Thursday June 2, 2011 night

Slept extremely well and woke up refreshed! Its check out day so naturally I was ready 10 mins after waking up and mom took 2 hours. Literally. And the woman wears no make up, she showers, makes a salad does some stretching and shit. She put up with e the day before so she can do no wrong in my eyes.

our villa

did I mention we had three keys for our three doors?

door to the street

Check out. Maria, the owner of the hotel, always talks our ear off. In mostly Italian and terrible English. It is somewhat of a chore to try and decipher what she is saying but she is so sweet so we make due. Leave bags with her until we can come back around 5 to get them. We go to the Uffizi ( oo-feed-si). We figured out the reservations and lines flawlessly. We find ourselves behind a college baseball team from Pepperdime(?) I didn’t hate it. Venus de Milo was just as beautiful as it looked on the postcards. I was quite impressed with mom’s ability to flow through the museum and show some sort of control because she knows my tolerance level is much smaller than hers. I mean I am all for art but honestly how many paintings of “The Adoration of the Magi” can you have in one museum?

The answer is more than you thought possible.

We went out to the rooftop café of the museo where the view was nice and the view was quite pleasant.

 We stopped to have an espresso. Mom got an iced cappuccino. My first espresso and it was yummy. Over sweetened because mom thought it would taste like tar so might as well put a ton of sugar in there.

mom was struggling trying to get me in focus

pic of us in the reflection

cool bathroom

After the museum, it was time for food again. We crossed the big bridge into unknown territory and, as usual, looked to our boyfriend for a place to eat. 

at some castle

We went to a restaurant away from the main streets. Very cute place with a really charismatic waiter who knew and loved Rick Steve( our love). He recognized his book ( our bible) and had no attitude at all when I asked him to explain the entire menu.

salad with nuts and cheese and sun dried tomatoes. sooo good

honestly the best ravioli I have ever had in my life. Could have popped them all day like popcorn. 

Oh and the bread in Italy has no salt. So it may look delicious.
but its not!

this family had been traveling through Europe for 2 months with their little kids. They were so nice and adorable

We have met the coolest people traveling.

Got a belt and two bracelets for steph on the walk back to familiar territory. Wet to train station to check on the train. No info up yet because it was 5 hours before the time. Duh. Mom is a bit of a worrier so its fine. We hung out at the hotel main office for 2 hours or so sending emails and messages to home. Ive been emailing my now boyfriend, which has been really nice. We are like pen pals and its nice to have someone to talk to other than my mom  J

Went to dinner at Katti house restaurant again because it was close and reliable. We ate the same thing as the night before + penne with pesto.

Went to a diff grocery store and got food for breakfast and noming on the train.

the train. and our beds. lovely

Now on the sleeper train. 5 people in our 6 person couchette. 1 is a slovachian PhD student, man. 2 teachers with 18 year old kids on the train. One man and woman. Very nice. Its really hot on the train though. Poop.