1 SPECTACULAR month down, 1 ADVENTUROUS month to go!

I have officially been living in Italy for 1 month! Wow, it is still surreal to think about and I just get more and more happy everyday. People keep asking me if I am getting homesick and I really don't think I am! I don't even have time to think about being homesick because we are always so busy and having a great time. Thank goodness for not much free time because then it might be a different story. The only thing about being so busy is not always reminding myself to soak it all in before it's all over in a month! I do find myself just staring off my balcony when I wake up in the morning and realizing how lucky I am to be here. Life just couldn't get any better than this! Today was just perfect! This morning, I watched the girls for a bit while Gianna worked and Angelo went for a bike ride. The girls and I worked on our sight words and numbers today. They are getting really good at remembering all the cards. They think it is really funny when I try and act out the words but hey, it works because they remember! We ate a very strange, but good lunch today. Angelo made some green pasta, something called olive branch pasta? I didn't quite understand the name but it had an interesting texture! Mixed in with the pasta was a very strange mixture of ingredients: zucchini, onions, LOTS of olive oil, bits of tuna, and then....the flowers from the zucchini!!! They look like big lillies with green and orange petals. It was very good but so different! Flowers mixed in with pasta! Who knew? Then, it was time for a nice nap. Gianna, Angelo, and I watched a movie and fell asleep on the couches. They are nice enough to put the English subtitles on for me when we watch TV so I can understand. After the movie, they went to a friends' birthday party in town while I stayed home and got ready for dinner. I wore my favorite dress and felt all fancy for our big night out on the town! We were meeting Luca, Christina, and the adorable Pierre Georgio at the restaurant. I have decided that he is coming home to America with me because he is so stinkin' cute! We went to a restaurant called Galium, only it is really spelled Galivm which is the Latin way to spell it. Supposedly, the food on the menu is from the Ancient Romans but I didn't understand that because the only thing on the menu to order is pizza the size of a small Fiat, roasted chicken, and fries! It doesn't seem very "ancient times" to me, right? So, we ordered a pizza that was the whole length of our table!!! It had 4 parts to it, each with different kinds of toppings. Of course, the pizza was the second course...we couldn't just have pizza! The waitress brings out 3 towering plates of roasted chicken, huge fries, toast, and some sort of white sauce. The lady put one heaping plate in front of me and I tried to give some out to everyone because we were sharing all the food but they wouldn't take any! I told them there was no way I was going to eat an entire chicken, a mound of fries, and then pizza! It was just madness! I just kept eating and eating...so full! Nat, we have got to go when you get here! The pizza is to die for and the fries are delicious! I think we were the oldest people in the place. You can tell it is a modern restaurant that is the new hangout for all the local teens. Something that was pretty strange were all the tubs of peanuts throughout the restaurant! Like it was trying to be Texas Roadhouse or something! I told them this was VERY American and they laughed. This restaurant seems to not be so popular with the older folks because they don't understand the food...why is the pizza crust so high? They have fries on the menu? Why are there peanuts on the table and all over their nice floor? It was a very fun experience and I can't wait to go back again! After our dinner, we walked around the downtown Serravalle area, the oldest part of Vittorio Veneto. It is just unbelievably beautiful at night! My pictures didn't turn out....supposedly my camera hates taking pictures at night! You can clearly see the church of St. Augusta on the hill, the houses are all lit and the windows were open with all the sounds of music and people having dinner on their porches in the crisp night air. It was just beautiful! Of course, we stopped for gelato and that was fantastic, as usual! Well, I am off to bed because tomorrow is my day trip to Verona! I'm a little nervous to venture this far away by myself but I am so happy to be going! It was actually Angelo and Gianna's idea for me to go here tomorrow because they thought I would love the town. I am so lucky to have them here to guide me through which towns are the ones I can't miss and how to handle the crazy trains here! I couldn't find a map to print off so I will have to get one there. It is a very tourist friendly town so I am not worried too much about finding all the sights. The train station that goes to Verona is in the next town over, Conegliano. Angelo and Gianna are going to drive me there tomorrow morning and I will get on the 10:00 train. I have a stop in Mestre, a suburb of Venice, to catch my other train to Verona. The trip is a little over 2 hours. The main station in Verona is only a 15 minute walk from the city center so I think I should be able to find it okay. I hope! Italy's streets are so hard to navigate through...but I will somehow find my way! Ahh! I am so excited that I can't sleep but I am going to try my best! I finished my 4th book last night so I am onto another one tonight and hopefully it will make me tired enough to sleep! Ciao for now and more from Verona tomorrow!