Verona!!!

We made it to Verona after dark, and made our way to the Hotel. We had an idea and the address of this hotel, but the step by step directions from mapquest didn't make sense, so we decided to wing it! We got there and checked in at the front desk. Something weird about Italy, is that no matter what you are doing or buying or where you are staying they want to see or copy or something your passport. So the front desk kept my passport. We went up to the room, and it was surprisingly VERY nice. We had a balcony, and a nice room. This was a great way to start our vacation!!

It was already 9 or so, and we hadn't eaten dinner yet. So the hotel said they had a shuttle to their other hotel with a restaurant in it, and that it would take us there and back for free! This seemed like the best option, so we took the shuttle, aka someones cousin they called to take us over there in his land rover. haha. it was funny, but it was free! We got seated at this restaurant and ordered right away. We decided since this was our first meal in Italy that we would get the house wine.

It wasn't the best wine we had all week, but it was okay. I ate pizza and I got tiramisu for dessert. It was the BEST TIRAMISU I've ever eaten!!! It was glorious!!!!!

We finished dinner and the "shuttle" took us back to our hotel.
We had a good night's sleep and then got up early in the morning to go sight seeing. This was a tough morning, not only coming from Scotland, Italy is an hour ahead of us, but it was also Italian "Day Light Savings Time"!!!!! So we lost 2 hours of sleep!!! Anyways we got up, got ready to go and set off into Verona. We walked into the old part of the city and made a plan for what and where we would go. Our plan was to go see the Old Roman Wall, Piazza with the tower, Juliette's Balcony and The World's 3'd largest Colosseum.
We walked to the old part of town and we came to an old palace.

Then we kept walking and we came to the old Roman Wall. This was very neat!! I like how Verona had just built around it, still using it.

 Behind the Old Roman Wall was a boy scout type gathering, where there were a TON of children running around!! GAH!!! We walked with them for a few minutes until we came to the Piazza we wanted to get to. Along the way we saw this little cutie, ahah, it made me laugh,

But also later to find out, while we were walking with the group of people someone tried to pick-pocket Allie's bag!! Allie noticed her getting really close and kind of going for her bag, so she sped up and lost the girl. Then Allie heard the girl cussing afterwards. lol. But even in the first hour in Verona we had already tried to be pick-pocketed....not cool!

From the piazza, Allie bought a hand made cross, and owl, and she was very happy with those. Brandon had been dying to climb one of the towers in this piazza. The story goes that there was a family that came in and took over Verona, and when they did that they made everyone tear down their towers. In that time, you built a tower and that's how you showed your wealth. Well this family made everyone tear down their towers and they used the marble from those to pave some of their favorite streets in pink and white marble. So Brandon had been dying to go up this tower and so we went. There was an elevator for the first 200 or so steps and then you walked the rest of the way.

I have recently discovered that I am afraid of heights. So this was a challenge for me, but it was fun. I was hoping the bells would go off in the bell tower but that did not happen. We got some great photos of  Verona and then headed back down the tower. From there we walked just down the street to Juliette's Balcony. Even though Juliette is a fictitious character from a Shakespeare play, it feels very real. There were two feuding families in that city for a long time, but Juliette is not real.

There is an archway you walk under to get to Juliette's Balcony and it's covered in graffiti, but it's mostly love graffiti. So it's kind of cool. I wanted to write someone on there, but I guess it's a BIG no no, it is essentially ruining a landmark, so we decided not to. It is good luck to take a picture with the statue of Juliette and if you put your hand on her boob it's good luck in love for a year. So we did exactly that!

There is a museum in which you can go in and learn about the history and the story and the real family but you can go on the balcony and have your picture taken from below. We opted not to do this, but it was really cool.

We then started to walk to the Colosseum, and to get there we walked on one of the marbleized roads from that rich family. Shops and stores lined the road and we saw lots of cute things. We made it to the Colosseum and went in. It was really neat and we got lots of good pictures once inside.
Brandon had a great idea to have us sit on a ledge over a 20-30 ft drop, and this is about when I realized how afraid of heights I was. lol. I managed to get on the wall after about 5 mins of persuasion, and it was  a cute picture!!

We left the Colosseum and were our way to the train station to go to VENICE!!!

Spring Break

So this spring break myself and two other girls decided to go to Italy! Boyah! lol.
I have a class with a girl name Mary, and when she found out I was American (which took about 30 seconds)..... she started talking about the difference between our (american) spring break and the scottish semester break. She told me there was a comedian who did a bit about american parties v scottish parties (empties) She posted it on my facebook, and it was really funny!
So the reason I'm telling you this is because in the comedians clip, he is like "spring break, chad hogan's house" yeah!! lol. So that became our catch phrase for this spring break!!! lol. (except it morphed into chad dugans)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KddhZkrls3k

Very funny clip!!!

Well anyways

The three of us decided to go to Italy for our spring break! lol.
We knew that we'd need luggage for the 3 of us to be away for a week, and the airlines over here only allow 1 piece of handluggage. There is no backpack and a purse, you have to have your purse in your backpack. So needless to say, we decided to check a bag.

Our plan was for me to leave a day early and take the baggage to Torino, then Brandon and I would meet Allie and Amanda in Milan, head to Verona, stay in Verona, then do Verona and Venice. Head back to Torino, stay there for 4 days, then head to Rome for 3 days, fly to Edinburgh with a stop in Poland! lol.

So I was off on Friday, with the baggage to Torino. I flew to Milan Malpensa Airport, which I've flown into a few times. I got the luggage, and missed my bus to Torino. I had to wait for an hour and a half for the next bus to Torino! So I sat around and people watched, but all in all, it was not the worst thing that's ever happpened. So I got into Torino, and Brandon met me where the bus dropped off. This time we got to take the METRO to his house, which is a God send. You'll remember if you read my last post about going to Torino, that there was a strike on the bus and metro service. Which was not nearly as big of a deal without luggage. But I had big luggage!!! So we took the metro to Brandon's house and then got some Kabab pizza. That stuff is AMAZING!!!!


The next day Brandon and I did some shopping at an Italian "Whole Foods" type store called "Eataly"!! It was amazing!!!!

Eataly is really cool because it is like a "whole food" on italian steriods!! lol. It has a whole floor for wine!! and special rooms for cheese. So that was very cool.

We finished our shopping went and got Gelato for an afternoon treat!!

We went and dropped off the groceries then got our things together and headed off to Milan. We were going to Milan to meet Allie and Amanda to go to Verona and Venice!! This was also Brandon's first time meeting Allie and Amanda, so it was exciting! So we got our things together and then we were off to Milan to meet Allie and Amanda.

We found the two of them, and then we were off to Verona!!

The rest of Dad and Janice's visit!!

We made it to Edinburgh where it was cloudy and brisk. We walked up to the Royal Mile and started our venture in Edinburgh. We saw hotels and street performers and shops.

We walked around the Royal Mile checking out shops and whatnot, then we made our way to the Castle.

We did the castle tour, which is amazing! and then headed to do some SHOPPING!!! Along the way we had found a crepe-ary, which was great. We got bananas and nutella crepes!

By that time it was time to get some grub!! We started in the opposite direction of the Royal Mile down Leith st. This is another major road with some great restaurants and stuff down it. We stopped at the "Omni House" which is a shopping center, restaurant, cinema thing. lol. We got drinks at the bar inside and then found some dinner.

Then it was back to Stirling.

The next day I had to go to class....BOOO, but Dad and Janice checked out the Stirling Castle, which is much less militarily based than the Edinburgh Castle. They also went to our local mall, "The Thistles". lol.
After class we met up and went to a local pub called "The Birds and the Bees". It's a really cool restaurant/bar with REALLY good food.  I brought a couple of friends to dinner and we had a great time.

The next day they were leaving from Edinburgh and in the morning,  I had to go to class, but that is NOT what I wanted to do!!
But I had to.....
The plan was to go to Edinburgh after class and stay the night since they had an early flight out the next day.

So after class I met Dad and Janice at the train station and we headed out to Edinburgh.

The hotel we stayed at!

This was their last night in Scotland and we were thinking about seeing a show or something. There was an operetta that we thought looked relatively interesting, but I got online and sampled some of the music..... and that would have been torture.....lol.
So we decided against it, but to go to dinner instead. We walked up the Royal Mile and found a restaurant to eat dinner.

After dinner we went back to the hotel, grabbed dessert from the hotel restaurant and got a movie on the hotel tv.

That was the perfect way to end their visit!!

I really miss my Dad and Janice, but I'm really glad that they got to come over and visit me. Not to mention they spoiled me rotten!! lol.

Love you guys!