ADA - part I

Intensity.

The Accademia dell'arte is a 14th century villa atop the town of Arezzo in Tuscany, Italy. Yep...it is bellisimo, but traveling to it was probably the most grueling and adventurous activity I've ever engaged in. I guess I'll start from the beggining.

Traveling to Italy checked off a lot of firsts for me: first flight, first train ride, first taxi ride, first foreign excursion, first time being completely alone and cut off from the world that I know. I left my parents outside of security in Charlotte Douglas International and snaked my way to my flight to Washington Dulles. On the plane I sat next to an Indian man dressed in a business suit who I fancied was terrified of the window because he got up to let me sit next to it; I was glad for it though. I couldn't help feeling sick as I stared out of the window of the plane as it climbed thousands of feet into the sky. From the bird's eye, everything looks so insignificant.

From Washington I found my flight to Rome and waited for a couple of hours for it to board.
Funnily enough I sat in between two Italian women: an elderly one and a young one. I talked with them until our sections were called. I had a middle seat in the economy cabin, which is a simple way of saying I didn't sleep at all over the 8 hour flight.

The most interesting adventure occurred after I cleared customs and scrambled through passport control and baggage claim. On my way to the train I met an American guy that I recognized from my flight and figured I'd ask him where he was headed because traveling alone was getting old. He thought that my inability to relax and wheel my luggage skillfully was hilarious but he helped me find where I needed to go and we shared a train to Roma Termini. Roma Termini, on the other hand, was lonely, big, and miserable. I attempted to find my connecting train to Arezzo which proved to be a bust. I walked hopelessly up and down the wrong railway for hours, asking Italians if they spoke English and having mini panic attacks along the way. By this point I was exhausted and just wanted to get to the Villa so I decided to use Sheryl's phone she gave me and call one of ADA's emergency numbers. Somehow, some way I ended up finding the train I needed to take....

I remember standing between two platforms trying to decide whether of not I wanted to accept that this was indeed the magical train that would lead me to a bed, when a railway worker approached me and asked me something in Italian. We then proceeded to try to communicate with one another over whether or not this was indeed my train. I finally decided it was and went to sit in a compartment 2 hours before its scheduled leaving time, staring blankly out the window. The Italian man walked up, saw me sitting there alone and looking disgruntled, stared back and motioned for me to come outside so I stood up, exasperated, and figured I might as well wait outside. I'd seen him smoking earlier and decided I was going to bum a cigarette if it was the last thing I ever did. So I sat down and smoked as he asked for my name in broken English.

Once I got on the train I felt a little better, but for two hours I doubted whether or not my train was going to Arezzo after all. Eventually it did and I bounded out of it after an Italian couple (mostly because I couldn't figure how to work the train's door by myself). I lugged my suitcase and carry-ons up three flights of stairs out to exit the train station, praying that the taxi the ADA called was there, which it was. The driver threw my luggage in the back, I got in, and he drove me to the villa like a mad man, weaving through traffic seamlessly. He dropped me off outside of the yellow stucco building and I thought my heart would fail on the spot. I can't remember a time when I felt so much relief.

That would be part of day one...the journey took almost two days, but the end of it marks the beginning of villa life.