If you have met me ever, I probably have mentioned something about my first Italy trip. Could be about the gelato, my train adventures, pizza, apero, the people and then something more about the delicious food. So, this trip was special to me in every possible sense. The seeds were sown somewhere in 2019, when I took my first ever solo trip. This was a pre reel era of Instagram and I was wiping through the beautiful pictures from Italy, some traveler blogger had posted. That moment, I really wished I wanted to go to Italy. Once at least. But it seemed so far from reality. Now jump to a year later, in 2020, when I decided to fly to Switzerland for my further studies. Trust me, one of the initial thoughts with this one decision was – Italy is right there. It could be possible. I started watching videos of Italy as much as I did for Switzerland. And since the day 1 in Switzerland, I knew my first trip was going to be ITALYYY!
And I planned this trip for months, applied for work scholarships at the school only to get money for this trip. When I plan, I plan in detail. I still have my documents, my excel sheets with every place I wanted to visit, each train number, time, everything. Just before going to Italy, I decided to go to Germany for a couple of days. I was staying at my cousins and a little more than a week before I had to leave for Italy, I hurt my foot. Real bad. Emergency doctor, X-rays, opinions of as many doctors as possible from India. I was stressed, in extreme pain and heart broken with the thought Italy might not happen. After being so close to my dream. I was furious when anyone would ask me why I was crying so much. So, I could not walk for nearly a week. I still would not cancel any bookings, any reservations because I still had hope. Till a day before I had to leave, I was walking around just to show that I could walk. I lied about having no pain. (Perhaps a risky move when I look back to it now). All bags packed, everything set, I slept that night, just with one intention – I wanted to leave for my dream vacation the next morning. This is one of the nights I think of if I were to talk about the magic of universe. I woke up feeling x 1o times better, if nothing at least confident of I could walk with all my bags.
Well, if you think that was the end of the story…
No.
I boarded the (first) train, from Germany, around 6 am that morning. Now you all know the German rules. I was in the train when my internet was acting up, the train app was glitchy and I was trying my best to show the pass to the ticket checker. My sim got blocked, I could not really do much till I was in Switzerland. Zurich was never a home except for that one day, where I was grateful of being somewhere I knew how everything worked. Spent a few hours there, dropped off a few luggage at a friend’s (trying to make everything as lighter as I could) I boarded the train to Milan. Before passing the border, I texted a close friend asking if I should just get off the next station and take a train back to Lucerne. She is a darling and told me exactly what I needed to hear – It is ITALY. My Italian summer dream is a few stops away.
I reach Milan to realized I booked the wrong kind of train to go from Milan to Naples. And mind you this was the first train in Italy. The overnight train to Naples was nightmare. I boarded the train 10 pm. Sitting in that train, I was regretting my every decision. It was a non-AC compartment, masks were still mandatory, washrooms were not functional. It has been 12+ hoors since I started my journey. And well I still was to buy an Italian sim card, so my phone was completely useless. I made it through, reached Naples. First thing I did was buy the sim card. It was summer in Naples, so the scorching heat was not helping in any way. Another train and a bus ride later I finally reached Positano – my first destination in Italy.
Every possible thing went wrong till this point. I had anticipated nothing from what had happened. But the next morning, when I was at that beautiful, vast blue sea, on the Amalfi coast, with the entire beach almost for myself, I felt nothing but gratitude. Gratitude towards the universe who worked its magic and helped my reach on of my biggest dreams!