Things that I've learned so far about Italy..

1. You must be making a ton of money to live here. Even the poorest towns have ridiculous prices.

2. Saying, "I'm American!," to anyone isn't really that effective.

3. Italians love charging Americans more than any other nationality. (i.e Paying 3 Euro for a bottle of water makes you feel better about paying $2.50 for the same thing at an American movie theater.)

4. Venice does not smell as bad as many people will say.

5. but Deodorant means nothing here. Sometimes showers, too.

6. Manual cars rule in Italy and people cringe over using the brakes.

7. There is a very good reason as to why the red traffic light is 3x larger than the yellow and green.

8. The amount of puppies exceed the amount of children and I really like that.

9. Italians love American music. They know all the words. My favorites that I've heard so far are:

-"Mmmm," Crash Test Dummies

-"Crazy," Seal

-"I Can't Dance," Genesis

-"Toxic," Britney Spears

-"She Bangs," Ricky Martin

10. They really love to clean as early as possible in this hotel, even if it is just to make the bed and give you extra towels.

11. The bread really isn't too bad, unless its stale.

12. I really love Angus fillet.

13. Flies love Fructis hair products, not just cheese and vegetables.

14. The concept of my name having a "ph" instead of an "f" is baffling to people. I also find that I have this same problem in America and I can't quite figure it out yet.

15. In order to blend in as a local, keeping a cigarette handy is the key.

Oh, I'm sure there are more...check back.

Day 12-Where's the chocolate in the middle?

Another day of waking up and opening the window to a river and beauty. I am so sad that we have to leave. One more morning of breakfast and we'll be ready to go. Since I loved the mini jellies so much, I decided to sneak some into my purse to enjoy in America. (I cannot wait for that!)

We pack up our bags and venture over to the train station. Bye, bye Venice and hello, Milano (like the cookie!).

It is about a 2 hour train ride to Milan, which went by pretty quickly. We had almost a whole car to ourselves and the train, once again, was super nice.

We get to Milan and I really only wanted to see one thing. DOMUS! Tim and I decide to take a cab ride there, since we really don't know how far of a walk it would be. We get there and wow, the square is huge with another statue in the middle and, of course, a HUGE church. Funny enough, there was also a Milan Triathalon going on. We also walk into the Vittorio Emannuelle II Galleria. The structure is also large and has many shops in there that I couldn't afford to even step foot in. (i.e Prada, Louis Vutton, etc.) We walk around a little more before deciding to just head back to Savigliano. I knew we weren't going to stay there long considering neither Tim not I are in a high fashion state of mind.

We get a taxi ride back to the train station, another structure that looks more like a castle than a train station. We get in line to get our train tickets and ewwww. Someone smells overly bad. Like I wish I was wearing a face mask kind of bad. Oh foreshadowing, I dislike you...

We have to take two trains: Milan to Turin and Turin to Savigliano. The first train, it was kinda gross to begin with and the guy in the seats across the row from us had his shoes off. Another guy sits near him and every time he opens his mouth to yawn, I get the urge to vomit.

Just about an hour and a half later, we arrive in Turin. We get in line and although more people smell, I get distracted by all the cute puppies and dogs in my eye range. In Italy, for the most part, people supplement children for dogs. This is an idea I would love to try :o)

We get on the next train and what? Where did these kids come from? Why are their mothers letting them be SOOOO loud? Luckily, the kids weren't smelly or that would put this thing a little over the top.

We get to Savigliano and about 15 minutes after we arrived, Lilliana and Christina are there to pick us up. They drop us off at the hotel and make plans to meet with us for dinner. After waiting for their phone call for about 2 hours, we are sooooo hungry. We call them up instead and ask if we could eat now before our stomachs cave in.

Oh this lovely restaurant, with basically the same menu every night...I decide to get the tuna this time. It was reeeeeally good. And it went well with good conversation.

After to dinner, its time for this pleasant weekend to be over and for Tim to mentally start thinking about work for tomorrow. Back to the days by myself by the pool.

Day 11-I love me some Venice

I open my eyes and ahhh...I can't believe I'm still here. We shower and get ready for continental breakfast and start our day. We go into the dining hall, but no one is in there. Did we miss breakfast? :o( A few steps further and we see another beautiful garden by the Grand Canal with tables and umbrellas set up. This must be it!

The complimentary assortment of breads and jellies on the table, along with some croissant sandwiches and orange juice. The sandwiches were either stuffed with ham and cheese, chocolate or apple jelly. It was awesome! We also ordered espresso, a cheese omelette and an apple (we thought it was going to be cut up with oranges and pears, but it was a whole apple. I still ate it :o)) While we ate, we noticed a gang of pigeons staring at us while we ate. They bothered the other 4 tables that were there as well, waiting to get the chance to swoop in and eat the delicious bread and such. After being very satisfied and anxious to start the day, we left and watched the pigeons go crazy over at our table as we walked away.

In the room, we got ready to walk around and explore the awesomeness that is Venice. There were a few tours that sounded interesting, but most of them expected you to have your shoulders and knees covered for the church entries. It was waaaay too hot for me not to wear shorts. We decided to not get wrapped up in where we were going and to just walk around.

I knew that I definitely wanted to ride on a gondola, so we looked around for a place to let us reserve a spot for later. I had my heart on going around dusk, as the sun sets on the water and the street lights start to turn on. It was going to be super late, but I really didn't care, obviously. The first gondola place was saying 7:00pm was the perfect time, but I knew better. We reserved with them anyway. As we walked around some more, going through more narrow streets for shade, a park and more mini bridges connecting street to street, we come across another gondola place. They say 8:00pm is no problem and leave 20 euro to reserve your spot. The other place didn't do that, which was odd, but at least we didn't have a loyalty to them.

After making this reservation, we noticed that all over, there are directional signs for the Piazza San Marco. Tim and I decide to follow the signs to see what the hype was all about. On the way there, there are many hidden shops and eateries with A LOT of people everywhere. I've never heard more English spoken anywhere else in Italy. Not even Rome. We find another great bridge and a sign for a water taxi. Not knowing how far away we were from San Marco, we decide to take the water taxi. It costs 6.50 euro each and we make it on a boat. This was a good idea in order to see some of the buildings that you can only see by taking a water taxi. This place is still taking my breath away. We also met a couple on the taxi ride, where the guy was from New Jersey (with typical Hawaiian shirt intact). Very fun.

We get to San Marco and really didn't know what to expect. Another WOW factor, though, indeed. The Piazza was huge and the churches were big as well. The detail on the outside was unbelievable. We also see that there is apparently a concert that will be going on later that evening, starring Norah Jones. After taking in the sights of the piazza, we opt to start walking back to the hotel. The heat had us exhausted and a nice nap was almost necessary.

Instead of taking the taxi, we decide to walk and realized that we definitely could have walked and not taken a taxi ride. Oh well, but I don't regret it.

After achieving a great nap, we get ready for the gondola ride and for dinner afterwards. I had brought my heels on this trip thinking that this would be the perfect time to wear them, but ehh, whatever. Flip flops are fine.

We make it to the gondola ride and the sun is still up. Jeez, Sun, can't you make an exception this once and start to set right now?! Of course not. We get in the gondola and our "driver" is Stefano. As we introduce ourselves, he quickly catches the name similarity. Tim and I thought we were getting a ride on the Grand Canal, which would have been spectacular. And even though Stefano doesn't speak great English, it sounded like we were given a choice. Nope, sadly mistaken. Instead of the Grand Canal, we go through the "slums" of Venice. How romantic...

The tour included nice facts about the area and even some Stefano history, a born and raised Venician. Although, there was graffiti on a lot of the buildings and we almost crashed a couple of times, it was still extremely romantic and fun.

At the end of our ride, we take pictures and go on our merry way to dinner. We decide that since we didn't get the Grand Canal tour that we should at least eat by it. We get to a restaurant, whose name escapes me at the moment, and the waiter comes over asks us what we would like to drink and would we like to order and this and that and omg, slow down, we just got here! He leaves for us to decide and starts to sing a little tune as he walks away. Tim and I look at each other and are like, uhh, what jut happened? I ordered a Salmon Pasta dish and Tim ordered a Seafood Pasta dish. With that, we got a bottle of Chianti (obviously, not the right wine for fish, whooopsie!) and just enjoyed the view. We could see our hotel garden from where we were sitting.

After a wonderful dinner and bottle of wine, we go to a mini vendor to pick up some gelato. I automatically go for the one they called "Cookies" with a dancing cookie cartoon. Tim opts for mint and regular chocolate chip. Sooooo good!! We walked around the city some more hoping that this entire day would never end. Alas, we ventured back to our room to get some rest. We had another travel day ahead of us in the morning--onward to Milan!

*Birthday Shout Out: ROCHBEE! I hope you had a fabulous birthday!! <3

Day 10-Day on my own #3.5 & Travels to Venice

After a looooong day in Rome, I woke up a little later than usual, but not too late. Tim would be back early from work, so we can start our Venice travels ASAP.

Instead of going to the pool, I opt to just shower and mini pack and get myself ready to go. I also was thinking about possibly using my flat iron for the first time since I've been here. I knew that the conversion is a little different, considering when I use my blow dryer, my warm and low settings over here are now hot and high settings. Instead of putting it on #10 in heat, I put it on #5 and hope that it works out properly. After maybe 90 seconds of the flat iron being on, all of the sudden I hear a pop and a spark comes from the plug and everything shuts off. Oh man! I'm such an ass and I blew a fuse. I quickly unplugged everything and wrapped up the flat iron and quietly said obscenities to myself. I couldn't stop thinking that what if nothing in the hotel works now, because of me?!? Just another "stupid American" move.

I go out my door and it seems like everything is working, so that's good. I end up going to the front desk, since I would like to at least have the air on. My favorite receptionist is down there and confused by my panic. She is like "Ehh, no problem!" (She is the best!) And someone comes up to the room and presses one button and everything turns back on. Seriously, that was it? I could have done that. I thanked her for fixing my mistake.

Tim arrives and we get ready to leave. His co-workers, Lilliana and Christina, agree to drive us to the train station. They are very nice. Lilliana, when asked if it was okay (she was the driver) to even pick us up when we came back from Venice, she replied, "It's pleasure!" I knew what she meant, but it did sound pretty funny.

The train ride wasn't too bad. It was split up a few times. We went from Savigliano to Turin. We grab something to eat at McDonalds (of all places) and then we are back on a train to Bologna. Literally, we were only in Bologna for 15 minutes. We went outside to see what its all about, which probably isn't enough time to be in lunch meat land. At least we can say..."yes, we've been to Bologna!"

From Bologna to Venice, I'm on the edge of my seat. I am sooooo excited! I have heard of what a romantic and beautiful city it was and it was hard for me to not get my hopes up. Even the train to get there was pretty beautiful. We get off the train and reach the exit and....WOW! This place so far is everything I could imagine. It's about 11:00pm and the lights are glistening on the water. There's so many people walking and enjoying the atmosphere. The gondolas are floating in the Grand Canal. I am so thrown back by how friggin pretty this place is. We walked over a porcelain type bridge and circled a couple of corners to reach our hotel. It is a high brick wall blocking the entry and when you enter, it is a blooming garden with a walkway leading to the glass front doors. We enter into the pristine marble lobby and check in. They showed us to our room which was just steps from the front desk and opened the door. Another WOW! this place is beyond any expectation I had. I will post up pictures later, but here is basically what it looks like according to the site.

After trying to get over the awesomeness that just happened, we showered (after riding on trains, you get gross) and fell asleep. We couldn't wait to explore in the morning.

Day 9-Day on my own #4 (ROMA)

I woke up at the butt crack of dawn and got ready to go to Rome via airplane. I also woke up to the surprise that I had an incredibly horrible sore throat. Foreshadowing? Not sure, but I got in our taxi driver's car (his name is Carlo and he doesn't speak much English, which makes for a very quiet car ride). He drops me off and I know that I'm about 90 min. early, which is perfect for flight. What a surprise, the flight is delayed for almost an hour. Not a big deal since I don't have a definite plan yet.

The flight was great. I slept for a bit and the landing was one of the smoothest landings I've ever been a part of. I land and the first thing I look for are maps. 18 EURO?! no thanks. So I get into a cab and tell him "Colosseum, por favore." I might as well had told him pronto, because he was going super fast. A couple of times I almost thought that we are definitely getting into an accident.

We make it to the destination and there are sooooo many people. And its soooo hot. I really don't care what anyone says, but Rome is probably one of the hottest cities on the planet. It may say 90+ degrees on weather. com, but it felt like I was going to die. As I'm walking around, I get approached for a tour, which of course I get sceptic about, but I joined it anyway. It was actually a really good tour that lasted about an hour or so about the history of the Colosseum and such. I learned a lot and I would recommend it if anyone goes there.

At the end of the tour, she says we are free to walk around and the second part of the tour is at 3:00pm. OMG another 2-3 hours to wait in the heat? My mind is finding it hard to fathom sitting out here for that long, but I attempted, because I wanted to get what I could while I was here. I walk around and sit down and put my head between my legs appx. every 10 minutes. After about an hour and a half of doing this while simultaneously taking pictures (I came out with some pretty good ones), I decided I need to exit. I needed water so badly. All I had for the past 6 hours was a mini eclair ball, a biscotti and a mini bottle of water. I got a frozen bottle of water and was doing the same thing of standing up and squatting down. At some point when I was squatting, I smelled something really horrible. I ignored it for a bit, but at some point I was questioning why it smelled so bad. I look to my left and there was actually poop. Must have been a kid or something who did it behind this huge rock I was using for balance. How nice.

Other groups are being called and I'm still waiting. It was getting close to 3 and I don't see anyone from my group. I don't think I can wait any longer, so I begin to just walk around and take more pictures of things and think about what moves I'm going to make. I see a bunch of bus stop signs to signify tours. One of them I actually looked into trying to get on before, but I didn't know where they meet up. A guy that was standing there sold me a ticket and it was very much worth it. Although I did not get off the bus after that, I saw a lot of things. Everything that I wanted to see. I was even able to see Vatican City from this bus and get some side notes at the same time. It was pretty cool. Another thing I would recommend to anyone taking a trip to Rome, use the City Sightseeing Rome bus, its cool looking and stops at the most places.

The last stop was the Romani termini, where I'm thinking about getting a cab back to the Aeroporti de Roma. OR I'm thinking, like there is in one in most American cities, maybe theres a train that goes to the Airport. I also went in to see if I can find something to eat and drink, as well as go to the bathroom. I head to the toilettes and what? .80 Euro to get into the bathroom? Wow, no wonder this place has feces all over...no one wants to pay to get to the bathroom.

I found a mini market right next to it where I got an apple and a Cola Zero. I know you are thinking, "Steph, why didn't you get something bigger for lunch?" Well, I saw a girl eating an apple at the Colosseum and I knew that that was allllllll that I wanted. Yum!

Okay, back to figuring out if I can get to the airport from the train station. I looked around for polizia, which I saw plenty of before hand, I could not find one now. With 15 minutes left for train time, I get desperate and find someone in a uniform, who does not speak good English, but does tell me that I should get on the train. I look to see that its on track 28 and I walk towards it. The tracks that are in front are 1-25 and tracks 26-29 are about a half a mile down the length of the first tracks. Well, this sucks. I start to hustle and then realize I'm not going to make it. I am also not going back to get a ticket from an actual person, when I can get one a machine thats right there. Of course, it is all in Italian, but I took what I learned and applied it. I started to do what I thought was right. All the buttons I was pressing makes sense, but it was coming up that the ticket couldn't be printed. AHHH! Ok, no problem. I can pay on the train.

I get on the train and I'm disgusting. I was sweaty and smelly and exhausted from being in Rome. I really just wanted to get back to Savigliano, to a nice bed, to a nice Timmy, to a nice sleep.

The ticket collector gets to me and I tell her, "How much?" And she has the balls to say, "Oh its an extra 50 EURO, so thats 64 EURO, please." This girl is out of her mind. 64 EURO?! And I thought this was going to save me money. NO ONE do what I did. Always get your tickets. I really regret that now.

I make it to the airport (YAY!) and I kind of wish that I didn't have to hang out with myself for another few hours, since I smelled sooooo bad. Yuck! I'm looking up my Terminal, but I forget exactly what time I should be leaving and there are a few for Torino that I could be taking. I take a chance and go towards Terminal 1. Good thing I got something right...I get my ticket and find something to eat. There wasn't a lot to choose from, but I got a Cheese Sandwich with tomatoes and lettuce that actually was pretty good. After I ate I headed towards my gate.

The gate said I was at B5, so I got a seat and waited. Maybe after an hour of waiting, a whole family (about 10 people) came to the same gate and sat right next to me being so loud that I could barely focus on my brick breaker game (how rude :op) I get up and walked around, checked my gate again (still B5) and sat back down in a different seat. People leave for Amsterdam...and then Milan. Oooh, I'm next :o). Why are the gate attendants leaving? What is happening? I saw that there were a few people waiting, but I wanted to check again the flight status. B17?! Why was no one told. I quickly try to find it and luckily everyone was waiting for a bus to take us to the plane. (Although Rome is technology forward at this airport, you still need a bus to take you to a plane...odd).

All 80 something of us get on this bus, which could have been mistaken for a clown car. No one should fill a bus with that many people. We get to the plane and I'm hoping I don't need to sit next to anyone and subject them to my smell. Luckily, I had a window seat and no one was sitting directly next to me. The guy who was on the aisle seat started talking to me in Italian. "Parli Inglese?" And then in English. It was nice to be able to talk to someone on the flight.

The flight was delayed about a half hour (how shocking) and when we landed, I was too excited. I saw Carlo and got more excited. The car ride, like usual, was quiet, but I didn't care. I was looking forward to showering and to bed time.

I made it back to the hotel :o) Tim was up waiting for me :o) The shower was awesome :o) And the sleep was awesome :o)

Tomorrow, VENICE!!!

*birthday shout-out to Mac Attack! Hope you had a wonderful birthday!

For YOUR Information

I have started to load pictures and I will also be posting up links to things, so you get a better sense of whats going on. Please check back periodically and see what I've done.

(Note: I only loaded up 3 pictures so far, but thats an achievement, right?)

Day 8-Day on my own #3

So, I did the same thing as yesterday BUT I can tell you that my plans for the rest of the time I am here are going to be busy! :o)
Tomorrow, I am flying to Rome and coming back at night to Savigliano. Apparently, flying is the best way to go since it will give me more time to see everything that I need to see. I am very excited for this trip and I will hopefully take plenty of photos to show you.
Friday and Saturday, Tim and I will be in Venice. We just booked the hotel, which looks awesome! I can't wait to get on a gondola.
On Sunday, when we leave Venice, we are going to stop in Milan. Another day of awesomeness!
Then either Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday (the last day), we will go have dinner at the Riveria. It isn't too far from here and Tim said it is beautiful.
This trip is really looking up :o)