Diane and Christina's most awesome journey!!

Ok I’m sorry this took so long to write, I’ve been writing it since we got back like three weeks ago and for some reason it just wasn’t flowing out. This is a really badly written one so I’m sorry about that, hopefully it does our amazing trip some justice… there are a ton of pictures on facebook that are really great!!
Ok now here it goes, after not much planning or deliberation, considering she bought her tickets five days before she got on the airplane, my mom came out to visit me in Italy and to travel for the one week that I had off. We hardly planned anything, figuring we would go where the wind took us and decided that our only true destination was Munich for the 2009 Oktoberfest!!! Mom had some slight difficulties with her luggage and ended up stuck in Rome for three hours waiting for the next flight from France while I sat at home and worried about how she was going to get to Viterbo. Eventually she was bagged and ready, only to find out that there was a train accident and all trains leaving from Rome have been delayed and there was no chance of leaving from there so she followed a crazy crowd and was somehow stuffed on a bus on her way to some unknown location that would hopefully lead to a train to Viterbo. Needless to say she arrived six hours late in Viterbo… after some confusion and a swift act of knight in shining armorness from one of my friends I found her and dragged her out to meet all my friends at a party they were all having, of course I wouldn’t let her go straight home… Mom was a champ!
We had a really wonderful time the next day walking around Viterbo as I showed her the sights and we took the tours which I had not yet been on. It was really nice to be able to show her where I live and tell her all of the fun things that I have learned about this place. I think she really liked it here.
Our first day, and my first real taste of the Italian trains brought us to Verona, the beautiful setting of the one and only Romeo and Juliet. The hostel that we found was an old mansion complete with courtyard, gardens and absolutely beautiful frescoes peeking out of the walls. We roomed with many other girls including one from London and one from Australia who were traveling together. They were on a London “hokey” team together and were hilarious. We had a wonderful time in Verona, neither of us knew what to expect so the beautiful water surrounded city was a huge surprise. The river that flows around the city was beautiful and considering we had to cross it by bridge every time we wanted to go to the city, we got our fair share of beautiful views in the evenings. We spent most of our time walking around the city and going into its many churches and cathedrals. Surprisingly there weren’t a huge amount of tourists there so the city was rather calm and very comfortable. Unlike some other cities that I have experienced in Italy, I felt like I could easily find my way around there and talk to people. It was just a really friendly and fun experience.
From Verona we boarded our six hour train to Germany… I didn’t know how much I liked traveling in trains until this trip! It’s fun to meet people and hear what they are saying, I also love having the breathtaking countryside flying by. Mom and I weren’t very good company though, we were both so lost in our books, completely oblivious to the world except on occasion when we remembered to look out the window, geeks I know. We actually spent much of our train ride in a constant battle with the air conditioner, much to the amusement of two Italian guys sitting across from us. When we finally got to Germany we spent a lot of time trying to figure out where our hostel was and how to get there, so like two independent American women, we decided to walk… the only thing we knew was that we were on the street that our hostel was, and from the funny looks we got from the people we asked, we should have guessed that it was far… and it was… We walked for ever carrying our suitcases and souvenirs that we had bought from Venice, passing men in lederhosen and hoards of people on their way to the tents. We finally got there and were just so happy to finally put our bags down and get ready to join the crowd. We followed the hoards of people and were herded to the gates of Oktoberfest!!
It was nothing like I had imagined, the “tents” were huge and more like two story buildings than actual tents. At the end of the row of tents was a huge amusement park and in the middle of the isle and all around there were little shops and counters to get amazing food at!! We didn’t even know where to start so we just began going in all of the tents. The tents were crazy, I can’t even explain them. There were thousands of people in each tent and they were all singing and drinking and dancing with each other. Each tent was different but they all had live music, great food and crazy fun decorations. We looked around for tables to sit inside and did make some friends who invited us to their own tables but eventually we just decided to sit outside with the rest of the tableless losers. There we got our first amazing rotisserie chicken with potatoes… and of course beer… and yes it was amazing! At every table we sat down to drink at, we met fun people and made friends from around the world. The first group we sat with were kids from Japan, the next people we sat with were from Munich and then our favorites were stationed in Iraq and on leave for a few weeks. They were awesome and just so happy to sit down with us and drink and enjoy their break, and we were happy to distract them! The people were awesome, the food was to amazing (shown by my increasing waste line) and the atmosphere was infectious, you couldn’t help but want to laugh, dance, smile, sing and most of all there was the desire to meet people. I think my absolute favorite group we came across was in the back of one of the tents, they were all men and they were standing on their benches dancing when mom pushed me up to one of them to take a picture, after he pulled us up to dance with them! They were adorable; the man I was dancing with was probably in his early 40’s and was so nerdy looking that he was absolutely the sweetest person I’ve ever met. They ended up being a group of English engineers bringing their clients to Oktoberfest and mom was dancing with the most important client!!! This guy was hilarious he kept telling me that they were all socially retarded engineers and all I could do was laugh and say that I’ve been surrounded by engineers my whole life and I love them all!! We actually loved this group so much that we went back to dance with them again later! Everything was perfect there. Oh and I can’t forget the sweets at Oktoberfest!!! White chocolate covered strawberries, candied nuts, cookies… anything your sweet tooth could ask for!!
Now I have to say that we didn’t only play and drink in Germany we also made sure to walk around Munich and see all of the wonderful landmarks that we loved so much when we were there 10 years ago. The Glockenspiel didn’t chime while we were there but we did spend some time in the Marienplatz and had a wonderful lunch ok sausage and sauerkraut ( I ordered the sampler of all of the different famous sausage dishes in Germany… oh my god!!! Heaven). We also did a tour of many of the churches and just enjoyed ourselves walking around. I remember loving Germany as a kid and never knew if that was just because I was young, now I know that I really do just love it there. The people are nice, the buildings are beautiful, the food is wonderful and it’s just a great place to be. I actually ended up buying a traditional costume to wear at Oktoberfest and wore it on our last day. You may not believe me but I fit in perfectly : o ) Germany was awesome.
Our next stop from after Germany was a little Italian town called Ferrara. We didn’t know what to expect or really even what was there, we just wanted an adventure and hopefully a pleasant surprise. This town was not exactly the most exciting place in the world. The town was basically dead and our flat mates were not the most charming people in the world but we decided to try and make the best of it and take a walk around the town. It really wasn’t a bad place, there just wasn’t very much there and what was there was not in very good shape. We actually cut our time in Ferrara short and after spending a night there and seeing the important sights we decided to go on our was to our last but definitely not least destination, Siena.
Siena was amazing. We weren’t able to find a hostel in there so we had to book a hotel (which was actually a huge relief from the sleepless nights in the hostels) and were pleasantly surprised when we showed up and they had given us an upgrade. The room was awesome and we were both so tired that we just went out for an amazing dinner and just went to bed. The next day we did everything available in Siena, it really is a wonderful place. We walked around the whole city a million times and went in EVERY church we could find. We had amazing food in the Piazza Del Campo and saw the most beautiful scenery on the top of the church museum. I didn’t want to move an inch. I have never seen a 360 degree view that was so unbelievable from every angle. I think that was where I really actually fell in love with Siena. Mom and I had been on the road for 6 days and that still couldn’t stop us from exploring every cranny of Siena because it was just so amazing. There was also something cool going on there while we were visiting. Siena is famous for its Palio, or horse races which take place on July 2nd, and August 16th. The second night we were in Siena was actually the dinner in the Piazza Del Campo that was celebrating the winners of this years Palio. The Piazza was all decorated and the colors of the winning team were flying high and proud everywhere. It was really fun to see the people walking around and supporting their colors and being so happy and proud to be a part of that community.
Siena was amazing, Germany was amazing and Verona was amazing, but none of it would have been half as perfect if Mom hadn’t come to Italy to see me. We had an amazing time surfing the Italian train network, sleeping in crazy hostels with loud smelly boys, eating AWESOME food, meeting interesting people, reading millions of travel books, walking our feet sore, and most of all being together. Thank you Mom, it was amazing.