Siamo in Siena!!!

Buon Giorno, Tutti!

WOW - what a great first weekend!!! And I'd like to thank you, in advance, for sending me such an awesome group of kiddos. Really, this weekend was the best experience I've ever had (not just saying that).

On Friday, the kids arrived en masse into Fiumicino Airport, but not without a little excitement. I know the kids' flight out of Chicago was delayed due to technical issues (thank you, thank you, thank you Moores, for meeting them at the airport and seeing them on!!!), but their flight was comfortable, and I think they slept NOT AT ALL. :) Amanda, fresh from Paris, was eager and excited about arriving first. We were planning to meet Grace and Caroline considerably earlier than the rest of the group, but, responsible young ladies they are, when they were in customs, they decided to stay in there (3 hours) and meet the rest of the group and walk out together. Tony and his mom met us, as well (they had been enjoying Rome for a week already), and we all headed to the bus! The bus ride was very nice, and we had a pretty successful attempt at all having lunch at the AutoGrill. An AutoGrill is like a truck stop, "but SO much nicer" (according to Sara).
Pompeii was actually pretty pleasant. I must admit, I didn't give them a killer death-march tour (due to time limits), and the breeze was nice, so we enjoyed a nice stroll through town, going from the Theatre district, through the Forum, up to the Villa of the Mysteries. Our bus ride from Pompeii to Sorrento was also longer than usual (they were having a "protest" in some small town outside of Pompeii, which blocked the streets - when it's one main street which takes you along the entire coastline, you can have some problems with that . . .), and after two hours of winding along the beautiful coastal road of the Bay of Naples (without any travel sickness - BRILLIANT), we arrived to our hotel in Sorrento.
I must suggest this spot - the Hotel Mignon Meuble is a great hotel, with wonderful service. It might have also been because of your wonderful kiddos being so well-behaved and mature (or my being slower than usual, due to jetlag), but we had no behavior problems the entire weekend. We were all hungry as horses when we got into the hotel, so we quickly cleaned up (10 minutes) and headed to dinner at the Pizzeria da Franco. It's a fave of mine - nice, family establishment, and GREAT pizza. You'll have to ask your own child about what kind of pizza they had - I had the house pizza (yes, Jay, I was indecisive), with parmesan, arugula (which they call "rocket" - the British call it "rockette", I think?), and tomatoes.
We then took a stroll down to the city park, which overlooks the entire Bay of Naples, and returned to the hotel, stopping, of course, by Davide, the best gelateria in town. Ah, yes, that's what real gelato tastes like . . .
Everyone was in their room by 10, and crashed (if not earlier).

Saturday, wake up call was at 6:00 - we had to get to the marina piccola (the tourist marina of the town, near the center of town - all arrows point to calling this the "marina grande", except for the fact that the actual marina grande is a serious fishing spot) for a boat departing at 7:30 for Capri! And what a great day! Upon arrival, we hitched a ride onto the funicolare, which took us into the piazzetta, the main centre of Capri proper. We sweated-grunted-climbed all the way up to the Villa Jovis, the southern summit of the island, then returned, making a stop at my favorite spot for Granite di Limone (talk about refreshing!!!). We strolled through Capri, over to the bus stop, where we took the bus up to Anacapri (ask your kiddos about the bus ride on the cliffside). I invited any willing students to join me on the chairlift to Monte Solaro (the northern peak of the island), and then gave them free time. Lots of fun had in the afternoon on Capri - some students headed straight to the beach, some shopped, some enjoyed a leisurely afternoon lunch, and some took one of the strolls suggested in my Capri brochure (sorry about the whole street-name-changing thing, girls!). Sea-soaked and sunburnt, we returned by boat to Sorrento, then all went out for a nice dinner at Zi'Ntonio's. A little strolling for some, a little more gelato for others, and we were all back in our rooms before midnight!
Sunday:
We had the opportunity to have a little more leisure on Sunday morning. Everyone enjoyed a nice breakfast at the hotel (YAY - no misery from the prior day-evening!), and we slowly headed to the bus around 10 AM to head north. We made another brief stop at an AutoGrill (for the bus driver's break - they get those every two hours or so), where the kids got some snacks and did a little shopping (as much as can be done at a truck stop). We then journeyed 1:30 and made another stop at Orvieto, a beautiful walled town which sits at the top of a hill. With a limited time, they were treated to an hour in Orvieto, enjoying a little walking and visiting the Duomo of the city (BEAUTIFUL!!!). We then journeyed another 1:30 and arrived into Siena at 6 PM, just in time to meet all of our homestay families (and Dana had arrived earlier, too)! I did get lots of pictures, and once I have a computer where I can download all my pics, I'll have them cycling through on this blog! It was raining a little (see below), but no one minded, and everyone headed home for a nice dinner with their homestay families and a good night's sleep.

Today has so much to share that I've got to put that onto another entry . . .

Thank you for your patience with the transportation on Thursday - I'm happy to have my assistant director with us, and until the end of the trip!

Grazie,
Laura :)