Friday November 9

Today was pretty much a lazy day. We had a leisurely breakfast then checked out of the hotel and headed to the beach so that mom could say she set foot in the Mediterranean. I opted out because it was a bit cold and sandy and I wasn’t in the mood to ruin my only pair of shoes for the trip.

After our stroll we still had a few hours to kill before our flight to Rome so we drove around and found IKEA. Now, mom has never been to IKEA, but I have had the opportunity to go when I was in France. It’s a great story for those of you that were there, for those of you that weren’t, you kinda had to be there. So, after being ushered by one of the 20+ parking attendants we parked about a half-kilometer from the store where parking was easy with our big banged up car.

For those of you who have never been to IKEA, it’s a furniture and home store that is set up like you would a house, with a certain path to follow. So a walk through of the entire store can take over an hour if you try and see it all. We made it through and I think mom was genuinely disappointed that she couldn’t buy some things because they would require pricy shipping. After seeing the goods we decided to have a coffee and muffin at the cafeteria. It was pretty good for being 0,80 cent coffee, even mom said so. I don’t think we bought anything from the main store but we got some goodies and sweets from the Swedish store by the exit.

After our shopping extravaganza it was time to head to the airport to catch our flight, returning the car was quicker than we had anticipated and when we got to the counter they hadn’t even begun ticketing for our flight. So we lolly gagged around the airport for a bit and then checked our bags and headed to the gate, after checking out the duty free goods.

The flight was 2.5 hours, longer than I would have thought, but not too bad. The kids behind us were miserable though. They were loud and kept banging on the seat and were old enough to know better. I would have gauged them at 9-11 years old, which is old enough to keep your voice down and not yell on an airplane.

We arrived in Rome and found Ilaria there waiting for us. Her mom had gone to park the car, so we waited mere moments for her to arrive. Getting the car was another story. Italian drivers are crazy. I cant even begin to explain the backing up and cutting off and parking everywhere that took place in the 10 minutes that we waited for Ilarias mom to bring the car around. The ride to Pollenza was equally interesting. At one point we missed our exit and actually stopped on the interstate, backed up, and took the exit. Im still amazed we made it out alive. But in all honesty her mom is a fantastic driver. She handled curvy roads at 11pm in the dark and snow without a problem. I cant say that I would have been as calm, speedy or successful as she was.

About halfway we stopped to get pizza in this little town called Spoleto. The pizza was fabulous. Then we loaded back in the car and finally made it to Pollenza at about midnight.

Saturday November 10

Today was our only full day in Pollenza. We walked around the city and then went to Ilaria’s school and Macerata. Later we went to the seaside to see the Adriatic. We had lunch at a nice little restaurant and mom cut her spaghetti. There was a woman at the table facing ours and apparently her face contorted in such a way that her disapproval was known by all around her as soon as she saw mom drag her knife across her plate of noodles. There was also a young man whose eyes made him bear a striking resemblance to John Travolta. I unsuccessfully attempted to get a photo with my cell phone, but apparently even when my phone is on silent it still makes a noise when it snaps a photo. Awesome. His girlfriend wasn’t too happy about the attention he was getting from our table either. Whoops.