Days 18, 19, & 20: sneakin' pics of david, family and friends, SCUBA and the mafia

Location: Pop Hostel, Roma, Italia

Hours of Travel: 120

Cleanliness: 6 (walked over seven kilometers today + blazing sun)

Comments:

-Wow I feel like it's been a week since I've written because so much has happened! Ok, ready. set. Firenze!

-So Saturday evening we arrived in Florence. It felt like I was home when I got out of the train to see the rugged streets of the artistic city. But the moment we got there, we knew we needed to find a way to get a hold of our family friend Vincenzo. 2 1/2 hours later (after realizing there's no internet for free in mcdonalds, no starbucks, and figuring out ancient pay phones) we got a hold of him and arrived in our hotel.

-That night we ate at a delicious restaurant close by and oriented ourselves with the area. This is when I realized were right next to the flee market...

-The following day (Sunday) Trent and I tried everything in our power to find the church. We had the address and arrived in the general area of the building a whole 20 minutes early. 2 hours later, we realized we missed sacrament and were soaking wet in our church clothes we decided it would be best for us to continue on in our day.

-Soooooo...we went to the flee market :) Trent found himself a new leather belt (we're pretty sure its real...) and I got myself my own leather piece :)

love flee market bargaining

Trent and his new belt

-After the flee market we went to the Museum D Academia to see the famous David. Since it was Sunday and was so rainy the line only took us two hours. Trent and I were amaze at how incredibly large the statue is. It was a lot bigger than I remembered when I was 6. Also, Michelangelo's proportion ratios were perfect. Altogether, we probably stared at the magnificent naked man for 30 minutes.

no picture taking allowed? that never stops Trent

at the museum

-We then walked around visiting the more popular sites on our side of the town like the Duomo

Duomo

-At around five, our family friend Vince picked up and took us to his house were his wife, Luciana, two of his daughters, Tessa and Benedetta, and his grandson, Lioni, were at the house. They treated Trent and I like royalty offering us marinated olives and fresca. It was SO NICE to finally be in a house again. We talked about everything from politics to the jersey shore cast to music composition. The conversation was great and the company even better. This was most likely my favorite night of our trip so far. Thank you Vince and Luciana for a fantastic night!

silly dog of theirs chewing on a vet stuffed animal. he literally sucked it like it was his binky

Tessa and husband

The family and us as dinner

-It was so hard and unfair to leave Florence so quickly but Trent and I had a reservation for SCUBA in sicily. We boarded the 13 hour train to Taormina Sunday night and slept like babies. In the morning we noticed the train come to a stop and we though we had already arrived. We realized the train was loading onto a ferry to cross over to the island! We thought there was a tunnel or bridge. Who knew you could load a train on a ferry. I'm proud to say I have officially been on a train on a boat!

boat interior with reflection of train interior

- The moment we arrived at 11:30 our SCUBA guides picked us up and we loaded onto the speed boat for our dive sites. It was a beautiful day and a little windy so we had very high hopes of sun tanning and warm water. Little did we know...

Trent excited

me excited

-The SCUBA guides gave us a second suit to put on! we had 8 mm of wetsuit on us. I thought it was a joke. But the water was 57 F!!!

feeling gigantic in our double suits

our second dive we spent in a cave! We saw some great wildlife like eels, lion fish, and other colorful fish.

after the dives, we ate some delicious granite and gelato. Did you know gelato started in Sicily?

-After the gelato we got into our B&B which was super nice. The owners actually offered to drive and pick us up from dinner! They recommended a great and reasonable place called Angelina's. Why is pasta so dang tasty?

-After dinner we went walked around the boardwalk and saw this beautiful statues that actually is the same image of the Nike statue (on my Paris update). The B&B owners told us that it was hear, the grecians first landed on sicily.

-The following day, Trent and I went on one last dive. We went into an underwater cavern. It was UNBELIEVABLE (even though I was on the verge of hypothermia)! I wish I had pictures of our dives...

-We slept and ate and slept and ate the rest of the day before we loaded up for our train to Rome! We felt lots better, and had more energy today.

Things we are thinking: today, while touring, we asked a man to take a picture of us. He asked if we were honeymooners because we looked so happy together. We've actually gotten this question a lot. I'm glad we still look so happy even after these high energy three weeks. I honestly feel like I'm on a honeymoon. It's so fun being with my best friend all the time.

Tomorrow we're going to Pisa and end in La Spezia! We wonder if we'll be able to do all the site-seeing we want and traveling on time to our B&B.

Still wondering about the different recipes and how I can get a hold of them. Belgian waffles, thick hot chocolate, homemade pasta...yum

For now chao!