Finalmente in Italia!

Not much to say, since I've been traveling so much for the past few days, but I'm finally in Italy! I arrived in Rome from Barcelona two nights ago and met up with Caitlin and her family for dinner in Rome. The next day we took a flight from Rome to Lecce, meeting up with Nicole, who came straight from the US, at the gate. It rained and hailed a bit when we arrived in Lecce, but cleared up by night and was nice and cool. Nicole and I bought our Italian cell phones, which was an experience. The man at the store was not helpful at all and didn't even want to try to speak slowly so that we could understand him. Luckily there was a very sweet girl who was in the store, who didn't work there but spoke a little English and stayed to help us understand everything. Also, in order to buy a cell phone or SIM card in Italy you need an Italian ID Card number, which we didn't have, so she was nice enough to let us use her number to buy our phones. I hate to say it, but it feels great to have a cell phone again!

We had arranged to stay in the dorm with the rest of the students on our program, but there was no room, so they put us in an apartment nearby, which is actually a great arrangement. We met two girls from the Netherlands who are also in our apartment and they showed us around Lecce last night (they've only been here for a few days as well) and we all got dinner together. It was great to walk around and see the town. It's a small town with many beautiful Baroque churches, almost every few blocks. We also saw a small amphitheater from Roman times.

This morning, we got absolutely delicious cappucinos and brioches for breakfast, and are going out to explore Lecce a bit more in a few minutes. Tonight we're joining the group on their final dinner, and leaving for Naples tomorrow. I can still hardly believe I'm in Italy!

Side note: I successfully found The Little Prince in Catalan in Barcelona, it was a bit of a search, so I was very happy when I finally came upon it. It's called El Petit Prìncep. Our bike tour guide told us that Catalan is a combination of French and Spanish, although I thought I saw some Italian influences, just flipping through the book. Next on my list is to find the Napoletano-Calabrese version in Naples, O Princepe Piccerillo, although that might be a bit more difficult to track down!


P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!