Italy 4/4

Despite the obvious language barrier, Elizabeth and I had some interesting conversations with locals. They usually involved short sentences or phrases repeated over and over until the exchange of words was about the length of a normal conversation. Example ( cute old Italian man at the pizzeria): "America big. Italy not so big. Just *makes gesture with hands to indicate small.*" Another good conversation with people who worked at the train station: "Obama good. Bush no good." Chuckles ensued.

If you know me, you probably know I hate talking about the weather or that I use it, like most, as a crutch to wedge myself out of awkward silences. It goes without saying, then, that me mentioning anything about the weather at all means it was exceptional. When we left Aix, it was cold and rainy. When we spent Friday in Ravenna, it was still sprinkling, but we were inside churches all day anyway. We awoke Saturday in Bologna to the sound of rain on the roof, which made us slightly displeased. As soon as we set foot outside the hotel, however, the sky cleared up and the umbrella I made Elizabeth stick in her purse was all for naught. After our day in Bologna, we walked back to the bus station to begin the trek back to Aix, and as soon as we were under the shelter of the stazione, it began pouring. We reveled in the meaning of it all, and I turned to Elizabeth saying, "Now I bet we're going to see a rainbow or something disgusting like that." And then Elizabeth immediately points out to our right a double rainbow. The bus pulls up, one fo the drivers asks us in Spanish what we make out to mean, "Hey, you girls were on our bus on the way here, weren't you?", we confirm the recognition, and we are on our way.

Give yourself a big pat on the back if you read this entire post! (Can't imagine anyone made it through besides my mom--so I hope you enjoyed it, Mom.) Sorry for the rambling, but it was one of my best weekends in Europe. Stay tuned for next week! I'm going on a trip with my program to the Luberon mountains.


Piazza Maggiore

Santo Stefano

The Two Towers

San Petronius

The double rainbow