Foggia (4th stop on the taste of Italy tour)

We spent most of the next day traveling to Foggia. Our train arrived 30 minutes late, but luckily Alessandra was still waiting for us. Alessandra is a lady from the ward who graciously let us stay at her house for two nights. She has two daughters. Dalila is 11 and Mariangela is 19. Her husband is not active in the church and isn't home much so I didn't get to know him very much. Anyways she promptly took us to get a gelato at the best place in town on our walk home. It was great to be back in Foggia and to still all the familiar streets, people, and shops. After 4 years it seemed like nothing had changed. When we got to Alessandra's we just relaxed and visited for awhile while Katelyn called Randy Lords from Madison Jr. High. It was fun to watch Katelyn talk on the phone and find out that she had gotten the job at Madison Jr. High teaching English. We were both excited and I know that she will be a great teacher. The rest of the night Katelyn helped Alessandra make a lasagna and tiramisu.


Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures while in Foggia but here are some from my mission. Left to right - Alessandra, Dalila, Mariangela, and Sis. Rizzi (almost 4 years ago).

The next morning we got up and went to church. It was great to see all the members and even a few that I didn't know. It was weird to see all the little kids who had grown up. Luckily most of the members remembered who I was. Katelyn survived Relief Society because there was a girl from the ward who had just gotten back from going to school at BYU. She translated for her the entire time except when the old ladies went into Foggiano (dialect) and were arguing about stuff. In sacrament meeting they had Katelyn and I bear our testimonies. After church Katelyn and I got to experience a real Italian meal with Alessandra's family. We had the lasagna and tiramisu that they made the night before.




After lunch we relaxed for a few hours before we took a walk around the town. I was really disappointed when I knocked on an investigator's door and no one answered. This investigator, Anziano Mario as we called him, was probably my favorite person from the mission so I had to try again. We did an hour or so later and boy was he shocked when he saw us standing at the door. He was so excited and so was I. Of course I then proceeded to kiss him (on the cheek). It was sad though because he had lost a lot of weight due to the removal of one of his vocal cords. This made it difficult for him to eat or to speak loudly. His voice was raspy and sounded like President Kimball's after he had a similar surgery. Yes I know I am not old enough to remember President Kimball, but I just got done doing a school project on him. It was great speaking to him in both Italian and English since he was our most advanced English student. He was very positive about his circumstance and was determined to be able to speak normally again. It was also good to hear him say that he wanted to breathe the air at our church again. For me that meant he remembered feeling the spirit while we taught him and knew that it was good. I still believe that one day when the time is right and his wife is more open to be taught that he will be baptized.



Some photos of Mario and his family from the mission.

We then returned to Alessandra's where she fed us again. She spoiled us so much and was so nice. She has a great capacity to love and serve. As evidence of this I don't think we had one meal where there was not at least one visitor. Once it was a cousin who got kicked out of his house for making fun of his grandma and most of the other times it was Diop, a Muslim refugee from Senegal who sold shoes on the street. It seemed like Diop showed up at the door just in time for every meal. On Sunday he did give her flowers for Mother's day though. Diop was a way nice guy we just couldn't understand him. Partly because of his religious beliefs, but also because he would intermix his French, Italian, and English while talking to us. We had a great time in Foggia and really want to thank Alessandra for everything. On the mission and while we were there she really was a mom to me. This was fitting since it was Mother's Day. Speaking of Mother's Day we also were able to surprise our Mother's and call them. We are both very lucky to have such wonderful mothers who gave up so much for us.

I stole this picture from Alessandra's facebook page. Us with Diop and Alessandra.

Florence (fourth stop on our taste of Italy tour)

We arrived in Florence in the afternoon and rushed quickly to our hotel, only to find a sign that said something about going to a bar to get a key. After going to the wrong bar we finally got the right bar and asked for Lorenzo like the note said. However, Lorenzo was not there but a lady gave us our key and told us how to get to our hotel room. The room was an old apartment and was up many many flights of stairs. We dropped off our luggage and rushed back to the train station to head to Pisa for the rest of the day. The town of pisa was not very impressive but the leaning tower was pretty cool to look at. I was not sure if you were really going to be able to tell it was leaning but you could definitely tell, especially at the base. After taking some pictures and walking around the grounds we stopped to eat (we were starving). The pizza that we got however was awful. We were hungry enough though that we ate it. We just complained the whole time.








The next day we slept in. When we left our hotel we ran right into a protest that was marching down the road. After getting through the crowd we headed over to a Museum to see the David. David was huge. (The picture is of a replica because you cannot actually take pictures of the statue). After walking around bored in the Museum for a few minutes we headed over to the Duomo. By this time all the churches were starting to blend together, but it was big and beautiful like all the others. We then caught a bus to a place called Chianti which is famous for there wine and is out in the tuscany region. The ride out there was hot however calm compared to the ride home. While in Chianti we went on a hike straight up a hill that was about 2 km. From up top you got a great view of tuscany and all the vineyards. We then headed back to catch a bus. This bus ride was very entertaining. There was a school group of about 30 girls from Sweden on it. They all piled in sitting 4 in a 2 person seat. There was a bus strike that day and so there was not very many buses running so there was lots of people on the bus and those girls that did not make it in a seat were on the floor. The bus driver must have been in a hurry because he was driving very fast through all the curvy roads. A baby was screaming the whole time which started the yelling. A lady went to help the mom with the baby and then started yelling at the bus driver to slow down. Then one of the girls passed out and they had to stop the bus and left her and a teacher on the side of the road. At this point half the girls were crying as well. In an attempt to calm the baby down the girls all started singing twinkle twinkle little star (I do not know what language it was). Kevin and I could not help but laugh at how emotional things got on the bus when there were lots of girls. But we all survived and made it back to the main station.









Following the crazy bus ride Kevin and I went to see the bridges and walk around the city a little more. We stopped at a restraunt and had a nice sit down dinner, however the pizza was still not very good. Thats when we decided the Pizza in Tuscany is not very good. I was exhausted by this time so we went back to our hotel and checked our email and such. When I checked my email I had a message from the Principal at Madison Jr. High (I had interviewed with him before I left) asking me to contact him asap. I downloaded skype on Kevin's Ipod and contacted my mother so she could contact him. She got a hold of him and he just said he had some questions to ask me. I emailed him and got his cell so I could call him Saturday when we got to Foggia.

Venice (Third stop on the taste of Italy tour)

Our third stop was Venice. After the rushed busy city of Milan, Venice was a good break. The city is beautiful and so unique (since it is all on water). After arriving we decided to do lunch (some yummy pasta) and then we attempted to find our hotel. Luckily it went better than Milan, however our hotel was a little iffy. It was down a little ally and then we were outside in a little courtyard. However the room was clean and had a bed and bathroom and thats all we wanted.


We then headed to the St. Marks square to see the Duomo and Bell Tower. We went up the bell tower and really enjoyed the view of the red roofs and beautiful canals. Once again Kevin and I agreed that the money spent to see the view was well worth it. We then took our gondola ride. The funny thing about the gondola ride is Kevin had just mentioned we should find a bathroom, so when the guy went about selling us his gondola ride we told him we would think about it, but first we had to go find a bathroom. He then said he would give it to us $10 cheaper if we did not go to the bathroom. We agreed. It was a very relaxing, romantic, enjoyable ride with the hubby.













We then headed over to another island call Lido where we ate dinner (good pizza) and bought some groceries. As the sun began to go down we headed back to the main Island to do some night sight seeing. The city was all lit up and it looked amazing. We road the ferry all through Venice just to admire the sights and then stopped to see the Rialto bridge. After kissing on the kissing bridge (The Rialto) we went to catch the water taxi again. While waiting an older couple came in and said something to the fact of we love your sweatshirts. We were both in Oregon Duck sweatshirts and they were huge Oregon Duck fans as well. They took a picture with us "to show there kids that there is Ducks fans in Venice" and then we visited for a little while. We then headed back to St. Marks square to see it all lit up. We decided to walk back to our hotel which turned into an adventure, since venice is just a lot of ally ways.










The next day me and Kevin took a Ferry to Murano (famous for its glass) to see the glass blowing demonstration. The glass blowing factory was not exactly what I had pictured but it was still amazing. It was just three men at work in a little warehouse. We watched them make a horse, a vase, and then part of a lion. It was very entertaining. It was then time for us to head back to the train station say goodbye to a wonderful city and head on to Florence.