Yes, it sounds like a bad joke, and maybe it was! I just experienced both my first time taking a long journey by bus and my first time doing so with a bunch of Italians, and I wanted to share my experience.
Our group rented a full-sized bus, and Fra's brother, who works for the bus company, drove us. Our itinerary was Matera, Alberobello, and Locorotondo over a quick 24 hours. I learned a lot about traveling with Italians!
You'll Never Go Hungry on a Bus Full of Calabrians
I don't know if this happens all over Italy or just with Calabrians, who are OBSESSED with food. I'd heard about people packing a lot of food for travels, and it's true!
I cracked up as we were boarding because his cousin loaded a crate of oranges and a crate of wine bottles with the luggage. How Italian!
When lunch time rolled around, we took a break at a gas station parking lot. We'd brought sandwiches, but others started offering homemade polpette, pizza, wine, sweets, and fruit. It ended up being a pretty filling lunch!
This is something I adore about Italians: how generous they are. People actually baked cakes to share with the group!
Making Friends
I'd met about 70% of the people on the bus since they all live in Davoli, and half are related to Fra. But being on a bus for hours and exploring towns together gave me the opportunity to get to know them better.
I also got to connect the dots. I meet SO many people with Fra, and it's often hard for me to remember people, their names, or their connection to others. But on the bus, I met the best friend of Fra's mom, who is the mother of our esthetician. I met the best friend of our aunt, Mariantonia. And now they all know me a little bit better!
One of the best parts of the journey was watching Mamma enjoy herself. At home, she's constantly working or cooking, so it was wonderful to see her laughing and joking with friends. I felt we got closer on the trip.
One woman or another would take me under her wing for a stretch of our journey. One, as we walked through the presepe vivente (check out my post Monday to read about it), told me the history of Matera. Others shared stories of their family. It was beautiful.
I was a little nervous about being submersed in the Italian language with no break for two days, but I did marvelously. I had great conversations with everyone, and when I didn't understand, I wasn't shy about asking for clarification, the way I would have been a year ago.
But Oh, The Singing!
I got a little cultural lesson on the way home. Around 9 pm, the bus broke out into song. Okay, I don't begrudge them singing a song or two...but the performance went on for TWO HOURS! No one loves hearing themselves sing more than Italians!
After that, Fra's cousin, who, admittedly is quite hilarious, took the bus's mic and started telling joke. after. joke. Every time I thought he was done (I mean, c'mon, he thanked us for listening and turned off the mic!), he'd come back with another five-minute joke. Told in dialect, which meant I didn't really understand.
I was annoyed, but I realized I was the only one on the bus who was annoyed. So what could I do? I had to grin and bear it and kick myself for not bringing my noise-canceling headphones.
I'll share more about the places we visited in upcoming posts, but riding the bus with Calabrese was an experience in and of itself!
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