Spring Break Orphan

Previously on Spring Break 2010. D and Yoshi were flying through the sky to a magical place called Tuscany. They arrived in Pisa, didn't see the leaning tower, met up with friends from home, saw fireworks on Easter in Florence, ate way too much gelato, went for a hike in Cinque Terre, laid on the beach, went back to Florence, ate some more gelato, hopped on a train to Venice, saw some cool art, went for a gondola ride, slept at a B&B, jumped on a train to Milan, met up with D's high school friend named Bene, went out for fancy sushi, sat across from an Italian celebrity, hung out in a gelato parlor, tried to see DaVinci's Last Supper, went to the super-cool modern art museum, saw the Duomo and the most expensive retail space in the world, had a home-cooked dinner with Bene, went to the cutest gelato shop in the freezing rain, said good-bye and now they are rushing to get a train to Pacentro. And that's what happened last time on the blog!

P.S. If you watch Glee and you haven't already read that last paragraph in the voice they use at the beginning of each episode, go back and try it.

Anywho, now I want to tell you about Pacentro...or rather, show you. Pacentro was the home to D's grandparents when they were our age. After picking up everything and moving to Ohio, her grandmother's house in Pacentro was sold to D's Mom's cousin. When hearing we would be in Italy, D's family arranged for us to stay in that very house. The owner, Enida, was kind enough to let us have the whole house to ourselves, as she was is currently living in the U.S.

(Not to sound all Ferris Bueller here, but) D's - Mom's - Cousin's - Wife, Franca (later known as our "Italian Mum") picked us up at the train station. Franca had dinner prepared for us and we had our first experience of real Italian cooking. I think I can recall every single thing we ate the whole week. That first night we had lasagna as the first plate and chicken with peppers as the second. Not only did every meal consist of two meals, but also bread, fresh mozzarella cheese, and the best salami I've ever eaten.

vvvvvvvv READ THIS vvvvvvvvv
After eating (too much), we waddled to our home for the week. It was so dark and foggy that night (remember this) and we could barely see even 10 feet in front of us. The orange lights shining on the wet brick pathways were beautiful. We only saw a little bit of Pacentro when walking; Enough to know it was an old town with tiny winding brick roads. That is the only thing we knew.

Anyways, so we went to bed. I woke up to D saying "Yosh, get up, you've got to come see this." Normally, I would roll over and fall back to sleep but this sounded kind of important. In a haze, I walked downstairs and D said "Look out the window." I walked over, opened the balcony door and THIS is what I saw:

(CLICK FOR BIGGER PHOTO) And off to the left... ...none other than a snow topped mountain.

"What?! Where are we?"

That was our first reaction AFTER we recovered from the speech-less-ness.




This is Part one of Pacentro...Part Two coming soon.