Hotel Arte Parma

... Food, and Sleep. I meet a whole congregation of Gregs friends, all of whom had just as much English as I have Italian. We got by the formalities but just barely. <br>Friday night consisted of everyone going to a resturaunt and ordering whole pizzas to themselves. People here eat their pizza with a knife and fork! There is no such thing as a slice and sharing a pizza among friends. To each their own, and they devour it like a gourmet meal . And ...

... out in the gloomy weather. We went to Iseo Lake, which is about a half hour away from Dello. It was a quiet ride there, and then we parked and headed up a path towards the forest. It was a bizarre combination of vegetation and topography. The mountains are like Colorado mountains, but then there's the lake, and then upon closer inspection, the trees are so different from Colorado, they're thick and ferny, it felt more jungly than anything ...

... reggiano. I found a brochure for a place that was too far for us to reach unless we had a car so I asked if there was anything closer to town or in the town itself. We were sent a block and a half over to this place that would have been impossible to find. We walked in and there was no one around. Then we heard footsteps coming down the stairs and the guy who ran the place appeared. I asked him if now ...

... and did a little shopping. On our way out of Parma we stopped at an Ikea yippee! (Where I accidentally set off an alarm by going out of the wrong door). We spent the evening at the apartment and said goodbye to Lorelei and Arthur. As a side note not sure if I mentioned this earlier you might want to ask David how the womens restrooms are in Verona and Parma haha

... countryside. The drive took about 2 hours. We met our hosts Lorelei and Arthur at the Reggiolo exit. We followed them to their apartment (which is beautiful pictures to come later) where they cooked us a wonderful dinner of lamb chops, fresh Caesar salad and roasted potato's which we ate outside in their courtyard with some Italian wine. They also ...

For a nice little day trip, Zoe and I decided to go to one of the main cities in Emilia-Romagna (the province where our father hails from): Parma.<br><br>The city is reknowned for parmesan cheese and Parma ham, or as we call it, prosciutto.<br><br>If you like quaint churches and little shops, this place is great to visit!<br>

... river valley maybe 30 kilometers wide, a lot like the Willamette Valley but about twice as long, with rain during the growing season instead of all winter long. Parma offers a vivid contrast with Dalian where I take my American palate into a food store and get no response. Part of that vacancy is the fact I can't recognize much of what is eaten in China, but even the limited items that are intelligible have no attraction. In Parma, and ...

... beautiful confection of pink marble, an octagonal tower rising skyward that I heard an English child refer to as a castle. It does give that impression, indeed. Inside the baptistry is a beautifully painted dome, and several exquisite bas-reliefs crowning the doorways. I ...

... and I am 5 feet. Its also 65 pounds to my 110. I can barely get it up and down the train steps, or store it in the overhead rack. I had to figure out a way, and I did it. So, maybe I have a bruise on my hip from it, and maybe bridget had to help, since she is so much taller then me, adn the only one who could actually reach the rack. So, I guess adventure doesn't have to be all about craziness drunkiness or stupid and silly stories ...

June 10, 2002<br><br>Back on the bus! This time to Italy!! We went to Pisa (and had pizza for lunch!) We saw the tower, of course, and the church. Got to shop in the souvenir shops and sit for awhile in the sun. Very peaceful day. I can tell I'm getting tired, because the travel journal entries are shorter and shorter!<br> <br><br><br><br>We were in ...