Italy has entered ‘phase two’ today, after weeks of being locked up in the house. The lockdown measures have been eased a little, but to temper expectations right away: not that much has changed yet. Schools are still closed, just like the restaurants, and everyone still has to fill in a form when going outside. One of the reasons why the Italians are happy however with ‘phase two’ is because a box has been added to the form: as of today you can indicate that you are going on a family visit. Finally being able to see your parents, brother or sister again after two months, made for many happy messages on my social media feed this morning. That family is considered very important in Italy is proven by the fact that up to sixth grade family members can be visited, while unfortunately it remains forbidden for now to drop in at your friend’s place.
In the spring, when the worst cold had gone away, Lucas was so fed up with Rome’s public transport that he decided to permanently rent a scooter. Almost daily, he would pick me up and we would drive all over Rome
Where in the Netherlands we are allowed to go to others – of course respecting the mandatory distance – making me see my friends from time to time, this doesn’t apply to my foreign friends of course. One of the most precious things Italy has given me are friends. Including Lucas (pronounce as: Lucà, the French way), a born and raised Parisian who, in many aspects, couldn’t differ from me more. While me and my friends went on a beach holiday in Spain when we were seventeen, Lucas was already flying all over the world with his ballet company. He has lived in many different places: Brazil, Turkey, Vietnam and Brussels, but of course also in Rome. Exactly during the same year that I lived there too. We were part of a large group of friends and many fun nights out took place. In the spring, when the worst cold had gone away, Lucas was so fed up with Rome’s public transport that he decided to permanently rent a scooter. Almost daily, he would pick me up and we would drive all over Rome: to the Gianicolo hill with its breathtaking view and through the narrow streets of Monti where the Colosseum slowly loomed up in front of us. A friendship for life was born.
We spent four summers in a row in Italy since we couldn’t think of any other place to go than our former homeland
After our Roman adventure had come to an end in the summer of 2016, I visited him in Brussels and in the years that followed Lucas became my regular travel buddy. Last week, when I was scrolling through the photos on my phone, I realised how many places we’ve already visited together. I texted him immediately with the announcement that he was the only candidate in my ‘big corona anti-boredom quiz’. There was a fantastic price to be won: a dinner consisting of a pizza with San Daniele prosciutto and a gelato frutti di bosco (his favourites that he would order for five days in a row without even looking at the menu). The idea was simple: I would sent him photos of places where we have been together and he had to guess where and when the photo was taken. Images of Pisa, Genoa, Positano, Rome, Parma, Calabria, Cinque Terre, Capri and Naples followed (we spent four summers in a row in Italy since we couldn’t think of any other place to go than our former homeland), just as images of Bangkok, Saigon, Brussels and Paris. “Seeing all those photos only makes me want to travel more, so when do we hit the road again?”, he texted at one point in the middle of the quiz. “You should ask President Macron,” I replied. Because who knows? I recognize his feelings like no other. Of course, I am eagerly looking forward to the moment when I can go back to Rome, but at the same time do these months ahead of us seem awfully empty. It simply doesn’t completely feel like summer if we don’t go on an (Italian) adventure together.
The best part of traveling with Lucas is that we both don’t really see the danger in anything and that’s exactly how we get to experience the coolest things and how we get to see the most beautiful places
The best part of traveling with Lucas is that we both don’t really see the danger in anything and that’s exactly how we get to experience the coolest things and how we get to see the most beautiful places. At the same time, you can probably imagine that on every trip we go, we encounter at least one rather tricky situation that we have to get ourselves out of. Not entirely coincidental this often has to do with a motorized vehicle. Because lying on a beach bed all day, is not exactly our type of holiday. Well, not for Lucas at least.
In good spirits we however started our trip, ignoring the fact that we couldn’t really see anything as it was pitch black, only to be terrified when a car kept driving super close behind us for kilometers
Last summer, when Lucas came to visit me in Naples, we of course immediately headed for the scooter rental shop. We thought it would be fun to drive down to the Amalfi coast, but how long the trip would take exactly and which route we had to take, would all become clear on the way, right? When after an hour we accidentally ended up in a kilometer-long tunnel where we could barely breath due to the stench – we would soon discover that scooters were not even allowed on this highway – we realised we had missed an exit somewhere. Despite all this, we arrived in the fairytale-like Positano with only an hour’s delay where we immediately forgot about getting lost. We had a lovely day, which ended with an outside dinner in Amalfi. After we had paid the bill and opened Google Maps to check how long our way back would take, it was already half past nine. We learned it would take us almost three hours. Oops. In the afternoon, I had swum in the sea and as I had completely forgotten to bring dry underwear and a sweater, I had already gotten pretty cold now that the sun had set and my dress wasn’t dry yet. Since we had taken a completely wrong way through the tunnel that morning, we had no idea of the tough way back that awaited us: unlit roads with countless hairpin turns right through the cold mountains. In good spirits we however started our trip, ignoring the fact that we couldn’t really see anything as it was pitch black, only to be terrified when a car kept driving super close behind us for kilometers. In the end, it turned out the good man did this for us to better see the winding road in front of us in the glow of his car’s headlights. When we had finally crossed the mountains and we could see Naples in the distance, we were so frozen that we literally cursed out loud at every cold gust of wind. When we came across a gas station, we pulled over to run around in circles, waving our arms and legs wildly in a desperate attempt to stimulate our blood circulation and warm up a little. Passers-by must have thought we were totally crazy but we didn’t care the least: all we could think about was getting warm again. Needless to say, the beer and vino we drank when we finally got back to Naples after midnight, tasted better than ever.
My heart almost pounded out of my chest as I commanded Lucas to steer our little boat diagonally into the gigantic waves in an attempt not to capsize
And so there were other adventures that always turned out well in the end. There was that time we rented a rubber boat in the small fisher village of Porto Venere and sailed to the other side of the bay, to be completely frightened on our way back by a deep, roaring ship’s horn that almost made me fall out of the boat. We had ended up in the middle of a shipping lane and both from our left and our right side, two gigantic cargo ships were approaching us. My heart almost pounded out of my chest as I commanded Lucas to steer our little boat diagonally into the gigantic waves in an attempt not to capsize. Our boat contained a GPS-tracker so when we returned at the rental company acting like we came back from a purely relaxing boat trip, the owner was waiting for us on the quay in total disbelief, staring at our route. Then there was that time that I was sitting on the back of Lucas’ scooter in the Asian metropolis Saigon and we found ourselves completely stuck in the middle of a traffic jam between hundreds of other scooters, trying to get ourselves out of it by going against the driving direction. Our tactics? Lucas honked and hit the gas, while I kept my eyes shut in a frantic attempt to ignore my thoughts about what would happen if people here would start panicking en masse. There were the crazy tuktuk rides in Bangkok, recklessly ripping through traffic in Thailand’s capital, and that time we simply waited for over twenty minutes in our cosy Fiat 500 on a desolated dusty road in the mountains of Calabria until the two cars in front of us finished doing some ‘business’. We instinctively felt that we’d better not honk on them or ask them to move out of the way. With the doors of our car safely locked we pretended not to be witnessing anything at all.
Lucas texts me enthusiastically: while checking his family tree, he discovered that one of his distant ancestors was a distinguished noble Italian from Siena
But besides these (I guess a little too) exciting adventures, there were lots of delicious pizzas, ancient villages with the most friendly inhabitants, scopa tournaments (an Italian card game) on rocky beaches, waking up overlooking the sea in the most authentic B&B’s, and evenings when we simply enjoyed the serene sunset with a cold beer in our hands. Whether all of this can still happen this summer remains a big unknown for everyone. A French and a Dutch setting off for an adventure in Italy, isn’t exactly the first priority now and more likely, rather impossible. The first step however would be to show that we are – by some kind of miracle – sixth grade relatives, preferably with heritage in Italy. The next minute, Lucas texts me enthusiastically: while checking his family tree, he discovered that one of his distant ancestors was a distinguished noble Italian from Siena. Well, it’s a good start at least. Time for me to check my family tree as well…