So I'm sorry that it has taken me quite a while to get to part 2 of this post but life has been a little crazy. Plus, it is really hard to write about a family reunion in Italy and all of our daily adventures.
So where did I leave off, slowly everyone started arriving at our pretty cool villa, a.k.a. Podere Macchione. First, the Philadelphia crew arrived, then Heidi, Donald, Rachel and Paulina (their Finnish exchange student from a few years ago, she's the blond in the pictures). It was getting kind of late after all of the hugs and excitement and we had to buy groceries (since the next day was Sunday and then Monday was a holiday and we were in the middle of nowhere Italy). The grocery shopping was an interesting experience in itself since everyone was confused and then we got in line to realize they don't except credit cards and no one had enough cash. I used my "Fritalian" to figure out where bank machines were and we finally got food, but not without a struggle.
When we finally returned, Steph, Grady and baby Phoebe were there and everyone was sitting around drinking wine. It was so exciting to see the new baby and she was really a highlight of the trip. So our group was finally complete and we did a potluck type dinner for the first night and enjoyed our villa. It was really the only full day of sun so it was a good thing we relaxed a little. (The picture up and to the right is a view of the Lago Montepulciano) from our Villa during sunset). All of the people just arriving in Europe were pretty crazy from the jet lag and excitement of finally have our family reunion in Italy and we went to bed pretty early. Which, contrary to the Strano/Ferrraro family tradition, became the norm for this trip. I think it was a result of the constant exhaustion caused by visiting too much of Italy too quickly.
We started slowly by waking up late the next day and going to a local town built on Etruscan ruins and kind of just exploring. We ate a "fabulous", in Heidi's words, dinner and went to bed pretty early. The next day started the craziness....
My immediate family had to go to Roma to drop my grandma off at the airport so most everyone else joined in and Maresa, Paulina, Rachel and I were relegated to taking the train. The day consisted of visiting the train station for about 3 hours while waiting for everyone who drove and seeing the Colosseum. Below is a video from our trip there. It was pretty cool because although I've been to the Colosseum before, I've never gone in because it was too expensive for my budget. But thanks to my lovely mom, I finally got to see it and it really is pretty spectacular. The tourists take something away from it though.
The next day we hung out and went to the town of Montepeluciano which would have been lovely if it weren't for the fact that it rained (a lot) the whole day. However, that night we had an incredible dinner in this little Osteria just a 2 km from our villa. It was all ma
de of fish from the lake and it was pretty incredible. The next 2 days we did Sienna and Florence. So that was kind of a whirlwind. Both were pretty crowded with tourists but it only rained for part of both days, so that was nice. We saw the Duomo in both places and agreed that the Duomo in Sienna is more beautiful but it was cool to climb to the top of the Duomo is Florence. To the right you can see Maresa, Rachel, Paulina and I at the top. It was raining at the time but it was still pretty nice. We also saw the Synagogue and got quite a riveting recount of its history (more interesting then the one I heard 2 years-ago). We didn't end up going into the museums, something for which I was very thankful. We got back and made a pretty big dinner that night. And decided that the next day, our last day we would take it easy and explore the "city" closest to us, Casteglione del lago, right on Lago Tresimeno. It was my favorite day there because it was super relaxing and the lake was so beautiful. And it was a real lake!!! It was a wonderful change from the gross ponds that I've been dealing with all year. It was a beautiful sunny day and my father had magically recovered from the "illness" that kept him from coming to Sienna and Florence with us. The last night, we all made a big dinner and enjoyed our last night dinner with lots of wine and 5 lbs of pasta, which my father wanted to send home with me in a plastic shopping bag. The next day we packed up and parted our separate ways.
All together, the trip was quite comical and definitely a landmark for our family. I hope that we get to do it again soon!!!! This blog entry really doesn't describe it as well as I wish it could but I hope you enjoyed anyways.
A dopo!
