Our first travel all by ourselves!

Que buona fine setimana! (what a fun weekend!) This last weekend was our first weekend of travel all by ourselves, well meaning 5 of us roomates and it was full of fun and adventure.We searched our travel book and decided on Bologna and Ferarra, both north of Florence. We left early friday morning for Bologna on a train, and arrived about 2 hours later. Once in the station we found a map and a yellow machine that you could research places to stay. We did a search and found a bed and breakfast that looked good. I, kristin, got out my cell phone and called the number, a lady answered in italian and after about 5 seconds i realized she didnt know a single bit of english. After a stuggle i finally got our point across and made arrangements for us to stay, it was quite a sight to see. haha we then piled into a taxi to go and drop our stuff off at the b&b. when we arrived at the address of the b&b the taxi driver gave a short chuckle as it looked like we arrived at someones home, we laughed as well and jumped out and buzzed the gate. the lady that we had talked to before opened the door for us and let us in, still no english to be found from her. the b&b was really nice, there was no real lobby but a staircase promptly as you entered the door and we had two bedrooms on the second floor that were really nice and an amazing bathroom with a jacuzzi tub down the hall, though we didnt get the chance to use it, and it was cheap too, we were excited about our find! after we had gotten everything situated we boarded a bus and headed to the main hub of bologna. Bologna is a cute city that is not quite as touristy as everywhere else we have been, so we felt like we were really getting a feel for the true culture of italy. We stopped for a quick bit of lunch at a restuarant and accidently ordered a pizza for each of us, instead of one for all of us, haha, oh well, it was really good! and our waiter was really nice and called his friend and made apertivo reservations for us later in the evening at another resturant. the rest of the day we did sight seeing. We went into some beautiful old churches mainly from the 16th century. We were in the region of emila-romania , which was its own country before italy was united so it was fun to see the differences between that and tuscany where we live, we also saw a leaning tower that was really cool, it is so weird to walk down the road and see a huge brick tower just leaning, it looks like it is about to fall over! after our sight seeing we headed over to the restuarant for appertivo, which is all over italy it starts at about 7pm and unlimited appetizers with a purchase of a beverage. they were really nice to us and kept bringing plates over to our table with all kinds of things, instead of making us get up and go to the buffet. We loved it so much so that the appetizers became our dinner as we ate so much. It was a lot of fun! The next morning we were up early to catch another train to Ferrara, it was a smaller one that was a bit rickety, but still got the job done! we loved Ferrara, it has huge city walls all around the city that we went and walked on and a beautiful piazza (public square). Our favorite part of all though was the castle in the city, yeah, thats right, a real live castle, we were so excited! It was built in the 14th century and we toured the dungeons, still containing old writings from prisioners, and then toured the rooms above most of the furtinure had been looted but the frescos on the ceilings were still there and they had made it into a museum, so i was really fun, and then we climbed one of the towers that over looked the whole city, so pretty! after the long day we went for dinner at a cute restuarant, the chef made us special tortellini as tortellini originated in that region and it was stuffed with pumpkin and had a ragu meat sause, surprisingly amazing! we were having so much fun that we were now running late for our train home, this should be decline portion of the story but it might be the climax, for some reason our ticket did not say what time the train was leaving, but we knew that it was the last train of the night and the next one didnt come until 6am the next day, so we couldnt miss it, we were a little frantic running around and saw a train headed to bologna, which is where our train was to be headed and figured that that had to be ours, however the doors were already shut and all the seats were taken so people were just standing crowded in the space between the cars next to the doors. our roomate ashley started pulling on a door and it wouldnt open, so she went to the next one and got it open as the train started to move and quickly got on, brea, was next and she got in, then i, kristin got in and tried to keep moving in so that ashley and meggie could get in, meanwhile the train is starting to get going, however brea could not move in any more as it was so crowded so half of the roomates were on, half were off, in the moment of panic i pushed Brea in like i was cramming an already full suitcase and pulled ashley in who pulled meggie in who was now running along. whew! we hardly made it, we then realized that we were on the wrong train and didnt have tickets for that one but luckily we were not checked and we were going to the same destination so it all worked out. we were then packed in like sardines for the next hour just cracking up over the experience, and then switched trains after a small layover and then boarded the final train for home, it was definately a fun and adventurous weekend! thank you for all of your love and prayers, we miss you all and think about you lots! xo krist and ash