wake me up, in the middle of the night to say.

As a group, we went to Lake Garda/Sirmione, Venice, and Verona a couple of weekends ago. It was an amazing, yet quick trip. I love all three sites, but since I could write a novella on it, I’ll try and sum it up in a quick re-cap.

On Thursday. I woke up before any rooster would think about crowing: 5:45, [seminary ended 6 years ago!]. Then, we thought we were going to have to leave someone behind, who is a touch late EVERYTIME! But, she managed to MacGyver her way on top of the Fortress to find us, right before the bus came. Then, we took tiniest bus possible where I scrunched my big boy body into and headed to Sirmione. Thanks to Lisbeth Salander and Michael Blomqkist [The Girl Who Played W/ Fire] for the gripping entertainment, because there was no sleep for me on the bus ride.

In Sirmione/Lake Garda, we had lunch, walked around the area that the pot Catullus wrote about/lived, and enjoyed the beautiful lake. The view of the Alps in the distance was amazing, and there was even a mimi hot springs, where I had a bit of a ri-ri moment stating “I’ve never seen like hot springs in the ocean” Post-It to Taylor- we are not at the ocean…LAKE Garda. Then a group of Asians decided to step in the springs. The one who got in looked like a Happy Panda, rolled up his pants and shirt revealing his Buddha Belly, and did a sort of Truffle Shuffle. Then stepped in the water and screamed because it was hotter than he anticipated! Needless to say, I was cracking up while he was screaming, took a bunch of ‘peace sign’ photos, and the put his arm around some poor Italian man, who was enjoying his rock seat, to take a photo with him.

We took a ferry to the other side of the lake and headed to Venice! In Venice we went to a Vivaldi “4 Seasons” concert. Again, the little kid inside of me came out. The bassist caused such a giggle fits from me due to the spastic, turrets like head jerks he was doing. My parent really did raise me better! All things aside, it was a great concert inside a beautiful church in Venezia.

The next day we went to the Accademia, where The Tempest should have been, but it’s temporarily gone, then we explored all day. The city is so beautiful. We ate lunch at a nice trattoria, went to Murano where they’re famous for blowing glass, then had a big ‘family’ dinner at a local restaurant.

Saturday we went to Verona, home to the fabled Romeo & Juliet. It was love at first sight as soon as we stepped into town. It has small town charm, with big city style. We walked along the “5^th Ave” of Verona, and went to the edge of town by the river, which had a spectacular view. We walked to the top of an old roman amphitheater that overlooked all of Verona and the hillside with mondo Villas.

The day was perfect, misty/hzy and overcast, adding to the ambience and charm of the town. We visited Juliet’s wall, which was lame. The only redeeming quality was the number of dudes treating Juliet like a hooker! There were numerous accounts of guys taking crass photos as they grope her left breast [hey, you rub St. Peter’s foot, apparently Juliet was kind of a floozy!]

I said goodbye to Verona, and embarked on the magic school bus [this time it was a normal, giant sized charter bus]. This really was the best ride I’ve ever been on. Granted, it could have been the amount of walking I did or the waking up at dawn, but it was very hazy and we were driving through the mountains. There was a constant fog encompassing the tress and then a drizzle of rain began. I had the perfect dreary day playlist and was in a euphoric state the whole bus ride [with a minor moment of terror when I thought the bus driver wasn’t using the windshield wipers, but again, I’m a bit slow and didn’t realize I was only seeing the top of the window, not the area where the driver was. Thanks for clearing that up Katie!]

….we made it back to Siena just in time for dinner, and for a nice hibernation!

A dopo!

New Addition to the Misadventures, a sort of soundtrack. Enjoy!

Maroon 5 - Never Gonna Leave This Bed [Acoustic] by haibee_mirage