Ok, this was written a long time ago, as you will for sure notice so sorry about the goofy wording and I wrote it on my iPhone so ahead of time I apologised for the numerous mistakes!!! I hope you enjoy reading about our travels as much as we enjoyed living them out!!!
Out journy began on Friday, after a long and really unhappy night, I hadn't really heard from the parents since they landed so I wasn't sure when they were coming to viterbo, if ever. I was waiting for them sitting on my computer hoping for any sign of them when I finally heard the buzz of the door and went crazy!! I was just so unbelieveably happy to be with them!! It's very different being with people who love you no matter what, instead of always being on guard and nervous the way you are with people who have no idea who you really are or even wether or not they like you. Right away we were on our way to bolsena for deans first real Italian city (dean has never been to Italy before) and for a wonderful pizza lunch!! They were amazed by the beauty, not only of the city but also of the wonderful drive to Florence after. We decided to spend the night in Florence on our way to Venice and had a great, though short, time there. While getting completely lost in the car and then walking for hours in search of a decent restruant, we finally settled ourselves in a fun little trattoria. We had fun with the waiters who enjoyed our broken Italian and our brave mistakes. One of my favorite things to do in italy is to meet people by trying to talk to them and having them teach me the actual way to speak. They like us!! After our wonderful night in Florence we were on our way to venice. The road was beautiful and the ride was fun, having mom teach us Italian from her little book while dean drove and I giggled at her helarious pronounciation (she's actually better than me at speaking Italian). When we finally got there, it only took us an hour and three passes over the huge bridge to figure out where we were supposed to park. Thinking we were done with our goofy mistakes and our bad luck we decided to not get a 60 euro private taxi ride to our hotel and that we would find it ourselves... Stuborn idiots... Anyways... I'll spare you the wonderful details but Three hours later we stumbled oved the threshhold of our hole in the wall bed and breakfast and finally made it up the four flights of stairs with our bags and sat, for the first time in hours. When we finally had the strength to venture out again we decided that alcahol was the immidiate way to go so we found a place for appertivo and sat laughing and vegging for a while. When we were done drinking we decided to get a little lost to find a restruant... That's what we thought would happen but after walking around for about an hour we ended up right back where we started and went to a restruant right on our street. We had a great time (and a lot of wine) at dinner along with q huge fish and also deans first taste of lemoncello!! After, we had to go home because we were so exausted but considering what our next door neighbors were dong we wern't going to get to sleep any timesoon!! : o ) it was helarious and mom and dean came up with many dirty ways to get back at them (none of which we actually did) so instead we watched the coolest movie ever!! The muppet's Christmas carol!!! And fell asleep.
The next morning we were wonderfully woken up by the breakfast crew outside our bedroom, merrily setting up. This whole hotel is helarious and fun all at the same time, the people or should I say woman, was extremely hard working but at the same time she was sweet and smiling!! When we finally made it our we decided to make our way to the famous st marco's square to begin our touristy day. We did all the things that we were supposed to and went to some places that I had never been before. Dean and mom had never been to Venice before so the entire day was of course magical no matter how much our feet hurt or how often dean got us lost : o ). We actually didn't get any shopping done but we basically walked the span of the island three times over! It was beautiful and we had a great time together. We had a wonderful dinner with an amazing platter of cheese (my favorite thing to order ever with a platter of meats... Yum yum yum) and of course some perfect wine!!! We walked and laughed, learned and played, ate and drank but most of all we all came together to finish the muppet's Christmas carol in the end!!! It was the perfect day!
The parents came back to viterbo today! It was So weird to see them again but it was wonderful. Sadly the first thing they had to do was bring me to school, and after getting seriously lost out side the walls finally succeeded in leaving me at porta romana and going off to check into their hotel and walk around. After class I found them at a wine bar of course and we made our way around town and eventually home to pick up my roommate for dinner. I of course only took them to the best so we went to monastero's pizza where the pizza is so big that they have to carry it out on two plates. They seriously underestimated our drinking abilities and instead of bringing us our huge liters of beer they brought one to share : o (.. Still the drinks were good, food was great, and the company was better. The next morning amidst the poring rain and diehard market people we scavenged together a homemade breakfast and got fueled up to face the weather. Unfortunately I had to write essays for some of my classes so I had to stay home while they church hopped but all the same I met them later and we decided to hit the viterbo christmas market. Dean being the goofball that he is ran circles around us while we got Christmas shopping done. To not dissapoint the parents after bringing them to monastero's, I brought them to the next best thing, the spegeteria, to try their hand at picking out of the hundreds of choices of spaghetti. The next day we were off to Rome. The first night we were there we decided to do the walking tour of all the downtown things possible and then hit the Christmas market there. It was beautiful with all of the Christmas lights up and the people all so happy. The next day we were tackling the collosium and the roman forum. It was a huge job but we handled it with efficiency and care. It was a lot of fun walking around with Dean and Mom, between the three of us we had enough information to keep us happy and entertained the whole way through. Again we ended up shopping and walking through Rome at night, on the way picking up salami and cheese for dinner at our hotel. The dinner was fun and yummy and the night was comfortable. Today... At this moment we are waiting in line for the vatacan musieum. We decided that today was dedicated to the beautiful little country and have been waiting in line ever since. For our half hour in st peters we were in line for an hour and a half... For our hour inside the vatacan museum, we've been In Line for three hours... Painful hours... All worth it I know.
Leaving the parents in Rome so that they could catch their flight was sad but knowing that I was coming home for Christmas was comforting!! It was an amazing trip with even more stories than I included here!!
This guy is my new roommate, we live in a little apartment in the ancient district of Viterbo. Our house is actually only one small section of some old families castle. We live on Piazza Della Morte where all of the public executions were held. Our little house is really perfect, you walk in the front door and look down a long straight hallway to our actual door which then opens to another little hallway where you hang your coats up and then you can either go up stairs to our large open living room or go downstairs to the bedrooms and bathroom. The living room is really nice because it is naturally lit with two skylights and it's really comfy. The bedrooms are nice and big and we are the only two students in USAC who have full sized beds. The shower is hilarious, you step up into the tub and have to hold the shower head for yourself and before i moved in they only had a half of a shower curtain so for the first few days we had to stand in the corner hoping not to spray water everywhere.... it was kind of a funny sight. Our kitchen is even funnier, to open the oven you have to close the door, and it's a good thing that Scott is 6'4" because i can't reach a single thing. Scott is from Idaho, he lives in a little town called Moscow and goes to the University of Iowa. 
This guy is my new best friend, His name is Dylan and he is kind of amazing!!! He is from Ohio and he goes to Miami University (in Ohio) He is just the nicest guy you will ever meet and I rather love him!!!! He's in the air force and has hilarious stories and the best heart ever. Dylan is a Classics Historian so being able to show him around Rome and seeing his face when he sees the monuments for the first time is one of the best feelings ever. Whenever I go anywhere Dylan is with me so you will see him all the time in my pictures and stuff!! I spend all of my time with this guy and his roommate, who you will meet next. I'm not going to lie I'm really in love with Dylan and he knows it!! I'll make him come and visit so you all can meet him...
