The brazilian brony who went to Italy (plus highlights of the trip) · 10:58pm Aug 4th, 2012

One-a day I'm going to Italy to big hotel!

Well, to be honest it wasn't that big. It was average-sized. Still pretty fine breakfast there! Plus, you know that part of the breakfast table where they keep stuff for bread? You know, cream cheeese, butter, jam, that sort of thing? Well, guess what italians like to have on their slice of bread in the morning?

Nutella. Yeah, that's right. No typo or auto-correct here, brony.

Motha.
Fuckin'.
Nutella.

Every single hotel I went through (it was a trip across Italy, so many hotels) served 15g nutella packs for free if you paid for the breakfast pack. I love not having diabetus (which, considering my family health history, is a blessing).

The food was, of course, delicious. Now, I'm not going to be a hipster and post pictures of my food with some sort of fitler on it, but I will say this: italians don't make too much or too little. It's just about right. So if you are starving, go for the full course. Antipasti, primi piatti, secondi piatti and dolce. Can't go wrong. If you are just hungry, get just ONE dish. And for goodness sake, don't ask for antipasti if you are ordering pizza. I did that and I almost didn't have enough room for dinner. Pizzas are big there, sometimes bigger than the plates.

Now, you're probably wondering, did you see the coliseum? The vatican? The duomo?

Yes, yes, I went to all of those places, but to be honest they are not Italy. In my opinion, that is. Yes, they are beautiful places full of history and tradition. Yes, they are unparalled sides of human existence that should be remembered. But you know what they are? They are what Italy used to be. The real Italy, the Italy people should know is not a building that took 200 years to be built or an arena made to replace the palace of a mad emperor where exotic creatures and brave warriors were slain every single day. Italy is made of the people. You get to know a country not by going to the same places every damn tourist goes to take a picture, but by meeting different people doing incredible, amazing things.

Take Monterosso of Cinque Terre for example. It's a small town that's part of five pieces of land that were recognized by UNESCO. In other words, Cinque Terre is a big deal, both historically and geographically. But I was mindblown to find, in the middle of the street, drawn on the pavemente with colored chalks, a picture of Christ and the Holy Mary drawn by a homeless. Now, where else will you find someone that society deemed incorrigible making fine art during the middle of the day? And while in Monterosso, guess what I got to see? Any guesses? No? Well, toast some slices of bread and get the knife ready, because you're about to get jelly.

I went to... a Pirate Festival. That's right. It's as awesome as it sounds. People dressed as pirates prancing around town, celebrating, doing fire tricks, a pirate invasion act with loud music plying. Plus, you know, rum.

Now, if you ever go to Rome, people will say you have to go to the Coliseum, to the Vatican, the forum, Vitorio Emanuelle II's museum, yada yada yada. Take my advice and walk around. You'll see all sorts of amazing stuff. I got to witness (and sorta participate) in a magic street show performed by a very talented and funny artist and I am proud to say that I stumbled across one of the most amazing sights in my life: a public dance presentation from different countries made during the middle of the day in a random square. Argentin, Korea, Spain, Lithoanea, Thaiti, Turkey... they all had incredible dance styles and very different too! I stood during the blazing sun of 37 degrees Celsius with my cellphone just to film the whole thing, but man was it worth it. Nearly had a heat stroke, but I had no regrets.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying going to the classical places is wrong. There's a reason why we call them classical after all. But I believe they don't show what the country is all about. Taking a picture of the leaning tower of Piza is fun and all, but everyone does that and that doesn't show what you need to know about a country's culture and tradition. If you go to a country and just visit the big historical sights, you're going to have a good time. But would you really choose to have the same 'Look at me! I'm holding the tower of piza!' picture that everyone has...

... or would you rather say that you took dancing lessons with a beautiful italian woman in the middle of the Piazza San Marco in Venice?

To end my report, I guess some apologies are in order. I promised that I would write during my vacation, and while that is true, I did not finish the next chapter of Violet Fire. I'm 2 weeks late, I know. While I could say that the trip was more exhausting than I'd expected or that I got sick or that my work on Double Rainboom made me lose focus, the truth is I bit more than I could chew. You'd expect more of a brony, considering the Applebuck Season episode and all. I can't say I have a release date for the new chapter. To be honest, I didn't write that much during my trip. Got one of three scenes down, but that's about it. And, for better or worse, I got this new habit of writing on my cellphone's notepad when I can't get to my computer. Meaning I got about 6000 characters worth of writing in my cellphone that need to be transfered to G-docs. Which means: retyping

So I'm really sorry if I let anyone down. I promised to keep writing during the trip and personally I thought I'd be able to write at least one chapter, but I kinda disappointed me on that one.

Good news? Violet Fire should have the new chapter by the end of the week. The reason I usually take so long is because I choose to make lengthy chapters instead of writing parts of them. I could just go scene by scene, which would be a lot faster, but I the reason I choose to make them so long is because I want to end each chapter in a way that'll keep everyone guessing what's going to happen next. Cliffhangers, sudden surprises and revelations, I love them all.

And this one? The cliffhanger I'm planning? Boy, are you guys in for a surprise.