Sweat squeezing through my open pores, with each turn a
narrower and darker street emerges as numerous parked cars or buildings sit
centimeters from me. With vespa’s (aka mopeds)
passing at every possible opening, driving in Italy can definitely be a challenge,
especially at night where the streets are not as brightly lit as I am use to in
the states. Both times I exited the car
I made it clear I was not getting back in for at least two days so I could decompress. Our journey through Italy began in coastal
town of Trieste, passing under the bridges of Venice, and to the top of the
mountain in San Marino, with a few stops in between at Padova, Ferrara, and Ravenna (Rome was not on this trip
as I could not imagine trying to drive and navigate those streets).
Fortunately, there is no driving in Venezia, Italy, arriving
by train from the neighboring city of Padova, the journey was smooth. Beyond the road and rail land entrances at
the northern edge of the city, transportation within the city remains entirely
on water or on foot, even when moving houses you must move by waterway. It is located in the marshy Venetian Lagoon
which stretches along the shoreline, between the mouths of the Po and the Piave
Rivers. Venice is renowned for the beauty of its setting, architecture, and artworks. Consisting of 118 small
islands separated by canals and linked by bridges, the city has a population of
about 270,000. The city is listed as a
World Heritage Site, along with its lagoon.
Not surprisingly tourism is the major allure of the city, with a daily
average of 60,000 tourists a day, which for a city of unique
characteristics. The classical Venetian
boat is the gondola, used to transport tourists through the various
waterways. However, it is the tourism which
is also contributing to its demise.
Located just off the Adriatic Sea, Venice may soon have to ditch its
nickname of The Floating City - as it is sinking into the water more than five
times quicker than previously thought.
The city is slowly tilting to the east and heading out to the Adriatic
Sea, as it is hit by more floods than ever before. However, on this trip, we did not have to
worry about floods and were able to experience the city to its fullest.
Located about 3 hours south of Venice is the Republic of San
Marino. One of only a few enclaves in
the world today, San Marino is completely surrounded by Italy, situated on the
north-eastern side of the Apennine Mountains.
An enclave is any portion of a state that is entirely surrounded by the
territory of another state, other examples include Vatican City, Lesotho (which
is an enclave within South Africa), and West Berlin before the reunification of
Germany. Although it only borders
France, Monaco is not an enclave because it also possesses a coastline, thus,
it is not completely surrounded by another country. San Marino is very small, consisting of 24
square miles, it has an estimated population of 30K. San Marino claims to be the oldest surviving
sovereign state and constitutional republic in the world, as the continuation
of the monastic community founded in September 3, 301. The country's economy mainly relies on
finance and tourism and is considered to have a highly stable economy, with one
of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe, and no national debt.
Speaking of national debt, April 15 is a date which I am
sure all American’s are familiar with.
Living overseas for the past 2.5 years can definitely make things more
complicated. A colleague of mine in
Denmark commented that it was so easy to update his address when moving. He would change the address in one system, which
would trigger all banks, utilities, post offices, etc. to update. After submitting four taxes returns to the
Federal Government, and States of Illinois, New York, and Connecticut (and
Slovakia is due in the middle of the year), one could only imagine the smile on
my face when this morning I received a W2 correction. Hopefully my 2013 taxes will process faster
than my 2012, which were just resolved 2 months ago.
