The summit

This is Via Mala- a route famous for its slot canyon (we think)



We were so happy to make it to the top! Hard work is a beautiful thing



Our bike is certainly making an appearance all over Europe



Our beautiful lunch spot

June 25 San Bernardino Pass-Thusis

The rest of San Bernardino Pass was beautiful. We were able to look back at the many switchbacks we had overcome and the majestic mountains. At the top to greet us was a couple from California. It was so different to hear cheers in English for us as we made our way up. We decided to turn around to take pictures and talk with the couple. It turns out that they came here and rented a car by the week. They have been able to travel a long way. They gave us some suggestions about where to go and when they were done eating their lunch, they took off and wished us safe travels. After all the grueling work of the previous day, we got to descend the other side of the pass. We saw many people hiking and playing in the small lakes on the mountain. We also saw a sign for the pass, but we forgot to take a picture of our first Switzerland pass  When we got down, we were faced with a crossroads. After some contemplation we decided on a route that would not take us over another pass, but that was indirect. This route took us to Thusis where camping would be. Before we got to the campground though, we stopped at a beautiful lake for a late lunch of packaged Mexican rice. There’s nothing better than lunch with a view. (In fact, on the pass yesterday we even saw a picnic table with a bench only on one side so travelers could eat while looking out over the mountains.) When we made it to the campground, we were hungry. We enjoyed a nice dinner of spaghetti and then decided to make a general plan for the course of the trip. As we started looking harder, we realized that climbing Mt. Stelvio in the Dolomites would take up too much of our trip, so we re-prioritized the sights we wanted to see and decided to make a 180 and head for Interlaken. This entails some big miles and three passes in the next few days.
~55k
-Mo

Our first pass

The sprawling town of San Bernardino, boasting two hotels and two restaurants open until 11:00 pm



A castle to greet us on one of the hardest parts of the climb



The road to San Bernardino

June 24 Locarno-San Bernardino

We got a late start again today but for good reason. Since Mo and I both have poison ivy (remnants of doing RAAM and having to pee in the bushes) we have really been trying hard to wear each article of clothing only once. So, this morning we found some washers and dryers at the campground and stayed until 12:30 packing and doing laundry! It was well worth it because a nice German couple we had met caught us before we left, gave us some suggestions of where to go, and even gave us two maps! They said that it is important to act as ambassadors for their country to travelers-a good philosophy to live by. Once we hit the road we headed to the town of Bellinzona where we turned northeast to go over San Bernardino pass at 2065 meters (this is where San Bernardino water is bottled). This pass was really quite amazing for it 32km length but at times we faced 15% grades which made this pass a monster to do while being loaded down on our tandem. So finally at about 8:30pm we got to the small town of San Bernardino about an hour away from the top and tried to find a camping spot to no avail. So, we finally had to settle for a highly over priced room at a hotel. Tomorrow we should be headed over the rest of the pass and down the other side where we hope to cover a big distance in a short time.
~60k
Nate

Switzerland

The Italian-Switzerland border where they didn't even check our passports



Our bike was happy to make it to Locarno, Switzerland

June 23 Arona-Locarno, Switzerland

Today we traveled further North up the eastern shore of Lake Maggorie. It was a fairly uneventful but beautiful day. We really only had a few turns to make and now that we are starting to figure out the road system over here it was much easier than the first day. We made several stops along the lake including at the Italian/Switzerland border before finding a spot to camp in Locarno, Switzerland. The campground was called Lido Mappo a 5 star (yes that’s right, who even knew there was such things as 5 star camping) campground that came complete with a grassy spot to put our tent, a tree to lock our bike to, and a bathroom 50 meters away (just like every KOA in America!). After settling in for the night I heard some rustling in our bags outside the tent and a few moments of this I decided I should see what was tearing into our equipment and trying to steal our food. It was none other than a cute little hedgehog. After a minute or two stare down between me and our friendly little visitor he took off for better prizes as I took to hiding our food better. Tomorrow we plan to head further north into Switzerland and maybe even ride our first pass there if we are feeling brave!
~45k
Nate

Lake Maggiore

The bike shop...finally!

June 22 Somma-Arona

Well, today has started no different than yesterday seeing as we woke up at 10:00 again. We rushed around getting things ready. After all of that, I decided to go see if breakfast was still up even though it closed at ten. Thankfully it was and Nate and I were able to grab a quick bite before heading out. After breakfast we asked the desk attendant where the nearest bike shop was. (You can almost guess by now) The bike shop was in the direction we had come from the night before. We passed three towns trying to get to the bike shop and stopped multiple times to ask for directions. Each time, the people sent us down the road. (I was beginning to wonder if this was just a technique Italians use when they don’t really know the way). Finally, we found the bike shop…in GALLARATE!!! We were so thrilled to find it, that we didn’t even think of how hard it would be to try to order the parts in a different language. After some labored parlance and a lot of gesturing, the shop owner was able to put another spacer in our cassette and gave us some extra tubes, CO2 cartridges, and a pump. (Thank goodness). Even though we had backtracked all the way to the beginning, we were both in considerably better moods after this one stop. Once we were ready, we loaded up all our stuff again and headed out on the busy but direct route to Lake Maggiore. It only took about an hour to find Lake Maggiore on this direct route.
Once we hit the lake, we just had to decide where we wanted to stay for the night. We passed a big town called Arona and decided to keep our eye out for campgrounds. We didn’t want to go into Switzerland just yet so we stayed in a little place called Solcio. The campground was right on the lake. The most exciting part of the stay was that some other tourists arrived who spoke English! It’s the little things here that make us happiest. Ian and Ruth were from Australia. They’ve been here now about two weeks and they’ve been touring in Switzerland and France which is exactly where we’re heading. We were able to sit down with them and get some great pointers on touring. They even had cycling books for Italy and France which we found very helpful. We talked late into the night and hopefully we’ll stay in contact through e-mail.
~35k

Mo

circles

June 21 Milano-very close to Milano :(

Woops. Neither of us heard Nate’s 6:30 alarm so we ended up waking up at 9:30. So much for an early start to today’s madness. The first thing we did was to make sure we cashed in on our free breakfast. With not much time to go, we had to air up the tires, pack all of our stuff, and look up different directions to a bike shop since the one I found was actually a motorcycle store. Not everything fit in our combination of the bob trailer and panniers, so we ended up throwing some things away. The bob trailer tire did not air up like we’d hoped, but with check-out looming we decided to just ride to the nearest bike shop. Little did we know that trying to find a bike shop would be an all-day adventure. We set out in the direction (that we thought) the desk attendant sent us. We ended up in a town called Gallarate and asked a couple people where a bike shop or Lake Maggiore was. No one seemed to know. We ended up finding an outdoor superstore at about 12:30. It was just too bad that they take a siesta from 12:15-3:00. We decided to wait and ended up catching some z’s in the alley by the store (by accident). When it finally opened, Nate went in while I waited with all of our stuff. It turns out that the best the store had to offer us was a less than adequate bike pump and none of the other parts we needed. Being a little disheartened, we decided to make the trek (on our low tire) to Lake Maggiore. So we set off in the directions the signs pointed, and four hours later we were in the very same place somehow. Our search for good directions, a map, and Lake Maggiore turned up nothing. However, we finally found a map which pointed us in the direction we had come from that morning. When we got there, though, the highway looked much too large for us to ride, so we found backroads that snaked their way towards where we were going. Before every major roundabout and T, we would pull over to look at our map. On one such occasion, a nice old man who spoke no English at all, pulled over to help us. He pointed us in the direction we had come from and said we could get on the busy highway we had been avoiding. We made it three towns into his directions and decided to stop for the night. We looked on the map and sure enough, we were about an hour away from our first hotel. I finally know why absolute value is an important mathematical concept. Even though we only made it about 10 k up the road, we actually rode about 40 k today, and no one can tell me that our progress was any less than that! Today we will get a good night’s sleep and since we have even seen signs for Lake Maggiore in this town, we will hopefully make it by nightfall. The first order of business, though, is to find a bike shop. Our little BOB will not make it one more day on its tire.

~40k

Mo

Craziness

June 20 America-Milano

We made it to Milan with bike and trailer in tow. Our bike was inspected by TSA so we’re hoping that they didn’t take any integral pieces. And who knows, since they cut the box all the way across its side and did a shotty job of taping it back up, we’re hoping nothing just fell out either. From the Milan-Linate airport, we caught a shuttle to Milan-Malpensa. From that airport, we called our hotel shuttle which then picked us up. Neither of the shuttles gave us a hard time or charged extra for oversize packages! When we finally arrived at our hotel, we stored the boxes safely in our room and then went out to find some much needed food. The desk attendant gave us directions for a pizzeria so we set out. About an hour later we wound up at a restaurant that was absolutely perfect, but closed. So we headed back towards the hotel and then found signs that said the pizzeria was in the opposite direction of the way we had gone. We finally found this pizzeria in the middle of the woods-it was the coolest restaurant we’ve been to so far. Nate ordered a calzone and I had gnocchi, but the menu actually had horse meat on it! Neither of us were quite brave enough for that. After dinner it was finally time to assemble the bike and find directions out of town. It took us until midnight to do both tasks, and Nate discovered that the pump we bought was good for nothing. We would have to inflate two bike tires and our bob trailer tire with one singular CO2 cartridge and hope for the best. The other bad news of the day…we both discovered that we have poison ivy from our trip to the states!!! Hopefully tomorrow has better things in store for us.

RAAM

Mo and I finally made it to Oceanside CA where Race Across America started on the 12th at 2:30pm. Upon the race starting the chaos started (just like every year) as the next five days was full of instantaneous decisions, thousands of directions, rider exchanges, team changes, crew changes, gas station stops, sleep deprivation, etc. In short Mo and my job during the race was to live in a van (with 2 other friends, Bob and Ron) for 5 days while following the racers in an effort to keep the 8 athletes of Team Type One (a type one diabetic cycling team) going in the right direction at all hours of the day and night.
Over these 5 days we logged a combined total of 523 hrs of time in the van, 12 gas stops, 1 dairy queen stop, 3 wrong turns, 12 hours of sleep each, 3,320 miles of driving, an average speed of about 23.5mph, countless road side or bottle filling bathroom breaks, 2 stuck vehicles, one rider getting hit by a car (he is ok thankfully), 2 teeth brushings, 3 wet wipe showers, the ideas for about 10 new businesses (my personal favorite is “Body by Bob” which is all about weight loss through atrophy caused by sitting in a van for 5 days and eating gas station food the entire time!), and in the end 1 first place finish in a time of 5 days 10 hrs and 43mins (the 3rd fastest time any team has ever crossed the country!)
So, all in all it was a whirlwind trip that leaves me wondering why I subject myself to that every year and how that can possibly be fun, but at the end of each day I get to smile knowing that we are inspiring individuals with type one diabetes and help them to understand that they can do some truly extraordinary things even with this disease. In fact, one of the best moments of the trip was having a guy pull up to us on the freeway and tell us how much he admired the team and followed them closely. We proceeded to pull over to deal with something in the rider vehicle and the man pulled over to shake the hands of all the athletes. By the time he took off again, he was almost in tears.
As I am writing this we are currently sitting at the airport in London waiting for our connecting flight to Milan where we will continue on with the rest of the European portion of our trip. The part of our trip where we will be touring on our tandem for 4 weeks! So, if all goes well and as planned tomorrow we will get to spend our first day riding out of Milan and the surrounding cities toward the mountains in Northern Italy and Switzerland.
Luckily, even after one supervisor said she would not take our tandem on the plane, she caved and it actually ended up only costing $50 to take our tandem and bob trailer!!!! We were something of celebrities walking through the airport with a humongous bike. Now we just hope the bike will get there in one piece and that we will be able to transport it to the hotel somehow. After all, tandem bikes don’t fit very well in compact cars.

Race Across America!!!

Wow, is it still June 11 because it feels like it should be a day later and the World Cup has even started. (This is a huge event overseas). Mostly because of jet lag but partly because of being nervous about anymore airport mishaps, Nate and I woke up at 4 this morning wide awake and raring to go. We haven’t been to sleep since. Though the messed up schedule of our bodies will help at RAAM, I’m not sure the pre-game lack of sleep is going to be good.
We finally met up with the rest of the crew of Team Type 1 and Team Type 2 today after the airport. There’ve been meetings and photo shoots and running around. We are all gearing up to race across America in hopefully world record time. We had an orientation and at the end the announcer introduced every single racer and team. Most of these teams ride across America for some kind of cause. There were athletes with fibromyalgia, cancer, and of course type 1 and type 2 diabetes. It is extraordinary to think of the things that all these people have overcome and are now doing what most would say is impossible. I have no idea what to expect, but I’m a driver and I have to follow the riders carefully. Please pray everything goes smoothly and safely this year as there were some major mishaps last year.

You can follow the progress of RAAM at raceacrossamerica.org

Milano to America

A real live model shoot, I think

A huge park in the city center

This is seriously how people commute! I've even seen pinstripe suits with briefcases in tow

Nothing too eventful happened in Milano (the fifth largest urban area in the EU), but we have posted some pictures from there.

Today we fly back to the states. I wonder if I have spent enough time here to become partly acculturated or not. I guess tomorrow when I step off of the plane in the United States, I will be able to tell if I have symptoms of “reverse culture shock.” When I review the trip I think of many things. We have loved sightseeing here. History and the world make so much more sense when you travel and witness things firsthand. We have gotten a taste of the Italian culture: riding bikes and scooters everywhere, three course meals, being surrounded by history, etc. We have even learned some important Italian words: grazie, scuzie, buon giorno, and of course gelato. We don’t know what the rest of the trip holds for us, but we do know that when we get back to Europe, we will be toting a rather large bicycle and setting off on a new kind of adventure.

Well, it is the same day because of the time difference and gaining eight hours during travel, and man has it been a long one. We caught a shuttle to the Milano airport two hours before our flight and made our flight to London no problem. London, however, had other adventures in store for us! We boarded our flight in London (which we had to get to by a shuttle that took you to the airplane) and were ready to go. An announcement came over the loudspeaker that we couldn't quite hear, but we did decipher the words, "a couple of minutes." Well, we understood that something was going on, and we were also suspicious that it would take a couple minutes. Well, I fell asleep, and next thing I knew it was two hours later and still no movement. We finally got on the move, but were pretty sure that we missed our connecting flight. Sure enough, we missed our connecting flight in Phoenix by 20 minutes (customs and security do not help at all). Being the "responsible" travelers that we are, Nate and I only brought carry-on baggage and checked nothing. This allowed us to take first in the "race to the terminal." We asked every single official looking person in the airport where we needed to be headed, they would point us onward, and thus went our relay. We finally got to the helpdesk where we were supposed to rebook our flight. I had this sneaky suspicion that waiting here would make us miss the next flight. Sure enough...our good friend Murphy met us at the airport because not only did we miss the next two flights, but the very last one to leave Phoenix for the night (at 8:30!). Then we were on a mission to get a free hotel stay out of the deal by going to the other airlines responsible. The very nice lady at the desk quickly informed us that they had already rebooked us to the next flight!!!! Apparently it pays to have checked baggage because they stationed their agents by the carousels to tell everyone which gate they needed to go to!!! Not even an announcement. So we stayed the night at a hotel in hopes that tomorrow's day of travel would be better for us.

Winding Down

June 9 Cinque Terre-Milano

We are sad that we have to leave the beautiful coastal town today. As soon as we could, we got ready and headed for a short hike along the cinque terre. There is a trail that actually winds its way among all of the five main villages of the cinque terre, but we didn’t have enough time for all of it. To greet us on our hike were buildings built into stone walls of the hills, a hawk cannibalizing another bird, antiquated foot bridges, pine trees, and beautiful views of the beach. We wish we had more time to spend here, but we chose to play it on the safe side and get to Milano early so that we can find a place to stay and get ready for our flight back to the states where another eventful Race across America will ensue.
-Mo

"The Italian Riviera"

June 8 Padova-Cinque Terre

Today is another day full of travel. First, we hopped on a train to Bologna. Next we ran to catch the next train to Piacenza so that we could hop off in Parma (where I’m guessing they invented parmesan cheese…). After this train we caught one to La Spezia which takes us back to the lovely Cinque Terre, which I am told is the Italian Riviera. It boasts houses built on hills, pebble and sand beaches, and a lovely atmosphere. When we arrived, we spent a little bit of time walking around looking for a hotel or hostel. We wound up at a place right on the boardwalk. We could even hear the ocean waves crashing at night, lulling us to sleep. After reserving the hotel it was finally time to breathe easy and take a walk along the beach. After discovering the town we ate dinner on the beach and then hopped into the sea. The mediterranean waters were cold, but refreshing after the long day. I spent most of our time on the pebble beach looking for pretty rocks and Nate went roaming in the waves. We retired to our hotel room with all intentions of going out again for a sunset walk, but we both ended up falling asleep until the next morning.
-Mo

Another one bites the dust

June 7 Verona-Venice

Today was quite an action-packed day with many unwanted detours. We woke up in Verona to our free breakfast of bread and jam. We decided to hit the road as soon as we could. Little did we know that we would soon be lost in Verona. As we were walking to the train station we made a wrong turn and got ourselves all sorts of confused. However, the detour did have its purposes because we ended up seeing some more sights we had missed. We finally made it to the train station by following an unassuming local and hopped on a train to Padova where we stayed for the night. Finding the hostel was no problem, but getting back to the train station threw us for a loop again. We ended up standing on a street corner trying to get our bearings from all of our surroundings from the sun to the buildings, but the only thing that got us back on track was a kind Italian woman coming over and asking where we wanted to go. We could only converse with hand gestures, but she ended up leading us right where we needed to be. Finally, we hopped on to the long-awaited train to Venice-the city of water. Venice is like no other place in the world. We found houses with front porches that led directly into the water. Walkways so narrow that no traffic could fit, of course that is because automobiles can’t cross the canals and step bridges. People were walking everywhere and the scenery was breathtaking with buildings arising straight from the water and gondolas navigating the intricate canals. There were two things I wanted to do in Venice: eat at a ristorante by a canal and get a ride on the water. It turns out as much as we walked we could not find a restaurant by the water so we settled in at an outdoor restaurant and each ate a whole pizza. We did some sightseeing and then wanted to find out about the famous gondola rides. A gondola ride quickly turned into a water bus joyride when we found out that gondolas cost 80 euro for 45 minutes! So instead we took a one-way water bus to the center of the city. It was there that we jumped out and decided to “find our way back to the train station.” We walked for about an hour only to find ourselves either cutoff by water or back at the exact place we started. Finally, we decided to get on another water bus to the train station. We took a train back to Padova where we were staying, went grocery shopping, and finally got some rest at the hostel.

-Mo

Day 7 June 6th

Ok, I (Nate) have to write this one again… We got up early this morning trying to make the most of Verona and find a hostel to stay in instead of an expensive hotel. So, we took off out of our room and headed all over the beautiful city of Verona (the most bike friendly city we have been to yet!!!). We saw all the wonderful sites such as the home of Juliet and the famous balcony (and wall were people still post love notes to this day) as well as Romeo’s home (which is honestly a 5-10 minute walk away and they couldn’t find each other!!! What the heck people!!!) Then we saw some more ancient architecture a miniature version of the Coliseum called the Verona Arena. On top of all of this we also saw the Teatro Romano which was really quite cool. This ancient theatre reminded me of an ancient version of “Red Rocks Amphitheater” with a few modern additions such as a new seating and stage area. We also noticed that “some band” (I was honestly making fun of the drummer as they were doing all the set up and sound checks on his drums as he of course kept hitting the same one over and over and over and over again….) was getting set up and paid no attention to it as we looked down from our vantage point at the top of some stairs by a castle. After my mistake of making fun of the drummer we made our way to the other side of the castle to our hostel that we were staying in for the night. After a while I heard “this band” playing as we were laying in bed and said to Mo “they’re playing We don’t need no education by Pink Floyd” about 10 minutes later I said “They’re playing Money, what is up with all this Pink Floyd stuff”. Then finally a third Pink Floyd song came on and I mentioned to Mo “I was going to be so pissed if that really is Pink Floyd and were staying here because your pants are wet.” (We did laundry in the sink that night and her only pair of pants were still wet.) With that I finally fell asleep to the melody of “this band” playing in my ears. Then this morning the first thing we do after leaving our hostel was look to find out just who was playing last night. Guess what I am still pissed because it really was Pink Floyd on their 20 year reunion!!!! ( strike 2 of our trip, and I hope the strikes don’t get any harder to take than this! Sorry Greg and Don I will never let you down like this again.)
Nate

Day 6 June 5th

Cinque Terra out the dirty train window


I (Nate) am going to be writing this today because of some of the things that happened today…. (You will find out more shortly). So, this morning began just like every morning, with the dreaded alarm buzzing in our ears. However, for some reason both of us weren’t too keen on getting up that early so we quickly disregarded it and went back to sleep until we were scrambling to get to the bus station by 9:30 to catch our first train to La Spezia. We made the train and were on our roundabout route towards Verona. However, before we left our hotel (Hotel Fiorentino, which has to be my favorite place yet!) I of course spent some time talking with the hotel owner and got some great suggestions on where to eat, visit, travel to, etc.. So armed with his words of wisdom we traveled onward to La Spezia knowing that there was a beautiful coastal area called Cinque Terra that was a few minutes outside of La Spezia. So once we got to La Spezia we took a quick look at our watches, did some math and determined we didn’t have enough time to wait for the next bus to Cinque Terra. Instead we took a short walk through La Spezia down to the bay to see the Tyrrhenian Sea for the first time in our lives and ate our lunch there before making our way back to the train station. Once back at the train station we caught the first train to Genova. This is where things started to get interesting… Not even 5 minutes into this train ride we noticed we were going through lots and lots of tunnels and then all of the sudden we saw a bright flash of sunlight and the most beautiful ocean scene I have ever laid eyes on, then back into another tunnel of darkness… This repeated several times and when we started to move back inland again we learned what that was we had just gone by – Cinque Terra (Strike one for the trip). However, as badly as we wanted to jump off of the train and run back we knew that timing was tight and we needed to continue on to Verona. We then caught a train out of Genova to Milano and then Milano to Verona where we arrived at about 8pm (it gets dark at about 8:30ish and we had no idea where anything was and we still needed to find a hotel and not for an outrageous price…). So, naturally we took off running and luckily found a place (for a bit more money than we wanted but at least we had a place) and our long day of train travel and first strike were done.
Nate

June 4 Day 5

Today was a day to check out Florence. We started the day late after sleeping in until about 10:30 and didn’t leave the hotel until nearly noon. Having no idea what artifacts were in Florence, we turned to our friendly hotel manager for route suggestions. It turns out that there are so many historic sites on the maps here that we generally take pictures and ask questions later. The first big sight of the day was the Santa Maria Novella just next door (that’s the church we mentioned yesterday). After that we encountered the grand Piazza Duomo (Dome). This building is quite the sight which can be seen from many places in the city. Next came the Piazza della Signoria and the Piazzale Degli Uffizi. After leaving these sites we made our way to our first medieval castle of the trip (Palazzo Vecchio)! Next to the castle there were sculptures of characters from mythology and even David’s replica was there. After pulling our eyes away from these sculptures, we walked down a street that has to be the ancient version of Hollywood Boulevard , The “Stars” included Michelangiolo, Leonardo, Donatello, Dante, Amerigo Vespucci, and my personal favorite Niccolo Macchiavelli. The next features of the city required crossing the river. It was here that we found a chain with probably a hundred or so different locks on it which apparently were placed here by couples hoping to secure or “lock” their love in place. After this we began climbing stairs and hills which brought us to the beautiful Piazzale Michelangiolo (this is where the 2nd David replicia was but this one was made of broze). Here, there was a beautiful view of the city, a cemetery, a church designed by Michelangelo and more. This has probably been my most favorite view so far on the trip. Apparently climbing hills is worth it. After this we went to Forte di Belvedere and ended up at Palazzo Pitti. Here there was a huge garden which looked beautiful, but I am sorry to say (especially to Nate’s parents) that we did not find it worth the fee. Instead we went back to the hotel to recoup and decided that going to the museum that held the original David. This museum was full of sculptures, paintings, and frescoes. The highlight however was the sculptor of David and Michelangiolo’s other unfinished works (6 in total). These show the intricate process that took place, especially with blocks of marble so huge! On the way back home we saw the Palazzo Medici and the Fortezza da Basso. Then we enjoyed a very nice dinner and gelato.
In the next few days we will visit the coastal towns of La Spezia, Verona, Venice, and end up in Milan to fly home for RAAM.
Mo

Day 4 June 3rd

Not knowing how difficult or how long train travel would take we really only had plans of getting on a train from Rome to Florence… However, that quickly changed after a quick 1.5hr train ride that put us in Florence by 11am. So with much of the day left we decided to jump on another train to Pisa to see the leaning tower and other sites there. After the 30 min walk from the leaning tower back to the train station we decided to hop on another train to the coastal city of Livorno (probably one of the prettiest cities we have seen yet, it even had a public park!!) After a very short walk around this city we had to jump on our last train of the day back to Florence where we are staying tonight and tomorrow. Once we made it back to Florence we tried to find an inexpensive place to stay but we were unable to find a hostel however, we did find a “1 star” hotel. It just so happens that the balcony off of our room overlooks two Piazzas and right next to us is a huge ancient church that we look forward to checking out tomorrow. (there is even a grocery store about 70 meters away that we purchased our dinner and tomorrows breakfast at!) All this in a “1 star” hotel… it makes me wonder how nice a 4 or 5 star is.
Nate

Day 3 June 2nd

Happy giorno di indipendenzzia! How lucky we were to travel to Italy on the day of its independence (at least we’re guessing that’s what today marks). Being familiar with the city and our trusty map helped us navigate the city. I dare say we almost looked like natives, minus the fact that just about every vendor can pinpoint Nate as English-speaking . I’m not sure what it is, but I think it has something to do with his white hair and blue eyes... All I know is that every time someone stops him, I dart the other way 
Today was quite eventful, with the morning starting out with a pigeon inviting himself into our room. We heard his ugly bird call so Nate went to check it out. Suddenly he was engaged in a ferocious battle with the creature trying to get it back outside, all while I was getting ready for the day oblivious to the happenings. After our bird issues were settled we traveled to “city center” where we stopped for about an hour in front of the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II for the independence day celebration. There we saw quite the mix of armed forces including cavalry, police, firefighters, secret police, and overhead helicopters and jets. We were waiting to see the Royal Monarchy, but we are not sure if we actually saw them. Next, we were off to see some castles and Vatican City. On our way we saw the Palazzo Venezia, Chiesa de Gesu, Area Sacra, Plazza Colona, Palazzo Montecitorio, Pantheon, Palazzo Madama, Piazza Navona, Plazzo di Giustizia, Castel Sant’ Angelo, and the Basilica S. Pietro. It turns out that we got to the Vatican just in time to miss the pope. We decided to wait in line for the Vatican (especially since it was free) because when in Rome…We waited about an hour in line, but when we entered we found ourselves face to face with the grandest church we’ve ever seen. Besides Peter’s tomb, there were exquisite sculptures, inscriptions, and Michaelangelo’s only autographed work.
After our last day in Roma, we realized we had fifteen minutes to catch our bus or be left in the city after dark. We began to run from the center of the city through the gridlock of streets. As we leapt into streets and bounded the crosswalks, we accidentally bumped into some natives left with nothing but our apologies in crude Italian, “Scuzzi.” Thus, we realized part of the reason that Europeans hate us…woops, but we made our bus with 3 minutes to spare so I really don’t feel that bad!
Tomorrow we head off to somewhere different…
-Mo

Day 2 June 1st

We lost most of today due to an 8 hour time change, but so far jet lag has not set in. We arrived in Rome at 11:30 local time with nothing but our two backpacks and the clothes on our backs. Being a bit bewildered, we were left no choice but to hop in a bus shuttle with one Italian driver and other tourists from various countries. Right away we were bombarded with questions about the oil spill, healthcare, and World Cup hopefuls. When we arrived at our pre-booked hotel, we were happy to see that it was a bit secluded from the craziness of the city streets, but boasted a convenient shuttle into Rome for a reasonable price.
Once we checked in, we did not waste any time. We made our maiden tourist voyage into the city, just a couple of unassuming tourists. We grabbed a map and the shuttle dropped us off at the first stop. Our shuttle driver was right when he said that everything in the city was within walking distance. In just a few hours we were able to see the Via Museo delle Terme, Repubblica, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, S. Pietro in Vincoli, Domus Aurea, Colosseo, Arco di Constantino, Mercati Traianei, Colonna Traiana, and the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II.
The architecture here is beautiful and some of it is absolutely gigantic in size (some of the largest buildings I have ever seen...) Beyond the sheer size the intricacies of the sculpture and edifices are absolutely breathtaking. To be in a city with such history constantly in the foreground is a wonderful variation to the “new” western world. It’s rather neat to see and can’t wait to check out more tomorrow.
Mo