Lecco, Italy - July 24th

Again this morning I took my time getting up and ready. We had plans to spend the day at Lake Como just an hour train ride away. I met up with Connie, Frank, Kara, and Chelsea and we set off towards the metro. There was not much chance of us making the 12:40 train, so we took our time and ate lunch at the Kabap restaurant on the way. Kara had met a guy named Carlo a few nights before at the Ramada bar. He was the bartender and did a good job from what Kara said. However, he was yelled out by his boss that night and ended up quitting. He lived in Lecco and was going to meet us at the station there. At the station in Milan, we called him to find out which station to get off at. He grew irritated at us for not knowing which one to get off at, so we got a station worker to tell us. The ride was uninteresting for the most part, aside from a man receiving head in a public park beside the railroad tracks while people played soccer nearby.

At the Lecco station, we met up with Carlo. He expressed how irritated he was with Kara for missing the earlier train. He had wanted to take us the Bellagio on Lake Como but because we arrived an hour or two late, the streets of Lecco had been closed off for a bike race. He became more irritated when all five of us tried to pile into his little car. Apparently he had told Kara only 3 or 4 people could come with her, but she had told him 5 were coming. We eventually reasoned with him to take us to his house, so we could grab a drink to take the edge off.

It was a wild ride with all of us crammed in the back while Carlo navigated the city's narrow streets. The traffic was pretty bad because of the bike race, and Carlo kept saying how he needed to ask Kara something in private. My first impression of him was that he had schemed us into coming to Lecco when we intended on going to Como. Although Lecco was beautiful, there was not a beach we could hang out at. At his house, we stood out on the balcony and had champagne while enjoying the view of the mountains all around. The guy had a really nice bachelor pad for a bartender. He showed us the upstairs where he had a workout room and fairly large bedroom. We waited downstairs while he "changed". When he came back down, he had only put on a different pair of shorts, which were the exact same as his other shorts in every way except they were a slightly different color. By this time, we were all really sketched out about this guy and wanted to get the hell out of Lecco, but he said he would take us to a beach and later on we would go to a bar and pizzeria.

Back in his car, we took a short drive to a nearby town outside Lecco. Carlo blasted his jazz music the whole way to the bar. We parked and walked down to a small section of rocky beach. There, we laid out and relaxed for a few hours.

When it came time for apertivo, we walked back up to the bar and got drinks. Connie and I played Carlo and Chelsea in Foosball, and when they beat us, we had to buy them both drinks. He was way too serious about the rules for us. After apertivo, we went to his friend's pizzeria. It was a really nice, authentic looking Italian pizzeria....except they were playing "Eye of the Tiger", "Ghost Busters", and some Queen. Still, the food was amazing. We had plenty of local wine and talked about Frank being a Colonel in the U.S. Army. Carlo, who prides himself on "breaking balls" claims he breaks more balls than Frank. Of course, Carlo, claiming to have served in the Italian army, only seemed to break the girls' balls. Towards the end of the meal, I began getting nervous about the time. The last train back to Milan left at 10:50, but Carlo kept putting on that he wanted us to stay the night and have us leave at 5 AM the next morning. None of us had any intention of staying at this possibly psychotic man's house for the night. We kept telling him we had to go, and he kept drinking more wine and ordered us a round of Lemon cello. We finally convinced him that we were not going to stay with him and it was imperative that we catch the train home.

We climbed back into the tiny car and with the radio blaring Italian rock music (and Carlo singing along between cursing at Milanese people driving back after vacationing for the weekend), drove to the station. Surprisingly enough, we managed to get to the platform with time to spare. We even got a free ride back because the ticket machines were broken. We said good bye to Carlo and much to our relief boarded the train when it arrived. On the trip back, Kara and Frank bestowed on us their extensive knowledge of the relationships between men and women. Carlo called a few times to drunkenly sing to Chelsea, who he believed to be Kara.

At the dorm, we swapped stories of the weekend with the other students who had returned before going to bed.