this is not goodbye

its hard to believe that this day is actually here...our last day in paris. we have been trying to suck all the fun and beauty out of the city in a day. its all very sad, this has really become our favorite city. and we have spent enough time here now that we no longer need our map. we can walk by shops and say "oh theres the cheese lady" and "oh hey did you want to stop and say hi to our rude waiter?". it has really become a home away from home in only a few weeks. our only consolation is that we plan to come back here some day very soon. we have spent the past three days walking around the city, revisiting our favorite spots. the weather has been cold (we were forced to buy new jackets it was just horrible) (luckily they are very cute jackets) however it has been sunny most of the time. on our way home last night we heard some comotion around the corner. we realized that it was one of the demonstrations that have been going on here in paris since we left (we actually saw one right before leaving paris in october as well)...instead of getting up close and taking pictures like we did last time we decided to avoid giving dad a heart attack and turned around and went the other way. so we are safe...still...with less than 24 hours before we fly out tomorrow. we were thinking this would be our last blog entry but then we thought we would get home and still have things to say about our trip so we will probably post one more time from home. thank you all so much for keeping up with us on our big adventure. checking in and getting your comments was a life saver at times when we were really homesick. love you all and see you soon. love steph and rach

trains......

somehow this morning we find ourselves in paris. it was a long trip up from salerno starting yesterday morning around eight and arriving here this morning at about 8:30. so you see, we just spent 24 hours travelling on trains. it was nice to wake up in paris and walk to the hotel we stayed in before and even get our same room. now we are in our favorite neighborhood just enjoying the familiar sights (first order of business was eating nutella crepes). we feel like now we can relax and enjoy the rest of our stay in europe before heading home on friday. on sunday we took a train from salerno over to pompeii to explore the ruins. it was truly astonishing! we had no idea it was so well preserved. even after about three hours wandering around inside, we still hadnt seen even half of it. then we spent our last real night in italy stuffing ourselves with pasta. we even ordered one without knowing what it was and it turned out to be SO good. now we are off to wander around paris! love rach and steph

every day is a winding road...

hi again. we are still here in salerno enjoying the sun and beach. today when i woke up rachael told me happy birthday whether i liked it or not. we decided to take a trip to amalfi by bus. it was a beautiful drive along the coastline that we would have enjoyed had we both not gotten very motion sick. the road was so tight and curvy and the driver must have had it out for us. we both agreed that it was worth it though. the coastal towns all along the mountains are breathtaking. we stayed at amalfi for a few hours and decided it was a bit too touristy for our taste (everyone there was american) so we got lunch (pizza and vino) and rach surprised me with a card and a necklace that she made (one i had been borowing and love) then we took the long bus ride back to salerno. the sun was setting and it felt very surreal to be seeing all the beauty that we have only ever seen in pictures. unfortunately we got sick again on the way home and now we are trying to recover so we can get dinner at our favorite restaurant here. thank you everyone for the birthday wishes it really does mean a lot. cant wait to see you all and tell you all about our time here in europe. love steph and rach

la dolce vita!!

hello again everyone! we have found our new home here in salerno....its by the beach!!!! we have only been here a couple hours but already we are in the best moods ever. now, the real reason for feeling so happy right now is because we happen to have the most fabulous mom in the universe. when we showed up to our room we are staying in here, we had birthday cards (from mom and auntie), pastries and wine all waiting for us in our room(set up all cute) from our very own mother. having that piece of home waiting for us was such a huge surprise and well, i almost cried and i think i saw some tears in stephanies eyes as well. THANKS MOM!!! WE LOVE YOU SOOOOO MUCH! now to go back a little bit to the rest of our time at the farm stay. yesterday we went on a three hour hike with our host , antonello, and three other girls that were staying there. the views were absolutely breathtaking as we hiked down into a gorge and to a hidden waterfall. we even did a ceremonial dance to scare away any bears.....this consisted of waving our arms around and shaking our booties. something tells me antonello likes to see how silly he can make people be. at the waterfall we were taking pictures and enjoying the area when steph had a small accident, she slipped on a rock and fell partly into the water. she is ok except for some bumps and bruises but sadly we cant say the same for her camera. may it rest in peace. dont expect any pictures from the last week of our trip. last night after the hike and another amazing meal (seriously the best food in italy) we were taken to a play in a neighboring town. it was all in italian of course but we had antonello translating a little and it was still very interesting to watch, very good acting. this morning we had to say goodbye to the farm and head to salerno by train. when we arrived we headed toward the water and were immediately in deep love with this place (seeing the ocean is like being back in san diego). we took a bus to an apartment room we arranged to stay in before we left (http://mysalernoapartment.com/). we met diane, our host from canada, and got settled. after some homemade espresso and pastries from mom (mom, did you make sure to request the most fattening stuff diane could find??) (mean) we set out to explore the town and the first thing we saw was the sun setting over the water. beautiful! wish you were here! love rach (and steph)

when in rome...

hello from rome. we have been staying at the italy farm stay (http://www.italyfarmstay.com/) for the past three days. we love it!!! it has been the most authentic italian experience. we went horseback riding yesterday...we went up and down steep hills, forded a river several times...it was the real thing, not one of those trail rides where your horse does it with its eyes closed. also we took a cooking class from our hostess. we learned to make pasta from scratch...then we ate it for dinner with homemade wine from the vineyard on the farm. it was so good! you are all invited to try it too, we plan to make it when we get home. today we decided to take a bus over to rome for the day (most tour books suggest 3 days for rome so you can imagine the walking we have done) this is by far the oldest city we have been in. we started with st. peters (in vatican city) and climbed to the top of the dome for a view of rome, moved on to the pantheon, saw the trevi fountain (so beautiful), then the forum and colosseum. we stopped for a late lunch of pasta and wine, of course, and the waiter treated us to some lemoncello (no idea how to spell that one) for dessert. now we are off to see the st. marie maggiore church which is supposed to be the oldest church in rome and beautiful (and free). love and miss you all. thank you for your notes it was such a nice surprise to finally get online and have mail. love you, steph and rach

italian for beginners

ciao everyone! we have arrived in italy, well actually we arrived in italy on wednesday morning after taking our first night train. this was quite the interesting experience. we shared a teeny compartment with four other people (six bunks). needless to say we didnt really sleep. the train was stopping and starting all night. but we woke up in a dreamworld......venice. venice is nothing like the pictures you see, its better. we spent two nights there and most of the time we wandered around just trying to soak in all the beauty. there are no cars there obviously (or bikes) so you just wander up and down narrow cobbled streets that make no sense. around every corner there was a bridge over a waterway with boats or gondolas going by. the town in known for the venetian glass so we were awed by eye candy everywhere we looked. one thing we really liked was that there were practically no commercial or department stores. most were just small shops and boutiques, many of which had the artist making their product in the back (shoe makers, glass blowers, mask painters, jewelry makers). if it sounds too good to be true, we were thinking the same thing. the one disappointing thing was we realized it is overrun by tourists all the time and the locals seem fed up. in other words, they werent very nice to us. we found one nice guy in a little snack bar who gave us free gelato and wine and let steph serve gelato to a tourist. it went something like this.....steph goes behind the counter, gives the old man a huge scoop of ice cream and says "that will be one million dollars". he still only gave her two euros and she gave him one back. it was the funniest thing ever and my personal favorite memory of venice. we had some great pasta and gelato there too! so now we are in florence (the capital of tuscany) where its warmer in more ways than one, the weather and the people. its a big city that has kept its rustic small town charm. theres so many street vendors selling mostly leather goods. we keep drooling over the italian leather boots!! a couple highlights of our sightseeing here was an amazing collection of sculptures all in this one giant square outside a museum. weve decided we like sculptures more than paintings. also there is a footbridge here that looks like a row of mini houses all along it that are actually shops. the bed and breakfast we are staying at (bed and breakfasts are sometimes cheaper than hotels in europe) is a cute place called the christina house. its run by a family and the wife is called christina of course. we get breakfast wheeled into our room on a little table with everything already on it....so nice! by the way, italy=mosquitos if you were wondering. poor steph has about four bites already and weve gone through half of our bug spray. looks like we underestimated the bugs here. today we took a little trip down to siena and spent a couple hours walking around this old town with a wall around it. we sat at a cafe in the huge piazza and ate pizza and an amazing bean stew (garlic and sage) while watching all the tourists. then we found our newest addiction and its name is panforte. (chocolate flavored to be exact). all we knew was that siena is known for this treat so we tried some. then we spent the next hour looking for more to take with us so we could eat it on the train. its a little like fruit cake but so much better. we have been wearing our flip flops today to give our poor feet a break and gotten so many strange looks youd think we were breaking the law (who knows, we might be). but we have stopped caring what people think. tomorrow we travel further south past rome to stay at the farm we booked before we left. we love getting your comments on here so keep posting!! (its ok to post more than once too if you want to because we sometimes get homesick and miss you so we just check for new comments without posting a new blog). love, rach (and steph)