Stormy Times

On Sunday we decided to have a nice relaxing day. I don't think we realized how hard it would be to go to class 6 days a week. More specifically I don't think we realized how hard it would be to go to class 6 days a week and then spend our day off fitting in as many day trips as possible.

We realized that we had yet to hike to the top of the town. (In all of the pictures I post, the top of the town is the building surrounded by scaffolding, the Duomo (church).) We had the brilliant idea to hike up because the weather was cool so we figured we wouldn't die of heat exhaustion. As we started making our way to the top we realized that the storm clouds that seemed to be safely in the distance were starting to close in... did we stop? Nope. We are troopers.

We met up with Patrick and Allan (two boys in our class) who decided to join us for our hike. We made it up there (not before I almost busted my bottom by slipping while going up the incline of the "short cut") just in time. Look at the views of the storm. I have a video, and I am going to go to a restaurant in town to try to load it, but it is amazing. These pictures are too calm, the wind was amazing up there, I thought my camera might get blown away.

We made it down, and to Lauren's apartment, just in time. The rain started pouring and did not stop until late at night. While waiting out the storm at Lauren's (Lindsey and I naively thought it would stop at some point... since we did not have umbrellas or anything and were still a little far from home) Lindsey and I decided to investigate this random door in her apartment. Where does it lead? What's behind it? 

The best way to describe it would be a Scooby Doo episode (Lindsey playing Daphne and me being Velma - Thanks to Kate for helping me spell those correctly!). It was a dark and stormy afternoon, thunder was clapping and our imaginations were running wild. 

After finally figuring out how to use something (we tried butter knives, string, other random tools and items found around the apartment) to slide the latch back we unlocked the door and ran back up the stairs (we had completely sensationalized what may/may not be behind the door so we had freaked ourselves out).

We got Lauren to come and then explained to her that we thought she should open the door because she has a criminal justice background. She tried to point out that she is not an officer, and therefore was not a better choice than either Lindsey or I, but we didn't buy it. So Lauren went down the stairs to the door, opened it and ran back up.

We were not nearly as entertained by what was behind the door. No stolen art, no bodies, just junk. Apparently it is a storage space with paint and other odd items. A fun adventure anyways! :-)

I realized the other day you hadn't met Tulip! Lauren was smart enough to bring her dog with her for the summer, so we all claim her as our own since we miss our animals so much. Tulip (or Tulipana as the Italians call her) is an adorable, sweet, happy little puppy. I love her mainly because she is cat sized. It helps me resist the urge to "borrow" one of the cats I find outside my apartment. :-)

In her adorable bag.

Final updates to this blog and then I am officially caught up:

1. It is COLD (well... cold to a Florida girl) here... high of 69 today. We are going to try to get to Rome this weekend to buy a jacket or something. The clothes in the stores in Amelia are CRAZY expensive.

2. There was an earthquake on Monday night. We were out and about and I didn't realize it, but apparently other people had things shaking, etc. Neat! I lived through an Earthquake. :-)

3. The kids outside my apartment at night have decided to start using high pitch sustained whistling instead of talking... grrr. 

4. In Italy you cannot buy conditioner in a normal sized bottle. A 4 ounce container costs 6E, I don't get it.

5. You can buy a huge container of freshly made ricotta for 4 E.

We are going to a creepy sculpture garden today (you'll understand when I post pictures) so you should have something fun tomorrow. 

Ciao!