Travels

July has been the month of traveling. It has been so great to see different places in Italy, but most of all it has been nice to enjoy coming "home" to Perugia. I began my travels in Mestre, which is close to Venice, at the end of June. I stayed with the Thompson's, one of the TEAM missionary couples there. Their house was amazing! It was in the country and their neighbors have a vineyard as well as a few animals. If you look closely in the left corner of the picture you can see one of them.
One of the highlights of the trip was the dinner with all their neighbors. I think it was called a contrada. Once a year the neighborhood has a big dinner, and I mean big...I think it was the most food I have eaten since coming to Italy. It began at 8pm and there were fireworks at midnight. We left before the big dish of pasta fagoli, which was sometime after midnight. I had a great time attempting to speak Italian and trying to listen to the 10 conversations going on around me. I must admit by the end of the evening I did have a bit of a headache from it all, but it was worth it.
One night the Thompson's took me into Venice. It is not my favorite city because it is so touristy, but it is beautiful at night. It was nice to walk around a bit when the streets were not packed and the sun was not beating down on us. It also happened to be a night that Spain was playing in the Euro 2008, so as we walked by the different bars and restaurants it was fun to check the score and hear people having fun.
After my time in Mestre, I headed to Trieste. I only spent a few days there, but enjoyed being by the sea. I enjoyed hanging out with the Kaiser family. I then trained to Florence and got several hours to see the sights around the train station while I waited for the Kaisers to pick me up and take me to Citta di Castello to help them paint there previous apartment. It was nice to be able to help someone with a task that could have a beginning and ending point with visible results. Although it has now made me look at my apartment with a not excited anticipation of having to repaint it when I leave. The high ceilings are nice until you think about how much more wall space there is because of them. Oh well, hopefully I will have plenty of friends by then for a painting party.
So after Mestre, Trieste, 3 hours in the Florence train station, and a trip to Citta di Castello to paint, I had 3 days in Perugia before my next journey...