The dangers of renting a car in Italy

Well after seven months...my family is finally here! We stayed in the first night and I cooked pasta al forno for them and Charlotte. Mom didn't feel very well (not because of my cooking) and so the next day we actually called the American doctor and got a house call! He was quite the character and we're pretty sure laughter was the best medicine because mom had started feeling better already. At one point, he coughed and said, "Sorry I'm just getting over a case of TB." We all started laughing and then he said, "Tiny Bladder." We ate lunch at a great place right around the corner from my house where they'd make any kind of pasta that struck your fancy. Afterwards I left the family napping and went to Alessandro's graduation thesis presentation. It's been the topic of conversation for the past month, and the day had finally come. I was so nervous for him but he did great!

Me and Ale

Later my family and I did a tour of Bologna and then I got them set up for dinner before leaving with a friend (on his motorino!) for Alessandro's graduation party. The motorino ride was probably the highlight of the evening because I had never ridden on one before. It was thrilling!

The next day we began the adventure of driving a car in Italy. Rick Steves should have written in his book, "Warning: it may be bad for your health." I think my dad might now have problems with ulcers, hehe. First stop was San Luca, in Bologna. We drove up through the hills, but found the church to be closed. Like I said before though, it's the journey and the architecture outside the church that make it so incredible.

Our Alfa Romeo

In front of San Luca

After that, we attempted to head to San Gimignano. We started right off the bat going the wrong direction and had to ask a man that owned a bike shop where the freeway was. He gave me directions and said, if you follow those, you can't mess up. HA. We get to the freeway finally heading towards Florence, and we come to a toll. However, there wasn't a person there and we couldn't figure out how to make the barricade go up. So everyone's honking and we're freaking out so I get out of the car and look around but I don't know what to do and so I go to the guy in the big truck behind us and tell him so. He asks if we have a pass and I say no and he says well you're in the pass lane. Great. At this point my dad's yelling at me because apparently there was this help speaker and so he yells, "Kelly, they're talking to me!" And rather quickly the help people give up on him and just lift the barricade...so I run up to the car while yelling at him to go through the barricade and finally I jump in the car and we're off! Oh my God it was so stressful. My mom is laughing so hard because she said my dad might as well have yelled, "Kelly, they're picking on me!" when the help people spoke to him in Italian. So basically we got lost a couple more times and finally end up in San Gimignano, which is a very cute little walled city. We walked around, looked into some shops, and had a very yummy dinner.

And then we headed for Camp Darby, the army base near Livorno. Easier said than done. By this point it was already dark. We went to visitor's information in San Gimignano for directions and they gave us several names of towns whose signs we should follow. That worked for a while but at one point we got confused so we pulled off at this restaurant that ended up being hidden in the forest and I asked this group of guys who all wanted to give me different directions and they would be thing like, "when you come to a really old building, turn left and follow that road through the forest until it dead ends, then turn left...blah blah blah"--no street names, no specifics, nothing. One of them also told me, "If you do that, you can't mess up." HA. It was impossible but we're again headed in the right direction. So then we're trying to follow the directions the hotel gave us. But we end up in some random town unable to find any more helpful signs. So dad tries to turn around but we end up in this alley blocked by a truck loading. We get out to ask the men loading the truck where Camp Darby is, and then an ambulance drives up behind us and is also blocked so we ask them instead, and the man driving--God Bless Him--says he will lead us most of the way! There's seriously no way we would have made it without him.
Here's Daniel's Russian celebratory dance for having arrived:

The next day we did a ton of food shopping at the commissary on base...I bought baking mixes, Mexican food, and various other requests from my American friends. Then we headed to Pisa, saw the Field of Miracles, took our corny tourist pictures, and then left for Lucca.

We made it both to Pisa and Lucca with practically no directional problems in the car! Lucca is the small town my dad's grandparents, the ones who immigrated to America, are from. I was completely charmed by the city and could see myself living there one day! It's just lovely.

Dad and I walking in our native land

That night we headed home for Bologna and said good riddens to that rental car!

San Luca

Yesterday I decided that I would finally make the trek up to San Luca, the church that is atop the highest hill in Bologna and thus quite a significant part of our city. It's like a beacon. Leading up to San Luca is the longest portico in the world; it's 3.5 km and has 666 arches. However, I had never been before and for some reason decided that instead of taking the portico up the normal way, I would take the (back)roads. I didn't realize what that would entail. So I'm walking. And walking. I'm passing houses and parks and singing along with my ipod. And after about 45 minutes I'm not even sure if I chose the right direction or where on Earth I'm heading. At some point I see a sign telling me I'm leaving the main city of Bologna! So I'm walking up and up, which I figured was a good sign since San Luca's on a huge hill, with motorinos and bicyclists passing me like crazy. I kept wondering if I should turn around for fear I was going the wrong dirction and of getting to the top and being too exhausted to ever get back down! But I was determined to find San Luca. You can't tell people you're going to San Luca and then come back declaring you couldn't find it. It just doesn't make sense! So I'm walking. And walking. And along the way I see giant worms, frantic lizards, and beautiful butterflies. Not to mention gorgeous villas and sprawling green hills. I turn around and can see the whole city of Bologna, far away, nestled between the two hills closer to me. But where is this church? How can this road be so looong? So after walking for 1.25 hours, I see a sign. A sign! And it says, San Luca --> and I jump in the air because it's my first sign in a long time that I'm actually on my way there! However, I have still yet to see the actual church. All the while I'm wondering how it is possible that I can't see the church high up on the hill from everywhere. So I keep walking. And walking. And after another 15 minutes...I SEE IT! But how can that be? It's on a different freaking hill than the one I'm on! And there's an entire valley between it and me! Nooooooooo! So I keep walking. And walking. And shooting desperate looks over my shoulder at the church, as I walk farther from it in an attempt to get closer to it. I come across a couple and breakdown and ask if I'm going the right way. They say, yes, and there's only 15 more minutes until I get there, which I don't believe because it looks like it might as well be in another land. So I keep walking. And walking. And I get to a plateau with a gorgeous view of what's behind the hills, outside of Bologna. And I see a couple of houses I wouldn't mind moving into. And I hear something crawling in the bushes that freaks me out. Oh it's just the lizards. And I come across a tiny neighborhood and think of what wonderful lives these people live and it practically moves me to tears and I think that this cannot be the last time I live in Italy. And I keep walking. And walking. And finally I turn the corner, and what do I see? San Luca!-

-beautifully golden and magestic shining on top of its hill. It's terribly moving. I see a couple taking photos and offer to take one of the two of them and they are so thankful it's cute. And I wish for the thousandth time that I had brought my camera because I've seen the world through a different lens on this beautiful walk and would love to have been able to record it. So I keep walking. And walking. Now in disbelief that I actually made it there in a record 2 hours. So I pass by the pizzeria (who knew?), and the guy selling candy, and I enter the complex, climb the spiral staircase, enter the church. The altar is beautiful, but other than that it's actually a small church on the inside and I'd have to say I prefer the exterior but I'm so happy to have finally reached it that the whole thing is shining like a first place prize. I go up on the altar, say a prayer thanking God for finally getting me there, and then proceed to go down the hill the normal way-down the portici. It's something else, a portico that long. So after 2 hours to go up the hill, it took me only 45 minutes to get down, if that! It was quite the conquest...I seriously don't even know how I made it through a 3 hour walk over the hill and far away!

What's new, you might ask? Well, my family arrives TOMORROW! I cannot believe it. I remember when I was leaving California and knew it would be 7 months before I would see my dad and my brother. And now it's tomorrow. Life sure flies by, doesn't it? We're gonna have such a great time touring Tuscany, Venice, and Rome...not to mention Bologna! But really we're just excited to see each other.

Honeymoon in Tuscany

This past weekend I went to Tuscany with my friend, Julia, on what was practically a honeymoon since we went just us two! I should tell of how we first met. I was walking through Piazza Maggiore with my girlfriends this past summer, eating gelato and talking. Up pops this girl, excaiming, "You speak English!" She's from Baltimore and had just gotten to Bologna and needed some advice on finding an apartment. Well that was Julia and we've all been friends ever since!

The weather here has been quite ugly this week, and Tuscany was even worse. It was cold and rainy the whole time. We made the best of it, however, and spent our time strolling, eating, and sleeping. It was a very relaxing weekend. Siena is beautiful.

Some of the highlights of Siena were the Cathedral, the Piazza, and meeting up with my friend Giuliana who was also there for the weekend.

We also took a day trip to Perugia. We had an amazing meal there of spinach gnocchi baked in the oven with tomato sauce. Mmmm.

The best part of that day was wandering the small alleys...they are all so cute! It's exciting to know that around every corner there will something new and even more beautiful! In the afternoon it got so cold it started snowing...which I could hardly even believe. It was cool though. We just ducked in for some tea and hot chocolate and then made our way back to Siena.

There's a special pasta that's particular to Siena called Pici. It's kinda like spaghetti but SO much thicker. We made a point of buying some before we left, and the guy we bought from was so sweet, offering cooking suggestions and telling us about Chianti.

The only time the weather cleared up a bit was the morning we went to climb the tower, most fortunately. We took a ton of photos to justify the price of the ticket!

I'm pleased to say that the photos don't even do it justice. Tuscany is totally what it's cracked up to be.

Barcelona!

Barcelona has such a great vibe! I mean, it's kinda dirty and it's a little shady, but at the same time it's bustling, fresh, and muy guapa! We saw pretty much everything we wanted to see...and then some!

The first day Brittany and I decided to start with the free walking tour of the gothic district of the city. Here we met Rick, a guy from Australia who's backpacking through Europe. We ran into him about 4 times in the street throughout the trip...it was so bizarre! After the tour, we walked up Las Ramblas and decided to watch some street performers who were doing acrobatics. They were ridiculously strong and limber. Brittany, of course, got plucked out of the audience do be a spectacle herself (when Rick refused to participate) and ended up like this (!):

Later the evening, the three of us were the only people who had bought tickets for the cooking class. We learned how to make tapas, sangria, and pallela from this really cute Spanish girl. Mmmm...it was so good!

That night the three of us ended up rambling up Las Ramblas again, and while we were talking, these two people walked up to Rick and it turns out they had just met a few days ago in Rome on the pub crawl! So we chatted with Ben and Bea for awhile before heading to a bar and talking some more. They're all from the same town in Australia, too. What a small world. It was so spontaneous and spontaneity is what makes for the most memorable experiences.

We came home to meet the roommates that had woken us up with their drunken hullabaloo at five that morning. They were German twenty-something hard-rock punk guys that had been paired with a couple of dainty California girls. They were far to funny and kept suggesting places for us to go where they "make good party". I had to get a picture of them to share with you all:

The next day we wanted to start with the Picasso Museum. While in the metro we ran into Rick, who was going to the same place, and why wouldn't he be? Hehe...He asked if he could continue the stalking and tag along, and so we all had a great time seeing a great collection of Picasso's earliest works.

Afterwards, we split up and Brittany and I ate at a small restaurant with a really sweet Spanish lady who kept trying to explain what the dishes were. Later on we set out on a quest to discover the works of Antoni Gaudi who was a modernist architect and did seemingly all the interesting architecture in Barcelona. Everything of his is curvy and colorful. His main ongoing masterpiece is the Sagrada Familia (Sacred Family) Cathedral which is so huge and so intricate and so absolutely original that we had never seen anything like it. It might not even be completed in our lifetime.

That afternoon, after a bit more Modernist building watching (during which we got somewhat lost and some Italians thought it would be wise to ask me of all people for help...it was neat though because I actually was able to help them find their way!), I gave in to hot chocolate and churros because it's a common Spanish dish I didn't want to miss out on! The place was really popping and had a cute atmosphere. Churros dipped in chocolate are so much better than churros dipped in, well, not chocolate.

So after that we were planning on going back to the hostel to rest for a bit before going out for tapas and then to a club. However, we got totally sidetracked when we saw the fresh market off of Las Ramblas. I've been to several markets before but this one wins hands down. Everything was so colorful and so lively and so fresh!

Needless to say, we dropped our dinner plans, bought a bunch of fresh food, and went back to the hostel to make our own tapas like we had learned at our cooking class the night before! Our impromptu Friday night dinner paired with a bottle of wine made for such a fun night! So as I'm tipsily munching on salami and cheese atop tomato bread, I say to Brittany, "I'm glad we saved eating tapas out until tomorrow so I can eat meat." Then I look down at the salami in my hand and we both started dying laughing. Oh well. I actually think dinner was so fun that I didn't mind quite as much when the club experience later on bombed. Man we hate house music.

Even before we went home to eat all our lovely purchases we wanted to make sure we didnt' miss the light show at the Magic Fountain, so we took another detour, this time to Placa Espanya. Wouldn't you know it, we ended up running into the Australian couple again there.

The fountain was so cool! It's at the foot of the Catalan Museum and in the evenings they do this really spectacular light show. We watched it twice, it was so good.

The next morning on our way out we took a detour to check out the cool graffiti in the park near our hostel. There were even people tagging while we were there!

At Park Guell, we saw some more of Gaudi's visionary works. Apparently it was a flopped housing development...but it just looks like a cool park to me! There were tons of simply gorgeous mosaics littering the park. Brittany and I had a great time watching the hoards of people attempt to take pictures with this famous lizard gecko mosaic thing--all at the same time, all in different languages. It was a grand mess. Anyways, we figured we better follow suit, so here we are in all our cliche cuteness:

I had watched this French movie dubbed in Italian that takes place in Barcelona (hehe) with Azzurra and there were many shots from Park Guell so it was super cool to be there in real life. The weather was perfect...warm and clear...you could feel the ocean nearby. At one point Brittany and I were talking about the old days and fun stuff we used to do like her photo shoot with Julia, to which I exclaimed, "Why don't we do fun things anymore?!" Brittany agreed and then we looked at each other and realized, um, we're in Barcelona, and felt really stupid for our ignorant complaints. Hehe...anyways here's some various shots in the park, in which we spent a great deal of the day:

Then we went back to Las Ramblas for -Haagen Daas- woo! followed by a tour through the main cathedral, the most memorable part of which is the cloister which is outside with palm trees, fountains and geese in the middle!

Then we stopped for another snack...we're so bad! We had come across this adorable place, and so went in for tea and pastries. We decided to drop by the hostel for a little rest and warmer clothes and picked up an LA girl from our hostel, Roxy, who went out to dinner with us. We went to a place near the harbor for delicious tapas and wine, and were aided by Roxy's fluency in Spanish! We ate a great sampling of some very authentic dishes! After, we strolled the harbor and took one last tour of Las Ramblas before heading off to bed.

I had to be up for an 8 o'clock flight which permitted me only 3 hours of sleep! I just reminded myself I can sleep when I'm dead.

And finally, a special treat. Here's the video I took of Brittany with the acrobats!