I met an Italian

I have to jump forward in the story because I met an Italian man in Rome after Sara and I went to the Cinque Terre. Then, we left Italy and flew to Madrid. My Italian Romeo wanted me to come to visit him in southern italy, so my phone would not stop ringing once we arrived in Spain. It took all of about 8 hours for me to cave in and agree to fly back to Rome. The next day, I jumped on a flight back to Rome, grabbed a hot sweaty train from the airport to the central station, and took another train south for 2 hours to Napoli where Angelo met me in his car and we drove another 2 hours to Scalea. Wow, the things we do for love!

Sara was terrific about the whole thing. She just said "go, have fun, I'll see you back here next week".

watch my video of the beach below the hotel in Scalea.

More on Italy

I have to stop myself from spilling too much about this crazy trip. I wouldn't want anyone to know how insane I a really am, and after all, this is the internet, and anything posted here becomes like a bad tatoo of a former boyfriend or spouse that your can never erase.

I left off at the rental car, but never told you that it was a SMART car. You know, one of those tiny 2 seater things built by Mercedes and made famous in the movie "the DaVinci Code". What the hell was I thinking anyway?

When I finally picked Sara up at the airport that night, she confirmed that I was indeed nuts. We sped back to the hotel, had a cocktail at the bar with Gianfranco, and went to the room for a nap before we caught the shuttle bus into the city to check out Rome on Sunday night.

Update on the adventure...

Since I found myself completely frustrated by my inability to find adequate technology in Italy, I gave up on blogging and just embraced the entire country. This is a retro-blog.

After landing in Rome 3 days ahead of my sister, I wandered around the city, hung out at the bars, and got to know the place. Of course, I sweated like a cow because it was a thousand degrees out.

On my first Sunday (the day Sara arrived) I rented a car and drove to the beach. I love that everyone, and I mean everyone, wears a bikini in Italy! I was wearing this red two-piece-that-looks-like-a-one-piece unit and thought at any moment I would called out as the lifeguard on duty. It took me another 2 weeks to actually muster the nerve to buy a bikini to wear. By that time I'd lost a few pounds from all of the sweaty walking. Oh, and nothing like the brilliant idea to travel with all of your belongings in a backpack to help facilitate weightloss!

My drive back from this beach was a little unnerving. I had a shitty map from the rental agency and I think I drove in circles for about an hour before I finally recognized a sign the said "martini" on the outskirts of Rome. I knew I was on the right road back to the hotel, I just had to turn around and drive the other direction!

Once back at the hotel, I immediately went to the bar and ordered a gin and tonic from Gianfranco ( say John Franko). I told him I was never driving a car in Italy again. Hah! An hour later Sara sends me a text message from the airport saying her phone is dead, where am I?, am I waiting somewhere at the airport? OK, so much for sending a cab to get her.

We survived that trip. That was just the beginning. The rest is waayyyy more fun. Tomorrow, the trip to Cinque Terre.....

Less that 24 hrs until we're in the air!

Let the adventures begin!