It's getting warmer

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Thursday night we walked around Siena...chilled out for a little in this bar. Met up with some Italian students. Walked around for a bit. Went to this place with some live music. The band played Little Wing and a whole lot more. The guitarist was great! On March 17th the drummer from the band is going to play a solo show with his acoustic guitar. All Bob Dylan I hear. Can't wait.

Friday morning we met up at the train station. Took a train to Empoli. From Empoli we went to Pisa. Pisa blows. Graffiti everywhere. A large number of gypsies. Kind of dirty. We walked to the Piazza dei Miracoli and saw the Leaning Tower, the Duomo, the Baptistery and the Museo dell'Opera. Did not climb the tower because it would have cost 15 Euro. Nobody did. Walked around quite a bit. Bought my first caprese panino. I've had better. In the late afternoon, we caught the train to Levanto. From the station in Levanto we made our way to the hostel. We had about an hour to settle in before we needed to walk to a restaurant for dinner. At 20:00 we headed toward our dining destination. We had 3 options for the Primo, 3 options for the Secondo, salad and 3 options for dessert. I had lasagna, mozzarella and tomatoes and then some kind of jiggly, sweet thing at the end. Everything was great. Afterward, we walked to a pub in front of the hostel and played some cards.

Saturday morning we ate breakfast and got to the train station by 9ish. Hopped on a train toward Riomaggiore. In Riomaggiore we met our tour guide (a cousin of Daniella) and began our walk to Via dell'Amore. I can't tell you much of what our guide spoke to us about as I wasn't paying attention. The whole walk to Manarola (20 minutes) was outstanding. Such beauty. Along the way we saw dozens of caterpillars walking one behind the other. It was somethin' else. When we got to Manarola we walked around and eventually ended up at this restaurant for lunch. Definitely the best lunch I've had since being in Italy. For the primo we all had a form of pasta with pesto. The secondo served us grilled fish. Not sure of the type. During the meal we had salad and bread as well. To top it off, the waitress brought us over tiramisù. Afterward, we had about an hour and a half of free time. A group of us walked over to this gigantic rock in the Mediterranean sea that we had previously passed. We climbed to the top and chilled out for a little bit. I got the urge to go into the water, so I decided to just walk in. Have to say that it was a bit cold. I was in the pool! I was in the pool! Took some time for me to dry off but it wasn't a problem thanks to the sun. Later on we took a train to another town, walked around and then walked around some more. In the evening, we jumped on a train back to Pisa. From Pisa we switched to a train going toward Empoli. From Empoli we changed to a train going to Siena. When we arrived, Renato was there to pick myself and Doug up. Paola and Renato had waited to eat dinner with us. It was around 21:30. That was nice of them. On Friday, Paola had gone to Florence to spend the night with Eva. Eva bought Doug and I books on Tuscan cooking and had given them to Paola to give to us. Thanks, Eva <3

Today is Sunday. There is a football game between Siena and AC Milan. Everyone is going ape-shit because Beckham is on the team. I heard that he wasn't playing today. We will see. I'm not going, though. I'll wait for the Siena-Florence match. Not sure what I'll do. I brought that book with me, so maybe I'll find a place to read outside. There may or may not be a game of football tonight. It depends on our professor I guess. I'm tired of typing. Later.

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Comments

[Cujo]

Eccellente missiva mio Figlio. Sono ancora in attesa d'accompagnamento foto. Questo è un brutto baby.