TAKING A BREATHER IN TUSCANY

Assisi & Siena


Italy is pretty awesome. I haven't done as much art as I would have liked but we are so busy all day every day it’s pretty understandable. I'm having a blast in these smaller towns to the point where I'm almost dreading Florence. It'll work out though.

How is everything at home? Is Grammy keeping up to pace? Meggie? I really don't have anything to say. We have been having a lot of fun. It’s weird to think that we only have a week left. We tried to send a box to Jen’s house...mostly full of crap that I overstuffed my suitcase with and never used. It cost 45 Euros and we're both almost positive that it won't make it there. The post office was definitely another interesting little experience. Well, tomorrow is Pisa-Lucca, for a night, then toward Cinque Terre. Welp, I best be heading out.
D

ARE THERE RULES TO THIS TRAIN SYSTEM?

Grammy's note: This travel story may cause dizziness!

Rome, Foligno, & Assisi
Wow such huge turn of events I don't even know where to begin.

Let’s talk tourists
Yesterday was a big tourist day. We have definitely triumphed over Rome. We've made an appearance now at the Vatican, St. Peters, the Scavi tour under St. Peters, the colosseum, Trevi Fountain, as well as the Spanish steps. The pantheon and the basilica with Caravaggio's work will have to wait until our trip back through. The Scavi tour trumps all so far. While I did sneak some pretty rad pics of the Sistine Chapel, I mean...woops! And yes, Larry, Bernini's sculptures were amazing. He literally transformed stone into flesh. It was hard to contain my hand from touching it to make sure it wasn't, in fact, soft.

The new F-Bomb
So after the most amazingly productive morning we headed toward the train station to head to Assisi. I'm super excited to get there to go find Grandma's bush because we found the perfect little tiny crucifixes to stick into the ground. Jump onto the train at the Roma Termini then switch trains in Foligno and end up at the bus station. No Problem! Como se dici Bullshit en Italiano? First, we played the waiting game at the termini due to conflicting messages. We have already been told not to sit, which is the last thing we want to hear after a full morning of touring. Relieved, we finally jump the train and head toward Foligno. Once there we look at the schedule and see that Binario (platform) 4 is where we need to be to switch trains, given we have a matter of minutes to do this. Once we get over to platform 4 by going down stairs underground and back up the stairs to the correct platform, we see that they changed it! Shit, racing back the other way just in time to see our train whistling past us. Fine, we'll catch the next one. Thinking we'll outsmart it, we wait at the new platform. Getting nervous close to when its coming, I leave sister J with the bags and go back underground and over to platform 1 to ask the deli guy. He says that platform one is where the train is leaving from. Once again, SHIT! I race down the stairs in hysterics to see the most hysterical sight of sister J, who saw a train going to platform 4 (our original thought), underground also with not just her backpack and roller suitcase but my messenger bag and roller suitcase also! She's frantically trying to waddle toward platform 4 and I'm frantically trying to tell her platform 1 and we get upstairs again to see the tail of the train leave without us. SERIOUSLY! You have got to be kidding! This time we truly think we'll outsmart the system and we break down and ask 2 different people. They both say platform 5. Alright. There we are. Sitting. Waiting. And trying not to screw up yet again. Mind you, at this point we had trouble contacting our hostel and are not even sure if we have a place to stay when we get there and it is nearing 8 pm. So the sign confirmed our destination on platform five. We thought we were good. Absolutely not. 5 minutes before our train was supposed to leave again the sign changes and its leaving from platform 5. We do the underground waddle as fast as possible yet again. And YES we finally made it on the frickin' train. Wow that was quite the fiasco. The F-bomb did not even have enough emphasis at that point and we dubbed Foligno the illogical POS station as our new cuss word.

Assisi
So far Assisi has been awesome. I think that our hostel person summed it up when we decided not to go to Cortona, 'Cortona is definitely a nice hilltop town also, but Assisi has heart'. You can definitely see the heart that Assisi has here. Despite the nonstop rain, we have not stopped walking the town as its friendly streets are always looking for company. I took Jen to the bush which we buried our little crosses which were 'semi' blessed by the pope. Was it the right bush?...Well it's the thought that counts.

D.

PICTURES!

1 The First is a pic of the Blue Grotto

2 The look on my face my entire entry to Italy
3 The only other position my face changed to at the beginning of my trip
4 Note the name on the plaque set in stone in Italy. We were made to live there!
5 A taste of my sneaky pictures

GYPED IN ANACAPRI, SCAMMED IN NAPOLI, & ITALY HAS GIVEN ME THE RUNS

Anacapri, Napoli, & Roma
Hey peeps

Just another friendly update. I don't remember where I left off. My last day in Sorrento I decided to take a day trip to Anacapri and experience the Blue Grotto. I'm pretty sure that it is run by the mafia as there is a head boat that does not break face, holding what seriously looks like the godfather, the son and the muscle. They are the boat that you give your money too. The grotto was a slight disappointment, but still cool to see, nonetheless. I also decided to check out the center of the island, but did not realize that it would take over half my body weight to get there. I'm close to finding out which step will be the death of me and I'm still at the beginning of my trip! Nonetheless, I met up with a nice couple and we hoofed it all the way up to timbuktu. Let’s just say that a glass of wine definitely ensued! This is where I experienced my first sitting charge. €6. Seriously.

I was definitely looking forward to J coming but was nervous about the meeting part. I awoke at 5 am to make the trek. I made it to Napoli, only less than half way, 34 stops later. I finally made it to Rome, but and the meeting part was not so easy. I had issues with the map and I admit I was pretty cranky; hot, sweaty, and still hauling all of my crap on cobblestoned roads. Despite all odds, sweat beads of frustrations, and only minutes to spare by our last meeting time, I made it! I know, I didn't think I would either.

We've been hoofin' it everywhere ever since. We are going to turn in for an early night, since today is our biggest day in Roma. However, we have still been able to see the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Borghese Gallery, and most importantly Gelato. We decided that should be our early morning brunch as a kick start to the day.

Anyway, I am interested to hear what you all are up to! I love getting your emails, it makes me feel like I'm not so far out of the loop. Well, I am in FREAKIN' ITALY though, so you know...

D

J FLIES THE COOP!

J prepacking with D on Tuesday

Roommate P is left home.

Sister S will miss you.

Did Apple say you could leave?

More than ready!

Thank you! We'll be here 'til Tuesday...

So it was recently suggested that I (daughter s.) post a little something about my recent trip to Vegas. It was my first trip to the city full of secrets and likely my last for quite some time. There were 3 of us, friend m., friend k., and myself - that took this journey together. I think I'll just post some pictures that sum up our trip - after all, 'What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas' right? So I can't exactly give too much detail... ;c) haha. It all started at PDX. The trip we'd been anxiously awaiting for 3 months. My wonderful boyfriend d. stopped by to wish us a safe trip and bought us our first margaritas! (haha, and sneak in one last kiss before I vacationed with out him... no worries - I've decided to make it up to him by going to Hawaii with him in September - I know, I'm so sweet!)

This would be the 3 of us (me, k. & m.) - at the airport after a very long 5 hour work day that would not end quickly enough! (Note the transformation that takes place from "work us" to "Vegas" us... )
k. & myself wandering around the MGM (where we stayed) our first night. Not quite sure what we were pondering, but it was obviously very important.
View from the bridge between MGM & New York, New York

Our first night "out" we went to Jet at the Mirage- it took us quite awhile to get in this night, however it's okay because this is where it all began... we never again had to wait even 5 minutes.

View from my pool chair at MGM.

Cute kitty!! The lions were often sleeping when we went by the habitat, but this time they were wide awake and very playful!

This would be us while we were up on stage with Akon while he performed at Rehab. Vegas is all about who you know and who friend m. flirts with apparently. haha. We had ZERO warning we were going to be on stage, we had just planned for a grubby, lazy afternoon at the pool.

Wow were we misinformed!! After being led straight through 4 security points and up to the stage, we began to feel just sightly unprepared. On stage were roughly 25 celebrities and maybe 12 or so of "us"... "Okay ladies, there's a fruit platter out right now, I'll go grab you drinks and if anyone bothers you - just let me know and I'll take care of it. Oh, and chicken fingers will be coming out soon too."

Ah, yes - the beautiful backside of Akon. Sorry it's not a picture of his face, but you know - it's rather difficult to get that angle when you're busy dancing on stage behind him...

McDonalds was our hero. Our days usually started around 11:00am, and by the time we were down at the pool we were drinking daiquiris and often forgot to eat until just before we went out each night.

After the party ended we rushed back to our hotel room to fancy up and then turn around and go back to watch Cirque Du Soleil's 'O'. In this photo we're with Mark - he teased us from day one because we were always wearing high heels - even when we walked 2 miles down the strip!

I really like this dress, so I figured I'd show it off by posting another picture.

Fountain show to the tune of "Viva Las Vegas"

Monday was our last full day in Vegas (day 5 of 6) - and we decided to spend it browsing through all of the casinos, hotels and of course, shopping!

Most important stop of the day was for Godiva chocolate. Mmm.

Gondola ride through the Venetian.

These margaritas were almost as good as the BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger I ate.

Monday night we went to Prive at Planet Hollywood - interesting place. Good times.

How many shoes does it take for 5 nights? Hmm...

Grabbed some very greasy, yet very delicious Wolfgang Puck pizza at the airport before heading home.

Officially survived 5 nights, 6 days in Las Vegas. Never paid a cover, only bought 3 drinks the entire trip, had a table each night and if I forgot to mention - danced on stage with Akon!

MEG IN SCRUBS?

Yes, this is Meggie Anne in a surgical scrub shirt that was lent to her by her veterinarian. Meg had surgery today to remove a fist-sized growth on her stomach and a fatty cyst under one arm. Bandages were not doing a good enough job of catching the drainage, so the doctor put her in a shirt and told her how stylin' she was. Now she is confined to the kitchen for a day or two, which she is beginning to protest with an insistent, high-pitched whine. I guess she's feeling better. Notice the cardboard and towels to the left that she refuses to lay on now and that she will not have anything to do with me or the camera...