March 21

This morning was an early one.  We were up at 5:00 to make sure we had  
time to shower, pack up, and eat breakfast in the executive lounge.   
We scarfed down breakfast pretty quickly. It was probably one of the  
best breakfasts we've had our whole trip.  After breakfast it was time  
to head to the airport.  We got there and I got to check in with  
business class bc I got upgraded.  I had to pay and use miles but it  
was worth it to me.  My back has been hurting for the past 4 or 5 days  
so it was nice to be comfortable.  Going through security was a  
breeze.  One thing I noticed in Zurich at the airport was that they  
asked those security questions like they used to ask a long long time  
ago at airports.  You know, the ones where they are almost making you  
feel guilty and want you to confess that you've done something wrong  
except that you haven't done anything wrong.  Moving on, we didn't  
have to wait too long for boarding.  I went with the first group and  
found my seat.  It was so roomy!  I had my own personal tv that played  
movies and tv shows and did other stuff too.  As much as I wanted to  
sleep, I wanted to stay up to enjoy the business class amenities.  So  
I really only slept for about 2 hours.  They fed us really well.  Our  
lunch was 5 courses if you include the warm nuts and the ice cream  
sundaes for desert.  They our snack was more like a light lunch.  It  
was just really nice.  My overseas traveling may never be the same.  I  
have been spoiled and I might always want to be spoiled now.  I was  
able to lay my seat almost completely flat.  It was really weird  
though when I pushed the flat button bc my chair started lifting up  
and I was a little freaked out.  But really it just needed to do some  
moving around before it could lay flat.  Oh and the blankets weren't  
the rinky dink ones that you get in coach.  They were decently thick.   
After the flight customs was easy.  They never asked me any  
questions.  They just asked me where I went and what I did.  I told  
him I was a kinder teacher and he said, "oh you teach them when they  
are still innocent.". After customs we had to go back through  
security.  They searchedmy bag probably bc I forgot to put my burts  
bees hand lotion from business class in my quart sized bag.  Oh well.   
The others wanted some food but I was so stuffed I couldn't eat so I  
just watched.  Then we waited for our planes which were all around the  
same time.  Which brings me to right now.  I'm on the plane.  The  
flight was supposed to leave at 4:20 but then delayed to 4:40.  I'm  
not really sure when we actually took off but it was most certainly  
delayed.  They are playing chronicles of narnia.  I watched some but  
I'm tired of watching the rest.  I bought a few magazines so I'll  
probably read those.

Overall our trip was definitely a trip of a lifetime.  I enjoyed it  
all.  Once again there are things I should not have taken but not much  
less.  I'm so glad I got the chance to go.

March 20

Our train left at 7:10 in the morning so we had to be up pretty early  
to make sure we didn't miss the train.  We took a cab to the train  
station bc we didn't want to try to figure out the trains.  When we  
got in the cab the meter already said 9.40.  He had already started  
the meter bc he said he was waiting for us.  Well we only gave him 15  
euros bc that's all he deserved.  He had overcharged us.  Good thing  
we didn't understand him.  He gave up and just left.  The train ride  
was amazing!  It was absolutley beautiful.  The alps are so pretty.   
Our train ride was quiet.  It was pretty empty. We started the trip  
with breakfast we bought the night before.  The ride was about 3 hours  
45 minutes long.  When we got to Zurich it was really cold.  We  
attempted to find the restroom.  Of course it cost money do we had to  
get Swiss francs(I think that's what they use.  Well after we got our  
money we realized they wouldn't take our money bc our bills were too  
big.  So we got a taxi and headed for the hotel.  It was so expensive  
to take a taxi.  It cost about 50 dollars and we were in the taxi  
about 20 minutes.  After check in (once again a beautiful hotel,  
thanks to Elise) we headed towards downtown.  Unfortunately most  
things were closed.  We did go to a really tasty fondu place.  It was  
expensive (I'm not surprised) but it was delicious). We didn't do much  
but walk around.  Beka walked up more stairs to get a good view of  
Zurich.  The city is so clean and it was pretty too.  Basically since  
everything was closed we went back and relaxed.  We packed up and  
hopefully packed our wine good enough to not break.  We were in bed  
early and ready for our flight home the next morning.

March 19

This morning we got up around 8 and got ready.  We packed our things and went down for one last meal in vernazza.  We still had Internet time to use up too so we used that while eating breakfast.  Our train left around 10:30.  We had one train change in monterroso and then we got on our direct train to Milan.  When we first got on, we were the only ones in our little room so we decided to spread out.  Then along comes a lady who is assigned to the seat I'm in....really, can't she pick another seat?!?!  I was comfortable.  So I moved and then I was facing backwards which can me me sick on some days. So I moved to face forwards next to the lady.  Of course about 30 minutes later a man gets on and I'm in his seat again.....I had to settle for the seat I was assigned, facing backwards.  Once in Milan we took the short way to the hotel which really means taxicab.  We checked in and got some rockin awesome rooms thanks to Elise.  Only downfall....no airconditioning....boo!  We even got access to the executive lounge and free wifi which was referred to as weefee by the hotel guy.  So after our check in we ventured out to do some shopping.  We ate a nice tasty dinner followed by gelato.  We ended up going back soon after because it started storming.  We made a quick stop at the local supermarket to get some breakfast for our morning train ride to Zurich.  We left with cheese, croissants, muffins, fruit, chocolate and olive bread.  We went back to relax a bit and rest up for our exciting train ride through the alps.  It's an early train ride but it should be beautiful!  

March 18

Slept in til 8:30

Ate breakfast at blue marlin

Massage in the Italian riviera....amazing!

Chill time.

More cheese foccacia bread

Internet time

Lunch....lasagna with pesto followed by gelato (chocolate and hazelnut....tasted like nutella....yummmmmmmm)

Train to Rioggamiore

Walked the only path open in cinque terre....via del amore.  

Saw some beautiful sights!

Sat by water in Manarola and enjoyed a bottle of prosecco.  

Caught train back to Vernazza and met a lady from Minnesota.  

Came back to the room for a bit to recharge.

More Internet time. 

Dinner....3 pizzas to be shared by the 3 of us.....one pizza had salmon on it...different but tasty.  

Back for a bit more of Internet in the freezing cold weather.

Back to the room for some cinque terre wine and chocolate....yum!

Hanging and chilling to rest up fir our morning trip to Milan.  Train leaves at 10:20ish.  

***My back is really sore today.  The massage I got helped at the time but now it's not feeling to good.  I'm hoping for a business class upgrade on our plane ride home using miles and money of course (so glad I've been saving airmiles).  Crossing fingers.

March 17

*We slept in and packed up.  We ate breakfast at B&B.  

*Took long route to bus stop with luggage and wine in tow.

*Went via bus to train station.  

*Bought tickets to vernazza.  

*Went to train station mall in search of wifi.  Tried to communicate with lady to find wifi but she was trying to figure out if we wanted a phone or computer.  

*Took train to vernazza.  Stopped and switched trains in empoli, Pisa, monterroso and then made it to vernazza.

*In Empoli the pickpocket ladies with the babies were in plain view.  They come in groups of 4 or 5.  At least one has a baby with a blanket covering the baby and her arms.  They try to pick pocket. We are smarter than that and don't have anything in view or easily accessible that they might even remotely be able to take.  

*We had several close calls with switching trains and difficulty with putting luggage on racks but we got it.

*When we arrived in vernazza we called our host of our place we are staying.  The ladys husband came to meet us at the train station.  He carried Beka and Elises luggage up a little walkway and several flights of stairs.  Our room is above the Blue Marlin Bar.  

*After we put our things down we explored.  It's beautiful and very different from our last stops.  We could walk the whole main road in probably 10 minutes or less.  

*We purchased some Internet time and got wifi.  

*We had a nice tasty pizza snack that rocked.  The olive bread was so good!  

*We ate dinner later after doing a load of laundry.  We ate sea bass and pesto but not together.  

*We came back early to get to bed early and lights are out before 10:30. 

*Tomorrow we are all getting massages at the local (only) spa.  Hour long massage for €50.  

*We heard the paths are closed bc of mudslides so we can't hike the whole way so we will probably take the train from town to town after our massages.   

March 16

Train to Florence after breakfast
Get off at wrong train stop in bad part of town.  Find taxi stand and take taxi to the duomo.

Eat pizza with mushrooms and ham

Went in duomo

Walked up bell tower 414 steps

Took pictures after catching breath

Walked back down 

Legs shaking when finished

Stopped for pastry and water

Found paper shop

Found ferragamo in the rain.  

Taxi to bus station

Took bus to Siena...very bumpy and uncomfortable.  Paid 60 cents before bus ride to go to restroom.  They gave me tissues. 

Ate dinner in siena when we arrived.  

Found wifi outside restaurant and stood outside for 20 min after dinner to check email.  

Started walking to taxi stand but walked the wrong way so we walked back to bandb.  It was about 3 miles but it was beautiful and we walked off our food we ate yesterday.  

Went to bed early.  

Today we took a train to Siena after checking out of the hotel.  Train rush hour wasnt too bad.  We made  a stop in chiusi or something like that. We finally got to Siena but somehow ended on the wrong bus  or the one that was supposed to take us to our b&b.  It was supposed to be 100 kilometers after we got off the city bus.  But bc it was the wrong bus we were much farther than that so we had to walk.  That was when my backpack came in handy.  After checking in, we went back to the town for our class.  We went into the city for our Tuscan wine class and totally loved it.  We all bought wine.  There were some girls in the class with us.  Well mostly girls.  There was one guy who acted girly and fit right in.  At the end a few of them told us a good place to eat so we walked and found it.  We ordered all our food to share.  After dinner we had dessert.  We started with 1 tiramisu and immediately ordered a second bc it was so good.  Then our waiter brought us a third one just because he wanted to.  After dinner we decided to get a taxi to go back to our b & b.  We went into a pizza store and they called us one.  The taxi got there almost immediatleu.  Once we were in the car for about 4 minutes of so, Elise realized she left her wine at the pizza store so we went back for it.  It didn't take to long.  After we got back it was late so we went to bed.  Goodnight :) 

Today was a better day weather wise. It didn't rain for starters and it also wasn't as cold. We started off by taking the hotel shuttle to the Vatican for our private tour. Last night we thought we had found the right place that we were supposed to be to meet our guide Peppe. Well we realized today when we saw the LONG line to get into the Vatican that we had found the back yesterday when we needed to find the front. We easily found our meeting spot though with about 10 minutes to spare for cappucino and a sandwhich....a pastry wasn't gonna cut it this morning. We were HUNGRY! So we found our guide.....Peppe who is also known as bob. Ok so apparently my CC would never go through so we were paying a higher price for tickets. Only instead of the higher price, Peppe snuck us into the line to buy tickets. No one said anything probably bc he was a guide and they just figured it was ok. The tour was pretty good.....it was an overload of information. I'm so glad we did the tour bc afterwards Peppe (also known as Giseppe) recommended a restaurant for us that we ended up going to. It was some of the best trueitalian food. We didn't know what to order so we told tgem to bring us anything. They brought us tons of stuff....fresh mozerella, prosciutto, pizza, gnocchi, carbonara, tiramisu, chocolate cake, lemon cake, espresso, and wine. It was amazing! After this we wandered back and decided to catch a train. Then a bus to the main train station. We got our tickets for our trip to Siena in the morning which is where we willbe for the next two days. I'm not sure if I'll have Internet access the next 4 days. After Siena and Florence we head to Cinque Terra where we will spend some time relaxing. Hopefully I can update before Milan but if I don't I'll try to keep tabs on all we do. We are exhausted so it's going to be a relaxing evening getting ready for our morning of travel and wine school tomorrow afternoon.

Rome In A Day

We had a pretty good day, mostly in the rain. It was cold but we are in Rome so we won't complain. We did so much that we couldn't possible fit anything else into our day. We started our day figuring out how to take the train from our hotel to the city. We decided to buy a Roma pass bc it includes city transit for 3 dats and entrance to two museums. We went to the colliseum. We joined a tour there for a decent price. That included a free palatine hill tour which wasnt bad. It rained most of the time. Oh yeah, I forgot breakfast. We had croissants and cappacinos AND pizza. It was delicious! Lunch was ok. I wouldn't recommend it so we won't talk about it. After our tours we decided to go look for trevi fountain. We finally found it and threw in coins, so I guess I'll be going to Rome again....who's going with me??? Pantheon was next but instead we found a different building. Don't even know the name. Then after we found the real Pantheon we needed a snack. We stopped for wine and pizza. It was so good! Much better than dominos, haha! We finally found the Spanish steps after our snack. It was pretty cool. If you don't want to walk the steps to the top, you can ride the elevator. Then we decided it was time for dinner. On our way to dinner we stopped for some cheese to enjoy with our Italian wine that we bought yesterday. We finally found a nice quietplace for dinner and I had amazing ravioli. Oh and I can't forget our visit to some castle. Let me backtrack. Yesterday we took the shuttle to the city center from ourhotel. Well when we got off we wanted to remember where we were going to have to catch our return shuttle. Yesterday our first time in the center of Rome, we started walking the way we thought we were supposed to but one of the girls said "oh we don't need to go down there, that's just some castle.". Well we realized today that the "some castle" was actually the Vatican. It was pretty to see from the outside at night. Before taking the train back to our hotel, we stopped for gelato. It was SO GOOD!!! So now we are hanging in the room relaxing. We are exhausted! It's been a long but happy day!

Someone asked if I had a blog that you could follow so I decided to quickly create one so that I could blog about some of my experiences in Italy. We landed around 2:30pm but had to wait about 30 minutes for our bags. We were planning on taking the train to our hotel but we were approached by a company that said they would take us directly to the hotel for only a little more than we paid. So, we were exhausted and decided to go ahead and take the shuttle. Our rooms are nice....thanks elise and both have balconies overlooking st peters basilica. After we settled in, we took the shuttle into the center of Rome. We wandered around before deciding to get a cab to eat at Mimi e coco. The search was totally worth it. The food was unbelievable and the tiramisu was so much better here than in America. We are back in out hotelnow with free wifi...thanks Elise (again). We are planning a busy day tomorrow. We are exhausted now so I think we will be planning that day in the morning. Until next time.....