Sicilian Boss? Bring It. Sefciks Never Run Scared.

well.  Sicily has been....interesting.  Who thought we could encounter so many problems in such a short amount of time.  Yesterday, we got the Eurostar train from Florence to Rome, left our souvenirs in the storage room at Casa Olmata, got on the train to the airport, took our flight from Rome to Palermo, boarded a train that took us from the Palermo airport to Palermo Centrale (1.5 hours), then boarded a train headed to Messina.  Now, our final destination was Catania.  Why did we board the train to Messina, you ask?  Because the train was free with our railpass, and we didn't think it would take so godawfully long as the FOUR HOURS we found out it would take once we were on board.  We knew there was a bus to Catania that was direct, instead of the two trains we would have to take, but we thought the bus was really expensive (thanks a lot, Steph, nice research).  So there we were, crammed with about fifty other people in three tiny little train cars packed so full that we not only could not sit down, we couldn't even move down the aisles or sit on the floor.  No way, we thought.  We hopped off at the next stop, headed back toward Palermo Centrale, and prayed we hadn't missed the bus (because if we had, we would be facing seven hours of jam packed hell).  Jumped off the train, and headed to get the increasingly elusive bus tickets.  SIX different bus companies before we found the one that went to Catania.  Pleeeasssse.  For reals.  Got the tickets (14 euros for a 2 1/2 hour ride = thank you GOD) and then commenced running around like idiots, trying to find food for the train.  We hadn't eaten in forever and since we had jumped on the Messina train two minutes after getting off the previous one, no chance for food then, either.  Surprisingly, after we had gotten our food from the sixth vendor we checked out and had literally RUN around the whole city block, the bus ride was pleasant. 

Enter the apartment.  (switching narrators from Steph to Stacey)

Alright. Allow me to set the scene. It's dark, Stephanie is sucking away happily at her freaking McFlurry that she HAD to get (no shocker there) and we're blindly following this really nice girl down a street that is getting more and more sketchy with each step. Just when we had passed a place that was only slightly acceptable (and at this point I was hoping was our destination) we round the corner of a corrugated metal fence and go down an alley that you wouldn't catch me in in the light of day. Great. Awesome. The apartment was actually decent on the inside, nothing I would be terribly excited about, but Stephanie was thrilled saying this was her "great surprise".........wtf. Obviously our definitions of great surprise are vastly different. So this girl finally leaves and then the noise begins. Now, we've all lived in apartments, so clearly there are some things you can hear from your neighbors, no biggie. These walls were paper thin, this woman might as well have been screaming directly into my ear. Hello, neighbors from hell. Their child apparently didn't sleep all night, throwing all sorts of things onto the floor, while the parents were doing what I could only assume to be rearranging all of the furniture in their craptastic apartment. Add in a raging mad dog and some sort of obnoxious high pitched noise and you have just the base sounds for our night. We had just lay down to go to bed and heard a car screeching to a halt outside our window. (Might I mention that the next morning I looked out our window and we might as well have been staying next to ground zero. It looked like a bomb had gone off and just left heaps of rubble. What gorgeous scenery) If that wasn't bad enough apparently the person they were waiting for was taking their sweet ass time and so what did the driver do????? Oh that's right. The most appropriate thing to do at night. They laid on their horn....for five minutes. Seriously?  I was about to go out and kick some Sicilian ass. I finally stuffed my earplugs in and fell asleep. I awoke to someone shaking me. "who is this crazy lady shaking me and what does she want??? am i on the train??" I finally realized it was just Steph begging me for a pair of the earplugs she made fun of me for. Not so funny now, eh!? Anyhow. The noise basically never stopped. Ever. This woman was psycho. So, after I woke up and took a cold shower (thanks to someone) I was thoroughly pissed. I could feel myself channeling my inner Lynnette. People do NOT mess with my sleep.  Shit was about to hit the fan.

Enter Stephanie as narrator.

I have rarely been as altogether terrified of my sister as I was this morning.  I had screwed up.  The pictures on the internet LIED to me, and though I had done my best and had actually been really excited about us having this excellent private apartment, it was clear to me that Stacey was an angry, angry beast.  I was scared to death to wake her up this morning after that horrendous night.  We met the B&B girl in the square, and after I attempted to open the bargaining with an "I think we need to move for the next night," Stacey jumped in with "We are not paying for this apartment for another night and we are moving somewhere else." Reasonable.  Direct, to the point, yet still polite.  Okay, I thought, she means business.  The girl said she didn't have the authority to let us off the hook without charging us an additional night as cancellation fee, but we could go talk to her boss.  Her Sicilian boss, as she reminded us.  Stacey said (mentally) "bring it on."  The poor bastard didn't know what hit him.  We fell seamlessly into the good cop/bad cop routine, but even I was completely shocked by my counterpart's tenacity.  She was a lion.  She was a pitbull hungry for the kill.  She was a cobra ready to strike.  You get it.  We walked in, and she was "I understand that you are running a business and that this isn't your fault, but we are not paying for another night.  The apartment is not habitable.  Do you understand that?  If you try to charge us for another night--" "I am not going to try, I will charge you."  "Well, if you charge our Visa card, we are going to cancel the charge.  Do you understand? We will cancel it.  I'm not paying for a room I'm not staying in."  At this point, the other girl and I were somewhat slack-jawed at this fast and furious exchange.  As Stacey left to go outside and as she put it, "call in the big dogs," aka Mom and Dad, I played the meek good cop and got them to search for another apartment for us.  I can see now why the cops use this tactic.  Tres effective.  They found us another apartment, much quieter, pretty amazing and 10 euros CHEAPER.  One might ask, why didn't they offer us this apartment to begin with?  Hm. We may never know.

Do Hip Replacements Come Cheap?

My body hates me.  We started out the day with the Cannoli brothers in Cinque Terre, as usual.  Our train from Cinque Terre to La Spezia was delayed 20 minutes, so we enjoyed a lesiurely breakfast being buffeted by the trains "in transit" that sped by our bench and nearly knocked us over. 

Pisa was gorgeous, but ==okay, Stacey would like me to clarify.  The Field of Miracles IN Pisa was pretty.  Not Pisa itself.  At least, not what we saw on our way to the Field of Miracles.  That was where the true pain began.  We climbed.  And climbed. And climbed some more.  And when we thought we were through climbing, we found out there were two more levels to the Tower and we climbed some more.  After that, Stacey did some interesting acrobatic moves on the lawn in front of the Tower to get some cool pictures (ala holding the tower, etc). 

Following the Pisa climbing was the Florence walking.  We went out for dinner, and must have passed 50 cafes, sandwich places, etc, and Stacey wanted none of them.  She was looking for the true "food experience."  I stand corrected once again.  She was looking for something decent, aka without ham.  (she's sitting behind me right now, backseat writing as I type.)  She would like me to point out that I got a sandwich from the sketchiest place ever.  I got a sandwich from a local shop where they assemble it in front of you according to your specifications and I only paid 2 euros for it.  And it was delicious.  So we walked for 45 minutes to find this sandwich place and when we got there? Closed.  As in, shut down.  Thankfully, there was a Mesopotamia Kebab shop a block away that smelled delicious and so she was able to find something delicious in there.  (omg she made me rewrite like five words in that sentence=note the double use of "delicious") 

Saw the Duomo. Sketched the Ponte Vecchio (one sketch is really amazing and one is reminiscent of a 3rd grade art project).

Funniest moment of the night:  Stacey goes to get off her bunk bed to take a shower, and instead of sliding down gracefully to step onto the quite tall stepstool, she hits the stool, skids off of it, falls to the ground, pitches forward, and careens into the bunk bed across the room, landing on some other girl's stuff.  It was freaking hilarious.  True comedy.

today was the first sunny day we've had and we started it out sketching by the harbor. well actually the day started out with stephanie bribing my forgiveness with a pastry. i hate to admit that it worked. we took the train over to manarola today to buy souvenirs...no telling what!  everytime you buy a ticket you have to validate it, except today the validation machines weren't working. i could care less but stephanie looked like she was in a full state of panic the entire time we were on the train...especially when we were on our way back and the train person was sitting in the compartment behind us. steph had a foolproof plan to outsmart said individual. her great plan? run the other direction. i might want to mention that the fine for not having a validated ticket is 40 euros. i should also mention that the ticket person said it wasn't a problem and that the train we were currently on was packed full of people. running? not necessary and not possible. so we finally get to the station and the train is so long that sometimes you have to get out in the tunnel and not on the platform. we've done this basically every time since we've gotten here but apparently steph is retarded. so there was a whole group of people in the area by the doors and the train stopped but no one was moving. ....... i finally realized that no one knew how to open the door (sometimes they don't open automatically) so i said "oh you need to push the green button" i  know people understood me. but do you think anyone listened?????????? nooooooo. simultaneously people pointed behind me at the train lady and someone else said "we're in the tunnel".  so what does the train lady do but walk up to the door and push the green button. HELLO! did i not just say that five minutes ago? fine. no one listen to the american. i see how it is. so we finally get out and i turn to steph to rant about it and i say "and who was the genious that pointed out that  we were in a tunnel. god what an idiot." one guess to who that idiot was. that's right. stephanie. shame. also interesting yesterday at the train station we witnessed a fight. it was very exciting and i almost shouted out "translate to english!" so that we could know what was going on. sadly we have no idea but we think someone was attempting to be a sneaky sneaky thief and they got  caught.

that's all for now!

Gelato My Day

Ah, the sweet taste of gelato.  I can't explain why it captures my fancy more than American ice cream.  It's just far superior in every possible way.  Flavors tried so far: grapefruit, mango, lemon, chocolate chip,  strawberry, hazelnut.  I like them in that order.  I can't explain this phenom.  I want to eat more of it right now.....

Stacey and Stephanie Starring As...The Incredible Hulk, part duay

How does it feel to be a superhero?  Stacey and I got to find out yesterday in the train station.  We were coming down the many steep steps off the platform, and saw two old women struggling with their bags (giant roller suitcases).  Stacey asked if they wanted some help, and they said "yes, please," so we both grabbed a bag and walked down the stairs.  You should have heard the fuss they made about it.  "Well, would you look at that?!  They just picked up those bags and kept walking!"  "Well!" and "Look at that.  They just picked those right up." 

Yes.  We are awesome.

Dignity is Expensive

I have learned a valuable lesson here in Italy, and that lesson is that dignity costs, sometimes too much. 

Stacey and I are on a tight budget, so of course I'm trying to scrimp as much as possible, especially on food.  Well, one thing that really peeves my jeez is that stupid pane/coperto (bread & cover) charge at restaurants.  Basically, you have to pay 2 euros per person to sit and eat.  I would skip the bread basket, but then I would be paying just to sit.  Today, I struck back.  I had Stacey distract with a colorful map of Cinque Terre, and I scooped that bread basket right into my backpack (minus the actual basket). 

Also on the peeve list is the charge for water.  You know the old money saving trick, "oh, we'll just have water to drink"? Hm. Not working here.  It's 2 euros for a liter bottle of water.  Last night at dinner, I'm drinking like a camel, hoping to finish my half of the water so we don't waste any, and as we're leaving, I notice that Stacey has a full glass in front of her.  "Are you gonna finish that?"  She said no.  Not gonna fly.  I reached over, grabbed her glass, and chugged it.  Can't be wasting that water==I paid for that!  As we walked back to the train, I thought I was going to burst harder than the Hoover Dam.  This camel was past the breaking point, but hey = those restaurants didn't pull a fast one on me.

Tonight?  I'm carrying my leftover pesto trofie home in a plastic food supply bag, wrapped in a napkin.  Hello, tomorrow's lunch.

Rainy crypts, castles, and so much foccacia

The rain continues.  Its okay, though.  This keyboard is really annoying. I cant find the apostrophe key and it bothers me a lot. Anyway, cinque terre is the birthplace of foccacia and pesto. It shows. or I should say, it smells. I wish I could transmit smell through pictures. Yesterday, we both had this pesto foccacia pizza that was easily the best pizza Ive ever had.  It rocked. 

We didnt get to go hiking today because the trails were closed due to the rain, so we took the train to Monterosso and hiked up to the cemetery on top of a mountain instead.  It was really interesting to see all of the marble crypts and the views from the top of the mountain were outstanding.  Its our 4th day, and weve taken 300 pictures already, and some priceless video clips from Bugnara. 

My new favorite word is "piccolo/a."  I say it whenever I get the chance, including when it makes absolutely zero sense at all.  It means "little" or "small" btw.  It is a fun word.  I find myself adapting more and more to the Italian as we go on.  Its hard not to adapt to it. 

Lets see, what else happened that was hilarious.  Oh, Im not sure if stacey mentioned this yet, but our room is up a bajillion stairs.  We"re technically on the fourth floor, but I think we have about 75 ginormous steps to climb to get to our room.  It is a hike in itself.  hm. well. I must go now because this is costing us as I type.  Ciao!

cinque terre....heaven on earth

ciao tutti!!!
we arrived in cinque terre today! so gorgeous!!! yesterday we went to bugnara to visit with our relatives and it was incredible. so friendly and so much food and fast talking!!! we went on a little tour around town and saw grandmas old house which apparently she gave away...........whyyyyyyyyyyyyy??????????? (actually we saw BOTH houses and of course steph is already scheming as to how she can buy them back. as of right now shes thinking a couple grand will do it..all the gelato must be going to her head) my phone isnt getting service which has been quite frustrating and mom im sure youve been worried. apparently in one of the towns in cinque terre tomorrow there is a festival that were going to try to go to. lemon feast! hopefully the guide book is right, we need to ask around to find out. the hike is going to be daunting...its only seven miles but its supposed to take five hours and its possible we might die. the path looks ridiculously challenging. sorry for the lack of apostrophes but i have no idea where they are on the keyboard. also we just had the most amazing piece of pizza ever..so good! sorry this is all over the place...a little frazzled at the moment. steph found a boy in a dark alley and is now in love. shes convinced they  will soon be married. should prove to be an interesting stay here. this hotel were at is wayyy  nicer than the hostel we were in in rome although according to stephanie it was super nice. trust me. it wasnt. thats all i can come up with for now. more later. stacey
ps. mom if you must know i have been doing quite an excellent job with the italian thank you very much!

cookie monster

Well we just boarded! Steph's already ditched me once while boarding. She claimed she was going to the bathroom...ha! I know her all to well. I found her at the food court with a smoothie and two cookies in hand. We're basically hanging off the back of the plane with how far back our seats are and steph is currently trying to flag down a stewardess to order a veg meal. She's been blatently ignored at least three times. Hilarious. Ah well time to go! Ciao!!! Stacey

ItaliaEve

 We may exceed backpack capacity tomorrow.  Stacey's planning to pack a Sally Beauty Supply inventory's worth of hair products in her suitcase.  

Keep checking back--we'll be updating the posts as we make our way across Italy....assuming we have any strength left after hauling all those hair products around...