Guest Blog and Photos by Christopher Bradley
I don’t remember the trip, but when I was a year old my parents took me to Canada. I believe that was when I, so young and impressionable, caught the travel bug. This well-known but little-understood critter often manifests itself as the expression, “So much to see, so little time,” and is what has now brought me to the Mediterranean.
In September I arrived in Pavia, one of Milan’s tamer cousins in northern Italy. I came via the UO’s exchange with Collegio Ghislieri, a 16th-century palace founded by Pope Pius V. The town is hardly a destination in itself; foreigners over forty are almost exclusively parents of exchange students. My Italian contemporaries have asked me why, coming from the state above the California, I decided to spend a year of my bountiful American life in Pavia.
I did not in fact pick this town; I picked the exchange, which happened to be in Pavia. But now that I’ve come to know the town and its citizens, I’ve decided to stay another year and teach English. Pavia is small, but in the way Eugene’s Bijou Art Cinema is small: the people and stories and images take you far beyond its tiny footprint. Stony streets wind among storefronts containing delectable pastries and vibrant fashions, and balconied apartments rise into the blue. During the afternoon heat, the rosso mosso of the Oltrepò, the region’s chilled, fizzy red wine, grants full-bodied tranquility and a delightful nip to the parched.
This rich, dense life is what I desired in coming here, and it is what will keep me hanging around a while. I will find an apartment after my time is up in Collegio Ghislieri and try to avoid becoming an illegal alien when my study visa expires. What my future here will entail I can’t be sure. But I understand that it is time to move into this landscape rather than pass it by.

Learn more about Christopher and the Ethos’ Blogs from Abroad series.

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