-Pisa flight late
-rush to see meg and she's not there
-meg sleeps through her layover
-finally reunite
-explorer/ meet robin at bday dinner
-eat TONS
-meet w Arielle and go to moya bar
-run into robin and go to red garter
-exhausted, secret bakery, hotel
Day 2:
-made bfast then bring stuff to Arielle's place
-saw David
-market and then yummy panini
-showed meg my turf/school/gelato
-back to Arielle, helped with HUGE luggage, so hot so we got drinks outside and relaxed in the shade
-dropped stuff at Emily's on way to Michelangelo hill with Arielle and roommates
-watched sunset, beautiful! Then got pizza at ovesuvius
-stopped at Emily's work (military guy) and then back to her place to sleep
Day 3:
-slept in, picnic turned into eating at ostreria Santo Spirito for a few hours after seeing a few sights on the way
-met up with Emily, chilled in the shade of her room for a bit
-met up with robin on rooftop in piazza della republica, no real food there, snuck pics, then left to kitch apperativo in new part of town for me
-all ate lots of yummy food, dropped Emily off, went with robin to duomo and hung on steps
-Italian guys from kosova came and talked to us, eventually we went to ebbys together and took nutella/ banana shots
- all went to moya, had more drinks (Luca met robin there)
- lots of speaking Italian!! All had fun :)
- ended the night walking around with the boys and going to sleep at 5:30am
Day 4:
- got up at 8am, caught fast train to Verona, taxi to hotel (raining here!)
- rested for Un attimo and then trekked over to city center (so cold)
- got into Verona and it was sooooo cute. All the buildings and the castle-like walls and cute alleyways and the roman theater and the big piazzas and the river in a heart shape and the views from a high up castle and lots of love
- ate lunch in prime people watching spot in piazza near Juliette's house.
- visited Juliette's house, went inside on balcony, wrote a letter, touched the statues boobs ha ha
- got gelato at a place with a line and made the beautiful walk to the castle, across the river.
- lots of amazing views and pictures, decided to make way back to hotel (stores all closing but I did get an adorable bathing suit)
- happen to walk by the famous arena and find out Tiziano Ferro is having a concert in 20 mins and there's still tickets! Meg INSISTS on going so we get the tickets and enter the arena having only a faint idea of who this guy is
- there are ALL Italians here!! We try our hardest to blend in and sing a long to the songs (there were definitely some obsessed fans around us!), have popcorn for dinner, and absolutely love life! (going off of like 3 hours of sleep now)
- concert ends at 10:30, we grab a cab not so easily, and are finally home to SLEEP and call our moms for mothers day
Day 5:
-wake up early yet again, see hostel owner in underwear and feel bad not having bfast but have to rush to train station by cab
- all is good and eventually we are seeing lake como from our train window!!!
- I was so excited and the second I saw the water I was glued to the window snapping away. Every glimpse I got was more incredible than the previous!!
- we were to arrive in the little town of varenna and before doing so met our Rick Steves friends while waiting for the train to stop. What funny ladies and they loved to hear our travel plans.
- now in Varenna!!!!! It's absolutely positively amazingly gorgeous and it really felt as if I was either dreaming or standing in front of a fake backdrop. Meg and I were in the best of moods even as we had to trug with our backpacks and Meg's suitcase up the mountain and through the cobbley streets to our wonderful hotel.
- the hike up to the hotel was again breathtaking and left me so beyond speechless. How am I so lucky????
- we checked in and were led up 2 vernaculars and an elevator to our room. Ah-ma-zing!!! The view from our room high above the lake was just,wow, once in a lifetime.
- meg and I soaked it all in and quickly threw on our suits underneath our summery clothes and were off to explore this amazing place we called ours for a few days.
- first we got lunch at the creepy waiter place even though beautiful water front restaurants were just around the corner. Oh well.
- we walked around, took lots of pictures, yummy gelato and then happened to find a secret place on the water to tan! We were a little self conscious of the people above who could maybe see us but we soon did not care and got ourselves a good tan!
- after we got our fill of tanning we decided to walk around to the next town over and discovered Italy's smallest river along with more cute streets, some locals, and yummy conolietti
- we made our way back to the city center of Varenna and had such a relaxing meal complete with Italy's favorite cocktail, spritz aperol, right on the side of the lake. We took it slow and just simply enjoyed everything. And trust me, there was so much to enjoy in that moment.
- then back to the really comfy beds for real SLEEP
Day 6:
- we both slept in a tad, donned our summer getups again, had a plan of kayaking that was canceled bc it wasn't season, ate a yummy free breakfast and then hopped on a ferry for the nearby city if Bellagio!!
- the ferry was just Un po' Freddo with the wind but being out in the middle of the lake offered even more wonderful sights.
- we arrived to this GORGEOUS town (a bit bigger and more touristy but still beyond beautiful) and proceeded to walk up and down every cute side street. We happened upon this one path that led us to the other side of the lake and this was my favorite bc the tourists were gone, Italy was in full bloom and it was all just so authentic.
- we finally found our way back to the popular side, ate a cute lunch and then kept walking along the lake. We made it to a villa, didn't want to pay, passed a yacht club which meg went in to and ended up grabbing drinks here!
- drinks turned into more drinks which turned into us jumping into the lake with an Italian crowd watching us thinking we were out of our minds and then staying for happy hour and eating delicious food. We were there for 4 hours. And it was some of the best most relaxing and beautiful 4 hours of my life.
- eventually we sadly left (not mentioning that bill), grabbed a ferry back to our ghost town (like everything was closed before 9pm!), and freshened up.
- there was a bit of drama bc I had to sign up for classes and the wifi at the hotel decided to stop working that night, but all worked out just fine!
Day 7:
- today meg and I woke early, grabbed breakfast, hiked to a castle and broke in, packed up, had a mini photoshoot, had lunch at our hotel and shared a bottle of wine in the sun for a few hours and just stared at the lake.
- now we are on a train to pisa and are currently riding along the ocean as the sun is setting. Can life get any better?????
- Ciao ciao for now! Spain next with meg as my tour guide!
- spent night in sketchy airport hostel
Day 8:
- woke up for early flight to Spain, all went smoothly except meg had to check a bag in and it cost like 60 euro!!
- got to Spain and saw Lola finally!! She picked us up and drove us first to the grocery store where meg already knew someone and then to pick Candela up from school!
- Lola was sooooo nice but my Spanish was so rusty the whole time! I understood her pretty well but speaking was a different story.
- we picked up Candela and she was SO excited to see meg! At first a little shy with me but she warmed up very fast. We walked home and Lola made us an amazing lunch!
- after lunch meg showed me around Alcala a little but and all the plazas were sooooo adorable!! Lola's current student Kayla also joined us and I had fun times getting closer to little Candela
- we then joined Lola and watched her play paddle (sort of like tennis) with her friends at this country club type place. Meg and I had a ton of fun being kids with Candela and she had fun bossing us around
- we got back pretty late and soon meg and I were off to my first tapa!! We went with Kayla and got to meet her friends as well. I tried lots of typical Spanish foods (tortilla is still my favorite) and had my favorite drink called tinto verano!
- meg and I were exhausted as we fell asleep in Candelas room shed given up for us
Day 9:
- I woke up a bit late, Meg had seen Candela off to school in the cutest little outfit for some Spanish holiday, but quickly got ready for a day of exploring Alcala some more!
- we met up with a Spanish friend o Meg's and Kayla joined us as well as we walked all around and saw the cute plazas, got some famous almonds from this cloistered nun place, and saw Meg's school as well, and lots of storks!
- we came back for another YUMMY lunch made by Lola!
- siesta time was in full swing after this huge lunch and we relaxed until it was time to go out for tapas again (this was or dinner)
- we went to a new tapa place, soooo good, and waited for Megs Spanish friends to be ready. We didn't meet up with them until 1am!! These darn Spaniards!
- I was so exhausted but once we were with the Spanish I was revived! I communicated with my mangled Spanish Italian and had a good night! We went to a new bar place and it was just really fun being surrounds by all Spaniards!
Day 10:
- today was a holiday in Spain and it was exactly like fiesta in SB!! I couldn't believe it! It did make me miss home a bit, though.
- we walked around with Lola and Candela and even watched a bit of a an outside mass going on. Everyone was wearing fiesta dresses!
- Lola took us to this nice hotel to look at their rooftop garden (Justin bieber once stayed there!)
- we has yet another amazing lunch followed by an even yummiest banana and chocolate cake Lola had made! Soooooo good!!
- after resting a bit we went with Lola to watch her play paddle again. Another fun time, but the game lasted hours! I got to meet megs other sister Manuela though and I was so glad for that!
- we got back at 9pm (it was still light out!) and meg and I bolted off to get our nightly tapa fix :)
- another great round of tapas!! We got back and slept like babies.
Day 11:
- meg and I went into Madrid this day! It was great to see this city again without the horrible rain like last time!
- we had yummy cookies, meg got her picture taken for wearing sandals (ha!), we went into the insanely crowded Sunday market (il rastro), got into the Reina Sofia for free, got lost, saw an INCREDIBLE flamenco show as we ate an INCREDIBLE Spanish lunch with sangria, of course, and finished the day rowing cute boats in Parque de Buen Retiro. So fun!
- got home, printed tickets, did lots of research, talked to Katie, and then slept for a couple hours!
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