Italy Trip!

We began our trip to Italy of course with an extremely long flight to Paris. Here's a quick shot a passerby took of us, who could see I was struggling to take one of both of us myself. You can see in Rob's expression that he's a little bit wary of me handing over our very expensive camera to a complete stranger. You may also notice the Grapefruit flavoured Sweppes I'm holding...num! I kept looking for them the rest of our trip but could only find it in the Paris Airport. Dah! I took out the camera because the glass ceiling was so impressive!

Our first night in Italy... We stayed in a delightful bed 'n breakfast owned by a gorgeous Italian couple. Making polite conversation the wife asked me if I swim. I thought she was asking me because they had pool so I responded yes. Then Rob informed me, No, she's asking you if you are a swimmer because she noticed you have wide shoulders. Ah, the first of many a misunderstanding of the Italian language for me. The next day we took ourselves on a tour of their place...the flora...the fauna, the motorcycle, and castle... Oh so Italian.

The first three days of our trip we hit up many of Rob's mission sites. We began in Catania, Sicily and were hit hard and fast by the Sicilian way of life...literally. Rob got into a small fender bender, what with the rain, narrow streets, people popping out of alleyways. Rob kept saying "This is just like a video game!" You can see in the picture above there is a sign warning you that people will run into the street unexpectedly. It's not like the walking pedestrian sign in America...these people will come at you fast. The lady in the car that Rob put a small dent in the back bumper came at him in true Italian fashion, hand in the air yelling "La macchina e' distrutta!" (The car is destroyed!) Rob assured me it was all part of the Sicilian experience. Rob has been in two car accidents in his life - both of them in Catania.

Next we decided to visit the LDS chapel in Catania where Rob attended for over 8 months of his mission. There happened to be three ladies doing geneology there and when they learned Rob had served him mission there, they insisted we stay for lunch so they could throw a party for him! They went out and bought us some of the tastiest Sicilian food imaginable. We stuffed ourselves silly and still had leftovers on our plate...a Sicilician faux pas but they assured us it was "OK" *grimace, wince*. I wish terribly that I had gotten my camera/video player out of the car and recorded these women talking. They were going a million miles a minutes and all Rob and I could do is smile and nod :)