Venice, How I Love you!

On Thursday morning we got up early and headed to Venice. It was about a 4 hour drive from our hotel to the boat that was taking us across. We ho.pped in the car with a backpack filled with things for one night and turned on our Never Lost device. We weren't sure how long it was going to take us to get there, and we also weren't entirely sure what we were doing. We spent the morning chatting about different things, but as soon as we got close, Chris asked me to read an article that he had sent himself. It was basically about how to park outside of Venice. There were a few different options, the cheaper options were parking farther away and taking a longer shuttle ride, or you could park on land that was connected to Venice by a floating road. We decided to go the cheap route and followed the instructions in the article. When we found the parking lot that was mentioned, it was completely empty with no attendants. Chris got out of the car and tried to figure out what was going on, but all the signs were in Italian and it no one was around to ask. We decided to get back in the car and continue to drive down the road. We kept driving until we came up to a small pier that had a tiny little building. There was a man speaking to another group of people right ahead of us and he was speaking in Italian. I was a bit nervous, because I was so horrible with Italian and I was the one closest to the window he would be speaking to us in. I rolled down my window and he walked up to us and immediately said "Do you speak English?" and we were like "Yes, English". He spoke very fluently in English, though he did have a very thick accent. He told us we could park there for free and then they would shuttle us to Venice, then he showed us the pick up times for the next day, the latest one being at 5pm. He also helped us find our hotel on a map and then not too long after he finished talking to us, the shuttle was about to leave. We hopped on the shuttle boat and waited for about 10 minutes or so before it took off. We put away our maps and the shuttle times for the next day, just so we wouldn't get lost or miss our shuttle.

When we stepped off of the boat, I was immediately in love. The first thing I said when I took the first few buildings was "This is soo cool!" We walked along the cobble stone streets and wondered at the beautiful old buildings. They all seemed to be painted in yellows and pinks mostly. Since the canals replace roads, we were almost always in view of the water. On our way to find our hotel, we saw these taxi boats, and thought we might utilize those sometime. We wandered through different alleyways, and over little bridges in search of our hotel. When we finally found what we thought was our hotel, Chris walked in and asked them if they had an Amanda Olson who had reserved a room. They were having a tough time finding anything, so he offered his name as well. No such luck. Chris suggested that I look up the reservation and I had to remind him that we left my phone back at the hotel in case of pick pockets. He handed me his phone and I logged in to my email and found the reservation, I handed the phone to Chris and he walked up to the front desk and showed them. Apparently we were at the wrong Best Western. The concierge at the hotel pointed us in the right direction, they said we would have to get on line B to Santo Marco and get off and our hotel would be close by. I had seen these areas that almost looked like subway stations, but were boats instead of trains.So we had to find our ways to one of those stations. We ended up having to go over some bridges and around some walls. We found our way to one of the stations. We were a bit confused as to how to work the ticket machines and we heard a couple of people speaking English so I told Chris he should ask them. He walked up to them it seemed like they were on a father/daughter trip as the man looked like he was in his 70s and she looked like she was in her 50s. Chris asked the woman if she knew how to get tickets. She said that you can buy them on the boat and asked us to follow her and her Dad. We got on the next boat and bought tickets for the day from the guy on the boat. I'm not sure what to call his position, but basically he shouted out the next station we were coming up to as we arrived at it, and he opened the gates to let people on and off. He also sold tickets on the boat. It actually seemed like kind of a fun job, doubt it pays well, but still it looked kind of fun. Anyways, we basically had to take the boat to the end of the line. Once we made it to our stop, we got off and found our actual hotel. We checked in and brought our things to the room. Our room was tiny and the bed was ridiculously uncomfortable. We decided no to hang around for long. We hadn't eaten lunch yet and it was late afternoon so we had kind of missed the boat on that. We asked the hotel if there was anywhere that was open, they told us there were a lot of restaurants near by, but they were all closed. They mentioned there was a bar open right down the road so we headed over there. We decided to just get some snacks, we grabbed chips, ice cream, and drinks. Chris asked the bartender what they had to drink that was a typical local drink. The bartender, who spoke perfect English said that a Spritz was  their local drink. It is basically wine, liqueur, and soda water. Chris let the bartender pick his and I asked for something on the sweet side. Chris's came out red, and mine was orange. The bartender served us our snacks and drinks and while he was sweeping off the patio he was informing us on where to go in Venice and what restaurants to hit up. We both drank our spritz's and Chris liked mine better than his and decided he would get the same kind I got next time. After we finished our snacks, we tipped and thanked our waiter/bartender since he was all sorts of helpful and decided to get back on the boat subway thingy, and head back into the main part of town. Once we arrived back to the St Marks Square, we realized if we wanted to book any tours we would have to find the place quickly since they closed in about 20 minutes. We ran through Venice trying to find the place.

When we finally found the place, it was a building that really didn't have any markings on it, but Chris rang the doorbell and they let us in and we had to walk up a winding staircase to get to the tiny tour guide office. We got in and we booked some walking tours for the next day. I had wanted to do a picture tour where you dress up in costumes and they take pictures of you around Venice, but they required at least 4 people for that so we weren't able to book that, I was super bummed. After we were all booked and paid for, we used their bathroom, which was a mess and very strange looking.

We decided to wander around Venice a bit and look at some of the shops. I wanted to find Chris a ring that fit him better, I had seen some earlier when we were trying to find the tour guide place, but I couldn't find my way back to that shop. After shopping, we decided to see if we could find the restaurant that the bartender had told us about. On our way, we had a waiter stop us and offer us 10% off if we ate at his restaurant and he would feed us right away, since dinner was about an hour away, we considered this offer. It turned out that the restaurant we were looking for was just down the road and they weren't open until 7pm, so we decided to go with the first restaurant. The waiter seated us right away and we had our pick of where to sit as not a soul was in the restaurant at that time. Chris chose a table that was outside. I immediately noticed that we were in the ugliest place in Venice. The walls were gross and dirty and there was nothing pretty about the spot we chose. We ate dinner, which wasn't that great in my opinion. Chris drank an entire bottle of wine by himself and ate most of the food. A man came while we were waiting for our bill and forced a rose into my hand trying to coax Chris to buy it for me. I don't really like flowers that aren't either in a pot or in the ground because the joy of them only lasts so long and then they die, so I really didn't want the rose, but the man was so pushy and Chris and been drinking so he bought it for me. Unfortunately, when we left the restaurant, I left the rose there by accident, so I enjoyed it for only a very small amount of time. After we left the restaurant, I was hankering for some panna cotta. We started to wander the streets of Venice in search of panna cotta for dessert. We kept checking menus as we walked by and finally we found a place that had it on the menu. When a waiter came over, Chris said, do you have panna cotta? And the waiter replied "Yes" and so Chris said great, a table for two please." The waiter looked at him, confused and said "Just Panna Cotta?" Chris replied "Yes" The waiter shook his head and said, "Just a second" He disappeared inside the building and came out a few seconds later to say that he would seat us in 5 minutes. We said "Are you sure?" and he said "Yes, just give me 5 minutes". After less than 5 minutes had passed he sat us next to an English couple. We ordered our panna cotta and decaf coffee and lemonciello. The Panna cotta was okay, but nothing compared to the amazing stuff we had in Cinque Terre. Chris started to chat with the British man next to him and we started to chat with the two of them. They were so fun. They were leaving on a cruise of the Greek Islands the next day. They were telling us about their children and grand children, and talking about the different stages of life, especially after they heard that we were just married. The woman, whose name was Cristine, but went by Cris, told me that children are a must and they change you life, but for the better. She was very convincing. We chatted about all sorts of things and the British man, whom we cannot re-call the name of, kept buying us more Lemonciello, I think he bought us 6 in total. Cris said that on her honeymoon she stole things from the places they stayed at as a memory of their trip, and she felt I needed to steal the Lemonciello glass. She was hiding it for me in her lap right before we all left and her husband was like, "We are not stealing a glass". I agreed, I'm not really one for stealing, I don't like getting in trouble, besides my mother in law bought us very similar glasses to the ones we used that night when we returned. So it all worked out. Cris was quite the character! We spoke about the people who were coming over from Syria and how the English weren't ready to take them in, and the husband told us about his travels to the US and how he felt that there were two kinds of Americans, those who travel and those who don't. He said he feels like the we have all we could every want in our country without ever leaving it so he feels that is why some Americans don't travel. I thought that was an interesting theory and Cris said that she felt that we were lucky to have everything we could ever want or need within our own country. I guess I never really thought of it that way, which is why I feel the need to travel! We left them to get ready for their cruise and headed back to our hotel. It was far later than we thought and the boat subway thingys weren't running very often and both Chris and I had to pee very badly. It was one of those moments where I wished I were a guy. Anyways, so we eventually found our way back to the hotel, when we got up to our room, we realized that we needed to put the key in to the lights to get them to work. Once we did, they kept shutting of and making the room pitch black. This was freaking me out especially while I was trying to go to the bathroom. Once finished, I came out and started to troubleshoot the light situation. I figured out that the card was in upside down and once I put it in correctly, the lights stayed on. As I got ready for bed, I searched the room for bugs as I always do, in any room and found two giant Daddy Longlegs in both corners on either side of the bed on the ceiling. I pointed them out to drunk Chris who at first didn't seem like he was willing to kill them for me. Well then he realized he was married to me and better help me out. Unfortunately his drunk self isn't the greatest bug killer and he missed both spiders, he had to smack at them both several times and they both fell to the ground, but only one of the bodies was found. Because of this my sleep was very broken, I woke up every hour or so checking to make sure where wasn't a spider in my face. It was a fun night!

The next day we packed up our stuff, checked out of the hotel and then left our back pack with the front desk so we could explore a bit more before our boat taxi picked us up. We had a lovely free breakfast at the hotel with mini jams, and GF rice cakes, fruit, eggs, and meat, and of course coffee. After our tummies were full, we hopped back on the boat and found our way to where we were able to meet our tour guide for the walking tours. We toured Saint Mark's Square and St. Mark's Basilica. Both were interesting and beautiful, but I was far more interested in our second tour, which was of he Doge's palace. We got tons of pictures of both places and a few videos. It was so interesting to learn about the Doge and how he was only the face of the government and had no real power. He was able to live at the palace with his wife and was the doge for life.

After the tour we decided to do a canal tour and Chris was trying to get us on our own canal for a romantic ride, however, the canals were crazy busy and there was a group of four that was trying to find two more people to ride with them to make it cheaper. I told Chris that I was fine with sharing. I mean it would have been nice to have our own ride, but seriously, they were so busy. We ended up sharing the ride with some young guys from Brazil and a girl who didn't talk to us much. They spoke English so we got to know them a little bit. We all took turns taking pictures of each other while our Gondola driver spoke in Italian to someone on his cell phone. The other people in our boat kept moving, it was making me nervous, and at the same time that I almost said something, the Gondola guy yelled at them and told them to stop moving for just one second. He was very rude and I did not like him at all. But the Gondola ride was still nice and we got lots of great photos. After the ride we needed to get back to the hotel to grab Chris's Backpack and then head over to catch our taxi back to the main land. Unfortunately we were running late. The worst part of Venice was Chris pushing my physical limits to try and make it to the damn taxi. Well we definitely missed it and once to the pick up point I decided to sit for a while to catch my breath.

After my breath was completely caught up, we took it nice and slow to the bus station where we were able to get tickets, we had to stand the whole way, but we made it back to the first parking lot we had stopped at. Then we got to walk for a mile to get back to our car. We were very happy to see our car and even happier to see our condo and for some bug free sleep in a comfy bed. Regardless of our hardships, I loved Venice and will go back before it goes under water.

A Very Wet and Rainy Walking Tour

So the village that was right by our hotel was called Tericciola. One day we decided to join the walking tour that took place each week for free. We met up with a group of Americans from our hotel and one Italian couple and it was a bit cloudy, but didn't really seem like it was going to rain, and even if it was Chris and I hadn't brought a single piece of rain gear or an umbrella. We waited patiently for Moira (the tour guide) while we took pictures of the view of the Tuscan hills from the parking lot. Moira was a bit late, but it is said that most Italians are not very prompt. Once she arrived she was greeted by many who knew her from other tours. We had met her on our private painting lesson. As she led us to our first stopping point we realized it was a bakery and Chris felt it was safer for him to stand outside due to his gluten allergy. I, unfortunately was bored by the history behind the bakery, so I zoned out and really don't remember much of what she said. At the next location we stood outside while she spoke of some dog statues that were outside of a building and a loud clap of thunder seemed to shake the ground. Moira looked up and spoke to the skies, "Please let us finish our tour" She said. We moved on to another outdoor location. This is one of the spots that I actually remember. She pointed at a white stone that was in a red brick wall. It was about 10 feet above my head and really stood out. She told us that there were gems like this all over Tuscany and that  the people found these Etruscan Artifacts and started to use them in their buildings. Because Tuscan buildings are protected, the Artifacts can't be removed and remain there. As we stood there, it started to rain, but luckily our next location was inside. It was another bakery and a very kind couple from new york, let us borrow their extra umbrella, which we were very thankful for because after the bakery the rain really started to come down.

As the rain poured onto the streets, we made our way down slippery stone steps to a tomb. We all climbed into what seemed like a cave made out of sand. It was dark inside, but the light from the entrance kept me calm and Moira turned on her phone flashlight to show us different parts of the tomb. The most interesting thing that I remember about the tomb, is that they were at some point used for cellars for wine and food and things like that because the temperature remained constant inside. They were also used to bury loved ones long ago, but they only had 6 models for figures to show who's grave it was and they would just pick the figure that matched the best. After the tomb, I think we headed straight to the end of the tour because it was still pouring and even with an umbrella, we were still soaking wet. Our last stop was a little restaurant where we got to taste some wine and have some meats and bread. The owners got Chris and I gf crackers to eat which was very nice of them. We only got to try one wine and then we decided to walk back to the car instead of eat lunch there because we just wanted to get back to the condo and get changed and just make some lunch there. It was so nice to be back and in dry clothes and then we spent some time relaxing and being warm. It was wonderful!

Cinque Terra (Five Lands)

At 7am on a bright and sunny Tuesday morning in Tuscany, we we headed out to drive to Cinque Terra for the day. I was beyond excited to be by the water. We had limited time that we would be near the coast while on this trip so I couldn't wait to see the ocean. It took us about two hours to drive to Spezzia which was the town where you can catch a boat to Cinque Terra. The neverlost device could not understand where the Spezzia port was, so we had it take us to the Spezzia city center. At first we were wondering if this would work. Once we got closer to the city center. We started to see signs for Porto, so we started to follow the signs. When we got close to the port, we tried to find somewhere to park. There seemed to be no parking places anywhere. We finally found a spot about a mile or so away from the Port. Once parked, we had to try and figure out he parking meeting in Italian and we were struggling, then a man came up and started to use the machine, so Chris asked, "Parle Inglese" Meaning, "Do you speak English?" The man responded in English and said "Yes, I speak English. Then he proceeded to help us understand the parking meter and pay for our car to be there all night long just in case. He said that his brother lives in the states so he has been there several times to visit him. He not only spoke very good English, but barely had an Italian accent.

After we bid him goodbye, we walked to the port and I'm glad we took the route that we did because along the walk way there was a river that had tons and tons of fish in it. It was really neat. I took a few pictures before continuing one. We managed to make it to the port only getting directions once. We found the tourist area where we could buy tickets for the boat and for the first time in Italy, we ran in to some extremely rude people. When we first walked up to the counter we were completely ignored. Then when Chris said "Bonjourno, Parle Inglese" The man behind the counter rolled his eyes and pointed at the girl that was back there as well. She started yelling at him in Italian like she also did no want to help us. We bought our tickets and they told us where to go in the snottiest most stuck up way possible. It's hard to explain except to say that they both seemed like they had sticks up their butts. After we had our tickets in hand, we saw a little snack bar and decided to grab another coffee. Chris ordered himself an espresso and me a latte. Mine came in this really cool looking tall glass. We sat and drank our coffee and then saw that people were lining up to get on the boat so we prepared to get on as well. Chris had bought a book about Cinque Terra from one of the little shops at the port and we enjoyed reading through it after getting on the boat. The first part of the trip to the 5 villages was fine, but as we got closer the ocean got more choppy and I started to get a little sea sick. Once at the village we were dropped off at we decided to find a place to eat. Where the boat had dropped us off it was very busy and crowded so we decided to walk up the hill. Once at the top of the hill we found this little restaurant that was pirate themed. We were seated right away and the waiter spoke English so after we said that we were both Gluten Free, he basically picked our menu for us, We both had plates of thinly sliced fish that tasted like they had been smoked, there was no fishy taste at all which is my kind of fish. Afterwards he brought us a gluten free pesto pasta to share and then afterwards we had the best panna cotta I've ever had with a ton of seasonal fruits. It was amazingly delicious.

Before we left the restaurant I needed to use the restroom. Each restroom we ran into in Italy had more than one door. Often times there was a door for the sink area and another door for the toilet. I never understood what to do with the doors so I just shut the door to the toilet. I came out to wash my hands and heard some girls saying the word loca a whole lot, which means crazy in Italian. They than came and started doing their makeup in the mirror while I was washing my hands. It was very strange, but it did make me decided to close and lock both doors from then on.

We explored a bit more of that village and then decided to get back on the boat to go to the next village. We walked up to the representative and she said that the boats weren't running anymore due to bad seas. So we decided to take the train to the last villiage where they have the best beach. When entering the train area we saw signs everywhere to watch for pickpockets. There was a dirty old homeless guy who stunk really bad who was following us around and Chris and I were very weary of them and kept our eyes on him. Once on the train he sat a few rows ahead of us so we weren't too worried, but watched him as we left the train.

The last village was very cute. Chris and I wandered around and shopped and then ended up grabbing some gelato and then had a drink at a restaurant on the beach along with some snacks. We wandered around a bit longer and then decided to hop on the train and take it back to the Port in Spezzia. The train ride home was much less eventful which was kind of nice. Once we got back, we were a bit out of sorts since the train didn't really drop us right at he port. We asked a guy in a tourist shop for directions and he pointed us in the right direction and we eventually found our car. It was a fun day in Cinque Terra and we drove home after that and had a nice relaxing dinner in our condo.

The Mysterious Ghizzano Winery

So, in the afternoon after the cheese farm. We didn’t have anything scheduled, and I was okay with this, since I wanted to get some writing in and to enjoy just chilling for a bit. So Chris decided to go down to the lobby to hang out and I stayed in the hotel and pulled out my computer to start writing.Chris had tried to squeeze in another wine tour for the day, but the people at the front desk of the hotel had told us it wasn’t going to happen because the winery wouldn’t do a tour unless we had at least 4 people.  Well around 2:45, Chris came barreling through the door and stated that another couple signed up for the wine tour and that we had to leave. So we suddenly had plans. I was a bit frustrated, but got up and put away my computer and grabbed my things.

We jumped into our little white fiat and headed over to the Winery using never lost. Unfortunately, Never lost  did not recognize the winery and was taking us to the very small village of Ghizzano. As we traveled around, the never lost ended up taking us on a very tiny winding, dirt road, that started to not seem like a road at all and seemed like it was getting smaller and smaller. I started to have a very real sensation that we were about to fall off a Tuscan hill and roll down through a winery. At this point I told Chris that I did NOT feel safe and that we needed to back up and go back the other way.  We slowly backed up and I pretty much thought we were going to die, but we didn’t, we made it safely to a clearing where we were able to turn around and regroup. My anxiety was spiking and we were already 30 minutes late for the wine tour, so I suggested we just go back to the hotel. However, Chris was determined to get to this wine tour. So he suggested that we put Ghizzano back into the never lost and see if we can find it and if we can’t we can head back to the hotel.  I agreed, as long as we didn’t had back towards the tiny, scary, winding dirt road. We ended up finding Ghizzano which is literally this super Tiny village. There are barely any buildings there. We found a place to park that almost didn’t seem like a legal place to park, and then we started wandering around looking for the winery. We walked up a very steep hill and started looking for signs. As we were searching we saw another couple that looked very obviously like tourists and Chris said “Bonjourno” to them to feel them out. When they responded back to us in the same accent as us, we started talking to them in English. Chris said “Are you guys here for a wine tour as well?” They responded “yes” and explained that they had been searching for an hour and that they had found the building that the address had lead them to, but it didn’t seem right. Well shortly after they showed us the door to the building they had found, a very young looking Italian women dressed in a short dress and black pants came out and greeted us. She seemed very surprised to see us, but welcomed us inside. We were very confused because every other winery we had been to had not been in a village, it had been in the middle of the country land. We walked in to this cool cellar like area, and there was a table set up for us with wine, and meats and cheeses. The tour guide explained to us that at Ghizzano they only keep two grape bunches on each vine because they feel that if you do this, the vine is concentrating all of it’s energy on making quality grapes out of those two bunches and not working hard to produce several grapes,  some bad and some good. She said that they do everything by hand to ensure the quality of the grapes and the wine. She showed us their cellar which was inside the same building and it was very dark in there and very medeval looking. It was pretty neat, but also kind a freaky at the same time. I keep thinking all of these old places are haunted, but I never really got that feeling when I was in any of the old building in Tuscany, maybe a little bit in Venice, but that’s another story for another day.

After she showed us the cellar she brought us the table that was all set up for us. We sat down with the other couple and the tour guide explained a little bit about each wine and told us which meat or cheese to try with it. It was the only time any of the wineries had done a food pairing. I mean, there was always food of some kind, but they never said, try this meat with this wine or this cheese with this wine.

The only thing that sticks in my head about the ghizzano wines was the fact that a woman from France had come along and said that she believed French Grapes would grow well in the Tuscany region. So she decided to prove it, so at the Ghizzano winery they have French grapes growing in their fields and they have a merlot mix that is made with French and Tuscan grapes and it was my favorite wine of the bunch, it was very tasty and smooth which is what I need in a wine. We bought the Merlot and the white wine from them even though their wines were more expensive than any of the wines we had seen thus far. 

After we purchased our wine, the tour guide told us she would have the gardens opened for us so we could go look around. She said there are two dogs there, but they are very kind and friendly. So we went an opened the gate to the gardens. They were very pretty and we said hello to the not so vicious guard dogs. After wandering through the gardens for a bit, we told the couple we were with that they should sign up for another winery that was close by called La Spinetta for Wednesday night and they agreed. 

So we hopped in the car and headed back, on the way we stopped for dinner at a restaurant called The Carlos and since we were early, as we often were for meals, we crossed the street and stopped in a clothing shop to look around for a while. Chris looked at some clearance suits and I looked at sweatshirts and other things. As I was shopping a woman who worked at the store came over and started talking at me in Italian and I quickly responded “Me despiacce, Non Copisco” Which means,  I’m  sorry, I don’t understand. She said “Ooh, and then kept talking to me in Italian, but was pointing at things to help me understand. I understood that she was pointing out the discounts on the clothing. We didn’t end up buying anything, but Chris considered coming back for a suit, but never did.

We walked back over to The Carlos and got seated in a part of the restaurant where it seemed they were seating all of the English speaking people because we were mostly surrounded. We had pasta with meat sauce, sea food, GF bread with olive oil and balsamic, French fries and salad and Chris ate some mushrooms. He said if I took a nibble he’d give me a 10 minute back massage and so I did, but still didn’t really like it, but it wasn’t bad. I have already cashed in my 10 minutes massage so it is time for a new bet! We had a lovely day. 

A Lovely Morning at the Cheese Farm

Just down the road from our hotel there was this little cheese farm and it was one of the tours the hotel offered. So we signed up for it and walked down the road for about 5 minutes and found the farm. At first we weren't positive we were in the right place, but then Chris saw people waving to us so we walked in. At first the farm seemed very small, but it actually was a decent size. They house over 40 cows there and there were several medieval cottage like structures on the land. We met a few of the others that were on our tour, they were from the UK. Our tour guide was this tiny little woman named Elena, She was adorable. She had a bow in her hair and was wearing the cutest sparkly pumps as she showed us this farm. Elena didn't speak perfect English so she would occasionally pause or try to get us to help her come up with the words in English, but for the most part we understood her. We learned that the farm is over 500 years old and their family bought the farm 20 years ago. Elena has lived on the farm with her family for that amount of time and she is also a natural medicine doctor. One of the first parts of the farm that she took us to had chickens, baby cows, and my new favorite dog breed the Volpino Italiano. One of the baby calves loved Chris and stood very close to him for the amount of time we were standing there. After that she walked us around to different parts of the farm and showed us a medieval cellar, and her gorgeous bedroom.

After the tour of the farm, we were brought to the little cheese shop where we figured the tour was ending and they wanted us to buy their cheese, but no, that was not the case. Off to the side of the cheese shop, there was a table set up with a table cloth and more than enough chairs for the 6 of us. along with a massive plate of fresh cheese and fresh vegetables with olive oil in the middle. There was also two pitchers of wine on the table. I took the wine thinking it was fresh grape juice, but it wasn't and it was very bitter wine. Chris drank it though, he'll basically drink any wine. We started to nibble on cheese and drinking water and wine when suddenly Elena stopped by to tell us that she was bringing out pasta next. She brought the pasta out and this was after we had already filled up on pasta and cheese. She kept asking us all to eat more and Chris and I were like, we can't eat the pasta, we are gluten free or sanza gluteni. She looked at us with a very concerned look and she said "I'm so sorry, I didn't know." She rushed out of the room with a very upset look on her face and when she returned she brought us rice crackers and olive tampenade along with a bowl of corn. We weren't expecting anything and it was so nice of her. We fully enjoyed the olive tampenade and the corn and more cheese. Then she brought out the fresh grape juice. The grape juice was right down my alley, it was delicious and I drank quite a bit of it.

As we sat around and chatted, the grandmother of Elena came and talked to us, but she didn't speak any English so she literally sat with us at the table and just talked Italian at us. We understood bits and pieces and tried communicating with pictures and numbers, but it didn't really workout so well. She ended up pointing at a painting and trying to explain the painting to us and it's importance and we only understood bits and pieces of that as well. The cheese maker also came in and started talking italian at us, which we understood nothing, and then Elena came back in and helped translate back and forth a little bit.

We felt so entirely spoiled by this little cheese farm and the family and what I like to call the "Tuscan Charm". Everyone in Tuscany was so warm and wanted to get to know you, like really get to know you and understand your life. After we all decided as a group that we were done. We all started to stand up and decide what we were going to buy. The group from the UK went first. They bought some balsamic, some cheese, and some Olive oil and they all said goodbye to us with hugs. Then we handed our stuff to Elena and after we purchased our honey, jam, balsamic, and olive tampenade. Elena came around from the other side of the counter and told us that she truly wishes the very best for us and our relationship and our life, to be honest it was so touching that I almost started to cry. Elena gave us both a hug and we were on our way. I'll never forget that lovely morning on the cheese farm.

The Terricciola Wine Festival

We woke up relatively early so we could have time to eat a little breakfast before we headed out to the shuttle for the Tericciola Wine Festival Winery tour. We were told over and over again by the hotel that the bus would be showing up to the show store near by our hotel where there is a giant boot at 10am that morning. We gathered our things and drove over to the parking lot where the giant boot was. Literally this is a giant boot, it's at least 10 times bigger than the two of us put together if you can envision that. We waited a while and then when there was still no bus at about 10 minutes after 10am, we started to ask around as more people showed up to catch the shuttle. We chatted with a few people to see if they were also waiting for this shuttle and they were, so we waited for a while longer and then decided as a group that we would head to Terricciola and see if we could catch the bus there. We started driving through the city and the roads were very small and some were blocked off for the festival. At the first site of a parking area, we stopped and by some luck we drove by the bus as it was picking up part of the group that had been waiting at the boot. We decided to follow the bus to the first winery. Once we got there we decided to taste some wine quick and then planned on following the bus to the next winery as well. We got to the second winery and they had a tiny little tasting room that tons of people were squeezing into. The family that owned the winery was there serving beans with olive oil and wine. The beans with Olive oil was very good and I would have never thought to have Olive Oil with only beans. It was simple, yet tasty. We tried their wine and I wasn't really a fan, so we bought Olive oil and Chris bought a bottle of wine. We hopped back in the car and no more buses were running so we decided to meet up with Liz and Thomas and make a quick stop back at the hotel to drop off wine and then head out to lunch. I can't remember the name of the place they took us, but we decided to car pool. The restaurant was relatively close to where we were staying and Liz an Thomas had tried it before and said it was great! I got my first taste of true Italian pasta with bolognese sauce and it was amazingly good! Chris had his first taste of Chinguale which is Italian for Wild Boar. They said it was very good! I tried a bite, but felt that the meat was too chewy. Liz and Thomas very kindly paid for our lunch as a honeymoon present. It was very nice of them and probably one of the better meals that we had.

After lunch we headed back to the boot as there was supposed to be a bus leaving from there to go to the wine festival in Terricciola and take us around to more of the wine vineyards. When we arrived we did see a bus there, so we went and asked the driver where he was going and he did not speak any English, so he kept shaking his head. Then I heard him say "Terricciola?" and someone responded "Yes". So at that point we all assumed we were on the right bus. The bus sat there for another 10 minutes or so. We spent time chatting with Liz and Thomas during that time.

So, we thought we were on the right bus right? Wrong. This bus wasn't going to vineyards it was just a shuttle to take us into Terriciola for the wine festival. Once there we asked around to see if we could figure out where the bus that would take us to vineyards was, but no one was really giving us a good answer because we couldn't find anyone who knew anything that spoke English so we just started walking into town. Once there we saw several white tables being set up with men dressed in white shirts, bow ties, and vests that were getting ready to serve wine. We decided that there was plenty of wine to taste at the festival so we decided to stay instead of searching for the winery bus. We spoke to a man who was setting up to sell glasses and he said that we purchase glasses and a little shoulder bag for your glass and then chips for paying for tastings. We all bought glasses and about 20 chips each, which we were glad we did, because we found out later that some wines costed more than one chip to taste.

We started at the white tables to taste wine and there was a beautiful view of the Tuscan Hills from that area, so Liz grabbed us a table and we sat and chatted and sampled wine. It was really fun and then we met a few more people who spoke English who also chatted with us for a while. After a bit, we decided to keep walking into the area that was called "The Garden" It was an area that was surrounded by a fence, there were some restaurants in there as well as more lovely views and of course, more wines to taste. We all grabbed more wine and shortly after a drum line parade started coming through the gates with people dressed in medieval clothing. It was very cool! After the parade we decided to use up the rest of our chips and to find a place to have dinner. We talked to the restaurant owner in the garden to see if we could eat there, but then we found out hat they didn't have anything gluten free. So after we finished our wine, we started to head to where the shuttle was supposed to pick us back up and bring us back to the boot so we could pick up our car. As we walked back we saw a vendor selling clothing on the side of the road. So we stopped and Chris bought me a two sweaters and a pair of black pants. After our mini shopping excursion, we continued to where the shuttle was and it was there when we arrived. We double checked with the driver that he was going back to the boot, and he was so we all shouted out a hooray and got onto the bus.

This time it truly did take us where we wanted to go and where we expected to go. We invited Liz and Thomas over to our condo for dinner and wine and we had a great time with them chatting and talking a bit of politics. It was great to meet some good people in Italy!

Moira and the Almost Famous Painter

We met Moira outside of the lobby of our hotel after a nice lazy morning in our condo. Moira introduced herself and said that the painter was already waiting for us at the winery where we would be having our lesson. We hopped in our little, white Fiat and followed Moira to the Winery. The funny thing was that we realized that we had already been  to that winery the day before. We had seen an open sign and had gone in for a tasting and a tour. We showed up and the painter came and introduced himself and Moira translated for him as he talked to us. He wanted us to pick a spot and then we would paint any view that we wanted to. I have been obsessed with the beauty of the Tuscan Hills, so I chose a spot where we had a great view of the Tuscan hills and Chris decided to paint the winery area which was called Castle Vecchio. I am not a painter and I had Moira tell the artist Leopoldo that, so that he wasn't expecting anything great. Leopoldo spoke through Moira and gave us some pointers as we went. First we started to sketch, and I started by sketching in the hills and then added in some random trees, roads, and wind mills in the background. I though I might be putting in too much details for a beginner painter, but I figured I'd try. I was told that the trees that were far away were too big, so I kept had to make them smaller and smaller. Then he taught us how to make it look like there are rocks in the hills, which I picked up pretty well. Chris of course became an expert painter on his first try, He is so smart he is good at EVERYTHING!! After we finished our paintings and got very sunburned, Moira led us to a table that was set up right outside of the winery that had meat and cheese and wine on it. We drank wine and ate cheese and meat and chatted with Moira for quite a while. It was really nice and we were very surprised as to how long Moira stayed and chatted with us. We gave her a tip and we ended up buying the Rose wine from the winery since I was really enjoying it while we were talking. The winery reopened while we were there and we all went inside and I decided I needed to try a shot of grappa, without knowing what it was. It is apparently hard liquor made from grapes and it was very strong and since Chris was the driver, I couldn't pass it off on him. I finally finished it and then Chris and I decided to head off after we said goodbye to Moira.

After our painting extravaganza we decided to head straight to Monteregionni which is an old medeval village surrounded by a wall. We still hadn't learned our lesson about the Italians eating lunch at 12 and dinner at 7, so we decided we would grab a snack at the walled village. Once we got there at about 4pm or so, There were no restaurants open for food. We ended up getting some chips and some meat and water even though what we really wanted was something more substantial.

Monteregionni is a very cool place, the roads are all cobblestone and when up on the wall you can see an amazing view of the Tuscan hills. The walled city was attached many times and was only every taken over once. They still use the city for visitors and for a medeval festival where people come dressed in medeval garb. It was very cool! After we explored, we decided to head back to our condo to make dinner since we knew we could make something gluten free and weren't sure about the restaurants there.

A Pool, A Ghost Town, and a Private Chef

You may be wondering what a pool, a ghost town, and a private chef have in common. Well it's really all that happened on a lovely Friday in Italy. I really wanted to relax a little since our days were filling up with things very quickly and I felt like we hadn't really had much of a chance to sit back and relax yet. We grabbed our sunscreen, books, and some water and went down to the pool to relax a bit. It was pretty hot out and the pool was unheated, so I sat on the edge of the pool with my feet in the water to cool off. Chris felt that it was then his job to get my into the freezing cold water. I had to ask him a few times before he backed off, but it was all in good fun. Then, as I sat there staring off into the distance, I realized that I was kind of bored, so we decided to run off to another small village called Chianni which was suggested as a quick trip and a place close by that we could make it to and back in time for our Chef to arrive. We hopped in the car and took off down and up all of the hills and roads and wind all around and up and down. I have been having to carry nauzene tablets with me wherever I go, because if its not the Italian food filling me up, it's the roller coaster rides we go on every time we get into the car. We were able to find Chianni, but parking was very limited, so we ended up finding a spot that was right by the road out of town and then decided to walk through Chianni. The weird thing about this small little village is that there seemed to be no one around at all. It was about 3pm when we got there and Chris and I figured we would see if we could find a place to have a snack. We quickly started to realize that the Italians take a fiesta between lunch and dinner and dinner doesn't start until 7pm. So no restaurant in Tuscany is open for dinner before 7pm unless it is in a touristy area.

Chianni is not one of the biggest or most visited areas, so it was literally like we had entered a ghost town and it truly didn't feel right. I was worried and felt like we should leave. Chris doesn't worry like me though, so we continued walking through. We found a really cool little cobblestone alley way and at the top was an old Italian woman sitting in a rocking chair smiling at us. We told her BonJorno, which in Italian means "Good Day". She responded with the same as we passed her. We kept walking through the village and we found these steps so we went up them and at the top was this tiny little grassy area. It had a great view, but that was about it. We took some pictures and then started heading down a road that we quickly realized was a highway, so we turned back.

On our way back to our car, we passed by a bar where several Italian men were hanging out. We walked right through the area in between their chairs and one of the Italians smiled and said Bonjorno, we responded with the same, but again I had this weird feeling that we should move on, so we headed back to the car and back to the hotel to get things cleaned up and ready for the Chef to arrive.

Around the time the Chef was meant to arrive, we went down to the lobby/reception area and hung out down there until the Chef arrived. She only spoke Italian, so we silently lead her up to our hotel room. She was an older woman, probably in the 60s or so. She had an older gentleman with her that helped he carry her things to the room who also only spoke Italian. Chris and I tried to communicate with her,but it was very difficult as she did not really want to try to understand us. She didn't try until after the dinner when Chris gave her a tip.

The dinner was good, but not the greatest and Chris and I decided it wasn't worth the money, especially after experiencing the local restaurants with way better food and great service.

The private chef provided us with an appetizer of meats and cheeses which is very much the norm her in Italy. They were really good though, and more fancy then the usual meats and cheeses that they serve everywhere. After that we had a Risoto dish with leeks and sausage that was flavored with a chicken broth. It was very tasty. Lastly she made baked fish with vegetables and potatoes which was the part of the meal that I wasn't too thrilled about, but it was okay.

Chris and I decided to eat the first part of our meal outside, but it gets so chilly at night at this time of year her that I needed a lot of layers to be comfortable. Well, then the bugs started at us. Black flies were making it into the kitchen and they were flying around our heads. I couldn't handle it, so we moved inside and finished our meal inside the condo, but by that point it was too late. 20 flies or more had made their home in our kitchen and since their buzz is so similar to a bee, I can't handle them being around. My wonderful new husband helped me kill every last one of them, he even said it would be a fun game and something to do. Once we thought we had them all. Chris said he was ansy and needed to move, so we walked down the road a few condos and saw some of our new friends sitting outside, so we joined them and had a nice time chatting until about midnight or so and then we headed to bed as our friends were doing as well since they were leaving the next day. Christy was one of our new friends and she knows of a person who self-published on amazon and is doing well, so I told her I would get into contact with her friend so I can get some ideas about self publishing my book. Christy also invited Chris and I to her friend's winery that is about 30 minutes from Florence and if we have time, we plan on taking her up on that. Charlie was part of their group as well, he seems like a good 'ol chap, not that he's old or anything, he is a sales person for Hilton Grand Vacations, so he is a great resource and he's also a fun and nice guy. Gay was traveling with them as well, she was a lovely woman, and so sweet. I really liked her. She offered to look over/read/edit my book. It's always nice meeting good people on you travels!

The Healing Waters of Casciana Terme

Chris and I decided that on Thursday we would head out to a market in the morning and then go to the Spa in Casciana Terme. We were told that for many years people believed that the hot springs at Casciana Terme will heal you. People use to come from far and wide to experience these healing effects. So, since I've never experienced a hot spring, I wanted to go. So we got into our little white Fiat and typed Casciana Terme into the Hertz Never Lost. When we typed it in, it came up as Casciana Terme with Lari in parentheses. Since we couldn't find a Casciana Terme in the device that did not have this, We assumed it was correct.

We followed the directions and arrived at our destination and found a place to park. We started to wander through a very quiet little village and we came upon a castle. So Chris decided that even though we were pretty sure we were in the wrong place, that going up to the top of the castle was a good idea. At the time I was crabby, maybe from jet lag or maybe from sleeping too much the night before, but even though I complained, it actually was a good idea to go up to the top of the castle. It gave us perspective and there were some great views up there. We found a girl who was up at the top cleaning, and Chris asked her if she spoke any English and she said a little, he asked her if we were in Casciana Terme and she said "No, no Casciana Terme, (she pointed down to the ground) This, LARI" We looked at each other and said "Oooh, I guess we are in the wrong place" We thanked her and walked back down to our car where we hopped back in and tried typing in Casciana Terme again. This time the Never Lost pulled up the correct one without issue.

It was not far from where we were. After parking we walked up a cobblestone road and came upon a little square. There was a little restaurant, a church, and what looked like a spa. We spent a bit of time searching for the market that was supposed to be going on that morning in that area, but we decided we didn't want to wander too far from the square, so we gave up on it and wandered into the spa. We used Chris's handy google translate app to figure out what the signs right inside said. We decided it would be nice to do a couples massage and so we walked inside and got in line. There was one Italian woman in front of us that was asking lots of questions. We waited patiently and when it was our turn, we greeted the front desk woman in Italian. "Bonjorno" we both said to her. She politely smiled and then Chris asked her if she spoke English, "Parle  Inglese?" She said "A little" and then proceeded to speak English very well, Explained that if we wanted access to the magical, healing hot springs, or a massage that we needed to continue along the path and find a white gate where we would see another person who could set up the massages and get us tickets for the pool. We thanked her and headed back to the car to grab our swim suits. Once we found the white gate, we traveled down some stone steps with pretty trees growing around them and wandered into a lovely park with a water fountain. We found a booth where a woman was helping another customer. When we got to the front, we greeted her and started to point to the couples massage that we wanted in the brochure. She seemed confused and so we tried to communicate with her in Italian. We were able to find out that we were unable to get a couples massage and that we would have to go separately. I decided I didn't want to do that, since Chris knows all the Italian, I didn't feel comfortable going for a massage in a foreign country without knowing the language enough. We just purchased 2 tickets and 2 caps for what they call, the pool.

We had to change in these small wooden changing booths that were broken in some places making it difficult to move and balance. Once changed we put our things into lockers, put on the silly swimming caps and rinsed off in the shower before entering the water. It was warm in the water, but not hot, and there were different areas of the pool where you could push a button have have water shoot out at you, or sit on  really strong jets. We tried a few of those and swam around for a while, I'm not sure how long we were in there, but we tried to stay in as long as we could. Chris thought it was strange that this pool that was said to be a fountain of youth, was filled with all older people. I suggested that it made them feel younger on the inside. All in all, it was a nice dip in the pool, but I didn't really feel any healing effects after the experience.

We ate lunch at the little restaurant in the square and our waiter was mesmerized by Chris's Google Translate app that magically changes the words from Italian to English when he waves his camera over it. We ordered a meat and cheese plate, coffee, and Risoto. It was all very good! We then headed back to the hotel for a nap before our wine tour at the Winery Fibbiani which is about 5 minutes from our hotel. Chris slept for a while and I played on my phone and messaged a few people. When the time came to run off to the Winery tour, I wished I had taken a nap. Italy makes you tired! We rushed out the door and jumped in the Fiat, it was a very quick drive and we walked into a lovely little area outdoors where chairs were set up and there was already a group of people from our hotel gathered and waiting for the tour to start.



The winemaker greeted us and asked us to take a seat and said that he would wait for a few more minutes in case the few missing people were still showing up. We sat down next to a couple that we had talked to in passing the day before, and we started chatting with them a bit without knowing either of their names. Chris started talking to a couple on the other side of him as well. When the tour started it was hard to continue chatting as the winemaker was talking about the process of making wine. This vineyard had some beautiful views that I kept snapping pictures of. After the tour, he brought us back to the little seating area and we started to taste wine. We started with the whites and I was not a fan and found out later that Italians don't make sweet white wines. I loved all of the reds. As we all started drinking, we started making friends with those next to us. I found out that the woman next to me was named Liz and that her soon to be husband's name was Mr. Waldorf and Chris found out that the couple next to him just got married on September 5th, 2015, a week before us and their names were Heidi and Randy. The winemaker was talking about the wine throughout and I think alot of us stopped paying attention because he started clapping and saying "See, now that your drinking wine, you are all friends. The more glasses of wine you drink the more friendly you are with your neighbors." We all laughed and continued chatting. We got pictures with the winemaker and our new friends and then decided to go to dinner with them after we got back to the hotel. We were on our way to meet up with them when we ran into another group that had just gotten in. It was a group of 3, a girl named Christy, a guy named Charlie, and a woman named Gay. We invited them to come along. We all had a very nice dinner together at a family owned restaurant. The owner understood the gluten allergy thing and they even had gluten free bread. We enjoyed a nice dinner with our new found friends and then we all headed back  to the hotel and hung out with them one of the patios. It had been a wonderful day and it was finally time for bed.

A Lovely Little Medieval Village

 Volterra

I had mentioned to lots of people before we left the states that I planned on spending one full day doing nothing but sleeping, however, after 12 hours of sleep Chris and I felt refreshed enough to ask the front desk for some advice on where to go for our first day. A very nice woman with a pleasant british accent and a kind demeanor gave us the suggestion of visiting Volterra. Now, neither Chris or I know anything about all of these places, but we trusted her judgement and decided to head out to Volterra.

I was nervous to be back in the car again, so before we left we had some eggs, ham, and coffee and Chris watched a video about how to use a stick shift. Once back in the car again, the vehicle revved up and so did my anxiety, but once Chris started the car and started driving he stated "This is easy now" So we started off again on curving, hilly roads that often felt like you were on a roller coaster as you cruise along. We mostly stayed at a slow pace allowing all of the Italian drivers to pass us. I probably chewed 4 of my nausene tablets on our driving excursions so far. Partially because of the hills and partially because of my newly found fear of stalling or losing control of the car.

We had the Never Lost Device lead us to the Hospital in Volterra because Chris had seen a tip online that it wasn't easy to find parking so many people would park at the hospital and walk up to the village. We parked on a street close to the hospital and walked up a winding road into the village. The buildings were mostly made of brick and stone and the streets were uneven and occasionally caused me to trip a little with the sandals I was wearing. We wandered along taking pictures as we went. We found lots of little tourist shops that we stopped into. They had Italian leather shops and Alabastor shops where they sold everything made out of alabastor. My favorite thing that we found was a colored Alabastor light and Chris considered buying a mortar and pestol. We made it to the end of the little town and took pictures of the view of the Tuscan hill. After that we decided it was time to find some food. We found a restaurant that was listed as the best Restaurante in the area and we got a table. Now, keep in mind, this was at about 2pm in the afternoon and from what we have found, Italians eat their lunch at lunchtime and dinner at dinner time, so for us to come in at such a late hour of the afternoon, we were keeping one of the servers late. Chris ordered us a meat and cheese plate and then Chris ordered the duck and I ordered gluten free pasta with pesto and fresh celery. They also had delicious Gluten Free bread there.

When our meals came I as very hungry and took a big bite at what I thought would be delicious pasta, but the celery taste was so strong, it made it taste bitter. I ate about a quarter of it before I could no stand any more. Once we realized we were keeping our waiter past the time he was supposed leave, we quickly paid, tipped him well, and took the remainder of our bottle of wine to go.

On our way back to the car we stopped at a gelato shop and asked if anything was Sans Glutini. The girl behind the counter pointed at 2 flavors on the side that had signs on them saying
no milk and no gluten. So we ordered some, but it was disgusting. It was soy based and was pretty gross. Chris ate the majority of it and then we headed back towards the hotel. Near the hotel there is  market in a small area called La Rosa. We decided to stop there to pick up the rest of the groceries that we needed. When we found it the shop said it was a pets market, so I was a bit confused, but apparently it is several things in one small area. So we stopped  in and started grabbing vegetables, fruit and a few other misc things, like meat, cheese and wine. They had a small gluten free section there as well.  I decided last minute that we needed to try some real gelato, so I grabbed some, well the first package I grabbed was also made of soy, so I grabbed a different package and made sure the first ingredient was Latte (Milk). IT was a chocolate/vanilla swirl. We took our things up to the counter and the woman behind the register grabbed all of our vegetables and started walking them back to where they belong without saying anything to us. Chris and I looked at eachother like, "Did we miss something?" After about 5 minutes she came back and had put tags on all the vegetables, and Chris and I were like "OOOOH" and Chris apologized to her in Italian. At least now we know.

After we returned from the market, we put away our groceries and Chris made us pasta with red sauce and chicken and vegetables. It was okay, but I wasn't a huge fan of he sauce. After dinner we had some real gelato which was delicious and played some cards as well as read some of our post cards from the post card guestbook. I was a little disappointed that no one wrote us a drunken poem. After that we went to bed and slept well to move on to another day in Italy.

A Hop, Skip and a Jump to Paris

I felt that our honeymoon started as soon as we entered the plane to leave Minneapolis. MN and head to Paris, France. We had spent the day preparing for the trip. Chris had to pick up a last minute international license and I had to pick up a digital camera as mine had gone missing at some point during our wedding. We also both picked up some reading materials. Chris chose the newest Star Wars novel, and I chose 2 romance novels. Both slightly different in hopes of using them for research for my own novel. Besides, who doesn't love a romance novel.

As we started to read on the plane, I started to get concerned about blood clots as I had read about long flights causing blood clots or hemorrhages and killing people. I tried to keep my legs moving and to continually change positions. Chris was trying to encourage me to take part in the free alcoholic beverages on the Delta International flight, however, I don't enjoy using the rest rooms on planes,so I try to avoid drinking things that make me have to pee alot. Like Coffee and Alcohol. I ended up sticking with water. However, I did end up having to use the on plane bathroom once, but it was fine, no lines or anything and no one had done anything gross in it just before me. 

After we landed, we went through customs pretty quickly and were able to get to the tourism stand where a french woman told us where we needed to go to catch the train to the Eiffel tower. We were told that we wouldn't have enough time, but we did the math and had just enough time to get there, take a few pictures and then head back. 

It was a bit of a struggle to find the train, but we just kept trying to follow the signs for RER which we found out to be what they call the ir underground subway system. The train ride was about an hour and 15 minutes with one train switch. We rushed our way to the Eiffel tower, taking pictures on the way. Once there we couldn't stay long and headed off to find a near by cafe to grab a quick bite to eat before jumping on another plane. We were able to find a small cafe a few blocks from the Eiffel tower and Chris ordered a cheese and meat plate and I ordered a ham, onion, cheese, potato omelette. The funny think about my omelette is that even though there were potatoes inside of it, there were also french fries served on the site which I ate with mayonnaise and ketchup a European favorite. We also ordered coffee or Cafe as they call it and I ordered a latte. Chris got what looked like a double espresso and mine came as espresso with steamed milk. We both enjoyed our coffee beverages and food and then had to run back to he train station.

Once we found it again, we hopped back on the train towards the airport. Even though we ran into some delayed trains we ended up arriving at the airport in more then enough time. We waited about 2 hours before the plane boarded. Since neither of us slept on the train from Minneapolis to Paris,we decided it was time to catch some shut eye. After boarding the plan for Florence, I fell asleep for a while, only to find when I awoke that our flight had taken off 45 minutes late. . Chris and I slept on and off throughout the flight and when we landed, we hopped on a bus to pick up our rental car which ended up being  a little white fiat. Chris was nervous about his ability to drive the little car since he hadn't driven a stick shift in years, which of course made me nervous as well. Chris and I hopped into the car and I suggested he practice a little in the parking lot. After one lap around, Chris said "Well, this will be interesting" and he followed the neverlost directions on to a main road. I was pretty sure this was going to be the death of us. Chris stalled a few times on our drive to the hotel, but that wasn't the scariest part. We had Italian drivers driving very close to us on all sides and we were often unsure where the lanes were because what we have noticed is that the Italians don't really stay in the lanes. 

The never lost device led us to the road the hotel was on and from there we kind of had to guess, but we found it. This was as the sun was just about to go down. We were greeted by a man named Nidar at the front desk, he checked us in and showed us our room. I was a bit upset at first, but now that I have seen some of the other rooms I think our room is just fine. We got our luggage into the room and unpacked into the very small amount of clothing storage space they have here. (a very small closet and two drawers) Then we walked down to the pool to see what it was like. We were both very tired from our travels so we pretty much went to bed right after that. I took 2 sleeping pills so that I could sleep in my new surroundings and according to Chris we slept for about 12 hours. It was wonderful!