Sorry for the delay in writing! I guess I have been busy with traveling and family. Also the time that I did have free unfortunately there wasn't any internet. Anyways, be prepared for a long entry because I have a lot to catch everyone up on!! At the beginning of April I was beginning to get ready for Mama, Bear, and Olivia to come. I cleaned, as we all know is my favorite activity. I went to the grocery store and bought some snacks because it is known that Mama sans Diet Coke is not a happy mama. After returning home for the grocery store I pondered about how I was going to sneak my family in. Technically I am not supposed to have people stay the night where I live, but everyone else does so I thought I would too. Now normally it is fairly easy to sneak people in, but the fam bam was coming in the holiday season. Life in Italy is not really a life during Easter. Nothing is open and it is definitely like a ghost town. Typically there is a side gate open that it would have been no problem to sneak everyone in at. It is actually the gate I normally go through anyway because it leads directly from my building to one of the bus lines, but as I mentioned before everything is closed during Easter. Therefore I stressed over how I was going to get four people, that only one could pass as a student here, in to my room, past the front desk. And it wasn't just oh I will get a fine, apparently they kick you out for a certain number of days if you break the rules. Furthermore, even though I mentioned that everyone should pack light, I know my mom and sister and they definitely do not know how to pack light. So for the rest of this day I stressed about the living situation and waited with anticipation for the next morning to arrive.
Finally! The day that everyone was coming had arrived. I woke up early so that I could look my best, as I hadn't seen everyone in a few months. Then I walked to the train station and took 2 trains to go the Malpensa airport. I made sure to bring a book with me, as this is about a two hour journey. When I arrived at the airport I was a little bit stressed because I didn't see American Airlines on any of the arrival boards. Luckily, I knew where there layover was and at what time they were supposed to arrive so using my common sense I put two and two together and came to the conclusion that they must be on the Spanish airline Ibizia or some name like that. I thought to myself this must be the flight, but then time was passing and I didn't see them. So I was starving and I decided to get a quick sandwich. And what do ya know? That is right when they came out of the gate. So as I was walking back I ran into Olivia. I was so excited to see her! And then she took me to where Bear and Mama were. It was a happy little family reunion just like in the movies. :) Then we had to decided which way to get back to the Milano central station. There was the option of the train or taking a bus. Right off the bat I got to impress everyone with my Italian skills by asking for 4 tickets on the bus. We then went outside to the bus and began our journey. After about an hour on the bus we arrived at the train station. We wanted to buy our train tickets but Mama's ATM didn't work at the machine. So then I had to ask where the ATM was and every direction I got was confusing. They all kept telling me to go downstairs but this was confusing, as it seemed that we were already on the bottom floor. So rather than dragging everyone around I told them to stay and I would go find the ATM machine. This was a good plan too because they were all starving. After searching around a bit more the ATM machine if figured out why I couldn't find it. Everyone was telling me it was down....not outside and down by the metro. So after a 15-20 minute hunt I found the ATM machine and then quickly returned back to everyone. I thought to myself they were probably getting scared because I left them in a country where they don't speak the language and they have no money. When I came back to them my thoughts were confirmed, they were scared. So then we were able to buy our tickets and had to wait for the next train. It was a bit stressful for everyone I think, particularly Mama. While Mama is understanding of situations, she simultaneously in not understanding. She expected that she would be able to get a large diet coke on ice. She was a bit on edge after such a long flight and not having the accessibility to a nice freezing diet coke. Therefore we were bickering a little bit. I got upset with her because I told her she can't be like this the whole week. It was the first day and she was already complaining about the diet coke situation and the differences. Yet at the same time, I should have understood that she was just tired from her loooooong flight across the world. So we tried to squash the bickering. But then we encountered a whole new situation. Finally we were able to get on the train. Yet contrary to what I had told them, everyone had at least two suitcases....not my idea of packing light. Due to the high volume of travel during Easter, the trains were extremely crowded. There were very limited seats available on the train but we had found some. Yet as Mama sat down she put her bag down on a chair and this old lady started yelling at her in Italian from the seat across from her. Mama was upset and started saying "I don't understand what you are saying!" And then the lady was yelling "Stai calma!!" Which is stay calm. Mama got very upset and then decided just to not sit there and rather sit near the doors instead. Mama was upset and saying "I don't fucking understand you lady, and she is screaming at me in Italian." I had to remind Mama that she was in this woman's country and the woman was only speaking the native language. While the woman should not have yelled at her as she did, Mama needed to understand that she was in their country, and if they spoke to her in Italian she should not get upset. After about a half hour of sitting in the train corridor we finally reached our stop: Pavia. I think by the time we were in Pavia it was becoming clear to everyone why I had suggested packing light. Once you get off the train there are a number of steps you must go up, and without an elevator, and abundance of luggage this proves to be a quite difficult task. After getting in our workout at the stairs we reached the bus stop. The bus wasn't going to be there for a couple of minutes so Mama was able to finally get her diet coke, thus she was in a much better mood and the laughs could begin. First we had to get on the bus....with all the luggage. Mama was a train wreck on the bus which gave Fairleigh, Olivia and I some very good laughs. Mama was falling all over the bus, she was standing next to the door and her arm got caught in between the door and the pole. We were all laughing hysterically and all the Italians were staring at us like we were crazy.....which is a definite possibility that we are. But to them we must have seemed strange. A mix of ages, with all these suitcases, smiling and laughing, a concept not familiar to people on the bus. I swear I am one of the only people that smiles here in Italy! Finally we had reached our final destination, Golgi. I had been telling everyone that they would feel bad for me when they saw where I lived and they would all joke "Yeah we feel so bad for you....poor you, you have to live in Italy." But now that my family has been here, they actually do feel bad for me. First we had to take separate elevator trips up because the elevator wouldn't hold all of us. So I sent up Olivia and Fairleigh first. I told them my room was 256....which I always mistake. My room is actually 258 and I had sent them to Ali's room. They went into Ali's room and when I had finally got up to our floor I saw them coming out of Ali's room looking terrified. Like OMG we have to stay here?!? Ali's room didn't really look like a room people could stay in. He has lived there much longer so he has more stuff. Also there wasn't a bed because it was in my room, there chairs were up on the couch, etc; So then I told them whoops I told you the wrong room, but that is the room where you will be taking a shower. They did not look happy. I brought them to my room and they thought ok....well this is a little better. Fairleigh and my mom were a little bit tired so they wanted to to take a nap so they decided to get the air mattress out. Yet when they started to blow up the air mattress with the pump it started smoking and smelling like burnt rubber. It was disgusting! Thus was born the phrase "Oust that shit!" a common phrase used our entire trip. Because the pump was broken my mom had to blow up the air mattress by mouth, a very daunting task. After blowing up the air mattress my mom and bear took a nap while Olivia and I hit the town! I took Olivia to Piazza Vittoria in the center of Pavia. We sat outside and ate apertivo at a little restaurant. I told Olivia that she should try a new drink here that they don't have in the U.S. I recommended one to her but she said it didn't sound good because it would be to sweet. So I suggested one that a lot of people get here that is a little bit more bitter. I guess Olivia didn't realize how bitter it would be though and she hated it. So I switched drinks with her and she liked the one I originally suggested. Olivia also enjoyed her first apertivo because some girls across the patio at another table waved at her and said "Ciao Bella!" She was so excited because the girls were so friendly to her. Now one of Olivia's favorite phrases is "Ciao Bello/a!" After sitting, talking, and eating at apertivo Olivia and I returned home to go pick up Bear and Mama. On the way we stopped in some shops and also ran into my friend Anita. Then when we got home Mama and Bear had to rush to get ready because they were still sleeping and we had dinner reservations at the Lebanese restaurant. They were very disoriented. We ended up changing the reservation at the restaurant to a little bit later. When we got to the Lebanese restaurant it was like a feast. My friend Hassan had called earlier and ordered for us. There was tabouleh, fattoush, kibbeh, shwarma, chicken, kafta, pita, hummus, baba ganoush, waraq enab, and a bottle of Lebanese wine. It was delicious! Everyone loved it. Afterwords I took everyone to one of my favorite places in Pavia....the piadineria! I ordered two dessert piadinas so we could split them. We were so full from dinner there was no way we could each have a full piadina. I ordered a crema bianca and strawberry piadina and also a nutella and orange slice one. Both equally delicious. In this time I also had my friend Piero take Fairleigh and Oliva out on the scooter. This way they could feel like they were truly in Italy. Olivia loved that when Piero took her out he stopped at the light and said in his Italian accent "Red is stop, Grrrreen is go." After the scooter ride we went back home so that we could all sleep and get ready for our exciting trip to Florence.
The next morning we woke up to get ready for Florence. We headed to the train station on another eventful bus ride. I guess it is a really good thing that we all have cars because O'Connors/Quinns/Brants and buses do not mix. If they do mix it does serve to create a lot of laughter. After a short and funny bus ride to the station we bought tickets to Florence. Luckily Olivia had cash because for some reason the American debit cards are not compatible with the train stations. After we bought our tickets we headed to the train. We were able to get seats on this train, although not all together. Mama and Bear sat with each other and Olivia and I each sat on our own. There was an extra seat next to me but Olivia had sat down in another cart and I didn't want to search for her and lose my seat, so instead I read. :) Mama and Bear met an Italian man that was going to go to San Luis Obispo. I was so excited when he told me since my best friend Heather goes to school there. I have been to SLO a few times to visit Heather so I told the man all the best restaurants that she had taken me too. Perhaps SLO is a destination for Milanese people because a few months ago Heather met 3 guys from Milan in SLO. What a small world! Anyways, after we had got off the train we had an hour layover until our next train to Florence. So we went to go eat at a restaurant in the station. This was Olivia's favorite place of the entire trip. She got a ham & cheese sandwhich, her first Italian coffee, and her first fruit tart. Olivia liked her first Italian coffee but didn't realize how bitter it was. She had to add a lot of cream and sugar. Furthermore, it was here that the obsession with fruit tarts was born. For the rest of the entire trip Olivia was constantly on the hunt for fruit tarts. We chose to take our food outside and eat on the grass near a fountain. It was nice to be outside and catch up a little. We didn't stay too long outside because we knew that the train was crowded and we wanted to be able to get a seat. So we ate fairly quickly and then went inside to look at what platform our train would be at. It wasn't listed yet when we got inside, so like everyone else in the train station we had to stand there staring at a board. Finally the platform was listed and then the chaos began. Everyone was rushing to the train and I thought wow we better hurry up. So we weaved in and out of people and got to the front of the crowd. We boarded the train and found some amazing seats. We found a section of four seats with a table in between them. We all thought "YES! SCORE!" We started getting comfortable and breaking out the cards, as we knew it was going to be a 1.5 hour trip. After we were just about settled in a woman came up to us and reality hit us. These weren't seats for anyone to take, you have to have a reservation to sit there. Our moods quickly changed as we realized that we didn't have a seat for the entire train ride. Essentially we were demoted and had to sit on the floor in the corridor like second class citizens. While it was not ideal it did create some good laughs. On our trip I met a guy named Nico. He only spoke Italian but I was able to practice my language skills with him. He was also going to Florence because his girlfriend lives there so I asked him where some good places to go were. He said he didn't really know but we could ask his girlfriend when we arrived, which ended up being superrrr awkward. When we got off the train it looked like Nico had gained an entire family. We were following him but trying not to at the same time because we weren't sure if he said go with him. Also we were about to witness the rejoining of a long distance couple. I'm sure that's what they totally wanted... a romantic kiss, with the new American family that has tagged along watching in the background. Uncomfortable much??? When they came over to us it was more awkward. Nico had made it sound like she lived in Florence when in reality she lived in a suburb outside of Florence and didn't actually know the good things. So that was a situation that was not so fun. After our awkward encounter we continued on to our hotel in a taxi. Our hotel was in a great location, about five minutes from the Duomo and Baptistery, two of the main sites in Florence. So we quickly dropped our stuff off in the room and headed out to hit the streets of Florence. It was Mama's number one t hing to go see Michelangelo's David in Florence so that is where we headed first. I guess a lot of people also want to see the David because the line was very long. But we just sucked it up and enjoyed Italian food and street vendors. Here is where Mama, Bear, and Olivia tried their first gelato. They got it to eat while they were waiting in line. It was pretty delicious. Bear also tried her first Italian pizza, which she loved. Then it was back to the line. In the line Mama met some American people next to her. One of the guys was from Riverside and happened to be moving to San Diego in about a month and out of all the places to work he was going to be working at the same hospital as Sarah! What a small world! So Mama also gave him her contact info so that he could call if he had any questions and meet Sarah. Also in line we were entertained by the street vendors and their extreme pushiness. One guy even asked Olivia out on a date and then told her that he has dreams about her. Strange..... When Olivia said no he turned to Mama and was sticking his tongue out at her in a very dirty manner. What horn dogs! After the very interesting line we finally were able to get inside to see the David statue. It was really amazing. You can't imagine someone being able to carve something so large and so precise out of marble. Michelangelo is truly talented.... in case you haven't heard already. We also saw some other statues around the museum and the paintings. They were nice. After seeing the museum we continued to see some of Florence. We were starving though and found a cute little restaurant by the Duomo that had the fixed price menu for 11 Euro. A great deal in Italy but particularly for a place right next to the Duomo. Here we had pasta, "black chicken," bread, salad, and Italian vino. Yuuuummm. All of it was delicious but filling. Fairleigh I guess was feeling a little Papaish and decided to finish off everyone's food. And like Papa finishing everyone's food at the restaurant before Ireland, Fairleigh also got sick like Papa. After eating she felt really sick so we had to rush back to the hotel. It wasn't so late when we got back to the hotel but late enough that we realized we were tired and would just call it a night. So it was off to bed for us after the eventful day.
The next day was Easter. We thought Easter at the Duomo would be amazing. So we got up fairly early to make sure that we got a good spot at the Duomo. It was a really nice day out when we started. We headed over to the church and stood among the crowd. Luckily we found this little platform that put us about 3 inches above everyone making it easier to see. Mama said it is times like that, that she feels bad her children are short because as a tall person she is able to see everything. We saw that there were musicians and dancers and eventually large bulls with flowers on their head. They were pulling this extravagant wooden thing that was supposed to have fireworks on the top. Just as they were about to light it the sky decided to open up and give us a little Easter rain. Olivia was not down with the rain getting her hair wet so she took off. She was there one second and then gone the next. Had she stayed she probably would have been ok, as almost every single person excpet us had an umbrella. It quickly became a sea of umbrellas with every area covered, that is every single area except the one part I was standing in. Even Mama and Bear were covered by other people's umbrellas. But it was ok because I enjoy the rain. I couldn't help but laugh at the whole situation. Mama was very pleased with me, as I had convinced her to leave her heavy waterproof jacket at home earlier in the morning. Even though we didn't have Olivia we headed back to the hotel. We were soaking wet and there was no way we could find Olivia in the massive crowd. So when we got back to the hotel we left my Italian phone number with the front desk so that she could call it. Everyone changed and then we headed back out. With our newly purchased umbrellas, scarves, and sweatshirts we were prepared to conquer the rain. We headed to the area we were at first just to see if we could find Olivia and I guess God was on our side that day because out of all the people we found her! She then decided to buy an Italian sweatsuit that read Italy and Universita' degli Studi di Firenze. While she was purchasing the sweatsuit Mama went and had her first of many Italian canoli. Once we were all settled and warm we headed to a enormous open market. We walked through it for a bit but decided it best not to shop on an empty stomach so then we went to go eat at a restaurant just behind the stands. The food there was pretty good, but not the service. The waitress was completely rude. We watched her literally yell at a customer in the middle of the restaurant because he didn't understand the difference between two pasta dishes. We were a bit afraid of what might be in store for us, but it all worked out because at least she didn't yell at us. She did mock Olivia though for asking if we got dessert with our meal. I guess she would be better off to work at a restaurant such as Dick's Last Resort where they are supposed to be mean to you. Anyways after eating our meal we headed back out to the shops. It was Italian leather heaven!! Everything leather. We were walking all down the shops but Mama had to go to the bathroom very badly so we got separated. I was in search for an Italian leather jacket so I hunted the stands. Earlier I had spoke with someone at the stands and promised them I would come back. The street vendors did instantly lowered their prices the second I spoke Italian with them. I guess they were all surprised to see this white very Irish looking girl speaking Italian. So anyways I found a stand where I bought a leather jacket. They said they had a shop behind the stand so Olivia and I went inside. I had already purchased my jacket from another place but Olivia wanted one too. She tried on several jackets but decided on one called a "Shakira" jacket. We were negotiating prices when all of a sudden Mama and Bear walked in. I was so surprised that they were able to find us because we were behind inside a store that was not visible from the street. Apparently I am a very memorable person because people were trying to sell things to my mom and she replied that she was looking for her daughter. Then they told her "Oh yeah! The girl from Pavia? She is inside this store." I guess more than one stand told her where the girl from Pavia went too. I guess I make my mark everywhere I go. So after they found us we purchased Olivia's jacket and shopped a little more. Mama bought a new leather purse and matching wallet. I also bought a new leather purse. Yay for leather! After we left the area Mama explained her hilarious/unfortunate story. I guess she had to rush back to the bathroom in the restaurant that we went to because like Fairleigh she had an upset stomach. Apparently she missed the toilet when she went to the bathroom and got it all over the toilet and the floor. She ended up cleaning a public restroom. Fairleigh was waiting outside and said it was really awkward because there was a lady waiting outside. Fair said she knew something was wrong but didn't know exactly. When Mama came outside she tried to just tell the lady that the toilet wouldn't flush but the lady insisted on going in and trying to fix it. Ahahahaha. I think we all about died from laughter when Mama told us this story. After we left this area we continued on to see the Ponte Vecchio, translated as Old Bridge. It was gorgeous to see. We walked across it to the other side where we wanted to go to a Park that was recommended to us by the American guy Mama met in line at the David museum. We followed the signs for the park but whewwwww such an incline!! There were so many stairs and hills that we definitely earned all the food we had been eating. Mama says she now knows why her Italian friend recommended training for Italy. But once we got to the top it was definitely worth it. It was everything you imagined Italy to be. The gorgeous Duomo of the church and the Tuscan hillside with trees and other greenery. It was quite a breathtaking view. We sat up at the top for a while. We then decided to head back for a little rest. We went back to the hotel for about an hour. At this time we skyped everyone because they were all together for Easter. It was really nice to be able to talk to everyone all together. After skyping we headed out to dinner. We went to a place that was pretty close to our hotel. On the way back though we took the wrong way and stumbled upon this AMAZING gelato place. You could buy 50 cent gelato that was about the size of a bite. I got a 50 cent ricotta and fig flavored one. It was soooooo delicious. We also ordered a bunch of chocolate covered cream puffs to go. I am pretty sure that all Italian people think we are crazy. I'm happy we went the wrong way because then we never would have discovered that place. After our tiny gelati we returned home for the night.
The next morning we woke up and decided just to explore Florence a little bit more. This was definitely a day of eating. We ate sooooo much because we found some delicious and really cheap food. We saw a little puppet show outside of a church for about five minutes, took some pictures with the statue men that move if you give them coins, shopped, and ate. We didn't do a ton of stuff other than walk around because we had a train to catch later. After walking around we stopped at one more pizza place to get food & a glass of wine to go (which the shop owners thought was funny) because we had a train to catch. We were walking back and saw a cab so we got in the cab to take us to the hotel to grab our stuff and then to the train station. I think they should make shirts that read "I survived a cab ride in Florence." I seriously thought I was going to die and every single pedestrian was going to die with this crazy cab driver. She did not care about anyone in the road and just headed at them. Also I had my glass of red wine and I was sooooo afraid it was going to spill all over how she was driving. I was so thankful to arrive to the train station. We then boarded our train, which we had seats for this time and headed on down to Rome. After getting off the train in Rome we took the metro to the stop that our hotel said. Mama was really excited because we met a group of nuns on the metro. I guess I am more used to clergy walking around now and I expected nothing less than an abundance of them in Rome, which the Holy State is located within. I was really scared for our hotel when I saw where we were getting off at the metro. It did not look like a place a hotel would be. It took us a while to find a cab. Once we got in the cab we though it would be just a short little ride. We were very wrong. Instead we went down a tiny ass road into the middle of no where. Thank you Priceline for giving us a great price......in the middle of nowhere. But it worked out fine because our hotel had a shuttle bus. It left about every hour and a half to go straight to Vatican city. It wasn't leaving at a convenient time so we took the public bus on the way there. We arrived to see how stunning Vatican city was. Mama was surprised at how large it was. We walked around it for a bit and just took in its grandiose features. We were starving so we went to a restaurant close by. This was a mistake. It was the most disgusting meal we had in Italy. After our dissatisfying meal we went to go look at a castle that was nearby. It was really fun here. Fairleigh, Olivia and I played tag all around the castle. The castle was right next to the river and also had a spectacular view of Vatican City. So after tag at the castle and more photo opportunities we headed back to where the hotel shuttle bus was supposed to be picking us up. There was a gelato shop that was near the drop off location that we saw a huge line at earlier in the day so we decided to try it out. Boy was it delicious!!! I found my new favorite flavors of gelato. Blueberry yogurt, cassata siciliana, and ricotta pistachio. Soooooo delicious! So we got our gelato to go and were waiting for the bus. The bus pulled up and all of us except Olivia had finished her gelato. We got on the bus not really thinking of anything of it. There were a lot of people getting on the bus as well so we kind of got separated in the line. Mama, Bear, and I got on the bus and were seated when we heard the bus driver saying something to someone. We looked and that someone was Olivia. He was telling her that she couldn't bring the gelato on the bus....but in Italian. She was trying to ask him if she could go throw it away in the trash can....in Spanish. She was afraid if she went to the end of the block to throw it away the bus would leave without her. It was sooooo funny watching this all play out. Finally she just went to the trash can and when she got back on the bus she laughing hysterically. Then she tried to sit down in one of the seats and a guy said no you can't sit there, as a joke of course but she thought he was serious. It was a very funny night. Then we got back to the hotel and we had to sneak Olivia in because we told them we only had 3 people staying there and didn't want to pay 30 euro more a night. Once we got back in our hotel room we were supposed to have a pullout bed. They didn't bring it so we had to call them to come up to our room which was a problem since we had four people the the room. The obvious solution was to hide someone in the closet of course. They set it up while Olivia was in the shower. The bed was super close to mine so Mama tried to move it which was not so great of an idea since it is designed to collapse down. She was trying to move the bed when it broke. I was laughing so hard at her trying to fix it. Eventually she fixed it and got it all moved but then when Olivia was adjusting the bed it broke. The whole situation was a source of much laughter. After our many laughs we were able to sleep for the night.
The next morning we made sure to wake up extra early so that we could be on the first bus to the city. We were supposed to go see Vatican City that day and it would have been a nightmare if we went late in the afternoon. We arrived in the morning and got in the long line. It was long and it hadn't even opened yet. Things did not look good. We were in a long line, it was cold, and we had to deal with a ton of pushy street advertisers advertising their "skip the lines, Vatican tour, any language? French, Italian, German, English, Chinese, Japanese, etc;" But this was Vatican City, our holy land, so we were going to wait it out. We embraced the street vendors and the cold by buying scarves. Olivia's turned out looking really cute when I tied it, I tied mine the same way and it looked like an actual tie. So I had to do some adjusting. Then, against Mama's wished, I left the line in search of the sacred drug, caffeine, in the forms of coffee and diet coke. Although Mama was trying to force me to stay in the awful line and deal with the scary morning Mama without diet coke sometimes it is better not to listen to your parents. So I went with my instinct and ignored her. The reason she didnt want us to go is because she was afraid we were going to lose her in a line. But really its a line...how will I lose her in a line that isn't moving? So I ventured out for some diet coke, coffee, and a morning snack because Bear is always hungry. I found some delightfully overpriced items and purhcashed them to bring back to the line. While Mama surely was not happy that I ignored her wishes, in the end she was pleased that I went with my gut, because that meant that she could have a Diet Coke, meaning the Vatican would be much more enjoyable. Olivia and Bear appreciated their morning fuel as well. :) A few minutes later the Vatican opened so the line started to move. Soon enough we were inside the Vatican. It was amazing. It is huge and has the most amazing art one has ever seen. There were rooms dedicated to animal sculptures, bust sculptures, paintings, basically any art possible. My favorite room in the Vatican was definitely the map room. It was essentially a long corridor covered in maps of the world on the wall and gold all over the ceiling. Gorgeous! After the map room we continued on to the Rafaello rooms which were also amazing. In the audio tour that we had it said that there were previous frescos in the room but the Pope at the time just wanted Rafaello's artistry so Rafaello got rid of all the other frescos except one, which was his previous mentors. He left to pay respect to his previous mentor. Then there was the Sistine Chapel. The artistry is amazing in there was well, but we had been here so long that Bear's and my feet were killing us so we sat along the edge. Just when we thought we were done with museum we went out of the Sistine Chapel and saw a huge line. We were wondering what it was for and discovered that it was to go in the dome of Saint Peter's Basilica. We decided that even though the line was extremely long we had to go up because that was the main attraction of the Vatican. We waited in a terrible "line" which was more like a mob. Mama wanted to kill these two little french boys who kept pushing on her. We nicknamed them Pierre and Jacques. Finally after waiting for what seemed like forever we were able to go up into the basilica. We didn't choose the lift option because we thought how bad could it bed. It wasn't so bad but it definitely was not easy. It didn't make sense to pay two euro for the lift anyway because it didn't actually take you all the way up. We made it up to the first part and then we saw that you could go up in the dome. It was the most narrow, claustrophobic curved in staircase ever. I couldn't wait to get to the top. We finally did get to the top and it was well worth it. The views of the city were breathtaking. We then headed down into the church. After all of this we had spent about 7 hours there so we were extremely exhausted so the obvious conclusion was to sit down and eat. We were supposed to go to this one place for aperitivo but it was closed which really sucked because we went out of the way to go there. We ended up going somewhere that was rather ordinary. After our dinner we headed to the Trevi Fountain to toss some coins in the famous fountain. Legend has it that if you throw coins in the fountain you will one day return to Rome. Following the traditional coin tossing we headed to the church. The church is always a nice place to take a break. You can hang out with God while simultaneously resting in a cool relaxing seat. After gaining back some energy in the church we walked very quickly back to the metro station because we realized we would miss the last metro and thus the last bus. Luckily we made it on time, but just barely. We got back to the meeting place for the bus and had our nightly gelato from Old Bridge. We also saw someone famous there, not that we knew he was. Mama of course made me take a picture with him. So after shmoozing with the celebrities and eating ice cream we finally headed back to end our 14 hour day. Needless to say we slept very well.
We slept in a bit later this day and took the 10:30 bus into the city. After our long and tiring day before we decided we need to start with breakfast. Mama had her travel book in which she read about a delicious bakery with "the best cappucino." So we set out on the hunt to find the bakery called "Panella." We were having a very difficult time finding it. Then we saw a bakery and decided let's just go here. Then it turned out it was Panella! We ate a ton of food at Panella. Which our food list is to come after. After eating at Panella we continued to go onto the Colosseum. On the way to the Colosseum we decided to stop and get gelato because we are fatties and apparently didn't eat enough at breakfast. Hahahaha. So after gelato we attempted to get to the Colosseum again. Then we ran into some Irish friends on the road. Mama was so excited to meet them and suggested doing a house exchange with them like we did in 2004. I'm sure they thought she was crazy considering she had just suggested that we switch houses when she had met them for about two minutes. But I guess they didn't think we were that crazy because they gave us their email address. So after meeting our Irish friends, exchanging emails and taking photos we hopped on the bus to the Colosseum. On the bus there was this old man who kept telling me how beautiful I was and that he loved my eyes. And Mama, the Japanese photographer that she is, insisted on taking another photo. So we took a photo with the man. While we were taking the photo he asked me "No kiss??" In Italian of course. But then I told him that I have a boyfriend and he told me he is stronger than my boyfriend. Then he gave me a business card for a restaurant that his son owns. After getting off the bus we went into the Colosseum. It was really cool to look around there. But it was raining really hard and Olivia was about to die from the cold. So after that we went to continue onto the Roman ruins. On the way Olivia bought a pink poncho that made her look like Bazooka bubble gum. It helped keep her warm. :) So then in the Roman ruins Mama insisted on seeing the house of Livia. We searched all over for this house and then we got there it was closed. Mama was very very disappointed. I felt bad for her. So after that then we decided to head to the Spanish steps. We saw it very quickly and then decided to go eat because we were dying of hunger. We sat at a cute little restaurant outside on a cobble stone street. The bonus of this restaurant was the free wifi. After refueling and checking some emails we hit up some souvineir shops. Then after some shopping we went to look at the Parthanon. We got there 15 minutes too late though and couldn't go inside. I was bummed about that. I wish Papa could have been there with us. He would have loved it. Bear was tired, as usual, at this time, so she and Mama sat outside at a fountain while Olivia and I went around for some more shopping. We didn't really find much but Olivia did get to take some photos with Italian policemen. She also told them "Ciao bello!" When she left. Oh Olivia.... After that we all got back together and headed back to the hotel for some sweet dreams.
The next morning we woke up for our Italian road trip. It was really funny at first. Both Mama and I were a little bit scared for how this was going to all pan out. First of all, we had to solve the puzzle of fitting everything inside the trunk in the tiny European car. It took us a few minutes but we were not going to be defeated! So after being puzzle masters we had to try to master the European car, which of course is manual. Luckily Mama knows manual, unfortunately she is not so used to it. First she couldn't figure out how to get the car in reverse. So we decided well I guess that's ok because we are only going forward for the time being. So we headed on over to the exit of the parking lot. While we thought we wouldn't have to reverse, Mama also didn't prepare herself for losing the ticket to get out and cars lining up behind her to also get out. So she was at the front, cars were coming, and we had no ticket. I got out of the car and booked it to the reception desk where I told them she lost the ticket. When I came back she was not in front of the gate and the other cars were gone so I assumed she had learned about reverse. But then when I asked her she said "No, no. I rolled back. Thank God we are on a hill." Hahahaha. We then got back in the car and headed out the parking lot and into the scary roads that awaited us. They turned out not to be so bad. We continued on for a while and ate a cute little restaurant in the middle of nowhere. They thought it was really funny when Olivia had ordered her coffee before her meal. Then when we were leaving they offered us free Limoncello, which was delicious! After our meal we headed on over to Siena where we got nothing done because the signs in Italy are the worst signs in the world. They truly do not make sense most of the time. At this point we were all in a bad mood and it was getting late so we basically went to Siena and then left. We decided to stop and eat in Bologna which was definitely a good idea. I tried bolognese sauce in it's birthplace! At our meal though they definitely thought we were crazy for how much food we had ordered. And Olivia had ordered some sorbet and it was basically liquid. She complained about it and the guy laughed at her. We were like what the fuck!?! So after our delicious first and second courses, not so delicious desserts we headed on back to Pavia. It was nice and not so nice to be back at the same time. Nice to back to my stuff not so nice to back where I live because it is a shithole.
After our nice sleep we woke up and got ready for the day. We were supposed to return the car, go to the grocery store and head to Milan for the last day of sightseeing. This did not work out at all. The stupid car rental place is in the middle of nowhere with the smallest freaking sign in the world. We searched for it for forever, no one knew where it was, and it was basically a big waste of time. We were all irritated and fighting and decided it would be best just to get some food. So we went to this really cool place and got a ton of food. They thought we were freaks there for the amount of food we ordered but I explained to them that it was the last day of vacation.......which I guess made it a little bit more acceptable. They also had cartoon pizzas that they made different shapes. Bear had ordered a bear shaped pizza but they misunderstood and made her a duck. But it was still delicious. So after lunch we were in a much better mood and then went to the grocery store for shopping since we still had the car and could bring it back to where I leave. I stocked up on all the heavy things that way I wouldn't have to carry it all on the bus in the future which is not so fun. When we got into the shopping center first we had to figure out how to get the shopping cart. Here you have to pay money for a shopping cart and then when you bring it back you get the money back. But we couldn't figure out how to getthe money in and the cart out so the man that worked there had to help us. Mama of course had to take a picture during this situation and the man thought that we were even crazier. But it made for some good laughs. Then we went into the grocery store, which everyone loved because it was all different and Italian. We bought a ton of olive oil there for everyone to bring back home. After our grocery store rendezvous we headed back to my place to drop of the groceries. My friend Nicolo saw us and helped us. But on the way the bags broke. It was funny and not at the same time. After unloading everything we got everyone's stuff and put in the car. We decided it would be easier to drop Olivia and Bear at the train station with all the luggage and Mama and I go search for the stupid car place. This time we were bettered prepared though because we had looked it up on Google Earth and we knew what it looked like. So we found the place and went in to drop off the car. This turned into a fight because they wanted to charge us a whole extra day for being two hours late when the lady in Rome had told us it would only be hourly. We were really mad because Mama had specifially asked the lady in Rome how much we would be charged if we brought it late and the lady said it was only hourly. If we had known they were going to charge us a whole day we wouldn't have stopped to eat lunch and go grocery shopping. So I had to try to fight with the lady in Italian which is frustrating because I only know so much Italian vocabulary. So the fight basically went nowhere and then we just left. We then had to wait for the bus in the rain to take back to the train station. We finally got to the train station and it was about 6p.m. Finally we all met up and got to the train station in Milan. We checked our bags and then were able to finally see a little bit of Milan. I took everyone on the metro to Duomo stop. I was so happy that we got out and the first thing they all saw was the Duomo all lit up. It was really beautiful for them to see it like this. So after some photo taking at the Duomo we headed to the Opera alla Scala, the most famous opera house in Italy. Then after the Opera we went over to the castle. We didn't really get to see so much of Milano because we got there and everything was closed already. So basically we saw those things and then headed to the hotel for the evening. I decided to stay the night with them because I didn't want to travel back by myself and I didn't want to say goodbye quite yet. So we went to sleep and then woke up early to say goodbye. :( I was sad to see everyone go.
Right now I am sitting in Berlin at Jenny's house finishing this up. I know I am super behind but look out for Barcelona and Berlin trip! They will hopefully be coming this week. :)
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