Italy with Julia

Bologna...
...was a nice rest stop in between Greece and our Italy trips. That night we ordered pizza and watched the Italy-France Euro Cup game with my roommates...and we won! Forza Italia! Forza Azzurri!

The next day was Julia's 21st birthday! We spent the day exploring Bologna, went out to a nice Bolognese dinner and then for gelato at my favorite place, which I'm pretty sure is her new favorite place as well!

Quintessential Neptune Fountain photo

Verona...
...was so picturesque! Once we arrived, we headed straight for the grocery store where we bought bread, cheese, salami and fruit to have a picnic in the piazza. It was a nice day and we had fun munching, talking, and people watching.

Next up, of course, was Rick Steve's self-guided tour of Verona!

Piazza Erbe

Me and my homeboy, Dante

Torre dei Lamberti

Ponte Pietra

Roman Arena

Hallway of love proclamations on the way to "Juliet's balcony"

Cinque Terre...
...was like a dream! Five small towns built into the cliffs on the Italian Riviera. We visited 3 of them, staying in the first (Riomaggiore) and making our way up either by hiking or training. We started with the lover's trail to go to town # 2 (Manarola) which ended up being our favorite.

The highlight of the whole trip was the Vineyard walk (Rick Steves suggested) that we took in Mararola. It was just lovely, since the town was basically built in a valley surrounded by huge hills of vineyards. We had the most spectacular views and were at peace separate from the other tourists.

Julia jumping out of a bush after becoming one with nature

Manarola, buried in vineyards

The too-lovely and thus fake-looking photo

View from the park on the cliff

Photo for mom...some people have so much they have to cut back. I guess it's time to move to Cinque Terre.

Cute old ladies getting some fresh air

Since we were staying in an apartment, we decided to buy food and make it ourselves. The region of Liguria is famous for its pesto, so we bought fresh pasta, pesto rosso, amazing veggies, and of course, in tribute to our vineyard walk, white wine produced in the region. We had such a nice evening finally getting to shower, stuffing ourselves full of delicious food, and chatting (which we do a lot of). By the end of it we decided against going out because we were too full and tired...so instead we went to bed early!

The next day we went to Vernazza but both decided we preferred Manarola. We hadn't come prepared for swimming and regretted it later because it was so hot and the water looked so inviting! We had a delicious seafood meal before heading back to collect our things. On the way to the station we saw this...

...and I just had to share it with you all. I suppose some things are universal, eh? Anyways so it's about now that our day starts to get interesting. Cinque Terre is not very well connected to the rest of Italy because it's tucked away in this little corner off the main routes. This means it takes forever and you have to take slow, unreliable trains to get there. Two minutes before our 6 pm train was due to arrive, it popped up on the screen that it was over an hour late. This meant we would automatically miss our next two connections. So we had to take a completely different train, two hours later, at 8. It was cool, though. We sat in the shade next to the cute old men from the town and played cards and ate M&Ms.

The terribly wonderful Italian men...

...and some Italian women to balance them.

While on that train, we stopped in the middle of nowhere for a good 20 minutes, thus ensuring we would miss our next connection in Viareggio. We decide to just get to Florence, hoping there would be more options, or at least a bigger station. We get there around 11 and it turns out there's nothing reliable to Bologna until 4:30 in the morning. We don't want to get a room, so we go to McDonalds for a most nutritious meal (I think Julia enjoyed it a little too much) and a bathroom and end up staying there for 3 hours. Where the hell else could we go?


Around 230 we head back to the station only to find out it's closed. So we chill outside next to the few normal people, the homeless men and the carabinieri (a form of police) for the next 2 hours until the station opens, we can get on our train, and we finally make it back to Bologna at 630 am. What a night!

and back to Bologna...
...thank God! We ended up having a very sluggish day (partially due to the extreme heat that has just swallowed Bologna) which only picked up around 6 when we went for gelato in the park and reminisced about high school for hours. We picked up pizza on the way home so we could eat it during the Italy-Spain game. It was tied all the way through so we went into overtime and then into goal kicks. In the end, Spain won and everyone's spirits were quite crushed. Julia and I wrapped up the evening by watching When Harry Met Sally.

On Julia's last day, since she was leaving that night for Milan, we didn't have a lot of time to do anything huge, so we decided to challenge the heat and hike up to San Luca. The views from the top are phenomenal and we were quite proud of ourselves for making it up there! That afternoon we took it easy, eating, packing, and watching a movie, and then it was time to send her off to Milan! She had quite a trip ahead of her, with another overnight in an airport and something like 27 connections, but she made it home just fine.

Now I'm just kind of chillin, trying to get some things in order, not melt, and prepare for my final trip down to Calabria, this time with all the girls. We're going to stay in Federica's beach house for a week!