More Famiglia.

If it wasn't for Anthony La Barbera (in Canada) to Facebook message me about our family in Montecatini, I would have never known they existed.

After being in contact for a few days with Valentine Labate(cousin) and Michele La Barbera(cousin) vis Facebook, we set a date for me to come to their house for dinner on sunday, march 10.

Extremely nervous prior to departure. I barely speak Italian. I have never once met any of these people. I'm going there alone.
It's not like these people were total strangers. I knew if I didn't take this opportunity, I would regret it, so I sucked it up and prepped myself to visit my family.

I got on the train from Florence and arrived at the Montecatini Terme station around 11am, greeted by the three kids; Michela, 21, Silvia, 20 and Samuele, 12. Speaking very broken Italian and having Michela translate with her very minimal English, these were some of my cousins!

We stopped to get colazione; capuccino, biscotti, etc... then continued to drive to their house in Monsummano, a town in Montecatini.
I was welcomed in by a ton of other family (I lost track of names and who people were), and more people kept arriving.

Inside their Nonna's house (wife of Michele, Pa's brother), who lives next door to Michela, Silvia and Samuele, there was a long dining room table set for a a little more than 20 people. The food being prepared smelled unreal.
I was bombarded with hugs, kisses, and phrases being said to me in Italian that took me minutes to comprehend.

All the sons, daughters, their kids and their boyfriends/girlfriends, the kids around my age and younger, and more cousins came. Everyone was curious to know everything about me.
Thank God Michela spoke very minimal English, because if it wasn't for her, I would have barely been able to communicate with them.

The dinner was absolutely delicious; lasagna, chicken, pork, this bacon type meat, salad, a bunch of little pastries and cake, coffee, champagne. So much food. It was awesome sitting there eating with everyone and it's been the best meal I've eaten since I got to Italy.
I usually hate lasagna.. When Mom was sick, people would bring over dinners every night. Such a nice gesture, but since everyone knew we were Italian, we probably had lasagna brought to the house 3 nights a week. Being extremely sick of it, I haven't had it since. It's been like 10 years, and this lasagna I had at the house was heavenly. It was amazing...
Every Sunday they go to their Nonna's house where we were and have a family dinner, so it was comforting being and made me feel like I was home.

The kids took me and showed me around the center of Montecatini after we ate and we walked around a little. I met Silvia's boyfriend and then they all walked me to the train.

I am so happy I decided to take time and go there for dinner. When we get back from spring break, the two girls are going to come stay at my apartment for the night so we can go out in Florence together. I could not be happier I got the chance to do this and hopefully can go back once more before I leave.

Not only am I traveling Europe and living right in the center of a major city in Italy, but I'm meeting more family and making relationships that I never thought would be created.

21.

Celebrating twenty-one years of life. In Italy.

If you know me, you know I hate the thought of growing up. Nothing about it has ever appealed to me. I still don't even think I know what I want to do with my life. I need to face reality, because I'm not little anymore. I'm 21.

I've never been one to publicize my birthday, or make sure every one knows about it. All I really care about is being with those I want to be with; my family and good friends.
On Monday, we celebrated my birthday by getting a 5 course dinner with bottomless wine at Il Teatro, right under Tara's apartment. Amazing food. Good wine. And a version of my family and friends; Tara plus my roommates and girls we met here/from home.

The people I have become close with from Euroadventures set up this birthday dinner for me, and the woman at the restaurant brought out desserts with candles for me to blow out, champagne, and had the restaurant sing 'Tanti Auguri' to me. We had a good time.
We went out for a little bit afterward to see some other people we hang out with, but so full from dinner, we had to make it an early night.

I got really, really homesick during the day on my birthday. I hated not being with my family, but Tara, my roommates, and girls we hang out with made it so enjoyable.

I stopped at Tara's apartment during the day and she had a ton of my favorite Italian treats with a mini tiramisu cake and bottle of champagne waiting for me. Lauren and Gianna had some treats waiting at home for me, as well. Marissa and Ali bought me these awesome chocolates and everyone I wanted to, came to dinner and out after.

I have so much to be thankful for. I have lived a healthy twenty-one years of life, blessed with the best family and groups of friends I can ask for. Yea, it's scary growing up and I hate it... But looking back at the experiences and opportunities that have already come my way, I cannot wait to see what the future has to offer.


Who can say they celebrated an important milestone of their life, in one of the greatest and most beautiful cities in the world? I can.

Czech this out.

The largest city of the Czech Republic, Praha.

Buying a transportation only ticket, the five of us girls (Lauren, Gianna, Nina and Emily), departed on a bus that was making a stop in Munich at 7pm Thursday night, then making it's way to Prague.
We arrive in munich around 8am, give or take, and the entire bus checks into the hostel, except for the 9 of us continuing to Prague.
So nice to have the entire bus to ourselves, I start making friends with one of the two bus drivers and try and practice my Italian. They we laughing at us all when we got into our own seats, preparing to take a nap for the next 5 hours until our destination.

Every trip I've gone on, I've brought Heather's blanket she gave me for Christmas. I went to pull it down from the shelf above me, when to my surprise, my new, old, Italian bus driver friend, helps me out and proceeds to tuck me in for my nap. I knew this was gonna be a great trip.

Probably should not have spoken too soon...
After being asleep for an hour or two, I wake up realizing the bus is pulled over at a hostel. Ecstatic thinking that we're already in Prague, I then see Cam and Cathy (Euroadventures people) getting on the bus, talking to the drivers. Still half asleep and feeling paralyzed from laying across the seats of a coach bus, I hear that two people forgot bags on the bus and realized over an hour later. Idiots. I was pissed.

Falling back asleep, we get to Prague around 2:30pm. Meeting the rest of the Prague people who were on a different bus, at the hotel, the five of us walk to our hostel we booked ourselves, located in the main center of Prague.

We realize they are on a different currency than the Euro. So we head to the ATM. Something like, every 20 Czech Korunas=1 USD. So we were walking around with over 2,000 Czechs in our pockets, thinking we have all this money. It was equivalent to along the lines of a little over $100. Weird.

After getting situated at the hostel, we cluelessly head out into this medieval city. Around the corner from our hostel was a famous Sex Machines Museum... Agreeing this would not be worth the time and money, we decided to take full advantage of the Starbuck's next door instead.
Arriving into the main square of Prague, near the famous Astronomical Clock, we got a class of Hot Wine and figured out where to go from there.

We made our way to the Charles Bridge, famous mainly because of it's connection of the Prague castle and Old Town area of the city.

The Lennon Wall was like something I'd never seen before. I love art and the freedom of expression, and this has got to be the best example of that.
A little history;
Lennon was a huge hero to much of the youth in Central and Eastern Europe, in the time of Communism. Many songs were band during that era especially John Lennon's songs, because of the drastic praising of freedom.

When Lennon was murdered in 1980, he then became a hero. People would paint his picture all over this wall, along with graffiti and lyrics of his songs and other expressions they may have had. Authorities would continuously paint over it, but that would not stop the Czech from going back and painting their feelings and dreams all over the wall.

It's not only a memorial to John Lennon and his ideas for peace, but also a monument for free speech and the non-violent rebellion of the Czech youth against the system of government.
Some people were saying it is the Czech Republic's equivalent to the Berlin Wall of Germany.
Seeing this historical site was amazing. I had seen pictures before, but seeing it in person was unreal. I could have stayed there all day, reading everything that was visible and taking pictures of every angle possible.
The numerous portraits of Lennon, song lyrics, names and quotes each had their own meaning a definitely shows how symbolic this wall is.

Finishing our day, ate a O Che's Pub, and headed back to the hostel. On our way home we signed up for Prague's 'famous barcrawl' that night. Every one from Florence was doing it, so we met up beforehand and participated in the bar crawl.

Starting off our Saturday, we woke up for the free hostel breakfast. Stale cereal with warm milk and coffee. Yum. For 10euro a night, I should have expected this.

Grabbing a map, Emily draws out some routes to take and maps out our destinations for the day. The main square is where a famous Astronomical Clock is located. It is one of the three in the world, that still works properly.
Climbing over 200 steps to the top of the tower, we saw an awesome view of all Prague.

Before getting to Prague, people had told us to go to "the best bagel place, ever, Bohemia Bagels." So of course, we made it a priority to find the infamous bagel place. Yes, these were the best bagel sandwiches, ever. From bacon, egg and cheese to Reuben's and BLTs...they had a huge selection of sandwiches. We got ours to go, and sat outside in the sun.
Stopping to sign the Lennon Wall, then making our way to the Prague Castle was the agenda for Saturday. In between going to the wall and the castle, we stopped at the Jewish Cemetery. Not realizing until after, that Saturday is their 'holy day,' everything was closed.

The castle was very medieval and it seems like a little town in itself once we got to the entrance. Very cool.

On the way back to the hostel, we stopped to get some crepes and then fresh berries at the market right before it closed. Healthy dinner, right?

Running into more people from Florence, we decided that night to go the in well-known 5 story club. Yes. Five floors. Each with a different theme; hip hop, 80s (our personal favorite), Electronic Dance music, Rap, and something else I can't remember...

We spent most of the time on the 80s/oldies floor, loving every song that came on. We even started a conga line consisting of probably 50+ people. It was awesome.

Dead tired the next morning. We checked out of the hostel and left bright and early to meet the buses at 10am.
Taking advantage of the 5 hours to ourselves, we slept the entire way to Munich. We laughed and exchanged stories about the weekend and heard all about the Munich people's adventures during the Strong Beer Fest that was going on over the weekend.

I'm really happy I got the chance to go to Prague. I never thought I'd end up visiting the Czech Republic, and the John Lennon Wall has been by far my favorite.


Czech this city off my list.