, there is nobody in Florence.

I am going to demonstrate this with the following photos that we took, right in front of the Baptistery. There is no-one else in the photos. And there are photos that we took sat on the Duomo stairs. Florence is really nice at night. There is nobody there to bother you and you can stop to admire the monuments peacefully.

Day 3: Camogli

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Again, I had to work. But it didn't matter, because the only thing that I could think about was getting back into the car and going to the beach. This was our next destination, the coast of Liguria. This coast is characterised by having small, narrow and rocky beaches. But surprisingly, it is also the coast where the majority of Northern Italians spend their summer holidays. It is very mountainous, but when we got there and parked the car at the top of the town we could see the sea from up above and it was beautiful to go down.

As soon as we arrived, we quickly left everything in the apartment, put our swimming costumes on and ran down to the beach. Nothing and nobody was going to take the excitement away from us of going in the cold water, even if this meant having to stand on a really rocky shore. I was really surprised to see small children running barefoot when I couldn't even stand up.

After a relaxing and fun dip, we went back home to get ready for dinner. Our Italian friend had organised a restaurant to go to for dinner, literally right next to the sea. However, we couldn't resist stopping halfway to take photos with the sunset.

The restaurant was really good and being a coastal town, the speciality was obviously fish. In fact, he told us that once a year they take out a giant pan, like one for paella, and fry all of the fish... the whole town has an oily smell, but they have a really good time.

Day 4: Punta Chiappa and Busca

We woke up with some delicious chocolate croissants, or as they call them here, "cornetti". Our Italian friend who knew the whole area already had a plan for today, but he didn't want to tell us what it was. We only knew that we had to wake up early and go to get food.

For lunch, we went to the town bakery and we had some foccacias. Nobody except for the Italian knew what they were, but he assured us that they were really good and so we tried them for lunch.

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He took us to the port and he bought us a ferry ticket each. It was here where he told us where we were heading: Punta Chiappa. We were indifferent about the name, but he told us that we were going to like it, so nobody complained and we got on the ferry.

From the ferry, you could see the houses in Camogli, all colourful. They say that every house is painted a different colour so that when the fishermen go out to sea, they can distinguish and spot their house from the distance. Maybe it is a bit of a romantic tale, but it is at least a bit interesting.

The place where we stopped was literally a dock and a mountain road going upwards. I looked doubtfully at my friend and asked him a million times if he was sure that this was our stop, since nobody else on the ferry was getting off here. And he assured me a million and one times back that yes, this was it. So there was no other solution but to shut up and walk uphill and enter the small woods.

When we arrived, our faces completely changed. It was amazing. We were like on top of an enormous rock with a little house at the top. On one side we could see the village of Camogli far away and on the other side we saw the mountainside, dense and green.

Some of my friends gathered the strength and courage needed to jump off from a rock into the sea. However, I didn't do it and I went down the really cute little stairs. The water was very clean and you can even get a glimpse of all the sea creatures under the surface. We spent some very peaceful and relaxing hours there, where we could only hear the waves of the sea and the sea breeze.

After, we ate some delicious focaccias, which was bread which was similar to pizza but more oily.

We now had to go back to the apartment to get everything together, because we had to make our way to Busca.

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The change of landscape was brutal. We went from the coast of Liguria to the Piemonte countryside. This area is quite near to the Alpes, so it is a mountaineous zone. The temperature even went down by about 4 degrees Celsius and the air felt a lot more pure. On our arrival, there was a BBQ in store for our dinner.

Maybe it will make some people laugh, but coming from Madrid, I had never seen fireflies in my life. They were absolutely everywhere. I was amazed. It seemed like they wanted us to follow a path. It was like Christmas all over again, but in summer. It was magical.

Day 5: Saluzzo and Milán

Busca is a really cute village in the middle of the mountains. The problem is that it is basically in the middle of nowhere. But don't worry my friends, as our now re-baptised Italian tourist guide had something planned out for us. We went to visit a neighbouring village, Saluzzo, which had some little shops and bars.

On our return, we were met with a masterclass for making carbonara pasta before binging on it. It was our Italian friends mum who was happily awaiting us and who proudly served us the best carbonara that I have ever tried. In fact, thanks to her I wrote this post about how to make a perfect carbonara pasta, have a look.

Before going, we went to investigate the mountains for a bit, and we came across some marvels, like this one in the Valle Maira.

Now it was time to head back to the road. This time, we were now heading to our final destination, Milan. Even though it was a long journey with traffic, it was nothing that some good music couldn't solve.

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During the night we had an evening of limoncello and Guitar Hero because we were exhausted.

Day 6: Milán and the return home

We woke up feeling like bums the next morning and honestly, we didn't have the strength to get up early. My friends came with me to Milan Central Station (which, of course, was built by Mussolini) and then came the time to say goodbye. When I left, the others still had time to stay in Milan and do some tourism, but I had to go back to work. But it didn't matter because I promised myself that I would go back to see Milan one day.

The End!

There were some amazing days, full of laughter and fun. It had been a long time since I had seen my exchange friends and after an intense year of study, it was what I needed. We visited a lot of cities and I had a great time. They were some of the best days of my whole summer. I hope that we will do it again soon, maybe the next trip will be through Spain? Or maybe through the United States? Who knows?

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