Portal: What Cara Mia Means

Chapter 2: Bored Of London

Chell had spent a week and three days in London and she was already bored. Not much was different from America and Canada. Mostly Canada. America was trying very hard to differentiate itself from other countries. She had nothing against that, she just didn't feel the same spirit that most Americans seem to. Or maybe she was just outside looking in. After all, she hadn't grown up around others to help her adapt to social constructs that make countries what they are, so maybe she just didn't understand while others did.

She made sure to count out her money. She still had a lot left. She had made hundreds of dollars when she was found jumping from a building with her long fall boots still on. Everyone thought she was going to die and when she didn't they believed that it was a roadside trick. She basically made her own show of jumping from high places for money. She made more a day than most do in a week. It funded her travelling.

She decided to start touring Europe starting in England and working through France and around ending at Finland unless she liked one place too much to leave. She used a Ferry to get from England to France and trains to travel from France to Spain. When She reached Spain she used another Ferry from Spain to Porto Torres, the docking port on a Large island named Sardinia. It is a part of Italy with many interesting features such as sandy beaches, mountain hiking trails and the ruins of odd beehive like structures. 

The next Ferry wasn't leaving the dock until the next morning due to a rain storm that was building quickly making the waves too rough for travel. Chell checked into a bed and breakfast for the night and wandered around. The rain felt nice and refreshing as she walked. This was a very nice place. Warm, calm, beautiful. She felt more excitement than when the plane landed in England. She found a nice open field where she could sit and watch the shore some distance away. She placed the Companion Cube down and sat beside it.  

That's when she heard it. Something she knew she had heard before.

"Ah, Cara Mia. Please my dear, my love! Ti amo!"

Cara Mia? Was that not something the Turrets had sung to her as she was leaving Aperture?

A woman who was drenched from head to foot in rain water ran past her, heading towards the road. She was not in the best of moods and was muttering something not very nice in Italian under her breath. A man ran behind her. He was the one who had been speaking. 

"Come on," he continued, "non odiarmi!"

Chell stood up quickly. "Cara mia? What does that mean! Sir tell me, what does that mean?"