Before I start on Wednesday, I forgot to tell about something that happened in Trieste. We were at the mall after worship eating lunch and we were talking to some of the girls that we'd worshiped with that morning. One of them asked if Logan was my brother!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That really made me feel good!!!!

Wednesday was another day of transition for us. Unfortunately, we had to leave Florence at this point. I could have stayed there for the whole trip! But that day we were heading to Rome 143 miles away. Before we left we ate breakfast downstairs at our hotel. The first morning in Florence I noticed there was this red drink - I thought it was some sort of punch or something. I was wrong. It was orange juice from red oranges:

It was as delicious as it was pretty!! But the milk at this hotel wasn't very cold. The milk in Venice was cold and delicious. It tasted different than ours. (I'm sure it's what they feed their milk cows) Logan could have drunk gallons of it!!

Once again we all boarded our wonderful bus and started on our way. Our only big stop that day was 85 miles away in Assisi. (besides restroom breaks and lunch) I knew when we got to Assisi that I wouldn't be fit to do much walking. We walked into Assisi up beside the Basilica di Santa Chiara. It was a beautiful church. We stayed outside in the square for quite a while. We even had time for free time before our tour guide met up with us. It was a nice little square with shops on one side, the church on one, and a wall that looked down and up on the countryside and architecture around us. Logan found a castle that was WAAAAAY up from where we were and he really wanted to walk up to it.

While we were waiting in the square it started thundering. Logan and I were so excited and hopeful that it might rain!! But it went on and on and teased us.
Finally, our tour guide came. He took us into the Basilica di Santa Chiara and we walked around for a bit. It was a nice little church. It had the prettiest little window:

The walk through Assisi was going to be over 2 hours. I had decided that I wasn't going to be able to make that walk. So Lara gave me her spare cell phone and her other cell phone number. There were taxis waiting right by the basilica the whole time we were there. So I stayed behind on the church steps in the shade and waited. I had my sock that I was working on and I was also reading New Moon. After they left it started raining lightly. I just put my book, sock, and sock pattern back into my backpack and just enjoyed the cool and the rain. It did start coming down pretty hard at one point and I went inside the church and waited for a while. I must say that the whole time I was waiting to catch the taxi I felt a little nervous and on edge! I was afraid the taxis would be gone and I'd have to call the taxi service to send one. So i decided to leave a few minutes early. I walked over to the taxi and he said no he was taking a tour group. So I went to the one behind him and he was taking the rest of that group. I had been sitting there forever and the taxis had been there the whole time and had never moved until I needed one!!! YIKES!! So I called the taxi office and they sent a taxi. In a few minutes a taxi came. I don't think it was they were sending, but I got in. He told me to sit in the front seat. He asked me if the a/c was OK and we were off. It was an interesting ride through these tiny little narrow streets. We wound around and around. I don't think I'd ever get used to those windy little streets!! Anyway, he took me in the pouring rain to St Francis Basilica. It was a beautiful church. I walked up to the door and asked a guy working there where the square was. I ended up walking up this really steep staircase to the square. It was pouring down rain by this time. I walked to the door of the church and looked inside for my group. I started trying to call Lara's phone. It wouldn't put the call through at all. So I heard these two older couples talking. They were speaking English and were British!! They were so cute. So I asked them if they knew if I was in the right place. One of the little old men was very friendly and smiley!!! He told me stay right where I was and stay out of the rain!! If I hadn't been so worried about meeting my group I would love to have hung out with them for a while! (another picture I wish I'd taken, but Logan had the camera). In a few minutes Lara met me at the door of the church and I was relieved to see her but I had to say goodbye to my British friends! Anyway, we started walking back through the church and, funnily enough, walked back downstairs and ended up where I had started at the lower entrance to the church. From there we had a pretty good little walk to meet the bus. We were finally on our way to Rome.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot...After the group took off Logan saw something that he thought was very funny:

I guess even monks like to rock out!!

Every time we changed hotels I was a bit nervous because there was no guarantee that we'd have a/c. The hotel in Rome was called the Princess Hotel. It was the nicest one we stayed in. It had a nice big lobby. We all got our keys. Donna and I had room 809. Unfortunately, the elevator only went up the 5th floor. I was so angry and complaining about how uncivilized it all was. We got off the elevator and walked up one flight of steps and it stopped. I had held the number upside down - it was 608!! I felt so stupid! One flight wasn't too bad! Anyway, we had really nice rooms! We had lots of room and a really great a/c!!!! The only air conditioning problem we had was that the cleaning staff turned it way up while we were gone everyday. Once we got our things deposited in our rooms we went back downstairs, back to the bus, and to a restaurant.
That was a particularly enjoyable dinner. We stayed at the restaurant for a long time and ate and laughed and had a good time. That was also the first night that we got to have Tiramasu!! It was good. The coffee flavor was very strong, but I think we all enjoyed it very much!! I also went around from table to table and got pictures of everyone!! I forgot to take a picture of the adult table. That night Lara and Maurizio sat at a table with some of the kids!! We were so happy that they joined in with us!! We all gathered around and started taking pictures of them. I finally said it was like the paparazzi and everyone laughed. My picture isn't that great because I was off to the side, but here it is:



Logan said that Maurizio reminded him of George Clooney! He really was neat! There are a lot of neat things to say about the people on this trip, but that's what I'm going to talk about after I finish talking about each day.

After we finished eating we went back to the hotel and were able to get a good night's sleep.

Knit On,
Shama D

OK, Now I'm up to Tuesday. Tuesday was a huge turning point for me. It was, by far, the hardest day of the whole trip for me. I could have easily melted down into a big baby and cried and asked for my Mommy. We got on the bus that morning and went to a Medieval town called Siena. By the time we got to Siena I was having a pretty bad problem. Yesterday I mentioned that my shoe had begun to rub the bottom of my foot. After walking around Florence Monday I had a full-blown blister on the ball of my right foot and a few other tolerable ones.

When we got to Siena we had to walk a bit to meet up with our guide. Walking up to Siena was beautiful and very deceptive. Looking out over the city it was neat to see all the Medieval architecture. I had NO idea what I was in for that day.

The really neat thing about everywhere we went in Italy was the surprise factor. You'd be wandering around streets looking at this or that, you'd round a corner, and suddenly you'd be right in front of a huge ornate church or in a huge open square in the middle of the city, or something equally as fantastic!!

Anyway, we started walking through Siena. One of the first things we went into was a church. (An interesting thing about some of the churches in Italy is that they have some human bodies or body parts called relics.) This particular little church called the Basilica San Domenico had the head and finger of some woman. (I found it online- St. Catherine) As our guide was telling us about this she lost everyone's attention while they walked over to look at the head and finger. She just stopped and waited. Once we left this little church we started walking through the streets of Siena again. Suddenly we were walking up this VERY steep street. (all the streets were cobblestone) When I say this street was steep doesn't begin to express just how steep it really was. It was very scary because if I fell, I felt like I'd just slide back down to the bottom and have to start all over again. So we start climbing this street. It goes on and on and on. When I'd look up and see that we were at a corner I'd be relieved that we were about to hit a plateau. Not gonna happen, my friend. We rounded the building and it just kept going. I was hot and tired and walking like this made my blister on the bottom of my foot so much worse. (I had put moleskin on that morning and it just rubbed right off) One thing I learned about myself on this trip is that I get REALLY cranky when I have to walk up steep streets - especially the longer they are. When we finally got to the top of this street it's a wonder I didn't punch some random person!! I wasn't taking a lot of pictures at this point, either. I honestly cannot remember what we did at that point. We FINALLY got to the top of this city. We walked through the amazing streets (that's in retrospect!!) and suddenly came upon an amazing church called the Duomo di Siena. It was HUGE!! It was originally supposed to be the largest cathedral in the world, but when the Plague hit and wiped out 80% of their population, it was never completed. However, it was full of beautiful artwork. We even got to see people restoring part of the marble mosaic floor. I wasn't able to get great pictures because my indoor pictures are usually blurry (when I can't use my flash). But here are a couple of pictures of the outside:





After our guide had finished showing us the inside of this church we started walking again. Once again we were wandering around through narrow streets and seeing a lot of old and interesting architecture when suddenly we rounded a corner and came upon this amazing open square called the Piazza del Campo.
In the square in Sienna on Flickr - Photo Sharing!



The day we were there the whole city was preparing for the annual horse race. It takes place around the edges of the square. Over 30,000 people cram into the square to watch this race. The town is divided up into groups called Contradas. Each contrada has it's own area, flag, etc, etc. You are not allowed to move from one Contrada to another. There were flags all over the city representing each contrada. They were practicing for different events. The horse race is apparently really rough. The riders try to shove each other off their horses - whatever it takes to win the race. However, if a riderless horse crosses the line first, that contrada still wins! Once the whole thing is over the whole city has a gigantic feast.
We ate lunch at a little pizza place right on the square. It was a neat little place. Here's a picture of Logan eating his first real Italian pizza:

After lunch we met back up with our group to head back to the bus. We had 15 minutes to get back when we left. It was as steep a walk back down as it had been going up. By this time my blister was full blown and I couldn't even keep up with the group. My sweet Logan stayed back with me, he took my purse and backpack and carried them, and he put his arm behind my back to kind of propel me down the road. We FINALLY made it back and we were very late. Being late was a problem because we still had one more guided tour that day.
The next place we went that day was Pisa. Going into Pisa the streets are lined with vendors, mostly illegal, all from Africa. It was strange to realize how close Africa is to Italy. I saw a lot of African things being sold. Why would I go to Italy to buy African tchotchkes? However, square in Pisa is a beautiful little place. The square is surrounded by a wall. Inside the square is the church, the baptistry, and the bell tower - or the Leaning Tower. We had the cutest little old tour guide named Uranus. He talked and talked. He kept emphasizing over and over that Galileo Galilei was from Pisa. The first thing he took us into was the baptistry. It was a neat little place. A girl came out and started singing. The echo in that place made it sound like there were several people singing in harmony. After she finished singing David asked if we could sing in there. Jesse led us all in Alleluia. I caught both things on video, but you'll have to go to my Flickr page to see them:
Girl singing alone in the baptistry in Pisa on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Our group singing Alleluia in the baptistry in Pisa on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Our tour guide explained that the Leaning Tower was reinforced by some engineers in the early 90's and is guaranteed to stand for at least another 300 years. Our tour guide said he figured it would stand long enough that his job is safe!!! He was so funny. Anyway, the tower is now open to the public for climbing up into. It's very tall and has tons of steps, so none had the time or energy to do it! But it is beautiful!! We took the obligatory shot of Logan holding up the tower. The sidewalk was lined with people posing for this exact shot:


After Pisa we got back on our wonderful cushy bus and our wonderful bus driver, Maurizio, drove us back to Florence. He dropped us off in the city and once again we started walking and walking until we got to our restaurant. It was a really neat evening. We met up with Krystine's family (one of the girls on our trip) and Ricardo Berdini (the son of the preacher from Trieste) and his girlfriend, Suzanna. We had an interesting meal with Ricardo and Suzanna. He has a degree in music and he's a perfomer. He's also planning to make a CD. He's just adorable and has the best personality.
After we left the restaurant Logan and I walked to the square and went to the pharmacy where I got these triangular pads for the bottom of my foot! Those things worked wonders!!!! Needless to say, I was exhausted by the time I walked back to my hotel room that night. At the time I hated that day, but looking back it was yet another wonderful day in Italy!!!

On the knitting front, I've got all the square put together in strips. I've also picked up and knit all the stitches on the first strip. Hopefully, by the end of the day and I can have the strips all put together. However, I'm confused about the edging. I may have to call Rainy and ask for help. But right now I feel really crummy and I just want to feel better.

Knit On and More Later,
Shama D

I forgot to put up a picture of our interesting key chain attached to our hotel keys in Venice. They didn't want us to leave the hotel at all with our key, so the keys chains weren't super-portable.

I'm finally up to Monday (I need to get this done faster!). Monday was a day of transition for us. We had stayed in Venice from Friday night until then. At that point we were moving to Florence. We packed up the night before. Donna, my roommate, was so organized!! She was funny to watch. She had to think it all out and reorganize. I really enjoyed staying with her!
Anyway, when we got up Monday morning we ate breakfast at our very hot hotel, loaded our luggage on our ver cold bus, and headed for Florence. It was only 159 miles, but we had 2 restroom breaks and lunch.
At this point we had 2 kids sick. One girl, Emily, had strep throat. She was able to get a z-pack at a pharmacy in Florence without a prescription. That didn't do the trick, but she wasn't allowed to buy another one without a prescription. I felt so sorry for her!! But she persevered! The other one, Trent, had gotten sick the night before we left for Florence. He got a stomach virus. His parents were on the trip with us, but he didn't even wake them up! Thankfully, once we got on the bus he wasn't sick anymore!
It seemed like everywhere we went we were running late. Poor Lara (our tour director), was constantly telling what time to be where and how important it was to NEVER be late!! We did everything on time that day, but we still got to Florence a little late. Our new hotel was vastly different than the first. It was much nicer and had an a/c that really cooled the room. There was no elevator in this hotel and Logan, Trent and Damon's room was on the 3rd floor. Donna and I got our key, turned around and found our room right by the front door!!!!! That was so nice!! The only complaint I had about this hotel was that the bathroom door was like a shower door. And you had no choice but to cross in front of it when you stepped out of the shower. At least this one had an enclosed shower. (Looking back, I wish I'd taken more pictures of certain things). Once we got to this hotel we had about 5 or 10 minutes to get our things in the room and be ready to walk/run several blocks to meet our Florence tour guide. It was boiling hot and we took off. As we were making our way to the meeting point I noticed that my shoe was rubbing the bottom of my foot - that was just the beginning. Once we got down there we met our tour guide - he was really good!!! We started off at the end of this street (I cannot remember the name of it) On one side of the main street was the Arno River and on the other was the city. We started down a street. It had big beautiful wooden doors on either side of the street that were used for government business. There were also statues in recessed areas lining this same street. I took pictures of many of them. Especially ones that were of significance to us. The first one we saw was Amerigo Vespucci

There were quite a few beautiful and interesting statues on that street. One of the stories he told was particularly interesting. He told us that Leonardo da Vinci's father had something like 16 legitimate children and was well known, powerful, and wealthy. However, Leonardo was an illegitimate child of a servant. The man refused to allow Leonardo to use his last name, so he us da Vinci - or "of Vinci" - the town where he was from. The interesting thing is that no one knows or remembers his father's name or the names of any of his "legitimate" siblings!!
When we got to the end of this street it opened out into an amazing square called Piazza della Signoria. In this area there are many cultural activities. One night there was a ballet the next night an orchestra! The only problem was that during these things there were tons of people, it was hot, and there was no place to sit. The first thing we saw when we got to the square was:

David!!!! What an amazing statue!! He talked about how Michelangelo had studied human anatomy by performing autopsies (which was not allowed by the Catholic church) at a famous college in Padova. This allowed his art to be so much more realistic. Logan was so shocked that I would take a picture of a nude male statue!! I thought that was pretty funny. We saw several other beautiful statues right in that area. One my very favorites was the bronze statue of Perseus holding Medusa's head with blood dripping from it and the headless body at his feet. (Gruesome, I know, but I loved it!!)

We went on to see many beautiful buildings including churches, Michelangelo's birth home, and government buildings. It was all so amazing. But this was my favorite part. Another fascinating thing he showed us was Ponte Vecchio, or Old Bridge. It spanned the Arno River. It had once been a place of business that contained many shops. In the middle of the shops was an open area. This had been built to allow water to run through in case of flooding. Years earlier a flood had wiped out the original bridge and businesses.
That night we ate at a hotel down the street from ours called Hotel Mediterraneo. It was a beautiful hotel. The lobby was very cool! We then went to the restaurant and it was also air conditioned very well!! The food that night was delicious. One of the funniest things that happened was Darrin Feris', a man there with his wife and 3 kids, reaction to our getting real ice water that night. When he looked and saw the ice in our glasses he said, "Ice. I think I'm gonna cry!" Ice was hard to find in Italy!!!
I did something brave for me that night. I let Logan go back into Florence with a group of his new friends. They walked around and looked at things and had a good time!! It was so good for him! I do kind of feel like I held him back a bit on this trip. But he was so sweet to me and it was a great thing for our relationship!!! And at the same time, he made some new friends for life!!
Here's a link to my Flickr album that has all of my Italy pictures:
Italy - a set on Flickr
Florence was my favorite city that we stayed in. It was beautiful and very artistic. You could walk anywhere safely. Since our hotel was on the Arno River, all you had to do was find the river (which wasn't hard) and follow it back to our hotel. If I get another chance to go back to Italy, I definitely want to go to Florence for a longer time.
Here's Logan on the Arno River:

All I've talked about lately is Italy. I'm working on a lot of knitting right now. I'm making progress on my 2nd sock in this pair. I finished the first one in Italy

I've turned the heel on the second one and I'm moving on. I'm using Lorna's Laces in a berry color that I can't remember the exact name of. It was given to me by my Mom on my birthday in 2007. The pattern is from More Sensational Knitted socks. It's lots of fun. The other thing is a blanket I've been working on for Kelby for several years now. It's made up of 12 squares. I finished the last one last week and blocked them all out over the weekend. Yesterday I started putting the squares together into strips. I should finish those this evening and then I'll start putting the strips together. I'm using Crayon 100% cotton boucle from Knit Picks. Kelby chose purple, blue, and red. I've used size 11 US needles and doubled the yarn. Here's the pattern:
Retro Throw Pattern Free Knitting Pattern from KnitPicks.com
I'm so excited about it because Kelby's still excited about it. He keeps thanking me for doing this for him, so that makes it all worthwhile!! I'm just so sorry that I didn't finish it sooner. I have plans to knit ones for Logan and Chuck!! (But those are in the planning stages - and a secret)

That's all for now..Knit On!
Shama D

I tried posting this Thursday night, but my internet shut down and I lost the whole thing!! I've got to get the rest of my trip posted or I'll forget things I want to remember.

I'm up to our first Sunday. Early that morning we got up and had breakfast at the hotel. We got on the bus and Maurizio drove us to Trieste. Trieste is a small town right on the coast of the Adriatic Sea about 100 miles from Venice. I believe Lara told us that it used to be part of Slovenia. As we drove into the town the beach was right next to the road. We saw some "interesting" things. I'm always shocked at what people think is OK. Modesty is modesty, no matter where you are!!! We had planned ahead to worship with the saints there. One of the men on our trip, David Thomley, preaches in Italy several times a year. He even keeps an apartment in Trieste. So he knew all the Christians there. It was so neat worshiping with our Italian brethren! We sang songs we knew very well, but hearing the Italian words made it hard to remember the English words. So Logan and I followed along in the book and sang in Italian. That was neat. Also, Mike told us ahead of time that there would be real wine used in the Lord's Supper. I'm so glad he warned us!! That is some nasty stuff!! I have no desire to aquire a taste for expensive vinegar!! YUCK!! Another interesting thing is that they had installed an a/c, but the older people won't let them turn it on. It was rather warm in there. Anyway, the people there were so sweet and friendly!! After worship we went to the mall in town. It was a 3-story mall. The bottom floor had a nice grocery store. Someone in our group found 1.5 liter bottles of water for less than 1 euro. We were flocking in there buying it and some of the kids got really large cokes. (BTW, there's no Dr Pepper in Italy. Logan wasn't too thrilled about that!!) Logan at lunch at McDonalds. After lunch he and I went down to another level to a store called Media World and I bought a new camera. It's slightly better than the one I had. I was so relieved to have a camera to chronicle our trip!!! Here's the first picture I took with it!

He was glad to find it and insisted we go in and look around. After that we went down to the gellato place and had our first gellato. Logan got mint chocolate and I got coconut. It was really good. An interesting thing about gellato is that it is regulated by the government. It's so famous around the world and they want to keep a high standard. I assume that you have to have special license to sell it.

After our stop at the mall we got back on the bus and went to a place called Piazza Unita d'Italia. It's a lovely square with lots of wonderful architecture. Most of our group went up a long steep street to see an old church and the ruins of a Medieval castle. I was already starting to get a blister on my baby toe, so I stayed behind. Logan went with the rest of the group and tooks lots of pictures for me. A few in our group decided to walk around and look at the shops around. I walked around a little bit by myself, but I also rested a little.

A funny story...While the group was in David's apartment Logan asked if he could change into his shorts and t-shirt out of his church clothes (he forgot to do it at the mall). David said it was OK. Logan was in the bathroom changing when David knocked on the door and asked if Logan was in there. He said he thought Logan was kidding. When Logan came out he was talking to David's brother, Mike (The one who got our tour together in the first place) and apologized for the misunderstanding. And in typical brother-speak Mike said, That's OK. David's just stupid sometimes." Brothers are brothers in their childhood or in their 40's!!!!

After everyone got back together most everyone got some more gellato. We got back on the bus and went to a place by the beach. We started walking up to Miramare. A beautiful castle (on the smallish side) that was once owned by Maximillian. He was a botanist. He instructed his military to collect plants wherever they went (he did the same) so there were beautiful plants and gardens around. It was a lovely place to visit. Here's a picture of Logan and me with the castle in the background.

Once that was over we got back on the bus for our ride back to Venice. We just ate at our hotel again that night. Afterward, Logan and I walked down to the little video arcade and paid for some internet time. That was the only time I was able to get on the internet and send an email. It was so neat to realize that we were out just walking around in Italy!!!

That's it for our first Sunday. Maybe I can come back tonight and talk about Monday.

Joel, Kristi, Alton, and Kaden are coming in about an hour. We're going to IKEA then they're going to the Melting Pot for a belated anniversary dinner. They're going to let us keep the boys!!!

More later,

Shama D

I forgot to tell you about our hotel room. It was fairly small, but that didn't bother me. We had a longish narrow balcony that didn't let a breeze in. Our a/c was technically there, but you had to lay perfectly still to quit sweating. Here's a picture of our bathroom. Notice the open shower...And all the tile was slick as glass once it got wet. No shower curtain or anything. Little did I know what luxury that would end up being. (You'll see later)

The next day on our trip to Italy was Saturday, June 28. We got up that morning and ate breakfast at our hotel. We got on our bus and it took us to a parking lot. From there we walked down the street to a ferry. We were going across to the 118 islands that make up Venice. In order to get on that ferry we had to "walk the plank". They had a little plank that went from the ferry to the pier. It was only a very few steps but it was scary to me. The water caused the boat to move up and down. How embarrassing would it have been if I had fallen in the water?? It was so neat to look out across the water and see where we were going. I took a few pictures from the water. We got to Venice, got off the ferry, walked up the pier and I dropped and broke my camera. I was devastated!!!! Without pictures, the whole trip would have been a waste to me.

The first thing we did that day was to go to a glass blowers. It was a very hot, very short and very amazing demonstration. Once the demonstration was finished we went into a show room. This room was full of all sorts of glass. It was beautiful!!! Glass is one of my weaknesses! They had all kinds of drink ware, beautiful jewelry, glass chandeliers, and glass sculptures. I could have spend tons of money in there. Venice is known for its glass. There was glass in all the store windows. Glass rings are a particular weakness of mine. I had one once and wore it constantly until it broke. If I hadn't broken my camera (and had to replace it) I would have come home with a glass ring.

We took a walk with a tour guide around Venice and saw some beautiful architecture and learned many interesting things. One thing we saw were these structures in the middle of lots of the streets. These were wells. The people in Venice were surrounded by water, but it was all salt water. So they collected rain water in wells. The wells were guarded by soldiers round the clock to keep enemies from coming in and poisoning the water system. The covers were taken off the wells in the morning and evening and a guard stood by while the people collected what they needed.

The last big thing we toured that day was the Doge's palace. We went through room after amazing room. There were paintings and amazing architectural details. There was a room full of maps and globes that my roommate, Donna, drooled over. We also saw a couple of rooms of weapons and armor. There was even head armor for horses. Plus some piece of equipment that was used to torture men. All the boys grimaced at that! We walked through areas where trials were held. Some of them were more elaborate that others. Once the prisoners were convicted they were sent across the Bridge of Sighs to spend the rest of their days in prison. We got to walk through the prison. It was interesting and depressing.

Back to the Bridge of Sighs...It was given that name because as prisoners were walking across to prison there was one little area where they could look out and see the outside for the very last time, so they sighed.

That evening we went back across on the ferry. (I still never fell off the plank into the water) We ate dinner at our hotel again that night. Afterward some of our group went down to the beach at the Adriatic Sea.

One very interesting thing that happened on this trip was that Logan ate things I could never get him to eat at home. It was either eat what was served or starve to death. I have a story to tell about that when I talk about our Tuesday night.

Tomorrow I'll talk about our first Sunday in Italy and what it was like worshiping with the saints there.

Well, Logan and I are back from Italy. What an amazing trip!! It was unbelievably hard, hot and NOT like home, but amazing!! There were plenty of days when I wondered how much it would cost to fly home early. But I am so glad we stayed!! We saw and did things that we could never do here. We learned to push ourselves. We learned so many neat and interesting things. I love history!! And we made some fantastic life-long Christian friends!!
It started off on Thursday, June 26. We met up with the rest of our group at Bush Intercontinental. One part of our group came from Alabama, the other part came from Tennessee. There was some bad weather that day so our plane was stuck in San Antonio. The Alabama group was stuck in College Station, and on their plane, for hours. Our flight was only delayed by two hours. However, our layover in Paris was only 50 minutes. By the time we finally got out of Paris it was after 6 pm on Friday, instead of 9:30 am. By the time we got on our tour bus in Milan and finally got to our hotel in Venice, it was after midnight.

When we got to Milan we were met by our awesome tour director, Lara. She ended up being our friend by the time it was all said and done. She was having to stay on our case to be on time and I know that wore her out. But she was sweet despite all that. We also had our wonderful bus driver, Maurizio. He took us everywhere in a brand new and very luxurious bus. It was a wonderful reprieve at the end of very long, very hot days full of walking and filling our brains.

There's so much to tell, but I'll spread it out over several days.

I did get some knitting done on the trip. I had started a market bag before I left because it was mindless knitting and I was too nervous to think about anything complex. I also worked on, and finished, a sock I started a year ago. I'm now pretty far into the 2nd sock. I'll show pictures of it all another day.

Shama D

Loving Italy and my Italy friends, but so glad to be home!!