Day 10

(6-9-2013)

Nice

Dear All! (This email is from Will)

So here is a little back story. When we arrived at Serena and Beppe's place, we were thrilled that they had a washer so we immediately did some laundry. However, given the poor air circulation and the torrential downpours outside, we realized at 11pm the night before we had to leave that our clothes were not dry after 36 hrs of hanging. We then decided to crank up the heat in the apartment and set up make-shift drying racks near the 4 different radiators in the house. After 40 hours of drying along with quite a toasty night, our clothes were still not dry. So at 630 am, we quickly packed that wet mess into our backpacks and headed off to the train station. With that, we left the beautiful, yet waterlogged Lake Como behind.

We obviously had to maximize our cappacino opportunities before leaving Italy, so we got two cappucinos in Milan before the 4 hr train ride. I (Will) apparently don't feel the effects of caffeine anymore because I fell asleep as soon as I got on the train. Elizabeth, however, was pretty wired and struck up a conversation with a nice man named Tom from LA.

(Now this is Elizabeth talking, since Will fell asleep and can't comment on the train ride.)

Tom was SO NICE. He was one of those people who is really funny because he is just so honest, not because he really means to be funny. Over the four hour train ride, we talked about tons of things. He came to Italy on his own to take a photography class from a really famous photographer (I think his name was Ansel Adams, or maybe it was his assistant, I have no idea). He has two kids, Elizabeth and Mark (he joked that I would be his pseudo daughter throughout the trip, since my name is Elizabeth of course). His wife died when his kids were just 10 and 13, so he is really close to his kids and he talked about them a lot (his kids are in their late twenties now and he's in his early sixties). Anyways, we talked about all kinds of things: movies, politics, his job (he was a middle school teacher), his retirement, medical school for us, books, and everything in between. When the snack cart came around (it was just like in Harry Potter!) he even bought me some cookies :) He was also going to Nice, so when we got to Ventimiglia (our last transfer location) he wanted to hang out with us! He waited in line with us while we bought train tickets and waited for us on the track so that we could all sit together. He was truly such a wonderful person and I hope to meet him again, maybe in New York or if we ever go to LA.

(Back to Will)

We arrived in Nice and went to Mirian's place. We had a bit of trouble finding the place, but a nice woman who lived in the same building asked us if we needed help. Elizabeth used her superb French speaking skills to convey our confusion and the woman helped us find the right place. Once we went upstairs, we realized our accomodations in Nice would not be as stellar as in Lake Como. The place smelled a little funky and had a teeny wenny ant problem, but Mirian was very kind so we toughed it out.

We were losing daylight so we hightailed it to the promenade where we strolled about and took a few pictures. After the promenade stroll it was time for some grub, French style, so we went to a cafe to pick up some crepes. We bought an apple/brandy crepe and a chocolate/banana crepe. It was an experience that made us realize how little we enjoy alcohol in a crepe. After having dessert a little too early in the evening, we then went to a cute place that had a happy hour special on wine, cheese, and charcuterie (we had arrived in France indeed!). After the meal we went out to view the sunset over the promenade (we couldn't get enough of that promenade), where we ran into a sweet older couple from northern England who sold us on the idea of some day taking a trip to northern England/Ireland. We then headed back to our lovely accomodations and went to sleep as fast as possible (so as to mimimize our waking hours in our room).

Will and Elizabeth