Wedding, Sickness and start of an adventure

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So up and ready yesterday morning for wedding festivities starting at 11. Meet and greet and snacky foods with wine (didn't start that early - too much for me!) in the hotel restaurant then on the bus for 12 to get everyone to the church just a few minutes away.
What a beautiful little church! Just outside Azzano Decimo in a field, I heard it was possibly over a thousand years old, but no way to check my source! lol Paolo showed up in a cute little yellow car, then natasha in a flashy BMW shortly after. only 7 or 8 pews inside, so family and closest friends sat in there while the rest of us waited outside. Not that i'm complaining - standing under the trees was the only way to stave off heat stroke. We all piled in to listen to the vows and that was a sweaty few minutes!
meanwhile paolos pals were busy wrapping up the car in cloth and cling wrap and filling it with balloons. those italians are a funny bunch. when they came out after the ceremony to try to get in the car, they kept taking the balloons and throwing them back in. it seemed to go on forever, and we just wanted to get back on teh air conditioned bus haha oh right, they had rice to throw, bubbles to blow, and a football style heart made of paper for them to burst through when leaving the church. hilarious!
so then it was on the bus and off to the reception. well what a spot. and i completely forgot to get some pics of the venue, a hotel complex about 20 mins from Azzano Decimo. beautiful landscaped gardens, a huge 3 floor hotel place with marble everything and a big hall for the dinner. about 75 guests I think. So first there was little sandwiches and fruits and wine and juice and fried veggies outside while the bridal party was off getting their pictures done. when they arrived, everyone piles in to start the meal/speeches/festivities.
next food was some prosciutto and salad. paired with a nice white wine of course. then comes an asparagus and parmesan quichey/tart thing. then some pastry stuffed with zucchini. at this point i had a headache and wasn't feeling too great. thought it might be the wine, but i only had a couple of small glasses so i didn't think that was it. so i drank water instead. next course some ravioli which i didnt' really like. after that one i really didn't feel so hot, ran to the bathroom and lost what i'd eaten so far. i'll spare the details but needless to say it wasn't pretty.
back down to the reception for the next course, some asparagus/rice/cheese dish which as soon as it came out the smell sent me back to the bathroom. and that was pretty much it for me. i was in and out for the next couple hours and felt like crap. started feeling feverish, couldn't stop throwing up and couldn't keep anything down at all. would've been ok if i could go lie down somewhere but the bus wasn't going back to the hotel till 11 and this was only around 5 or 6. no taxis in this rural area. so after a while i snuck off to the pool and had a nap in a lounge chair until i was too cold (even though it was a beautiful muggy evening) so back in i go and jacqueline asks paolo if anyone is heading back to the hotel and finally around 10 or so his aunt and uncle are heading back to town and graciously offer me a ride. I was told I looked green by several people, and barely made it back without making a mess in their backseat! so off to bed i go, super rotted i missed the most of an AWESOME wedding i'll never get another chance for something like that again! so hopefully this is my sickness for this trip (knock on wood).
anyways went to bed, woke up around 4 and finally kept down some gravol and water and slept well until 9 and woke up feeling much better. went downstairs in the hotel for some bread, an apple, and some juice for breakfast. lucked out with getting out of town. most people had to get a taxi to the nearest train station (about 15mins away) then take the train to venice (an hour) to get anywhere. luckily jacqueline and david had rented a car and jane and i managed to snag their backseat and they dropped us off at Venezia Mestre station. I activated my railpass, reserved a seat on the 14:02 to Milano Centrale and Jane got her ticket to Roma. We had a quick lunch at McDonalds. She goes to pee up the stairs behind the door with both boy and girl toilet signs. two seconds later she's back and says nope, just a mens toilet up there. I go up to check it out, pee in a really raunchy toilet (italian men don't seem to understand the concept of raising the toilet seat) and report back theres only one bathroom up there. turns out its a unisex bathroom. weird.
anyways off to platform six just as Jane's train is boarding and we say our goodbyes and just like that I'm on my own! a few minutes later my train pulls up to the same platform and off i go.
so i bought a rail pass b/c i haven't made any plans and just want to go wherever i feel like every day. once youer' over 26 you can only buy this global pass for first class. which is lovely! huge seats, 2+1 airplane style (2+2 in 2nd class), free drinks and snacks (which i refused at first, thinking it cost moulah, cuz i'm cheap like that and brought my own lol). uneventful ride to Milan with the Alps towering in the distance and beautiful green fields stretching everywhere, vineyards, old houses, just awesome scenery. i need to get a thesaurus, saying beautiful and awesome too much eh?
anyways i don't really think much of milan. cathedral is crazy huge and nice, and walking to the castle was ok but this town feels dirty, crowded, smelly. a real urban jungle, which i usually can enjoy but its a little too pretentious for me i think. maybe i'm just still feeling gross from last night. but anyways i'm just staying the one night, and once i finish this blog i'm off to plan where to go tomorrow. may meet up with curtis and emily in switzerland in a few days for a day or two so we'll see how that goes.
oh right, had gelato #2 today. and first real fanta at mcdonalds. life is good. for supper it was a banana, some trailmix i brought from the bulk barn, and some crackers i bought at the grocery store in azzano. classy, but i'm too tired and my feet are too sore to go out any more. my bags feel like they weigh ten tons, gonna have to get in shape fast!
see you tomorrow, who knows where! also, can't get pics on this page, its telling me they're too small. which makes no sense. so i just put them on FB instead.

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Comments

[Nan]

Rough going
Hi Jason: Enjoying your detailed blog and the pics you have on FB. There's more than ONE way to skin a cat, eh? Such a shame that you got into digestive trouble. Certain people are super sensitve about food consumption (I'm one of them). Learned years ago to avoid about 90% of offerings and stick to the familiar. Poppy turned green in Scotland one year (first time I saw it) after drinking some kind of mixture of whiskey and beer (lol) Not a pleasant experience. Enjoy your trip and take care, Nan