Saturday night I was sitting in a dirty McDonald's in the Mestre train station waiting for my connection, ravenously eating crappy food. Outside the window, across the first set of tracks, I had my eye on several rats, fat shadows dimly illuminated by flickering overhead lights. They were scampering around, foraging. Eventually they climbed into a vending machine (I'm never eating out of a vending machine ever again). I was a little cold and had a splitting headache from being semi-dehydrated all day and then going a few hours too long without food. I'd tried to stop at a grocery store before getting on the first train in Verona, but the check-out line was long and moving slow so I just dropped my groceries right there and left without them since I had a train to catch.
When you don't have your own transportation and unlimited funds, I find that traveling often ends up like that. At least in my experience. Generally, the overarching theme of any day is good—it was so on Saturday—but in-between you have low-points where you realize you are not Rick Steves. It's those moments where you are glad you are traveling with a friend or two. They make even the sucky moments of traveling not so bad, and make it easy to laugh about later. Plus, it's the misadventures that make a good story.
That said, I'm still thankful for the picture-perfect moments I had in Verona Saturday afternoon. Verona is just far enough away and big enough that it's hard to make it into a day trip, but a day trip is what we did. We all started off at the Arena together, then disbanded to tour different parts of the city that captivated our interest. From there on out, it ended up being just me and Bryson, our one guy student. We had a really pleasant time exploring the outskirts of the historic district and enjoying il Giardino Giusti, a garden famed the most beautiful in Europe that dates back to the Renaissance. There was hardly anyone there so we just wandered around, conquering hedge mazes, breathing in the sweet, earthy air, marveling at ancient citrus and cyprus trees, laughing at little kids playing tag and rolling down a grassy hill. The smell reminded me of my 16th birthday, when my family took me to the Philadelphia flower show even though it was blizzard-ing. The theme of the show was Bella Italia, and that's when my love affair with Italy began. Andrew was in Italy here at SBI at the time (paving the way for me, per usual) and I remember missing him and wondering if I would ever get to go.
The gardens grow up a steep hill, so after a short walk and a climb up a tower to the highest terrace, we had a nice view of the city. We ate our sandwiches there, talking only if we felt like it. I think we both had our family's on our minds. Whatever the case, it was super relaxing.
After the gardens, we wandered around the city. I got much needed espresso. The day had started early for me because I had to (read: got to) drive to the bakery before breakfast to pick up our weekend supply of bread and the rolls for our sandwiches. I love my Saturday morning bakery trips. It's honestly a highlight of my week. There's nothing like stepping into a little corner shop that smells like yeast and flour and is pleasantly warm after the nippy morning air. Everyone is cheery even though they've been up since 4 or 5 AM, and Samuele always greets us with a smile and a "Good Morning," that sounds like he took English lessons from a German. Of course, I'm sure he could critique my "Buon Giorno."
After getting caffeinated we headed toward to the city center again. We stopped in at Juliet's house for forms sake and did a little shopping before we realized we'd better start back to the train station in the old part of the city. The sun was setting, and it was completely dark by the time we hopped on the train. We had to switch in Mestre, about the halfway point, and that's where we got dinner and watched the rats. We arrived in Casarsa a little after 11 and walked briskly to get to campus a bit before midnight. I've selfishly missed Beth and Leo a lot while I've been here, but particularly then. They were always so good about picking us up at the station so we didn't have to walk back late at night.
I slept solidly that night, and Sunday night too, which is good. We are headed into ministry week here. Before the more traditional college classes start, at SBI you do 3 weeks of a missions and evangelism class which culminates in one week of hitting the Italian streets and distributing tracts, teaching free ESL classes, and doing outreach performances and gospel presentations in the parks and piazzas of Pordenone. For me, when I was a student, it was a very challenging week, but also the best week of my time here. I'm excited to be involved in it again, starting tomorrow morning. God is faithful, you know? I feel like a jerk for saying that because I'm having a grand time here in Italy, so of course I think He is. But it's true. And yeah we have to drive through snowstorms to get to flower gardens and sit in rat infested train stations after flower gardens...but there are flower gardens. And ministry week will be hard (just ask the missionaries who do it full time) and it will look like nothing comes of it because the spiritual soil in Italy is very, very hard—like, so hard it's depressing and feels futile. But something will grow, is already growing, and it'll be beautiful because it'll be obvious that God was faithful and He did it, not us.
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