Ending in Bologna

I ended my trip where it all started two years ago...a little more than two years ago...Bologna.  I went back and stayed with Matteo and his family for a few days.  We ate really well, spent time in the beautiful Bologna hills, and had a few fun nights out to end the summer, and visited a few surrounding towns. He even had me practice driving a stick-shift around....was pretty fun and he was patient with me.

It was a great way to end the summer.  Easy and carefree and I was surprisingly much more tired than I had anticipated.  I feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends all around the world, I had an amazing summer, could not have dreamed for more.

xxx
al

Castellana

So I know that it has been a really long time, but I thought I'd finish out the recaps and highlights of my Italia trip so that I can keep looking at all my pictures and keep smiling.  I didn't have a computer this time, and honestly didn't really feel like being on one all the time either...so now that I'm back with my beautiful MacBook I can do the full recap.

After Ortona and Pescara with the wedding and all the good food and fun, I went back down into the region of Puglia to Castellana, the first town I was in with Jenna.  While there with her I ended up meeting some of the locals and they liked me enough to invite me back...being that Puglia is beautiful, it was not very hard not to say no :)

While there I spent my days at the beach and my afternoons and evenings been toured around and spoiled rotten.  The pictures speak for themselves, but it was a fantastic time.

Ortona

So I'm now in the region of Abruzzo staying with my wonderful friend Chiara.  We met through our mutual friend Ilaria (who just got married) while I was studying in Bologna.  Chiara studied in Arkansas this past spring and was able to come and visit us in California, so now she is hosting me in her home town.  It's so wonderful, a small town on the Adriatic sea where she knows everyone and this week, there is a festival going on where every night there are typical dishes that Ortona is famous for where you can go and eat with your friends and have a nice evening with good food...they call is a 'sagra'.  We've been going to that in the evening, or venturing over to the neighboring town, Pescara where Ilaria lives along with many of our other friends from Bologna.

Continuing to fall in love with this country more and more every day.

xxx
al

Wedding Bells

The instigator to the entire two months in Italy was to come to the wedding of my old roommate, Ilaria.  And it was so worth the trip!  The wedding was this past Sunday and we all had a blast.  The mass was held in a beautiful church in the countryside and was half in English half in Italian because the groom, is Greek but was born in America and has been living in London for the past 10plus years...so all of his guests were British.  I felt amazing because for once I could understand everything, although my Italian is pretty good now, it's not my native tongue, so it was fun to joke around with all the British people and make fun of each others accents. 

After the mass we went to Ilaria's house in the countryside...two years ago I went there with her and her family for Easter.  They had moved things around a bit, but it was a perfect spot for a wedding reception.  We ate well, drank a lot of wine, sang, danced, and then did it all over again. It was so beautiful and fun, and so wonderful to see my friend so happy and in love.  

So happy! So blessed to have such wonderful friends all over the world. 

xxx

al

It's been too long and I've had too much fun

Ok, so the blog kind of went on vacation along with me, but I'm going to try and be better.

First things first I had the most amazing 12 days in Sardegna.  I stayed with my friend Laura and her amazing family and seriously lived the dream. Every day we would scooter to one beach or another in the morning, come home for lunch with the family, then do the same thing in the afternoon.  One day Laura's dad took us on his boat which was amazing.  There is no better view of a beach than from the water....another day her brother took us out on a different kind of boat, they call it a gamone, but I don't think there is an english equivalent, it's like a speed boat but with rubber inflated sides.  Like a giant raft for white water rafting with a motor.  It is really fun to dive off of into the water, especially when the water is crystal clear and full of beautiful fish.  Sardegna was a dream.  Good food, family, friendship, and the most beautiful scenery, beaches, water, etc.  Even went horseback riding on the beach one evening, which was an experience in it of itself...but that's a good story for when I'm back home.  
Here are some of the highlights in pictures of the trip. 

Bye bye Bologna

The time has come again for the next destination. I am leaving the beautiful but very hot bologna on Monday for Sardegna. I'm so poking forward to being by the sea and with Laura. I've missed her a lot! My two weeks in bologna have been wonderful. It's like I live here again.  I've been staying with friends and seriously it's amazing how easy it is to be here. The summer nights are the best. There is always a free concert or two or three. Potluck dinners.
Lazy days with friends. Reading good books. And just being here. It's all been quite magical and I'm so glad that i got to celebrate with rachelle for her birthday and have the freedom to stroll through the city. 

Will post soon when I'm on the island.... 
Lots of love and gelato kisses 
Xxx
Al

Back to Bologna

My two weeks in Castellana Grotte are over. I had so much fun with Jenna and everyone at World Dance Movement. WDM has become family, and since im not even a dancer, I think it says a lot about the people I met there. For my last day, it was everyone's day off so we spent it by the pool just being idiots, and I loved it. Then we went out to dinner and a bunch of our Italian friends came to say goodbye to me. I did not anticipate it being this hard to leave or say goodbye. I've made life long friends, Italian and American alike. I thin I'm going to visit some of the Italians that I met there later this summer because some of them live near where I'll be going...so at least that made the goodbye a little less sad. 

I'm now on the train headed for my bella Bologna!!!!!!! I'm so exited to see the city that I came to love so much and even more so to see my friends. I've not been to Bologna  in over year, I honestly can't believe that it has been that long. 

So far my summer has been amazing, seriously I already have enough stories and laughs to write my own book- maybe I'll do that one day.  I'm so excited for the rest of the summer! 

Xxx

Al

Poglinano a mare close to Castellana we jumped off :) 

Sunrise Swim

Sunrise Swim 

Today for one of the classes Jenna is taking, taught by her good friend Josh, we (the class of 40 or so) went to the beach...We left the hotel at 5:00am and then it took about 20 minutes to get there.  Then for the piece they are doing we filmed underwater with goPro cameras and it is turning out really cool. So I manned one of the cameras and felt like a fish. It was actually really fun and the water was not that cold at all. A nice little morning workout- and the water with the sun rising in the background was fantastic. I bought a pair of kiddy goggles so I could see everything.  The water is so
clear here and lots of fishes swam by me to say hello. Everything was fine and dandy until something in the water gave me a rash on my neck...how attractive and Josh, being his sneaky self snapped a post swim photo of me sleeping on the bus...that one will not be making the blog. 

The past few days have been really wonderful. The town is so cute. I walked up to go and see the caves, le grotte, yesterday but I forgot my wallet. So just made a nice little walk about it instead...I'm hoping to go back tomorrow to actually see them. 

 Tonight there is a special dinner for the dancers at some cool place which I don't really know anything about. So we shall see what happens. 

A presto! 

Xxx

Al 

Marriage Italian Style. Round 1

Here we are at the first of the two Italian weddings of the summer. This one was for one of the head teachers had the dance workshop here in Castellana Grotte. The wedding was more like what we would call a reception because they got married 'officially' the day before in Milan. However, this wedding was hilarious. The maid of honor wore a yellow suit and a dress with silver heels...and oh yes he is a French man. It was all so fun and then the food was delicious, and there was tons of it! I had a great time with Jenna and Carly (the other girl in the photo) and I'm loving making friends with all of these fun loving Italians. 

The first week of the dance workshop starts tomorrow, so ill see less of Jenna and more of the pool....becoming very dark already. 

Lots of love! 

Xxx

Al

Day 1 as a 'dancer'

Well today was a good start to the Italian life...slept in had some nice fruit and my favorite espresso in the entire world.  I'm here in a small town a little south of Bari called Castellana Grotte. It is so nice and flat, surround by tons of olive orchards and grapes. I'll have to go exploring further into the nearby ag.   We were helping to get all of the welcome stuff ready for dancers that come Sunday. Jenna has been doing this program, World Dance Movement, for 7 years now. So she's friends with everyone here and has been wonderful about introducing me. I felt like my degree in Italian really paid off today. I wrote a lot of emails and filled out forms all in Italian and I'm not tired and no one second guessed my Italian. Hooray! Such a step up from the last time I was in this country. :). Anyways, tonight we are being taken out by some local Italians that work here. Should be fun!
We shall see if I become a dancer, they said I could sit in on classes if I wanted since I'm translating and helping out. So happy to be here with my Jenna bear.
Xxx
Al

My first meal back in Italy. Yummmyyyy

In Air

Well the time has come again for me to pack up and go on another adventure. It's been a whirlwind of a time the past few weeks. I graduated from college...said goodbye to sunshiny Los Angeles...popped into beautiful farm country for a fast 8 days...partied with the best of the best and thoroughly celebrated finishing college....now to postpone real life for just a little bit long. 

The next two months I am smiling to say that I'll be in my 'bella Italia'- And I could not be happier.  This time with a backpack full of swimsuits,sunscreen and tennis shoes ill be meandering around the country visiting friends, watching them get married, eating good food, obviously drinking great wine, and hopefully coming back with a great tan and a few stories that are too "good" to make the blog. 

Here's to the present!!! 

Xxx

Al