Europe Trip: Day 22, June 11th

Gabriele and I ate breakfast in the old part of Castiglion Fiorentino, which I as of yet had not been in. Then he was going to meet up with a friend of his and said I could explore the town for a couple hours and meet him at a place for lunch.

I got to see the old medieval castle and walls, as well as a museum that showcased a relatively recent find that the medieval settlement was placed over an older Etruscan one dating back to the 6th century BC. I was going to climb up to the top of the medieval tower, but they only let people go up there on Sundays and holidays, and sadly it was a Thursday.

I wandered the town a bit and found the big church, which had some very cool statues of San Pietro, San Paulo, and so on, built into the walls. I was going to take some pictures, but the battery on the camera died when I tried to take the first picture -- I guess Jesus was giving me a sign about taking pictures inside churches...I promise I wasn't going to use the flash!

After taking a break in the church I made my way to the restaurant and waited about half an hour until Gabriele came. I had some pasta with mushrooms, which was okay, but couldn't match the duck sauce pasta from the night before.

We hung out there, and as usual Gabriele saw people left and right that he knew, a couple of them joined us at our table. I guess Castiglion Fiorentino is the Italian equivalent of the small town where everyone knows each other. Gabriele told me that he can tell immediately if a girl is American or Italian, and there are tons of Americans in the town since Texas A&M and Virginia University both have campuses there, meaning about 300 or more students at any one time.

I bought my train ticket and then we headed back to his place to take it easy for an hour or two and to give me some time to pack. Fifteen minutes before my train was set to leave we headed over, and as usual good-byes are always tough.

[Insert description of generic Italian regional train ride]

Two and a half hours later I found myself at Roma Termini station, and my new host, Lubna was waiting there. She was surprised that I only had a backpack, and told me that her mother had driven over since they thought I would have a bunch of luggage. We talked a bit and walked outside the station, after a few minutes we got to where her mom was parked and I introduced myself.

The ride to their place was nice, they gave me a bit of a tour of some of the places we crossed -- the old Roman aqueduct, a famous cemetary that is huge, and a couple other things. On the way to their apartment, Lubna's mother told me that I could ride in with her to Rome since she works near the Vatican. So tomorrow I am going to visit San Pietro, the Vatican Museums, and all that good stuff. Then when she gets off work at 7pm or so she told me that she would show me around a bit if I still have the energy.

Right now Lubna's mother is cooking dinner for us, and I'm in the living room typing this up. Unfortunately they don't have wireless internet, so I will just have to use Lubna's extra computer in her room. Meaning I won't be able to post these until some other time, and there is no chance that I can use Skype while I am over here. But they are very nice people, and I think I am going to have a great time. Forcing me to get up early and out of the house may be the best thing that has happened to me on this trip, usually I am too lazy to get out before 11am or noon.