I'm going on a trip.

In the summer of 2012, I was unemployed. I was giving Italian lessons to a woman via Skype. In the meantime, I found out that she had a company that was recruiting cleaning staff in Italy. I was tempted. After years behind a desk, I needed a break for my brain and a job that involved movement. I was lucky that they needed a shift worker for three months for the summer, when the permanent workers were going home for a summer vacation in Bulgaria. My husband was not particularly impressed by my crazy, spontaneous urges to travel, especially since he had to look after two teenage children alone for three months. But… the offer was worth it and he eventually agreed. The agreement was that I would return towards the end of September, when the children started school.

I was supposed to fly on July 3rd, and on the 5th the children were participating in the European Championship in Folklore Arts and there was no one to take them (the father was on duty). My brother! He loves to travel and have fun, just like me. He and his wife were happy to take on the responsibility of having their worthy nephews perform in Nessebar. I arranged that too.

FIRST CONTACT WITH ITALY – part 2 – I got lost

The flight went well. This was my second time boarding a plane and upon takeoff I prudently closed my eyes to avoid dizziness. I landed at Bergamo airport and the first thing I felt was the humid heat that literally crushed me. I felt like my lungs were filling with water with every breath. I called my former student and current boss and she said they would be delayed. I went to call my husband. I dialed the number 089, etc., I was roaming and some lady picked up and shouted at me in an Italian dialect (I didn't recognize her). I explained that I was looking for Dimitar, apologized for the mistake, hung up and dialed again. The same woman answered again, this time in understandable Italian. She was from Sicily. We had a good laugh and wondered why I was calling Bulgaria and the call was going to her. At some point, the light came on that I had to dial 0039… Voila! The voice of my beloved sounded on the other side. We clarified some things, I smoked, drank coffee, drank water… I waited a long time. They came in some kind of battered white van. Milena introduced me to the boss, who, by the way, was also her close friend.

FIRST CONTACT WITH ITALY – part 3 – The Pursuit

I didn't like him. Tall, thin, almost skinny, with a rat's face. He didn't like me either. He started nagging me on the bus... supposedly playfully. They told me we were going to Milan first because they had work to do. It didn't matter to me, even better. They dropped me off in front of the Duomo and the Gallery and we agreed to meet up when they were done. The cathedral was magnificent. I had never seen anything like the architecture, the size... oh, class. The square was full despite the heat. I went to look for a place along the walls, to sit in the shade. A group of Japanese tourists with cameras hanging from their necks passed me like a flock of birds. Classic. At one point I heard Russian and Polish speech. A colorful world, noise, people... life was boiling around me, and I was drowning in humidity. At one point I realized that if I didn't get in line, I probably wouldn't have another chance to enter this magnificent cathedral, and that was tantamount to a disgrace. To skulk along the walls in the shade and not get in... I got in line. Unfortunately, they didn't allow photography inside.

Milan was founded by Celtic tribes around 600 BC. When the Romans conquered the city, they renamed it Mediolano – the land in the middle. Thanks to its strategic location – in the middle of the fertile Po River valley, the city quickly became an important trading center in the Roman Empire. Today, Milan is the second largest city in Italy.

The Cathedral or The Duomo  is dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin Mary and is a symbol of Milan. Its construction began in 1386 and was not completed for 500 years. It is a masterpiece of the late Gothic style. The fact that this style is not found anywhere else in Italy makes the cathedral even more interesting. Built of white-pink marble from Candolia and contains elements of the different styles that were in fashion during the several centuries during which it was built - from Gothic to Baroque and Neoclassical to Neo-Gothic. Its total area is 11,700 m2. There are 3,400 statues.

FIRST CONTACT WITH ITALY – part 8 – A Night Under the Stars and Three Days on Camels

I had heard that Catholic cathedrals and churches are very different from ours, but the view impressed me a lot. Beauty, grace, the statues were as if alive. I don't know how long I stayed inside, but at some point the crowd became too much for me and I went out. My people were not there yet and I decided to walk to the other landmark - The Gallery or Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. It is a covered pedestrian street connecting Piazza del Duomo with Piazza della Scala. Characteristic of the Galleria are the elegant restaurants and shops, some of which are famous fashion brands such as Prada, Louis Vuitton, etc. Since its opening, it has been a meeting place for the Milanese bourgeoisie. Built in the Neo-Renaissance style, it is among the most famous examples of European iron architecture, the Galleria is often considered one of the first examples of a shopping mall in the world.

My people came, Milena took my picture and then we went to eat. Pizza with prosciutto crudo and arugula. I don't remember what I drank, but I ate to my heart's content. The Boss was paying. In the late afternoon we went for San Martino Buon Albergo – a small town in the immediate vicinity of Verona. We only passed through Verona in transit, there was a strike in the city and we got into a traffic jam, they showed me the infamous balcony of Romeo and Juliet from afar… something that did not impress me, considering that the story is fictional, the house is artificially designated as a tourist attraction.

FIRST CONTACT WITH ITALY – part 4 – Moroccan Honor

The town wasn't big, about 15,000 inhabitants. On the outskirts there were apartment blocks similar to ours, but the mass construction was houses. Colorful and identical, arranged like in a pharmacy. Our apartment was in the center of Piazza del Popolo, a small, neat apartment in an old building that smelled a little like soca. We unloaded our luggage and they explained to me that I would live with them at first, then they would move me to the apartment of the other two colleagues. They let me take a shower and rest. We would go to work the next evening.

The job consisted of cleaning stores in large malls located outside the city, in the industrial zone. Only in the evenings, from 8 p.m. until we finished, usually 4-5 in the morning. The first night they would just show me around, I wouldn't stay for the whole shift. I took a shower and went out for a walk. I felt strange. I was both curious and kind of sad and depressed. I explored the area and went home. We ate, and the landlords gave me instructions on how to separate the garbage.

The next morning I woke up late, again crushed by the heat. I couldn't breathe and that was it. I turned on my laptop and saw a message from my brother that I could watch the children's performance in real time on some link. I waited... The internet was intermittent... or maybe the live broadcast wasn't very good, but I still watched and cried with emotion. The boss and Milena were watching too.

FIRST CONTACT WITH ITALY – part 5 – I'm going to Padua

Then He started questioning me. Why was I in Italy, do I have loans, how are we with my husband, do I have friends here… and I could see how he didn’t like my answers. He was getting more and more disgusted with me by the minute. I realized that he wasn’t satisfied, because it turned out that I was… independent. I had a relative in a nearby town, I had a person in Milan (my former boss in Bulgaria – an Italian, when he found out that I was going to travel, he gave me his brother’s contact details and said that I could always call him if I needed anything), I had a relative in southern Italy. I had a husband and a stable family, I didn’t have loans, I had come to get my ass off sooner. In a word, I lacked circumstances through which I could be manipulated in any way. And the Rat didn’t like that.

FIRST CONTACT WITH ITALY – part 6 – The Sabotage

In the evening he drove us to work, and Milena said that we would then walk back so that she could show me the route I would take every day. The place – a MALL like ours, as I already mentioned in the industrial zone on the edge of the city. We had to clean several stores: Zara, Massimo Dutti and two or three more whose names I don't remember. The cleaning consisted of vacuuming, washing, dusting everywhere on shelves and items, cleaning the mirrors in the fitting rooms and display cases, and taking out the trash. There was work to do.

I met my colleagues – both Anelia. One left a small child and a husband in Sofia and came to fight for a living. The other was also in search of a better life. They were nice girls, they welcomed me warmly. The rest of the team were guys with some kind of floor cleaning equipment who would temporarily work with us. A Moldovan, a Moroccan and a young family, a man and a woman from Sri Lanka.

FIRST CONTACT WITH ITALY – part 7 – Expelled

We sat for about two hours and then went home. I seemed to remember the route, half an hour of walking at a normal pace. I noted various objects along the way – where to turn, etc. The sick feeling wouldn't leave me. When I went to bed, I was so paranoid that I decided to sleep with my passport and money under my pillow and generally only took them to the toilet. So for a few days… who knows, they could have stolen them from me, kidnapped me, drugged me, sold me as a white slave… these kinds of nonsense were going through my head, which actually made sense to some extent.

FIRST CONTACT WITH ITALY – part 9 – Subsequent revelations

© 2025 Iliana Dechkova