Meledo was my fourth camp during my first year, and I did more outside of camp than at any of the eight I’ve worked. I went to Verona twice (once for an opera in an outdoor Roman arena), Soave (a wine town), Vicenza, Gardaland (Italian Disneyland), Riva del Garda (a lakeside town and one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been), wine tasting, honey tasting and candle making, and more. In 2 weeks. So I knew I’d have a bus 36 hours during my trip back.
My former director Raffaella served as Activity Planner. She set me up at an agriturismo, which is like an educational B&B on a farm, in a nice room. I was the only guest in the place, which was kinda cool and kinda scary movie plot.
On Friday morning she took me on a mini sightseeing/running errands trip, and everywhere we went she ran into someone she knew and they’d chat for 15-20 minutes so I’d try to practice my Italian and then get bored and wander off to some interesting-looking shop. Quite a change from guiding my Mom to being guided and stopping for conversations with locals.
In the afternoon we went into Vicenza, the nearest city, with Raffaella’s young cousin and one of Raffaella’s friends, both Elenas. It’s not a tourist hotspot but it is rich in architectural history. Palladio was an important 16th Century architect who built many of his most famous structures in Vicenza and the surrounding area.
The main tourist attraction is Palladio’s Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, which I missed 2 years ago. It was built in 1580 as the world’s first indoor theater. The stage is permanently set like a city, with three large doors to streets made with perspective to look much longer than they are. There was a very short man working security and one of the Elenas told me that she once came with her family and they asked him to tell someone backstage to walk out so they could see the perspective better. Instead, he walked to the back of the main street, where he looked normal-sized, but by the time he reached the front he looked way too small. Not what they were hoping for.
The theater is filled with statues, which Raffaella explained were made from paper instead of marble or granite. I spent most of our time in there wondering how this was possible, especially since they had been there for over 400 years. It wasn’t until my current host mom was telling me about the theater and mentioned how everything is made from wood that I realized what she meant to say.
Throughout our time in Vicenza I had a really interesting conversation with the elder Elena, who is around my age, and Raffaella, about the American military in Vicenza. The largest US base in Italy is there, and they are in the process of expanding it to become the largest in Europe, drawing thousands of troops from German bases. I want to fact-check all of this, but it’s probably true, and I was a little unnerved about how I knew nothing of this, and I’m guessing you probably didn’t know anything either.
They both opposed the base from the start, partially because of security reasons for the town and partially because of opposition go the American military in general. They said that a lot of the base’s initial supporters have been disappointed to see that the construction is not benefitting local business. It’s an issue that I’ve brought up with my new family and intend to ask more people in this area for their opinion. I’m also hoping to visit the current base if possible, since apparently all I need to enter is a US passport.
Dinner was the grand Meledo reunion. A few of the campers were related, so I had two campers who were brother and sister, and their half-brother was in the younger class. Their cousin was also in my class, so it was all of their grandparents’ house. But the brother-sister were on their way back from Croatia with their father, and since the brother is one of my all-time favorite campers I was bummed about that but maybe I’ll get to see him since I’m only 10 minutes away for the next two weeks. We had our final dinner there two years ago, which ended with an hour of camp songs and games and they all came to the station the next morning to say goodbye again.
But that was two years ago, which is a very long time in a kid’s life. And unlike the Casteldaccia bunch, these kids were always reluctant to speak English and a little quieter in general. So for the first hour or two they didn’t want to say anything in English and weren’t too interested in talking to me in Italian either. But the younger brother, Nico, who was a spacey 7 year-old last time turned into a very aware and eager-to-speak-English young fellow. And after Raffaella told him to say “Have you seen…?” I was bombarded with “Have you seen Twlight?!” “Have you seen Tintin?!” “Have you seen Scooby Doo?!” His eyes got really big for this last one. And the other kids joined in, suddenly impatient and wanting to get their English questions in.
They jokingly said I should pick grapes with them tomorrow, at the vineyard right behind our dinner table, and I took them up on the offer, although I woke up at 7:45, not at 5:30 like the rest of them. 9 year-old Nico was my teacher, showing me how and where to cut the vines. We chatted in English, Spanish, and Italian, and it was a lot of fun. Their parents and grandparents were also working, and they all seemed to be in good spirits even though the temperature was already climbing into the 90s. The grandfather (who bellows whenever he speaks and seems more Texan than any other Italian I’ve met) was cutting grapes in a City Camps hat, putting his grandson’s hat to good use.
After that 45 minutes, Raffaella and I left for Apicoltura Pizzato, the apiary where I got a bunch of Acacia honey two years ago. The same beekeeper was there, and I told her how when I had to bring a special object to my Coro interview in New York and explain it before 150 people, I chose the empty honey jar. I told her that to me it represented all the people I met in Italy and the adventures I had, and that it still had the same wonderful smell. She cried and gave me a hug, and it was a pretty incredible moment to share with this woman who I had only known for a few hours two years ago. Of course I bought more honey, and she gave me a little jar of Tarrassaco, her new dandelion honey.
Raffaella dropped me off at my next camp with new directors, new co-tutors, and a new family, which I will have a lot to say about (good things) in my next post!
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