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June 21, 2006
Up at the Villa
I spent last night (6/18) at the Villa Camerata, set back on a hill at the edge of Florence. It's been about eight years since I've stayed in a bona fide youth hostel. I'm not as annoyed as I thought I'd be.
Here we see tentative and not-so-tentative interminglings, freighted with sexual excitement and cultural curiosity. This is fertile ground. Over dinner I hear an English woman tell European men about the experience of sketching nude models. "I am an abstract expressionist painter. It's like cubism." Another, talking loudly to be understood, of course, says: "I shower with my underwear on," Indeed, in the night I hear noises that, if not sexual, are not human.
Then a million kids descend with rolling suitcases. Two classrooms' worth. They are high school-age, barely. Maybe drinking their first beers and smoking their first cigarettes.
Think of how sad the almost-made connections are: People come through, stay one night, make friends and depart the next morning with them for Pisa, Cinque Terra and beyond. They travel the whole continent with their new companions, learning their background, their sexual histories and sharing in-jokes about those boorish other Americans. But, as it turns out, the perfect life companion showed up the following night at the hostel, stayed one night, and left with someone else.
Update: My sentimentality is pretty much gone now that I've arrived at the next hostel in Venice. No doors or curtains on the shower stalls, no toilet seats. Maybe I am too old for this. Hostels are now quite the fashion show. Not only does everybody have all the latest backpacking gear, but they also have amazingly short skirts and summer sun dresses. What does it mean when jeans fail to rise above the midpoint of the ass-cheek? My favorite may be the guys who spend 15 minutes primping in front of the filthy bathroom mirrors. Axe body spray is a must. And, when the World Cup is not playing, the hostel shows Fox News.
Posted by Adam Graham-Silverman at June 21, 2006 06:19 PM