How many mosquitos can bite 2 people?

A LOT!! Especially in a tiny room located approximately 100meters from a river in which you forget to close the windows. And I have also learned that mosquitos in Italy make gigantic mosquito bites that itch for at least 5 days. And they multiply in your room overnight even when the windows are closed. We started out with 1 mosquito clinging to the 12-ft high ceiling. By morning we killed 6 and there were at least 7 more on the ceiling.

By the way, this is in the wonderful city of Firenze (Florence). It is actually quite beautiful and extremely walkable. Kelly and I circled almost everything on our map once again. We ARE efficient. Why go this way when that will go past 3 things on the map? We saw the Duomo, the Uffizi, the Ponte Vecchio, and the Galleria Academia. We also went to the national Italian Football Museum and got to see the Italian National Soccer team at practice. It was neat.

Interesting note about the Ponte Vecchio: It is the only bridge that wasn't bombed during WWII because Hitler really liked it. So it looks as it has for centuries. It used to have the butcher shops on it, until one of the Medici family decided it would be nicer to have the jewelry shops there. So now there's a lot of shiny things to look at that I can't afford.

What I could afford is the best steak ever!! Kelly and I decided to splurge one night and get Bistecca Fiorentina, which is the steak that Florence is known for. We found a little restaurant and started out with ordering a pasta (mac and cheese like never before - yum!) and some wine. We also ordered the steak with a lettuce salad.

Ten Tidbits of Tuscanià

1. It is located in the area of Tuscana (Tuscany), which is actually in the province of Laziò.
2. It is 150 years older than Roma, and was founded by the Etruscans.
3. It has a lot of tombs that are rather cave-like.
4. You can get excellent banana gelato at the Gelaterria to the left of the main gate in the old city wall. Mmmm!
5. There is a tiny school there at which you can take classes in cooking and wine. Think I might be back for that.
6. They have a basketball team for 14 and under. It has 8 players.
7. There is a Basilica on each end of town. San Pietro and Santa Maria. I think that a Basilica just means that the Bishop preaches there.
8. You can drink the water straight out of the fountains in the piazzas.
9. There are some streets that are narrow and end in stairs, so one must beep one's horn alot whilst backing down the street to the intersection. And don't open the car door, you'll hit a wall!
10. There are exactly 2 possible places in which one can get pizza (or actually any kind of food for that matter) between the hours of 2:00pm and 7:00pm. Neither is easy to find.

Italian, Who's Italian?

So, I should've kept my internet when I had it. I've been able to log on to check on a flight for about 5min, and that's all. No internet. Not anywhere that I was. So, in the travelling bit, we finished seeing Roma on day 2. And, got really lucky in finding the Engineering University in Roma (even while we were trying to find a church), and got to talk to some other students. Rather interesting to hear a different perspective on all kinds of things.

Kelly and I went back to try and find our friendly waiter for dinner - no luck. Instead we wandered into a little tiny street, that in the US may qualify as an alley, we found a tiny restaurant. We discovered when we paid our bill that: a. no one realized we weren't Italian and b. that we were the only ones in the restaurant that spoke English. But we got one of the best meals we had on the entire trip! During our meal, which we ate in the tables on the "street", several cars went sloooowly down the street. At one point, a car was a bit too wide, so the waiter came out, picked up our table (with dishes and all) and moved it a bit closer to the wall. We just moved our chairs along with it, and off went the car. Made for a rather interesting conversation in Italian. Luckily for us, based on our experiences the day before, we had no trouble finding a bus and getting back to the hotel.

Next stop: the tiny city (8,000 persons) of Tuscanià, which is located in Tuscana (Tuscany) as I have now explained to several Italians who've never heard of it.

Roma, Roma...Monuments galore!!

After the adventures in the airport, we still all had to be up by 7am to head out for the first tour of the day. Started out at the Vatican Museum, where I learned that Romans made their statues realistic and with closed mouths, and Greeks' were perfect with open mouths. Hmm, not so sure I'll use that tidbit again, but who knows when I'll need to explain something about ancient statues. Additional learning: pinecones are the symbol of health and fertility, so there is an entire piazza dedicated to one within the museum. Another hmmm...

Then I got to see stadiums modern (Stadio Olympico 1960, 1990) and ancient (Colosseum & Circus Maximus). The main thing I remember about this part was that it was HOT!! and no shade at all - I think it was in the upper 90s and humid. Not my favorite type of weather for touring. Oh well, I took lots of pictures so that I can remember more details later. Next was Italian class where we learned all kinds of useful words to order food. Not exactly what I ended up needing to know, but more on that in a little bit.

All this walking should've given me an idea of what lie ahead later on that night. After class, Kelly, my roommate, and I started out to see some of the monuments on our map. We'd been told that the Metro stopped running at 10pm, and our hotel, as we discovered a short while later, was at the next to last stop and wasn't even on the map!! We started out ok, and found a few things, the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, and the Governor's house. Then we accidentally found a really neat church, and wandered our way to dinner. After dinner we decided to get gelato, and met one of the waiters who apparently had learned his English from a teacher from Hibbing, MN - rather crazy to hear that. He invited us back the next night for dinner, and gave us the bus numbers to get there. We decided to try and catch the Metro back while wandering past the Spanish Steps. At 9:35, being good girls, we went to the Metro only to find out it was closed. At least we knew the bus numbers from our friendly Italian waiter!

Now what to do? Saw a police car parked, so decided to ask for directions to a busstop. "No informazione!" Now we started to wander in search of a busstop. Here are the monuments we went past on the way to dinner:San Carlo Quattro Fontane
Quirinale (President's House)
Fontana di Trevi
Tempio Adriano
Pantheon
St. Ignazio di Loyola
Tempio Adriano
Pantheon
Palazzo Madama
Piazza Navona

Here is what we went past whilst finding finding a busstop that had a bus that went past it:
Palazzo Madama
Pantheon
Palazzo Montecitorio
Palazza Chigi
Piazza Colonna
up the Largo Chigi Via del Tritone (a loooong ways)
up Via Nazareno
Trinità del Monti (Spanish Steps, asked another policeman - same answer)
back to Largo Chigi (waited 45 min for a bus that never came)
down Largo Chigi
Piazza Colonna
Palazza Chigi
Palazzo Montecitorio (asked again for directions, no luck as we didn't learn those yet)
Tempio Adriano
Pantheon (time #4 past this, getting to be very familiar)
Chiesa dei Gesù
Palazzo Venezia
#46 bus!!
Finally at 12:00am we got on a bus, that we knew went at least to our area, but not where our stop was. So much for trying to get back early!!

P.S. After deciding to circle what we passed on our map, we'd covered almost the entire eastern half of the central city!

On the way...

Or so I thought. For once I was not the last one to the airport. One of our group got his passport at 12:30pm on the day that we left. The flight left at 3:20. Just glad it wasn't me. We got into Amsterdam early for once, which later turned out not to be the best idea. We unloaded the plane, got thru customs with the greatest of ease, and then found out...apparently all flights into the entire country of Italy were cancelled. The air traffic controllers were on strike. Of course they were. What else could be expected? After all, this is a trip that I'm on. So 12.5 hours later, I got on a plane, luckily direct to Rome. Others were not so lucky. In total it took 3 flights, 1 thru Paris, to get all 13 of us into Rome and to the hotel. The last ones arrived about 2am and without some luggage. Oof.

But we all arrived, and the hotel is quite nice. Lucky for me, the taxi driver was very friendly and showed me the bus station and the closest subway stop. That turned out to be extremely fortituous later.

And so it begins...

For reasons, still unbeknownst to me, my life is continually surprising and full of adventure. Sometimes wanted, sometimes not; but always making for good tales to tell. Mainly these adventures happen when I am travelling. Sometimes near, sometimes far, but always there is an adventure. And so I came to a decision that it may be a good idea to document such things.

Maybe this will give me an insight as to why such adventures happen to me; as it seems that I am a catalyst, the piece of the puzzle that brings it all together. Not that I mind. Well, at least most of the time I don't mind. I just hope that I can hang on until it all finishes, as one never knows what will happen and when.

And so here I am, within one week of departing on the next adventure. Although, I haven't even left yet and already things have started to occur. My travel partner realized that her passport was expired and is anxiously awaiting its return. I know when I leave, but have not even really thought about packing. And, I've just realized that I'll have to find myself lodging for a night in a country in which I do not even come close to speaking the language. Ah, yes, the adventures begin anew.