So Much to Tell...Longest Post Ever

I'm back from my second spring break, i've actually been back for a few days...I've got so much to tell and not much time so i'm just going to jump right in.

Wednesday night: Everyone went out, celebrating the fact that our spring break was coming (see previous post) the guys i was traveling with hit the drink pretty hard...

Thursday: After classes (a very interested visit to a church that is undergoing restoration) we all went back to finish packing and head out to the train. My intention was to get the 2:30 train, that got pushed back to the 3:30 train because the boys were a little slow today...we finally left for the 3:30 train and we ended up missing it (that's what i get for walking with southerners...) so we went next door to a cafe and got something to eat while we wait for the 4:30 (thank gosh they come so regularly) The food was fine, but more importantly the waitress asked if i was italian and was suprised when i said i was American.... After a 3 hour train ride we get to Florence and go to check in to all of our hotels...we were all staying in different hotels in florence because we booked at such different times...we got to mine last, it was fine, clean but a little drafty. After checking in and dumping our stuff we headed out to dinner. We stumbled upon a little trattoria and after a very long wait (he just kept saying ten minutes more) we had a fabulous dinner. I went back after that because I was exhausted, the boys went to a bar next door

Friday In the morning I walked over to the Accademia with one of the guys from my hostel, a very nice guy from North Dakota...he's studying at cambridge to become a pastor! I had made reservations to get into the Accademia and see the David without having to wait...I'm glad I did, the line was really long! Unfortunately Tristan did not make reservations and he did have to wait. So i got in and saw the David and the unfinished prisoners and the Pieta and then continued to walk around because tristan was still outside...eventually I saw everything the museum had to offer and went and found a cafe while waiting for tristan. Then Tristan and I went to the Medici Chapels, I was suprised how much I remembered there...but we couldn't get into the basement room which i really wanted to see. After that we explored the leather market and met up with Brad. When we met up with Brad we went back to the Duomo and inside. Then I climbed the Duomo tower and Giotto's Tower (1754 steps). I really wanted to climb Brunelleschi's Tower because i had read a book about it and the arcitechture of it interested me. I also wanted to get pictures of the skyline with the Duomo in it, which is why I had to climb Giotto's tower also. I couldn't convince the boys to do it with me. Only tristan climbed Giotto's tower. I think we just walked around after that (and shopped a little more) crossed over the Ponte Vecchio and went to the Pitti Palace but it was getting late so buying a ticket was pointless.
That night we went to a restaurant we had tried to go the night before but was so packed we couldn't get in (i figured that was a good sign) so I made reservations and we did get in. I had a fabulous meal...I had this spicy pasta that was perfect.

Saturday In the morning Tristan and I met at the Duomo and decided to go to the Duomo museum. We got to see six panels from Ghiberti's Door and another of Michaelangelo's Pietas among other things. After the Museum we walked over to Santa Croce, at which point we heard from Brad who was on his way over...so we hungout in a cafe until he showed up, at which point it was lunch time so we just grabbed some panini. After that we went to the church which I again remembered more than I thought I would. We also visited the leather school but no one purchased anything because it's a little pricey. After that we went back to the Pitti Palace and visited the Boboli Gardens which were beautiful. Finally we headed back to shower and change and then we went out to dinner with Lauren Betesh and this girl Anna. Lauren is a friend of high school and Anna is another study abroad student we met in Venice that Brad and Tristan had been staying in touch with. After that we went to a fun bar for a bit and then just went back to sleep.

Sunday Early Early sunday morning Tristan called me and told me it was daylight savings time and I had to change my clock, i did so and promptly went back to sleep, thinking nothing of it until I got to the train station and saw this british couple in a panic because they had missed their train. Fortuntaly I really overestimated the amount of time itwould take for me to get to the train station so I called Brad to make sure he know about the time change...he didn't. But he was still able to get packed and make it to the train station in time (I was really early). From there it was pretty uneventful...

Click HERE for pictures from Florence

We got into Naples ok and then took the bus right to the port. From the port we hopped right on a hydrofoil. That was acutally a little eventful. The water was a little rough and my poor friends spent the next fourty five minutes dry heaving (I was fine). Finally we got to Ischia and met Franco and Marianna. Possibly the nices people i've ever met. They drove us to lunch and we all got amazing pizzas. I got a pizza with pomodorini (cherry tomatoes) that tasted like they had just been picked...delicous. After lunch we drove around and got a chance to see the beautiful island and some of its six communities. One of the places where we stopped has acqua calda (hot water) and sometimes you can see it boil and people have hardboiled eggs in the water! Everything was beautiful, i can't even express in words, and i'm sure my pictures will not come close...After driving around for a while we dropped the boys off at their hotel and went back and picked up Gaetano, Marianna and Franco's 8 year old boy. We went to their house and I got a chance to read and sit down for a bit. At this point I was still kind of nervous about the whole situation, they were very nice people but my italian is not very good and I thought i wouldn't be able to communicate well enough and that it would just be really uncomfortable. I did however stay. Franco offered to go pick up my friends and we all had dinner at their house. It was so much fun! We had rediculously good pasta and then assorted meats and cheeses as well as Franco's homemade wine, lemoncello and mirto (spelling). And then after dinner Franco drove my friends all they way back to their hotel.

Monday In the morning Marianna made me a latte and gave me breakfast (which was essentially the desserts from the night before...not my favorite aspect of italian culture). After breakfast Marianna drove me to meet my friends and then to a cafe that she likes so the boys could get breakfast. From there we bought bus tickets and made our way to the castle. The castle was gorgeous (it was in The Talented Mr. Ripley). We spent a large portion of the day at the castle there was so much to explore, not mention just the views. Pretty sure i took 100+ pictures. After the castle we just walked around Ischia Ponte which is a cute little town. We tried to take the bus back to the boys hostel but tristan had us get off near a sports store and we had to wait for like 45 mintues for the next bus. But it was interesting just to watch the intersection...the driving was crazy! still never figured out who had the right of way. We finally got back to the hostel but had to cell phone signal like all day. Fortunately we were able to use the computer to get in touch with Marianna and Franco came to pick us up for dinner again. Marianna remembered that I like carcofi (articokes) so she made a pasta with artichokes and it was delicious! Yet another fantastically fun dinner we chatted and watched a deal or no deal type show in Italian which was fun.

Tuesday Tuesday morning Marianna again made me coffee and breakfast and drove me to pick up the boys. The place we went to the day before was closed so we went to a different place, Marianna was so sweet to drive us around all day. Then she drove us to a garden that is supposed to be amazing...according to the "Let's Go" guide it's the best in Italy. Unfortuantely it didn't open to Easter...but even the entrance we beautiful! So instead we went to Negombo, a spa. Everything in Ischia pretty much gets crazy after easter but we were there right before so most things were open (except the garden) but much was less expensive...including the spa so I was able to get a 1 hour hot stone massage for 30 euros. I liked the hot stone massage but i probably wouldn't get it again...the stones were a little too hot I had red marks all over my body afterwards. A fabulous day though we spent all day at the spa and walking around Lacco Ameno. It's supposed to be the most chic of all the towns. We had a great day and Marianna picked us up again that night for dinner. We had fantastic fish pasta and then fish and salad. But first Franco drove us all the way back to the town were the boys were staying to see the sunset. Also before and dinner the boys played video games with Gaetano. I was glad to have the boys there because they were definately better able to entertain Gaetano better than I could. Also after dinner I gave Gaetano and Marianna and Franco their gifts. I first gave Gaetano a little DragonBall Z gift bag...I was nervous he wouldn't like it, but he flipped it was so cute. He didn't know why i gave it to him though but I explained that I wanted to thank him for letting me use his room and he shook my hand (so cute!) Then I gave Marianna and Franco a "Murano" glass picture frame (murano is in quotes, because it says it was from Murano but probably from china). They got upset because they didn't have gifts for us...but the entire trip was a gift!

Wednesday Wednesday morning we once again picked the boys up and grabbed breakfast and Marianna drove us to the port to catch the ferry back to Naples. We got there early so we were able to walk around Ischia Porto for a while. Finally we took the ferry back which fortuntaly was calm this time. Once we got off the ferry we walked across the street to the bus stop for the airport. The bus came pretty soon after we got there and we got to the airport in about half an hour I would say. We got to the airport, checked in and just hangout for a bit which was nice. The flight we quick and easy and I had my own row which was nice.

Click HERE for pictures from Ischia

When we arrived in Palermo we had to take a bus for like 45 minutes into the city. Then we walked first to the boys hostel and then to mine...it was a bit of a hike and my back pack was so heavy but I wouldn't let the boys carry it even though they offered. My hostel was cute a little interesting...it seems to be owned by a bunch of hippies. After we checked in the boys and I walked to find dinner...we were starving! we didn't have to go very far we found a cute, nice restaurant not that far from my hotel. We got there early and got a table it's a good thing we got their early because it was a very popular busy place. And the pizza was delicous. We ate and drank alot and then walked to a nearby street with a lot of bars and just hangout for a while. It was a lot of fun and i loved being with the two guys, definatly glad they came.

Thursday Thursday morning I walked down to the guy's hotel and met up with them and this girl Dana...she's from Australian and is traveling by herself for 6 weeks in Italy. She's really sweet...i found out an hour after meeting her that I had in fact met her before in Venice (She thought i was italian and asked me where the bathroom was when I was at my local Kebab place). We walked to the Cathedral and looked around a little. It was beautiful out so Brad decided he wanted to go to the beach. So we went back to our hotels and got changed for the beach, by the time we did so there was not a ray of sun to be seen. I tried to convince the boys to stay but there were not into it. So we took the bus to the beach which was at least a half hour ride during which I of course got carsick. And once we got to the beach it was cold and rainy so i was not happy. I was going to take the bus back but I just missed it. So we hungout on the beach for a few hours and got a few minutes of sun. Finally we took the bus back and walked around a local park for a bit. Brad kept making fun of me beacuse I was freezing so i was walking around with my towel around me. I probably looked redic. but at least I was warm. Eventually we made it back to our hotels and decided to meet for dinner...but it was raining and we weren't every adventerous so we decided to go to the same place we went to the night before. When we met there it wasn't open so we went to a bar for a drink and I got an AWFUL glass of wine...tasted like the bottom of a very old barrel. Finally we made it to dinner and it was fun again. We didn't go out afterwards because we were all tired.

Friday Friday morning we once again met at the boys hotel and walked to one of the main sights...it was of course closed. From there we walked to another main sight but the best part of it was closed. But I think if the cloister had been open it would have been nice...After that we ended up near my hotel and at a pizza place for lunch. It was just ok. And we sat outside which kind of got cold because of course it started to rain again. So we decided to go see a movie. We saw 300...in Italian. It was really good I thought, I'm interested in seeing it in English so I can see if I really understood as much as I thought i did. That night we were again tired (the rain has a way of doing that...not to mention traveling for a week) and it was still raining...so we again went back to the same restaurant. I had the fish risotto which had more shellfish then fish which I typically don't like but I was hungry so I ate it and it was delicous. After dinner I went back to my hostel and hungout for a bit, packed and went to sleep pretty early.

Saturday I had to wake up at about 5 and got all of my stuff together in about five minutes and ended up out in the Piazza earlier than I thought I would. Of course nothing was open to buy a bus ticket. I saw the bus I needed and asked if i could buy a bus ticket on the bus and the bus driver asked where I wanted to go and i told him the train station and he replied "Non ti preoccupada" and he drove me to the train station. Didn't stop, didn't pick anyone else up, it was like having my own private bus chauffer (spelling). I got to the train station about a half hour earlier than I needed to be. I was abou to go inside and find coffee when my friends called...turns out they were also there and the bus was there. We took the bus to the airport, got there pretty early but that was fun, we were able to get some coffee and food and just hangout until the flight left. Again I had the entire seat to myself and I was able to get a little bit of sleep. We stopped in Naples and then got on our night flight...for my third and flight i also had a seat to myself...unfortunatly I was surrounded by all of the children on the flight...but it was only an hour so whatever.


Click HERE for pictures from Palermo

We landed in Venice and met a nice couple with their son where visiting Venice. We chatted with them while were getting our luggage and they bought us bus tickets because of all the info we gave them. Once we got to the bus station I hightailed it to the train station and caught the next train to Padova...i got to see my family! Apparently we got to the train station within a few minutes of each other. I was so excited to see everyone! We had to wait a bit for the taxi but we were able to stop at the Basilica before we got to the hotel. After we got to the hotel we walked back to the Basilica and explored a little longer. Then we walked around a market and found some place dinner. I didn't love the waiter at dinner but we all had great food and then we walked back to the hotel. We watched the Italian version of Iceskating with the Stars which was interesting and finally just got some sleep.

Click HERE for pictures from Padova

Sunday I woke up early and took a shower, packed and got dressed. Finally my Will and Emmy woke up and I knocked on my parents door and ended up waking them up...which is way unusual. We had breakfast and then took a taxi to the train station and caught the next train to Venice. We got on in one of the 1st class cars and didn't want to walk all the way through the train with all our luggage to find a second class car so we ended up standing...which wasn't too bad actually. When we got to Venice we took a Vaporetto to my parent's hotel. My parents checked in and I went back to my house and dropped off my bag. We walked around for a while and then eventually seperated so we could shower/change/relax. I didn't get too much time to relax because Jenny and I were having our parents over for drinks and appetizers so I had to get that ready. Then I picked up my family and we came back, saw the house and drank a couple bottles of wine and had some snacks that I've been saving since my visit to Parma.
After that we went to San Trovaso for dinner. It was a lot of fun and we had a great group (my family, Jenny's family and brad). Dinner was good and everyone seemed to have fun and conversation didn't lag...after dinner Jenny, Brad, my family and I went to DuChamps had some drinks and played beer pong. It was defintaly interesting and a lot of fun. It's always fun to see my dad play beer pong.

Monday I had class monday until 12:15 and then my parents came by for lunch, then it was back to class until 3:15. We walked around for a while and then took a break to get ready for dinner...just as i was almost back to the house Elton called to see if i wanted to have a drink with him. So i went to meet him in Santa Margharita...by the time he showed up we only had 20 minutes to catch up but in that 20 minutes I learned a lot about him...He has the best life story every...he was born in Albania and lived there until he was 14, then he moved to Greece and he milked cows then he moved to Genoa for a year and also milked cows. After that he moved to Naples and worked in his brother's Pizzaria and I think worked retail finally he moved to Venice and he's been here for a few years i think.
After drinks with Elton I met my family and Jenny and we went to Ai Cugnai for dinner. That place has fantastic food and an even more fantastic family that runs it. They are hysterical! The grandmother keeps coming up to the table taking one person's order and then walking away, or talking to people in Italian who do not speak italian or yelling at my baby brother for wearing an Inter jersey because they support AC. Definately a fun night.
After dinner Emily, Jenny, Brad, Tristan and I went out to DuChamps again. We hungout there for a while (more beer pong) and then i walked Emmy home and fell asleep.

Tuesday On Tuesday my family wanted to go out to Murano where the glass is made. I wasn't going to be able to go, but it turns out I didn't have Italian class so i decided to go. We took a water taxi out there...so much faster than the vaporetto I took. We stopped at a specific company who probably has some kind of deal with the hotel. It was cool because we got to see them actually working on an order for a museum in Australia I think...the last time i went to murano they had a show for the tourists, they made a simple vase blowing glass and horse by pulling glass...I thought actually watching real work was more interesting. Then we walked through the showroom. The salesmen were persistant but we weren't really in the market for anything. Other than that there isn't too much to see on Murano and no one else was really interested in the Museum. So we took a vaporetto back. After getting back we went to the Basilica di San Marco. And then to a pizza place in Santa Margharita. We continued to walk around and then seperated to get ready for dinner. We went to Antico Pignolo for dinner (it means the old pinenut) The dinner was good...too expensive but good). After that we walked back through Piazza San Marco (which i love at night!). There were a bunch of artists selling work which was fun to look at and Dad bought some that will look nice a home. After dinner we again went to DuChamps. Tuesday night was a bigger night than usual, a lot of people went out and it was a lot of fun...Unfortunately for Emmy i was exhausted I had had a lot of late nights in a row so we left some what early (she was really good about it though).
Wednesday I again had class until 12:30 on Wednesday and my family met me for lunch at about 1. We went to a Pizza place on the Zattere which wasn't as good as some other pizza i've had lately (too much cheese). I was going to go back to class..really I was...but lunch ended too late so i just didn't. We walked around for a while visiting some of my favorite churches, specifically San Sabastiano and the Frari. We also stopped as some random Osteria that looked good and made a reservation for dinner. We met at 7:30 and went back to the restaurant for dinner. We didn't get in right away and I already wasn't feeling well. But when we did get in the food was good. After dinner Emmy came back with me and we ended up at DuChamps again. Usually Wednesday night is a big night but since everyone had gone out Tuesday night only Jenny, Tristan, Brad, Emmy and I made it out. I felt awful so I ordered an "acqua calda con limone" I got a strange look from Marco (the bartender) but it was exactly what i needed. Emmy was again very good when I made us leave somewhat early. I got in bed at about midnight and ended up sleeping until 9:40ish.

Thursday I felt awful, I had a wicked sore throat and hadn't gotten enough sleep in 2 weeks! At 10 I met Jenny and my family for breakfast at Bar di Gino. It was nice just to sit and chat and I think it was the closest thing to American coffee mom had had all vacation. After breakfast we went to Salute for this weeks church visit. It was really interesting and my family really liked it.
After Salute we went to this cute place for lunch that i've always wanted to go to but was a bit out of my price range. The lunch was good, a little sad because my family was leaving soon! Pretty much right after lunch we headed over to the hotel and I put my family on their vaporetto. So sad to see them go, but we had a really nice break

Click HERE to see pictures from my family's visit

After my family left I just went back to the house and relaxed for a bit which I really needed. At sixish Jenny, Tristan and I had dinner. Then I showered and got ready for our "Shag on the Courtyard" party (a play off of Wake's Shag on the Mag party)(Shagging is southern dancing). I wore a a brown dress and my new boots, I think i look ok, but i'll have to see some pictures or watch the video because I'm still not sure...but either way it was fun. Just as the drinking and dancing turned into Sangria Pong Elton called. So i walked up to the Rialto to meet him and his friends. We had a few drinks there and then were going to walk to the train station so Elton's friend Kelly could buy her train ticket for the next day (it was an early train to Rome and she was afraid it would be sold out)...of course we got to the train station 15 minutes after it closed...so then we walked all the way back to Piccolo Mondo, Elton was exhausted and didn't want to go but kelly wanted to and was only there for 1 night so he felt like he had to take her...I however didn't feel the need so I went home and went to sleep.

Friday Today! Finally almost caught up! Jenny and I woke up at 9:30 and went to Bar di Gino at 10ish. We had coffee's outside and then I ordered tea...and they brought my about 3 cups worth, which I of course had to drink. Then I stopped at my fruit guys and my meet and cheese guys for some necessities. As soon as we got back to the house Jenny realized she didn't have any sunscreen and so we had to walk all the way to Campo San Stefano to buy some...which was fine because they had my facewash I"m almost out of but wasn't able to find anywhere...and then I just came back and have been updating my blog for like 2 hours...pictures come soon!