Lucia Was Right!

Last year, when I had my interview to determine if I was going to Italy or not, right after the committee had finished, and I was walking out of the room, a professor in the Spanish dept., who just happens to be Italian, Lucia Binotti, asked me out of the blue how tall I was. I thought this was a strange question to ask, since it had absolutely nothing to do with the interview. I told her I was 5 ft. 10 and she said "well, while you're in Italy, you better not go to Sardegna, you will totally stick out". I asked why, and Prof. Luisetti, one of my Italian professors said "that is very true, they are very short there, you will be taller than everyone". Then my interview was finished and I kind of forgot about the whole thing.
This past weekend I actually went to Alghero, a beautiful city in Sardegna. I had found some ridiculously cheap flight on Ryanair and was going all alone to have a beach weekend. Well of course the day I arrived it was pouring down rain and quite cold. I managed to meet the friendliest girl from South Africa named Polly at the airport who decided to be my guide of Alghero. She had been living there for a few months, but during the winter while there is nothing to do. Since it was raining, Polly took me on a tour of Alghero's many "chinos" (what Spanish people call stores run by Asians). She also took me to a delicious pizza al taglio shop and through the historic center. We decided to meet up and cook dinner together at her place that night, then she was going to show me Alghero's nightlife. I had not been expecting to go out at all, because I was staying in an apartment all alone, a weekend of relaxation, but I was super excited to not be alone the whole time. We ate a yummy dinner of chicken, rucola and pasta, then went out to the sea to see what was going on. The first bar we went to was super crowded, but right away I thought of Lucia's warning. In my very flat pink sparkle TOMS, I was at least 3-4 inches taller than everyone in the place. The men (and women) were all midgets. Polly and I managed to find the only people in the bar that were not dark-haired, tan midgets, 2 girls from Germany named Nina and Gina. They had been in Alghero for almost a week, and like me had decided to come just because they found a cheap flight. The German girls accompanied us to an Irish pub afterwards, where of course some creepy Italians kept trying to talk to us. I surprised the Italians though with my actual ability to speak the language, and had a group of middle-aged men all trying to tell me to move to Alghero. Afterwards, we moved on to what Polly called a "club" that was on the sea. We went inside and noone was dancing, so we formed our own dance party to the awful techno music, and soon after were joined by a man who was at least 60, and a crowd of midgets all watching us. Eventually some got up the nerve to actually talk to us, and Polly and I did some translation work. I was the only one who would actually be friendly though, and ended up playing messenger between Italian men and my new friends. Great practice for my Italian, and I even had someone (who must have been drunk, seeing as I am very tall) ask me if I was from Sardegna. I had such a fun time, and made plans the next day to meet up with the girls for breakfast.
The next day I woke up to a beautiful sunshiney day, ready to really explore Alghero. I took a walk all around the port and the bastione, admiring the beautiful crystal clear water. As I sat on a wall enjoying the sea breeze, I had a creeper come up to me and ask me if I was Italian. I told him I was American, and he said that he wanted to tell me that I was very "robust". I'm not sure if it was meant to be a compliment or not, but I thanked him anyway, and then he proceeded to tell me the whole history of Alghero, then try to follow me on my walk. I managed to ditch him, then met up with my new friends. We ate at a cafe on the sea, then went to the beach to enjoy the sun. The day would have been perfect if it had not been aso windy close to the water, but I was happy that I actually got to soak in some sunshine. That evening we cooked another delicious dinner, including Sardinian bread and some fesh ravioli with ricotta, spinach, and saffron. AMAZING! We went out looking to see if anything was going on, but all ended up going home after finding almost everything closed. I really enjoyed hanging out with the girls though, and had a much better time in Sardegna than I was expecting.
The only real hiccup in my trip was the fact that I had to catch a bus at 6 AM to make my flight to the airport, which I slept through. I had to rush and call a taxi, made it to the airport a little after 7, had no money to pay the taxi, so I had to quick find a bancomat in the airport while he waited. I was then told I may be sent back to the US because I didn't have a visa, told them my whole story of being robbed, made it through security being searched 3 times, then finally boarded my plane. Beisdes being afraid that I was going to be stuck in Sardegna if I missed my flight, overall the weekend was fantastic and I hope I get to go to Alghero again in a future trip to Italy.