Italia - Campioni Del Monde!

July the 9th 2006.
This is a day I'll be telling my grandkids about. "I remember the night I was in Sorrento when Italy won the World Cup".

The feeling of standing in the middle of a small Southern Italian town wrapped in an Italian flag, drinking wine on the street and cheering along with almost the entire population as Italy won the penalty round to become the Campioni del Monde is one that I can't really describe. And there was a full moon.
The crowd literally errupted after the last goal. Flags, fireworks, mini bombs that seemed to explode next to your feet, scooters carrying eight people and ten huge flags each, cars and trucks over flowing with people painted in green, red and white and that song! The Italian team's theme song was the bass line from "Seven Nation Army" by the White Stripes. I will never hear that song and not think of Italy again.
We (Brett, Melissa, Hannah and I) watched the celebrations, ate gelati and drank wine until we ran into Andrea, the waiter I had met a couple of nights ago dancing down the road with a huge flag in his hands and on his face. So, he and his friends took us to a club and we partied until the early hours of the morning.
When we had danced ourselves out, we attempted to get a cab but as there was none, Andrea took us back to our camp site two at a time on his moped. There is nothing quite as thrilling as racing up a winding cliff road on the back of a tiny scooter at 3am in Italy.
Then Andrea, who seemed to have taken a fancy to me, took me down a "road" (which I swear had steps) to a cliff that had the most amazing view of the bay of Naples. I must admit it was a little bit romantic. The total Sorrento experience. Apparently, I am welcome back whenever I like.

I left early the next morning for Rome where I spent one sleepless night (way too hot) before flying back to Berlin for a night. I stayed with Bianca, who I'd run into in the subway on my last night in Berlin the week before, in her fabulously cool and cheap apartment in the East. She had some other Aussie dancers (none of whom lived in Australia anymore... who does nowadays anyway???) staying with her, so we caught up on gossip, ate some tasty pasta (rivalling some of the ones I'd had in Italy), drank some wine and ended up at the local chatting until could barely keep our eyes open. On the way back home we felt a bit hungry (naturally at 1am), so as we passed a bakery that had it's window open and convinced them to sell us some fresh bread. There is nothing better than fresh warm bread at 1am in the morning!

When I woke up the next morning, I managed to get to the airport with 5 mins to spare to check in! But I made it... even if I had to run. With a backpack. In 30 degree heat. Not pretty.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful and as soon as I got back to Helsinki I came down with a nasty cold so I've been lying low for the last couple of days.
It's nice to be back, but I'm still dreaming of Italy.

By the sweet Sorrento moon indeed.