part 2! with JANET! Cinque Terra and Lucca ITALIA!

We arrived in the Cinque Terra and it was BEAUTIFUL! The sun was out and the birds were chirping… ahhh it was wonderful! We got up kind of early and made our way to the train station to get on the earliest train to get to the hike. We knew that it was going to be busy so we wanted to get there first. Now micki and I have already done this once so we know exactly what to do… we all go pee and start our hike! Janet and D were in shock and awe the entire time, they couldn’t get over how beautiful it was and how lucky that micki and I have been living here for almost a year. As I hiked and looked at one of the most beautiful sceneries I have ever seen I kept thinking about my family back at home, thinking to myself, ‘I wish they were here, I wish they were here!!’ I wrote on the walk of love stride Carl and Gail forever in sharpie on the wall with the date ☺ even though they weren’t there their love would always be engraved on the walls of the most romantic place in the world! (your welcome) after hiking from town to town stopping in every shop while Janet and D wanted to buy everything we made it to the end and sat and had lunch over looking the water as we munched on our pizza and pasta. It was SO Italian. Then we caught our train back to our town. As we sat on the train I looked up at micki and said… ‘we need to write a book…!’ with all the adventures and CRAZY stories that we have I think that writing a book together would be a RIOT! Combining our blogs and adding more stories to it I think that it would be A HIT! Janet and D were talking about it the entire way back as our eyes got bigger and bigger and all I thought about was when I become rich and famous I will buy my parents a house on the beach and take care of them just like they have taken care of me… so from that day on micki and I have been talking about writing this book, and we are going to DO IT!
We get off the train and go wandering in our town window shopping and then we head back to the hotel. When I got back I stripped and hopped in the shower, I felt SOOO dirty and after I was done I felt so so clean! Micki and I rested for alittle bit while the moms did as well and then later that night we were given 2 really good restaurants that the hotel recommended to us so we all decided to get dressed and go out to a nice meal. When we found the first restaurant it was closed… cool, then we find the second one and it was closed too… what? A sign on the door in Italian that the restaurant had moved to another location for that night (awkward) and was only a 50 meter walk… so we walked up to this place and it was full! We sat down with this wonderful scenery and wait for our order to be taken. Now the menu was in Italian so micki and I tried to decode the best we could but the table next to us on both sides I think were laughing at us… then micki and I got all embarrassed and didn’t want to speak in Italian. It was a group of younger kids laughing at us.. and all I wanted to do was get up and punch them all in the face!! The moms kept saying ‘they just want to talk to you girls, they have been looking over here since we sat down.’ And like I said all I wanted to do was stand up and say… ‘listen… I tried to learn Italian in your country and everytime I try to use it all you people do is laugh at me and then speak in English, so you know what I’M OVER IT!’ we tried explaining to Janet and D that it was hard to speak Italian here because as soon as you try they answer you in english… they know that you speak English because of your accent so they ALWAYS want to practice their English even though all you want to do is practice your Italian, but they just don’t let you… its messed up. ANYWAYSS! Micki and I order this fish dish that had like every fish from the sea on it and we ate that up! The kids from the table next to us were laughing at us, which I was getting TICKED OFF so when they brought our food out the guy turned around and said “good choice, its really good!” and I looked at him and said ‘do you want a bite?’ he just answered no… but micki and I kicked up our sass, and basically told them to sit down and shut up! The rest of the night we ate a good dinner and enjoyed funny stories and good food. When we walked back to the hotel micki and I sat in the moms room and talked and had cookies and talked about their fun times smoking drinking and loving life when they were my age. Micki and I called it a night and went to bed. The next morning we made our way to Lucca which is near Florence, the driving this trip was a fun experience because micki and I don’t drive a stick shift and the entire time all we wanted to do is learn… but of course we never got around to it… maybe someday. We arrived in Lucca and it was SOOOOO COOL! It is an old medieval town with the original walls around the city that was a trip! There are only like 100 cars in the entire city and people everywhere. Micki and I thought it was sooo cool because it was so different than some of the cities in italy because its an isolated town… the wall made it so unique. When we got inside the wall our hotel was soooo cute! It had so much character! I loved it! After we put our stuff down we went out and explored… we saw the duomo and the main squares and looked at the open markets and shopped… duh… I bought a really cool blanket/ banner poster thing… hahah! But it had elephants on it so I had to get it! This town was sooo cute. The people the shops, ah it was so fun! On the way back to the hotel micki, Janet and I bought a bottle of wine and headed back to the hotel. We relaxed for a little bit and then decided to go to the Opera, Janet is a HUGE fan of the Opera and I have never been to one… so I was excited to see it. It was held in this little church with a couple seats and this man and women sang their hearts out! It was incredible! It was in Italian and it was SO romantic! Janet and I cuddled.
After the Opera we went to this CUTE restaurant just 200 meters from the church and had INCREDIBLE FOOD! Micki and I shared rabbit! (also a first time) I was in the mood to try something new. We were laughing about all these past stories and good life experiences and the people next to us told us to be quiet… whyyyy do people always tell micki and I to be quiet!!! Seriously everytime we go out to eat, we are constantly being told to lower our voices in restaurants… and its not even the fact that we are being loud… we are just enjoying our dinner and lauging, sorry that Europeans sit there and just eat and don’t engage of conversation, that’s why we get the stereotype of being loud Americans. I don’t care. Micki and I just stared at the two guys that were directly next to us and ignored it. HAHAH! I’m with my mom. Sorry… eat your soup. After dinner we went back to the hotel and passed out and woke up the next morning and headed back to Torino. We decided to call it ends because micki and I had a lot of school work and organizing for the week to come so the moms agreed and we headed back. When we got back the moms stayed at my apartment and we went to apretivo for the last time with them and headed back to the apartment. We all sat around and talked in my apartment and called it a night. The next day micki and I enjoyed a FANTASTIC lunch with Janet and D with this little whole in the wall place and it was SO good! Grandmas kitchen! Mmmm MMMMmmmm! Then we said our goodbyes and they left for the airport. Micki and I were sad, but we know that in a few months we will be home with our family and friends again.

☺ love forever!