Wandering Browns

We arrived in Genova after 10:00 pm due to our train being delayed. There were a lot of unhappy people, including the conductor, but that was because this old Italian woman kept following him around and yelling at him. By the 3 rd time she had confronted him, he threw his bag, and cussed her out. The funny thing was, (Austin told me because I don’t speak Italian), was that he was still using the formal version of “you” (more respectful for older people) whilst he was cussing her out. Train stations in general are not generally the best places to be late at night, and are not in the best parts of town, so Austin takes off to find our B&B. Well, I made him take the directions out and I carried them and tried to keep him on the right path since he was going so fast. We stuck to lighted, main streets, and even ran into two prostitutes on the corner outside the place we were staying! We were very happy when we got there, but kind of unhappy about news we received about our relocation...

I felt worse for Rosa after our late night when I woke up early the next morning to go to the bathroom and she was up and about already ironing our clothes that she had hung out to dry the day before. We tried to explain to her that we were rolling them up into little balls and stuffing them into our backpacks, but she still wanted to do it, so we let her. We woke up relatively early because we wanted to go to the market to buy souvenirs before leaving San Remo for Monaco. We went to the market, but ended up only finding things for our baby. Oh well. We bought an adorable short and t-shirt outfit that says “I want to try that wave” with sea things on it, as well as a T-shirt that our kid will not be able to wear for a couple years, but it was the smallest size and says “Italia” on it with a little flag. Hopefully we will be able to find suitable souvenirs for everyone else in Genova. The market was fairly big, with an indoor section that had fruit, vegetables, meat, pasta, pesto, and...

We slept in Monday because we were super tired from the late nights the past couple nights. When we finally decided to get up for the day, Rosa made us really good hot chocolate for me, and orzo for Austin (a hot barley drink that members drink instead of coffee). I think it tastes like burnt toast. We talked with Rosa for awhile, and she told us about her conversion story, as well as her experiences serving temple missions at the Bern, Switzerland temple. She also told us about one of her great-grandsons that was born with several problems, but through a series of miracles has survived and is doing well now. She reminds us SO MUCH of Austin’s grandma. Her husband passed many years ago, and she loves to cook and clean and take care of people. And she loves Austin. Austin called her “Santa Rosa” the whole time we were in San Remo, because she really is a saint. She helped us start laundry and told us to go out in the morning and she would take care of the rest. We finally got going ar...

We arrived in San Remo and were immediately enveloped in friendly arms of so many that Austin knew while on his mission here. He served here 8 months, so he made many friends. One of the families called Austin last week to set up dinner for the night we arrived, so his son, Mirko, picked us up at the train station and took us to Rosa’s house, the place we are staying while we are here. When we got to Rosa’s house, there were 2 other women there with Rosa to welcome us. I forget their names, but they live so far away that they can’t get to church in the morning with the public transport available, so they stay with Rosa Saturday nights and go to church in the morning with her. Due to this arrangement, Rosa put us up in her bedroom, the 2 other ladies in her bedroom upstairs, and Rosa slept on her own couch! She is a saint, and has tried to do everything possible to make our lives pleasant while we are here. The tunnel to the trains  After cleaning up a little and setti...

Riomaggiore- the start of our adventure Our night in Riomaggiore wasn’t the most comfortable, because the bed was 2 twin cots pushed together, and a drunk guy got lost on his way to his room and was yelling in the streets for about 30 minutes before his friends guided him home. Also, the church tower rang every hour and since the town is so tiny, it seemed like it was REALLY close to our windows. Regardless, we had a nice morning getting ready for our hike and finding fruit to eat for breakfast in Rio. We set out for the next town over, Manarola, at about 9:00. Manarola was not very far away, and had a cute main street leading down to a tiny rocky cove. We bought focaccia and some kind of sweet bread for breakfast, and walked around the next point only to find the trail to the next town was closed due to flooding. I guess last fall, there was a series of horrible storms that caused flooding and mudslides, wiping out the trail and much of the town of Vernazza. So, we had to take t...

Surprise, surprise we also stayed two nights in Siena! It was so nice to slow down and just hang out for a day and meet Austin’s friends/people who speak English! The next morning we woke up and had another wonderful breakfast by our B&B mother. Austin had a fun conversation with her and the other guy staying in the place, and I kept looking at him trying to remind him with my ESP that the train for Pisa left at 9:18. Well, we got out the door before 9:00, and even made it to the bus station in enough time to catch a bus to the train station. Once we got in there and bought our ticket, we thought we might have a chance to catch it. We ran to the proper platform just as the train doors were closing. The conductor didn’t open the doors for us, and they were locked, and the train started moving, so we officially missed the train. That was ok, though, because Siena’s train station also has a mall. Austin was able to buy batteries (we have had a constant battle with the camera and bat...

I hope you all enjoy this, because it is the first (and probably the last) time you’ll get to hear what actually happened during our vacation.  So after a grueling day in Firenze, and a train ride that seemed impossibly long after being spoiled by the fast train from Napoli, we got to Siena just as the sun was getting ready to set.  Not as romantic as it sounds, because we had no idea where to go, and I didn’t realize that Siena was built on a series of steep hills.  So we got on a bus that took us from the station closer to where we wanted to be, and started wandering around.  (Lonely Planet is great for info, but the maps look like a 3 rd grader drew them.)  After like 15 minutes of up and down, we ended up in front of the Duomo, which was totally unexpected, so I called the guy whose B&B we were staying at (did I mention we didn’t even have an address for this place?) and he said he would come find us.  Ten seconds later, he popped out of an...

David, just in case you don't know what I'm talking about For the first time in our whole trip, we stayed for 2 nights in the same place. Let me tell you, it felt really good to not have to worry about packing up our stuff and toting it around for once. Firenze day 2 started out early as well, though not as early as day 1. We took a bus from our hostel to the Galleria dell'accademia. This is the home of the famous David sculpture by Michelangelo. It also had a very interesting musical instrument museum which I enjoyed. It included some of the first pianos, and the first upright piano (it looked like a grand piano stood up on end). It also included some interesting musical instruments that aren’t around today, including a serpentine horn, and one-stringed instrument that sounded like a trumpet. There were other works of art, but the main exhibit was David. He is HUMUNGOUS! I was not expecting him to be that big, but he is one beautiful work of art. Sadly, we were not ...

On the terrace of the Uffizi with Palazzo Vecchio in the background It was raining pretty hard the night we arrived in Firenze. After being asked by at least 10 Africans if we wanted an umbrella, we found the right bus and met this lady from New Zealand who has been living in Firenze for several years. She told us the right stop to get off for the hostel, as well as some tips for sights to see and a good place to have dinner. It was around 9:00 by the time we made it to our bus stop. From the bus stop, we easily found the road leading to the hostel, but spent the next 20-30 minutes hiking uphill before finally finding it. Our hostel was called Villa Camerata and is right on the outskirts of the city, set amongst green fields and vineyards. It was an old, fancy house and had a beautiful courtyard and garden. We checked in and had to do laundry that night; which made it a pretty late night. The next morning, we woke up extra early because we wanted to go to the famous Uffizzi gall...