Italian food -- oh so good.

Italy --- August 9th - August 17th August 9th
We drove down to Turino, Italia, with Giacomo, a fellow teacher, Joey, and Martino (Giacomo`s friend). It was only about a 4-5 hr drive from Arosa to Turin. The scenery while driving was awesome. Switzerland is so beautiful! Joey got motion sickness from the 365 turns around the mountain sides as we descended from Arosa. We passed the border between Switzerland and Italy, with border guards checking out each other`s cellphones, casually looking up every once in awhile. Giacomo couldnt find any cigarettes to buy from duty-free; there really wasnt a duty-free shop. One could see the immediate difference between Switzerland and Italy. The housing was immediately denser, and the land was a bit flatter. Although there are some mountains in Italy, it almost appears as if the mountains separate Italy and Switzerland. The temperature began increasing as we continued driving south.

We finally made it to Giacomo´s mother`s at around 5 or 6pm? in the evening. We had our first Italian coffee at his mother`s and met Theo the cat. Then, we made our way back to Giacomo`s to settle in. He let us sleep in his bed and he slept on his couch. His flat was in a neighbouring town-village called Almese. He had a beautiful outlook from the balcony. We took some great sunset shots. We chilled around for awhile, then made our way to dinner at around 9pm. The drive in was about 30 minutes, and when we made it downtown, all of Giacomo`s friends were already there. We had our first real Italian pizza and it was oh so delicious, just like the other pizzas we would try. The dinner lasted from 10.30 until about 1am. I thought that the dinner took a long time because Giacomo hadnt seen his friends for 2 months; understandable. Apparently, this is an Italian custom. We would find out the next day...

to be continued... (tired and there are other people waiting for the rare free internet at this hostel.. =P)