Ciao From Italia!

We are writing to you from Martina's house in Milan. She sends a big hello to everyone! Her parents have been the sweetest, spoiling us with great Italian meals. So, tonight for our farewell dinner we cooked her family a genuine southern meal (or as best as we could do in an Italian kitchen).



But... let's back up a little bit. We have been in Italy for 14 Days. Rome was amazing and HUGE! Our favorites were The Colleseum and Trevi Fountain. (Dad we threw a coin over our shoulder for you like you asked us to!) We were there for 4 nights, where we met up with Sabrina and spent plenty of time with her hopping back and forth between restraunts and bars in different Piazzas. Our favorites were Piazza Navona and Campo di Fiori. Our last day, we made the 2 1/2 hour journey to Pompeii to see the ruins of the 79AD eruption of Vesuvius. Liz snuck up a hole into the restricted area in the large ampitheater to climb the stairs all the way to the top. Risky, but well worth it she says. We loved Rome, but our feet did not appreciate the cobble stone streets. It was the first city where we actually decided we could walk no further and had to hail a cab to take us home.



We were really excited to leave Rome for Firenze to meet up with Martina. The coolest parts of Florence were the Pointe Vecchio (the old bridge), The Duomo, Michaelangelo's David and of course the leather! We spent a lot of time wandering through the open air markets and eating gelato. (We made an agreement to eat gelato every day while we were in Italy... and we stuck to it!)



After 3 days, we cut our time in Florence a bit short to head north west up to Martina's seaside house in Levanto. It was beautiful and relaxing to lay on the beach after so much walking in Rome, Pompeii, and Florence. Her family pretty much adopted us for the week. Her family made us authentic Italian meals, served in 3 to 4 courses. And yet, with each course we were still surprised to be served more food! Needless to say, it was so nice to have home cooked meals! On our fourth day there, we traveled by train 20 minutes to Cinque Terre, which is made up of 5 little towns situated on rocky cliffs. We sunbathed on big rocks before we jumping off of them into the chilly crystal blue water. It is really a place too amazing for words. On this trip, have traveled to a lot of places, and seen a lot, but this was definitely one of the most beautiful.



Now here we are in Milan, after a 3 hour road trip. Yes, Martina drove us in her Fiat from the Seaside! We spent lots of time hanging out with the people in her life, family and friends. We climbed to the top of the Duomo (300 something stairs), which gave us a great panoramic view of the entire city. Hall's favorite part is all the men in suits riding bicycles. Today, Liz and Martina went to Palazzo Reale to see Monet's waterlilly paintings in person. Hall and Sabrina decided to do some shopping and eat more Italian food. Afterwards, Martina showed us all her favorite boutiques and her favorite gelato place, Chocolat.



Tomorrow morning we leave for Greece, where we will spend the last 7 days of our trip. We are sad to leave our friends, but excited to end our trip out in such a beautiful place. Hopefully you will hear from us again before we return home.



Arrivederci from Italia! Love, Hall and Liz.