ciao and ciao - hello and goodbye

so...we've been back to london from italy for about a week and a half. in the meantime we've finally gotten internet in our apartment....BUT my computer's hard drive CRAAASHED and burned...right after i saved a long, detailed description of the rest of our trip to italy to post on here for you all. so instead i have posted pictures on facebook and will put the public link here.  i tried to describe the trip along with the pictures so you could follow along with visuals. 

so...in summary....i am computerless but italy was absolutely amazing. 

see for yourself here

ENJOY.

more pictures

ITALY (bit by bit)

sooooo. 

i got to london. after being endlessly harassed by the immigration officers. i think they are just jealous...they have to stare at people's passports all day but never get a chance to leave their desks. i dont' blame them really...but i mean....what harm can i do to england? sweet little innocent me?

anyways i had two fast fast days in london (but time enough to find a favorite coffee shop close to our apartment, did you doubt it?) and then off to italy. the plan was to make it to florence for one of francesco's friend's graduation parties (except it was cancelled). so we just had a 10 day vacation....and met some of his friends and family along the way.

first stop - day one: PISA. (and yes of course i saw the leaning tower of pisa...and took cheesy tourist pictures with it)

we just walked around all day stopping along the way for wine and cheese. we saw the tower. and laughed at the japanese taking pictures. francesco started his 10 day long lecture about art history and architecture. we found a little secret square (that probably isn't secret but it felt like we were discovering something) in the middle of the city and had a super-duper pisan lunch (and i tried my first espresso.....maybe it was a mistake. i'm addicted)

thats it really. at night we roamed around the main street with all the people shopping. francesco had a scare because he "lost" his identification card (which is a bit like his passport so he would have been stuck....) but i saved the day. it was a good introduction to italy...and really the only day we had all to ourselves to celebrate our reunion. 

next stop - day two : BOLOGNA (where we visited francesco's brother)

bologna is a nice city....full of arches over the sidewalks and college students. we met up with nicholas (francesco's younger brother) at his apartment and also one of francesco's best friends from high school. had lunch of pasta with dried, crush fish eggs powder...apparently a sardinian (where francesco is from) specialty? i dont' know. we walked around the main city. bologna has a leaning tower too that no one knows about....but really its just a tower that is starting to sink into the clay. and its not very pretty. we decided it was a signpost for the gelato shop that is right next to it so from all around the city you can know how to get the best ice cream ever. 

and for our daily dose of exercise we walked up one trillion million stairs (and 666 arches built in the 18th century) up and around a mountain to get to a church (madonna di san luca) at the top that overlooks the countryside and the city a bit. passed rich bolognian villas on the way and all the sacraments of jesus (and a priest explaining them to a mass of boy scouts and their families). 

for dinner we indulged in a very amazing italian idea called aperitivo (i think) where restaurants put out various appetizers and you can eat as much as you want as long as you get one drink. so one glass of wine and endless food. not bad. the one we went to in bologna wasn't the best...but we tried at least a few in every city.  

and for now that will have to be all. i'm sufficiently frustrated with this blog and its inability to post pictures at the moment. so a few pictures from bologna will come later as well as the rest of our trip....and i think i will also post pictures on facebook and give you guys the public link to see these and more.