Ting! Ting! Who made this pasta?

by Reatlegile Phiri (South Africa)

A leap into the unknown South Africa

A solo trip is one experience I had never imagined doing in my life. The thought of getting lost while using public transport, asking for directions from strangers and getting brushed off like a creep, oh! And have you watched the movie, Taken? Unfortunately for me my dad is late and I don’t know of anyone that well-trained and connected to go through all those extremes just to find me. An idea to visit an old friend, Richard in Italy came about from a cancelled trip to Paris and Addis Ababa. Long story short I decided that I would make it a solo trip as it would have been in bad taste to continue to pursue the original plans without certain people partaking. It was during the Football World Cup season in July that Richard suggested that I come visit him in Milan. The idea took me a while to process, it wasn’t shock or anything. When it eventually sank in, I agreed and ran with the idea all the way to my spreadsheet. Yes, I create spreadsheets for everything, from my monthly expenses to what I will be cooking for dinner weekly. Milano! Here I come. In the midst of all the researching, I practiced a bit of Italian, this time without the help from a spreadsheet, I only relied on Google. I told my brother that I plan to visit a restaurant in Italy and order their best pasta and while enjoying it I was going to dramatically throw my fork down, pull out my chair while seated and call for the waiter and shout “who did this?” and in my scenario I would get a response like “what Madam?” then I would stand up and shout in my fake Italian accent “Who made this pasta? Bravo Bravo” while making the Italian hand gesture and everyone would laugh and give me a glass of wine on the house. I was so excited I even imagined silly encounters with Italians like I was in some low-grade movie. November was months away, I mean I hadn’t even put in my leave at work. November finally arrived and I departed to Rome where I had to catch my connecting flight to Milan. I got my connecting flight to Milan two hours after landing. At that point I was over the excitement of travelling, I felt sweaty and sticky and not having a phone connected to a working network didn’t help my situation. I texted Richard as agreed and when he didn’t respond, I ended up buying a sim card at the airport info desk for 50 Euros. In my head that was about R50, quite steep for a sim card but not too bad until I got a notification. I had spent over R500 for a sim card, a stupid microchip thingy. When Richard arrived I told him the story and he was not impressed. Imagine, it was my money gone down the drain, not his but he was the one annoyed, the trip was off to a fantastic start. We bought the metro transit ticket which gave us access to the metro train, busses and trams, it was about 7 Euros and it was a 7-day pass. I was in shock, I mean in South Africa even the most unreliable mode of transport is quite pricey. I then noticed something quite interesting about the transport system in Italy, it was not only well centered and reliable but it seemed everyone used public transport. After we arrived we walked through the city. That side of Milan he lived in was quite dilapidated, there was a lot of graffiti, and I got the feeling of a free spirit and rebellious kind of community. I actually liked that feeling, it made the city feel more alive, almost like it is not trying hard to impress but be its authentic self that reflects the inevitability of changing times. I then knew at that moment that I had chosen the perfect holiday destination and that there was no need to put on a show at some restaurant because I can still be myself.