Burritos! Well, sort of...

On one of my first days in Italy, we got to talking about cooking, and what kind of food I usually eat. Obviously, Mexican was at the very top of my list- I mean, I eat something that could be considered Mexican basically every day of my life. Whether it's something as simple as throwing a plate of Tostitos and cheese in the microwave for a snack, or putting together an entire meal of tacos and everything that could possibly go inside... some form of Mexican food happens quite frequently.

Soon, we picked a day, and Elena asked what kinds of ingredients I needed. It was a lot harder to come up with a list than I expected, since I'm used to there being some version of everything I need right in the cupboard, with enough variety that if I didn't have one specific thing, there is always something that can be used instead. Out of sour cream? That's fine, use extra cheese. No refried beans? Grumble about it for a few minutes while mashing up pinto beans. Anything can be left out if necessary, because there are always enough other ingredients around that the food will still be inherently "Mexican." Now, the more I thought about this list of ingredients, the more intimidated I became. I ended up just listing off the bare minimum- meat (which took some explaining), cheese, lettuce, tomato. And I asked if she had basic baking supplies, because I could make my own tortillas.

How To Cook a Mexican Meal in 12 Easy Steps

You will need:
- Tortillas, or stuff to make them (flour, milk, oil, baking powder, salt)
- Ground beef
- Onion
- Tomato
- Lettuce
- Pinto Beans
- Salt and Pepper
- Cheese

1. Realize that none of your measurements are in metric. Sigh dramatically. Convert.

2. Realize that "yes, I have flour" means less than a cup. Cut measurements in half.

3. Look at the measuring cup and see that it's only divided into 100-mL increments. Sigh dramatically. Decide to wing it.

4. Oops, baking powder isn't a thing here. Google replacements. (Luckily, Elena had "yeast for cakes," even in the same brand that was recommended.)

5. Meanwhile, start browning the meat. Easy enough. Throw some chopped onion in there, too.

6. Realize that you didn't leave any flour to use while rolling out the dough. Oh well. Roll it out anyways. Sigh dramatically. Deal with the sticky mess it leaves later. Set tortillas aside for a while.

7. Drain the meat. Look for spices. Realize too late that chili powder, cumin, and powdered versions of onion and garlic aren't normally found in a cupboard here. Sigh dramatically. Salt and pepper it is, then.

8. Cook the tortillas. Use the down time to cut up the lettuce and tomatoes.

9. Pour a tiny bit of the grease from cooking the ground beef back into the pan. Drain the pinto beans and throw those in the pan as well. Squish. Fry.

10. Look for cheese. Of course, cheese isn't exactly a hard thing to find in an Italian family's refrigerator... but what KIND of cheese is a bit of an issue. If you're lucky, someone will have recently accidentally bought Trugole cheese that ends up being as close as you're going to get to cheddar!

11. Realize that the only part of this dinner you're doing to do correctly is putting all the parts in their respective bowls. Decide to own it. Spill things everywhere in the process. Sigh dramatically.

12. Enjoy!

...Okay, so it was actually a really good meal. Like, super delicious. Everyone loved it. Marco claimed the extra tortilla immediately after taking one bite of his first. It just wasn't quite Mexican.

I'm rather thrilled with how my refried beans came out, though! They were much better than what I have even made in a crock pot in the past. I'm giving the inclusion of the animal fat full credit for that. It really isn't as good without!

While I'm frustrated with the obvious lack of Mexican-ness, I am quite ecstatic that it came out as edible, and even happier that it was actually an enjoyable meal! I'm open to suggestions on what to try next... I'm thinking about volunteering to make pancakes for breakfast during a weekend! I'll just have to find a recipe without baking powder...

Just a quick update =)

The last two weeks here have been such an adventure! I have done so many new things and learned so much, I can't even begin to recount them all in a timely fashion. But here's a few highlights:

I spent Monday with Greta, and Tuesday with Marco, so I would have a chance to get to know them individually. Greta was all about trying to use her English skills while teaching me some Italian- I learned my colours very well that day. We had a great time making and painting little plaster animals and drawing pictures! And then she found my phone, and I had a great time trying to figure out how to enable all the different restrictions. Apparently I should have read all those things I've seen on Pinterest about regulating iPhone usage with young kids.

Tuesday, I spent with Marco. He's a lot less likely to use English- he understands it alright (when he wants to), but is very resistant to speaking English himself. I have to say, I learned more Italian words that day than any other, just because I had to keep telling him to slow down so I could look things up! We played "Nascondino" (hide-and-seek) for a while, then built a fort out of blankets and cushions.

The first time I went into the city center was the Tuesday evening after I arrived in Italy. We took out bikes into town, and I was shown the main piazzas and landmarks. The next morning, I went back on my own, which was the first time I encountered the market, so of course everything looked COMPLETELY different! I got lost quite a few times, but I finally found the tourist information office and picked up a couple different maps. I started to find my way around, but soon realized I was depending on the market stalls to know where I was, and they won't always be there! When I went back that afternoon, it took me a while to reorient myself yet again, but I started to understand the main layout of the city.

That first Friday, I went to a dinner party at the house of some friends of the family. Everyone there spoke at least a little bit of English, so someone was always able to fill in a gap in communication. It was a really great night! At first I was super jealous of the pizza the kids were given for dinner, but then I saw what we were eating, and that jealousy immediately went away. Sandwiches made with hot bread and any number of combinations of fillings, including several different types of cheese, some cold-cut style meat, pesto made from different kinds of meat, and probably a few other things that I'm forgetting by now. After the sandwiches came gelato, of course. Then coffee, and other kinds of alcohol that I was given to try, but didn't like any of. I can think of so many people who would have thoroughly enjoyed that part of the evening, but definitely not me. I could tell they were all very delicious, but way too strong for me. We ended up leaving around midnight- I was falling asleep sitting at the table (the multiple glasses of champagne probably didn't help matters), and all the kids had passed out on the couch while watching Disney movies.

This past week was the first "normal" days of life around here. The kids were finally at school all day (the previous week had been only two half-days), and I was free during the day! I'm still working on what, exactly, to do with that free time, but I spent a lot of it walking and biking around town, practicing italian, and hanging out around the house. I went running with Gianluca once, and to the gym another time- it was great to get myself moving again, though the two-ish weeks I took off from exercise really showed. That's definitely something I'm going to focus on getting back into this week!

I did my first tourist-y thing this past week as well- I climbed the tower next to the Duomo. It is the highest brick tower in Europe! I made it to the first platform just fine- it felt very secure. However, the second platform was far more open, which scared me a lot, and I didn't even attempt the tight spiral stairs to the third. I might go back sometime when I've taken my vitamin B, and maybe have one or two people to go with.

Yesterday was a busy day, and very exhausting for my normally very introverted self. We started the day with a trip to the market, then biked to Gianluca's parents' house for lunch. They don't speak any English, so that was a big challenge for me. Elena and Gianluca translated a lot, of course, but I also did my best to use the Italian that I have picked up! Lunch was quite the adventure in and of itself- it was crazy! Very loud, and there were mosquitoes everywhere that we kept chasing around to squish. (The mosquitoes here are TERRIBLE- I get more bites every single day here than I did all summer at home.)

After a couple hours back home, it was time to go to a BBQ party with part of Elena's swim team. Let me tell you- thirty strangers and a language barrier is NOT my ideal situation! But my discomfort was relatively short-lived, and I ended up having a lot of really great discussions with a lot of different people.

Over the past couple weeks, I've been asked a lot of questions about the US. About Syria, the government in general, why Ohio is so important for elections (apparently that fact is very prominent in the news here!), what Willoughby is like, if there are a lot of (insert ethnicity here) people, and where various states and landmarks are. I feel as though I've been able to answer them all accurately and, when the government is the topic, diplomatically. All of these questions have been understandable as they're about my own opinions, or g=just general facts. I haven't really been asked a lot about american stereotypes. Until last night, that is, when someone brought up that she's been watching Sixteen and Pregnant. It took ALL of my willpower not to face-palm right then and there. Her question ended up being a lot easier than I expected- she wanted to know if it was feasible for teen moms to continue their education. But I was really worried there for a minute, especially since I've never actually seen the show before so I didn't know what she was going to be basing her observations off of!

Hopefully this week I'll get better about nailing down a daily routine, and get to see more of Cremona. Last night, every one of my conversations about sightseeing started off very bland, with the other person saying there really wasn't much to do here- until I mentioned that I am a musician. Then, it turned right into "well then Cremona is the PERFECT place for you!" I am very excited to start exploring the museums and liutaio and finding new things to do with my free time!

Cremona

The plan was to start off this post with a video tour of Cremona. I took the video this morning, and just got around to importing and watching it, and got motion sickness. So I'll spare you.

The first thing you need to know about Cremona is that it is the birthplace of Antonio Stradivari. He's probably only a big deal to musicians- string players in particular- but here, it means everything. The ENTIRE town is decorated with violins. I have passed apartment balconies downtown that have a railing made to look like violins. Every store window, no matter what they're selling, has a violin in the front- some clothing stores even have the mannequins holding them. Stradivari's house is a landmark, and there is a separate Stradivari museum. There are more violin makers here than there are bars in Athens. There are at least two separate collections of violins and string instruments outside the proper museums, and on Saturday, a brand new Violin museum opened and kicked off the Stradivari festival. There will be a concert every Saturday night in the beautiful auditorium housed in the museum, and during some, the musicians will be playing original Stradivari instruments. Finally, Stradivari's tomb is located in a Piazza in the middle of the downtown area. Cremona also houses an international violin making school, and is home to a very important College of Musicology, which I am told has a wonderful collection of antique instruments. I hope to be able to see them- I have connections, so it is definitely a possibility!

One of the maps I was given shows six different "tourist itineraries" covering the classical era, the middle ages, the renaissance, the 18th century, music, and the city and river. I plan to slowly cover each one of these, maybe taking one per week while I am here.

Maps of the city look very complicated- especially since I enter the downtown area from the upper left corner of the map, so everything feels like it is upside down. After a week of exploring, here is what it looks like to me- you can definitely tell what my priorities are!

The spot marked "Duomo" and "Violin Museum" are piazzas, or squares, as well. I just don't remember what they are called, so I remember them by the big landmarks.

Church bells can be heard at various times every single day. Sometimes, it is as simple as chiming the hour, but other times, they ring for a long time! The bells right outside my bedroom window have five different pitches, and usually ring for quite a while. There's a video on my Facebook of the ones right outside my window!

Every Wednesday and Saturday, there is a HUGE market that covers several piazzas in the downtown area. It would be completely possible to live entirely off what can be bought at the market- there is food, clothing, shoes, toys, artwork... so many different things! I really enjoyed walking around and listening to everything happening around me. Clothing seems to be the biggest draw- I probably could have found everything for my new wardrobe here, for 1/4 of the cost that I paid at the mall back home, and found it all within a couple of hours rather than traveling to so many stores in two weeks! On Sundays, there is a different kind of sale every week. This past Sunday seemed to be mostly books and antique items, while I am told that other weeks are devoted to organic foods and other themes. It will be fun to see what turns up in the weeks to come!

The Po river runs past Cremona on the southwest. This river separates Lombardy, the state that Cremona is in, from the next state over, which is Emilia-Romagna. It is a gorgeous river, and there is a long walking and biking path that runs next to it. I even found a nice spot to go down to the edge of the water. I haven't quite figured it out yet, but somehow I also managed to bike out onto a sort of peninsula... but I would need a map of the park to see how that happened, which I have yet to find.

I don't really know my way around outside the downtown area. I can get to the school and to San Zeno, which is the gym/sports complex. And I do mean complex- there are volleyball courts, tennis courts, bocce ball courts, basketball courts, a rugby pitch, three different sized of football fields, three different pools, three or four outdoor playgrounds, a jogging trail, and an indoor group fitness class room. The indoor gym equipment room had a few treadmills, ellipticals, stair machines, stationary bikes, free weights, weight machines, mats, and other small equipment to use. There are probably several other fitness areas and fields that I have either forgotten or haven't yet seen. And then there is a restaurant and bar. It's a really nice place! I have gone by car to the mall, where the big grocery store is, and to Lidl, which is the same as Aldi.

The weather here is beautiful. It feels very much like fall right now! And I am told that it doesn't get that cold for that long in the winter. I mean, there's a palm tree behind the house, so it can't possibly be THAT bad. Those whom I have told about Lake Erie winters have been SHOCKED to hear that we get snow as early as October and as late as April! I've been told that it gets to "minus two or three" in the winter, which sounds dreadful at first but hey, Celsius! That's really no lower than what, 25 degrees in Fahrenheit? I can deal with that, NO problem.

So that's a general overview of WHERE I'm living. Hopefully soon I'll be able to finish writing about what I'm doing, and life in Cremona!

Wherefore Art Thou?

On Wednesday, Flavio, a friend of the family I am living with, was traveling to Padua for a business meeting, and offered me three options (oh, look, there's a handy little map at the top of the page that includes all of these places!):

1) I could go to Padua,
2) I could take a train from Padua to Venice,
3) He could drop me off in Verona, which was on the way.

I chose option three! I was discouraged from going to Venice since there wouldn't be much time to spend there- I am told that it is necessary to be there overnight.

First of all, band people- remember being in the busses in Rome and talking about how COMPLETELY CRAZY the drivers were? Well, imagine being in one of those cars instead of the safety of a giant bus! Flavio's driving wasn't nearly the scariest part, but being so much closer to the other crazy drivers was a little bit terrifying at times.

According to Flavio, "Every Italian man thinks he is a Formula One driver whenever he gets into a car." I nodded, gulped, and immediately scrambled to find my seatbelt. And the parking in crazy! It isn't necessary for everyone to be parked facing the same direction along a curb, and most people aren't even in remotely straight- just wherever at least a corner of their car would kinda-sorta fit. Or, you know, not fit at all, like when Flavio double parked while he ran into a Tabbacheria. I spent the whole time I was sitting in the car wondering what I was going to do when the owner of that white car came up and started yelling at me in Italian. Luckily, that didn't happen! The trip to and from Verona was an adventure in and of itself, though. Flavio speaks very broken english and doesn't have a large vocabulary, and my Italian consists of about 20 words, most of which are the names of colours. But we managed! At one point I commented on how big the mountains were that we were passing, and I'm going to paraphrase his answer into a very sassy "girl, those are just the foothills, you don't even know!"

Flavio had given me a map of Verona the day before, so I had a little bit of time to look at it and try to figure out what my tourist priorities were. I didn't know how much time I would have, and I was pretty much planning on pulling out another Florence-like super-tourist mode. I was starting to re-plan out the itineraries that were given in the map to save time and see things in an order that better suited my priorities. However, that wasn't at all necessary- as he dropped me off, Flavio said that he thought he might be back around six, if not later- that was a good seven hours away! We set a meeting place, and I was off on my own!

The first place I went was Ponte di Castelvecchio- a beautiful brick bridge attached the the castle. There were street musicians that were fantastic to listen to as I took in the view and ate the sandwich I had packed! It was also a great place to people-watch. I enjoyed having a few minutes to sit still!

Eventually, I found my way up to one of these higher walkways in the bridge to get a slightly different view. The stairs were very steep and narrow, without anything to hold on to. I watched this woman slowly struggle her way down... then you better believe I walked right over and scooted down the steps on my butt! I attracted a few stares, but hey- I didn't fall and crack my head open on the bricks, so I'm considering it a victory. That's how that works, right?

After a while, I went inside the museum part of the castle and purchased a Verona Card. It was only €15- Definitely not what I was expecting after paying $50 for Firenze Card in May! I ended up saving about €18 in museum entrance fees. Plus, it's so much easier to just hand over a little card than to dig money out of my wallet nine or so separate times!

The museum itself was rather underwhelming to me- if you're really into medieval sacred art, you'd probably like it. Me, not so much. It was cool to walk around in, but I didn't do more than just glance around when I entered each room, seeing if there was anything I recognized. There never was. The was one room of weapons, which was pretty cool, but otherwise, the displays were kinda "meh."

However, in between sections of the museum, you walk through parts of the castle! These stairs go up to the top of the tower, but that was sadly blocked off. Later, I passed through a walkway that was a bit higher up on the staircase- right where that second gate is, and was disappointed yet again to not be able to climb the tower. Some areas had walkways out over the roof, which was very cool, and another was a walkway that went along the river for 50 yards or so. All of these different places offered great views! The best part was that there weren't many people in the museum- I bet most people didn't know that it was more than just the art, otherwise I'm sure it would have been a lot more crowded.

When I left the castle, I made my way to the Arena. Unfortunately, I made it there at the same time as several tour groups, so I had to wait in line for a few minutes. I didn't spend much time there once I got in- I really just climbed to the top and walked around the top couple rows of seats, looking to see if there was a unique view somewhere along the way. There really wasn't. The arena was set up for some kind of concert- when I walked past it again later that day, it was closed to tourists and there was very loud music coming from inside.

Juliet's tomb was far off the beaten path, but I had plenty of time and an English teacher friend to whom I promised photos. It was part of a museum, but I really don't recall anything from the museum part... not particularly interesting at all. There weren't many people, which surprised me... but it was pretty far out of the way, so I guess that's why. When I got to the tomb part, I was actually all by myself, which was a little creepy even though there weren't actually any dead people. It was pretty dark, so my photos didn't come out well, but here it is anyways!

From the tomb, I walked back around the arena to go down Via Mazzini. Flavio had told me about this street the day before, which is good, because it wasn't included on the tourist itinerary on my map! It was a long, beautiful street, with all kinds of stores for different designer labels. I'm not terribly interested in clothing, so I was really just walking by and glancing into windows, cringing at the thought of prices, and half scoffing at the people who were SO FREAKING EXCITED FOR CLOTHES. There were a lot of shoppers, individual tourists, and large groups of tourists here as well, and it wasn't a terribly wide street, so it was a little claustrophobic. Luckily, no cars drive on the street- it is for pedestrians only. It was cool to see, but I really just wanted to get to the other side, where I could go to another museum.

And then I found the Disney store. And it was a WONDERFUL Disney store. Lots of stuffed animals. A whole wall of mugs that I wanted every single one of. Action figures and such from every movie. DVDs. Some t-shirts and costumes, but not many (whereas the Disney store I'm used to has pretty much only those things, with a few toys from the most current movies thrown in here and there.) There was even a little touristy section in one corner with Shirts and figurines that had Disney characters with Italian flags incorporated into the design, and some things that said "Verona" or "Italy" on them. Moral of the story: I stopped being super judge-y of the high class shopping and turned into a six year old. It happens.

My next stop was Casa di Giulietta- Juliet's house. Wikipedia just failed me for the first time ever when I tried to find out more about how the location was chosen- there isn't an article about it in English! What I've pieced together from the crappy Google translation is this: It was created in 1937-1940, and modeled after a movie that was released in 1936. The movie was designed after a painting. The balcony was created with marble remains of the fourteenth century, and came from Castlevecchio. The site itself was chosen because a family called Capelletti lived there, and this is known because their coat of arms was found at the site. There was a family called Montague (maybe, more specifically, Montecchi), but there is no record of a feud with the Capelletti family.

But anyways. Here's some different perspectives of the balcony from the courtyard and from higher up in the museum:

Throughout the day, I looked for people who were attempting to take selfies and offered to take their picture in exchange for them taking one of me.

The rest of the museum was paintings of scenes from the play, paintings of shakespeare, and costumes and props from the movie. The whole place was, of course, decorated to resemble the period of the book. One room was dedicated to"letters to Juliet." Apparently that's a thing. Was no one paying attention in eighth grade when they first read the book? It's not exactly a love story to look up to! In fact, if I had to pick one character that I'd most like to be, I'd pick the chick Romeo ditches, because SHE SURVIVES THE PLAY. But apparently not everyone feels this way, and so they write letters to Juliet. Every letter is translated and answered by "Juliet's Secretaries," a group of young volunteers. Here's the address, in case anyone is interested... just don't tell me you're writing, because I'll make fun of you. A lot.

Club di Giulietta
Via Galilei 3
Verona 37100
Italy

I think there is also a way to send email. There are several computers set up in the museum that are set up to send emails, and there is even a mailbox to drop off written letters. In addition to the "official" letters to Juliet, there is also graffiti EVERYWHERE in the courtyard! To try to keep the graffiti at bay, the museum started putting removable panels in the tunnel that leads to the courtyard that are meant to be written on. Every so often, the panels are replaced, and the old ones put into storage, where they are then cycled through a display inside the museum.

In addition to writing on the removable wall in the tunnel, some people choose to put a lock on the gate at the far end of the courtyard, and more still leave pieces of paper tacked to the wall... unfortunately, this is usually done with chewing gum. I left a sticky note that simply said "choose love." That's more important to me than any expression of a relationship!

The last part of the courtyard was a bronze statue of Juliet. Lots of people were always crowded around taking pictures with her- apparently it's not a highly protected work of art, because people were climbing right on up, hugging her, and butting their hand on her boob. Yeah. I dunno. People are weird. The bronze there is a different colour than the rest of the cast from so many people touching her.

After I left Casa di Giulietta, I had a moment of panic where I searched frantically for my phone to see if Flavio had texted me with a meeting time to leave- after all, I had spent so much time in so many places! Imagine my surprise when I learned it was only about 1:30! I actually had some time to slow down! I found myself some gelato (duh), and found a nice corner of Piazza Erbe to people-watch for a while.

When I finished my gelato, I walked to Via Arche Scaligere 4, which has been designated as Romeo's house. It's not a museum like Juliet's or anything, just a plaque with a quote from the play next to a plain wooden door. It, too, is covered in graffiti.

I continued on my way to Arche Scaligere. I still have no idea what it is, but it was cool looking. They had laminated fact sheets to borrow as you walk around, but I forgot to pick one up when I entered, and felt awkward going back, so I just appreciated the aesthetic qualities of the collection. It was a lot of very intricate, very beautiful gothic sculpture. Though I'm about 99.6% sure they have something to do with dead people. Probably important dead people. You can Google it, I'm too lazy.

...Ok, I got curious. These are, in fact, tombs. Five tombs of the most important members of the Scaligere family, who ruled in Verona in the 13th and 14th centuries: Cangrade, Mastino, Cansignorio, Alberto, and Giovanni. THE MORE YOU KNOW.

Anyways, they were pretty cool. Three had these big tower things built around them, one was just a sarcophagus with no tower thingy, and one was built into the wall of the building it was next to, which I just learned is a church.

Speaking of churches, my next stops were to San Anastasia and the Duomo. Both beautiful, of course, though I don't have much more to say about them. The usual Italian artsy churches- sculptures, frescoes, other paintings, and this creepy hunchback dude.

It's strange to me that this is so normal here. Like, the Duomo in Cremona was closed to tourists this morning because of church services. People actually go to church in these places like it's nothing unusual. "Don't mind me, I'm just gonna go chill next to some famous artwork. Be back later." It blows my mind.

After the churches, I was about ready to call it a day and go find some pizza when I remembered the Torre dei Lamberti, the tallest building in Verona at 84 meters. Some perspective- that is approximately the distance from the goalie box on one end of a football pitch the the goal on the other end. At least, it is if my googling skills are worth anything. Another perspective- it is 268 steps to the top. I decided to save a Euro and skip the elevator, which would have saved me the first 243 steps. After the place where the lift lets out, it is another 46 steps to the first lookout area.

The moment I set foot on that first platform, I knew there was going to be a problem. That is SO. HIGH. UP. More importantly, I recall the railing as being slightly below my center of gravity, though I could be making that up since I was pretty much scared out of my mind even without that thought. There are two big bells at that level. After I had slowly worked my way around the tower, inching my way up to the edges to snap a photo and then hurrying back to where I couldn't see the height. Around that point is when I noticed several people looking up and covering their ears. The bell was going to ring. AND WE ALL KNOW HOW MUCH I LOVE LOUD NOISES. Seeing another set of stairs, I took a few deep breaths, and started up those, hoping to get away from the bells.

Welllll, the bell rang when I had reached the first landing in this section. And it was a bell that was on the second platform- not even the ones that were there next to me. I jumped a foot, which scared me even more because DEAR GOD IT WAS SO HIGH UP and I no longer had the "protection" of four solid brick walls around me- oh no. Wide open. Once the bell stopped, I went back to the first platform to catch my breath before trying again, but it really didn't help at all. I SHOULD have given it up and just went back down, but I was

determined to get to the top! I tried again, holding on to both railings and going one step at a time, walking both feet onto the same step before taking another one. Stop laughing, I was terrified! Soon I came to where it was enclosed by brick, but that barely helped because now, there was no elevator in the middle to take up all that open space, so it still felt very insecure. When there were landings, I was literally hugging the wall until I got to the next spot with a railing. Three separate guys asked me if I was okay. It probably took me ten minutes to climb 79 steps. I was hoping that the beautiful view would help take my mind off it when I reached the top, but first, I had to catch my breath and stop crying. Yes, there were tears involved. When I got to the top, I found the most secure place I could, sitting with my back against a pillar, facing in, and sat there for quite a while with my head down. One woman came over and asked if I was okay, if there was anything she could do, if I was there by myself. She and her husband were about to head down, and offered to wait a couple minutes so I could go down with them. So once I found some landmarks (the Arena and the Castle) and snapped a few photos (the view really was beautiful, I was just 100% unable to appreciate it!), the three of us went back down the stairs together. When we reached the lower platform, I thanked them profusely in as many languages as I could come up with (I could tell they weren't native English speakers), and continued on my way. Once I was back where the lift ran in the middle of the tower, it was much easier, though I was still very glad to reach the bottom!

After that, I decided that I deserved more gelato because why the heck not? I also grabbed a slice of pizza, and went back to chill in Piazza Bra for a while.

I finished my day by purchasing a copy of Harry Potter e il Prigioniero di Azkaban, and going back to the bridge to find somewhere to sit and read. An group of Japanese tourists showed up, so of course I immediately stopped reading and started people-watching. One of them took a picture of me sitting up on the higher ledge on the bridge. I asked him to email it to me, so we'll see if anything ever comes of that!

On the way home from Verona, Flavio and I stopped at Sirmione, where Lago Garda is. It is so, so beautiful! I have a large number of pictures from there, mostly because Flavio kept taking my phone and telling me to take pictures with various things behind me, including but not limited to: the sunset, the castle, the lake, nuns, and a swan. This is my "you KNOW swans are mean, right?" face:

"Get closer! get closer!" "Um, how about no?" I finally just went and took my phone away. I tried to slowly move a little closer to get a picture of just the swan, but then it started moving VERY determinatedly (is that a word) towards me so I ran away.

So all in all, a really wonderful day! I have some pictures on facebook, but I didn't want to just photo dump, so I put all of them on a picasa album which you can visit HERE

On Travel

It is my second day in Italy, and life is wonderful! I'm having trouble nailing down a specific subject for this post, so it is going to be very scattered. Just a warning.

My suitcase decided that it would much prefer to stay in Cleveland. It was supposedly put on the next flight, but so far, no news.

My layover in Heathrow was supposed to be just under 2 hours. I was nervous as it was. When we got there our stand was "utterly occupied" (not just a little bit occupied...) but another plane. Once we got to the stand, we learned the reason it was being called a "stand" and not a "gate"- it wasn't anywhere near the terminal. SO we had to take busses. I was five rows from the back, so that took a LONG time! LUCKILY, I didn't have to change terminals... but I still had to go through security (for the THIRD time), and the lines were VERY long. My flight was at 9:10- I made it to my gate at 9:00 after running to the bathroom as fast as I could.

I was 3/3 on window seats (YAY!) and 2/3 on having an empty seat in my row. Can't complain.

On the trans-atlantic flight, there was a video screen in the back of every seat, and you could pick your own movie! I watched Star Trek: Into Darkness, and it was just as amazing as when I saw it in the theatre. Actually, I think it was even more amazing, because I've actually seen Wrath of Khan now so I got all of the references.

When we left the airport, we went straight to the other side of Milan for the Color Run! Most of that trip was on the metro. It was a while until the run actually started, but it was nice to have a little break and start to get to know the family I am staying with. We stopped to see a giant statue of a horse that was designed by Leonardo Da Vinci, though the actual statue was built by an American. I have learned that I talk way too fast (who would've guessed, right? ha) and if I listen very closely, I can identify more Italian words than I thought I would be able to- lots more from music than from anything else. One example that I was surprised by was "senza"- I recognized it immediately from seeing and hearing "senza sordino!" There are many words that I have recognized from Spanish, too. However, no matter how many individual words I recognize, I can't construct my own sentences. I've had my nose buried in my dictionary all day today, but that doesn't help at all with grammar and syntax.

The Color Run itself was very, very fun! I didn't have my phone with me to take pictures, but the people I was with took plenty, so hopefully I'll get my hands on them soon to share. I didn't actually get that much powder on me during the actual race- I have a talent for staying out of the way- but when everyone threw their packets at the end, we all would up covered head to toe. Most of us still have a little bit that we couldn't get off in the shower!

I have only eaten one actual meal here, but it was so, so delicious. Pasta, salad, and a meat I couldn't identify, but was very, very good. Late this morning, we went to the grocery store, which was a strange experience. The grocery store is in the mall, right along with H&M, other stores that I've never heard of, and one called Stradivarius that, although the logo contained a treble clef, was a clothing store and had nothing to do with music. Since this IS the guy's birthplace, I guess they're allowed to do that =) Also, the carts (which are like Aldi's, with the lock that you need a quarter to release) are found in the parking garage underneath the mall, and aren't just for the grocery store- they go to the whole mall. The Entire front of the store opens out into the mall, and is completely lined with checkouts. And they all have someone working at it. And the cashiers have comfy-looking chairs. There is a kid's playplace in the mall, which is a jungle gym like they would have at a McDonalds, only GIANT. Marco and Greta stayed there while we went to the grocery store. Shopping was a bit of a culture shock, even though I was just following around- I knew I wouldn't be able to read most of the food names, but even a lot of the packaging is different, so most of the time I had no idea what I was looking at! I found a few words I could identify, mostly among the meat. I recognized "pollo" from spanish, so we were good to go there... and then I recognized "equina," and got a little weirded out. Luckily, Elena and Gianluca passed right by that section, though not without laughing at my expression. I think the biggest difference in food, though, is that seafood is a big part of their meals... I told them I'm up for trying just about anything, but couldn't make any promises. I've never been able to eat seafood. I mean, I spit out shrimp once when I was talked into trying it. So that will be interesting. Maybe it will be an acquired taste... but I'm skeptical.

Sadly, though I have more to say, my computer is about to die. While I have my charging cord, my adapter and converter is in my suitcase, so I have to wait for that before I can use any plugs. Ciao for now!