EbTheRedHead: 5 months ago...

YES! Can you believe it?? It's been 5 months since I last blogged. I'm kind of disappointed in myself. Regardless, so much has happened within my family. The other day, someone mentioned how they couldn't wait for summer. I could, I murmured. Sometimes Life moves too fast for you to follow. You end up feeling left behind on some emotions. That's not good. I've read enough self help books to know you should appreciate each day, whether good or bad.
BUT ON THAT LAST NOTE....
I feel I owe it to myself to finish my blog on my trip to Italy. It had a profound effect on me and I cannot wait to visit again.  I am trying to learn Italian too! I'm hoping to make new friends when I go out there. Since I was in southern Italy, I didn't encounter too many people who knew English, yet alone Spanish. Mainly in Rome and other northern tourist cities you will have a blend of people from all over. I figured why not try something new. I will say this though, Italian is indeed a Latin language, but I did have a hard time trying to understand them as they did with me. The dialect and their pronunciation is what got me.
So back to Italy in September 2014. I left off from our wonderful dinner party with friends. The next day was our last official full day so we had to make the most of our time. We had decided to go to a nearby town where a friend of my girlfriend had offered to meet us for lunch. She wanted to be our tour guide to her town. I thought that was generous of her considering I have never met her before. We ended up in Lucera where we wandered off to yet another castle (lol).     This castle was built by Frederick II of Swabia in 1233. We spent the early part of the day there and met up with our friend at a restaurant. She is studying English so we helped her out with some curse words. Hey! Isn't that the first thing you would want to know too?? We walked over to a nearby park overlooking a cliff and enjoyed the view. I love how people appreciate the beauty that surrounds them. Sometimes, back at home, we hustle and bustle and forget to look around and see the seasons changing. It's a sad way to live, but I do feel that you need to TAKE the time to do this.
Afterwards we visited a real estate office where our friend's sister worked. Apparently, Italy is the place to be to buy property, but in town like Lucera, you have to consider wear you are moving to. It's very quiet and small and not much going on there. Most people work in other towns, so you need to think about your commute as well. Every town,/city I had visited were no less than 30 minutes away, (on average at least an hour away from each other). It's a lot of driving and the gas is 65% MORE than you would pay here in the States. Ouch!
We headed back home to take a siesta and again began our ritual of getting ready for a dinner out. This restaurant was absolutely delicious!  Because of my lack of clothing on this trip, I wore my dressy black shorts with a brand new lace top I won off ebay. For my trip I wore my espadrille wedges instead of heels since I knew how difficult it is to walk on the cobblestone. I have yet mastered the art of walking in Europe. Our Swedish friends made me feel welcomed with some light-hearted Italian jokes. We had a lovely time. I will miss this for now...