Ramada Fiera Centro Congressi Verona

I can't believe I've been in Italy for over two months now! It feels like much, much longer. How can so much happen in such a short amount of time? So let's see...the week after Barcelona, we carved pumpkins. Usually Italians just eat the pumpkins, so to have a jack-o-lantern was a novel thing. I asked the boys if they would like to help gut the pumpkins, but they were too grossed out by the slimy-ness (sliminess?) so I did them myself. They took them to ...

... to Siena for a day trip and Jason nearly got arrested tryint to use a public toilet. I guess it costed 50 cents but he only had 3x20 cent coins and wasn't sure if the machine would take not exact change so jumped the turnstyle instead. Got screamed at and chased down by the italian bathroom police (a highly specialized elite force) so he put the money in and had the pee scared out of him (literally, as he ...

... walk quick as I did so, and he said something to me as I passed, but my heart was pounding so loud in my ears I didn't hear what it was. I practically ran back to the castle, but luckily, he didn't follow this time. Once I was on the right road my heartbeat went back to normal and I was able to enjoy the day again. I bought my ticket home and sat on a bench with Coldplay in my ears and the sun on my back and a thought hit me-who is this girl ...

... station which is where we had come in. We decided to find a cafe off the canal and have a coffee and sit down (there are few other places to actually sit). We had cappuccinos and 2 pieces of delicious chocolate cake and sat at a table, soaking up the sun. The bonus was that the cafe had a toilet for its customers, so we actually saved 6 Euro!! We had a reservation for a later train but decided to try and get an earlier ...

... painting in them were common. I’m not really into Italian art, but there were a couple of Bellini’s paintings which were a standout. The castle itself was impressive, including the bridge that crossed the river from the castle. After we left the castle, we searched for a kid’s playground that we read about, plus Tara wanted to go to the toilet so we thought there would be one there. When we found it, the playground was really suitable for small ...

It was still raining so we got a taxi to the train station as we were heading to Verona in Italy. A funny thing happened at the station- we were in the supermarket there when the security thing beeped as someone went out of the shop- we looked and it was a nun leaving the shop- the shoppers all were smiling. As the trained climbed across Brenner Pass, the rain had turn to snow but as we got into Italy the weather cleared ...

... owner. The photo place owner gave us the name of a shop and by the time we left Milano, I had a new camera... with manuals in Italian, Dutch, French and German! Not Spanish though. I managed to read the Italian one pretty well in the car, but I realised that both cameras were extremely similar (both Canons), and that the functions and manual hadn't changed much, so I was able to use the other camera's English manual. Keen to get back on the road as soon ...

This morning we met up with two groups in Amsterdam in route to Milan. Our third group was suppose to meet us in Milan but their flight was diverted to London (where 20,000 peices of luggage was lost over the weekend). That group arrived in the middle of the night at our hotel close to Venice (without bags). Our group made it to Milan on time and met our wonderful guide Gesualdo. We ...

... people sign, so much for needing the flashlight, heres the building.... and walked directly, DIRECTLY into a low hanging iron chain to keep cars out of pedestrians way. sigh... a hell of a welcome and 2 giant bruises later, Aislinn has decided to skeddadle out of here pronto tomorrow morning and try her luck with a hostel in town (not giving up on Florence that easily) that you need to be there before 9am to have any luck w a room......we shall see.....

Fair Verona is where I find myself today. My guidebook called it "arguably one of the prettiest cities in Italy." Quite a rep to live up to, but I shall see. Didn't look all that pretty from the train station and bus stop, but once the bus left the station, I could see that it was a very lovely city indeed. It was a bit rainy, but after the first apparently angry bus driver (yelling in Italian, but pretty sure he wasn't giddy!) that told everyone to ...