La Nostra Spettacolare Italiano

I was downloading my pictures from my camera to my computer and asked Beth what to call the folder. She said, in a loud booming voice "Our Italian Spectacular." And folks, that is certianly what it was. Having her here was amazing. I think about all of you all the time, see things that remind me of you, and want so much to be able to show you these things. Well, for the past 10 days, I was able to share those things with my beautiful sister, Beth.

Rome, Pompeii, Perugia- The Euro Chocolate Festival, Siena, Montalcino, Florence, and Pisa. We did them all. It is safe to say that Italy was invaded by a few of the Meyer sister's.
From hating public transportation, to touching a lot of "old stuff", Beth and I pretty much experienced it all, including the culture of those oh-so-wonderful Italians. At one point Beth said "Do they even see me? I mean, we're walking on the same sidewalk coming toward one another and it's like they AIM for me. Do they want to hit me? Is that actually happening?" I patted her on the back and said "Welcome to Italy."
So, we took over two hundred pictures just on my digital camera. That doesn't include the artsy ones Beth took on her "that camera's so big, that girl has to be a tourist" camera. It's okay. We embraced being tourists, didn't we, Beth? How can you not when 80% of this country's economy comes from tourism? Here are a few pictures- some of the highlights of our Spectacular. Enjoy!

The Italians don't drink coffee, they drink espresso (which they call 'caffe' or in English, coffee). Being a black coffee drinker myself, I have embraced this Italian tradition. By the end of the week Beth had to have her fix everyday too. Yay.

Yes, Beth is infact touching the Coloseum. And it's very old, I hear.

Me and the Pantheon. Here that Beth? PANtheon. (We had some issues calling it the Parthenon...whoops...)Isn't Rome beautiful? *sigh*And look! Beth got to sit in her very first Roman theater in Pompeii!

On Tuesday we took two trains and a bus one way to get to the EuroChocolate Festival. It was worth every minute. We would walk down the old streets with over 300 vendors represented while the sales reps for the companies handed us chocolate. As embarassing as it is, we bought so much chocolate, we had to buy another bag to bring it all home. Daddy- aren't you proud? Hey, most of it is for you guys!Siena. We used it as a sort of home base for three nights so that we could fully explore Tuscany. Our hostel was great, and so was the city.

This is a story I will most likely tell everyone. But let's just say, the Meyer girls were defeated. Defeated by a steak. This is Franco. He is hacking off our portion.

The same night that we were defeated, our first course was fresh pasta. The restraunt had an open kitchen so we could see everything going on. Amazing.We spent one day in the beautiful Tuscan town of Montalcino. Great food and great views.And we had to get a Paul Robinett candle picture in Pisa (the candle is leaning too...hehe). Although the city was dirty, the tower was really interesting. We were both kind of shocked that there really was a big leaning tower.

We didn't have a personal photographer on the trip (dissapointing, I know) so there were many of the pull away shots!
Beth and I had amazing time and were so excited to spend time together in such an extrordinary place. Where to next Beth? Greece did you say? Awesome.