First Day in Fabriano

What can I say, these last few days have seemed like a lifetime already, because I have done so much. The plane from Charlotte to Rome was soooo long, and honestly pretty awful. I watched one movie at the beginning of the flight. Then I tried to go to sleep. I slept for maybe two hours. Then I tried to watch another movie, but I was so excited I just couldn't get focused. It was extremely long and very boring.
When I got to Rome it was about ten in the morning. It took a half hour to navigate the airport, and then to receive my luggage. When I walked out of the door Giulia (my host sister), Fillipo (my host father), and Lucho (a nice Rotarian who speaks good English) were all waiting for me. We left the airport around eleven, and drove to Fabriano.
All of the cars in Italy are stick shift, so in the city we were always shifting. Now, those of you who know me know that I get very car sick, very easily. I got a little sick, so I fell asleep for about and hour and a half. When we finally got to Fabriano, everything was so  beautiful! When you think of Italia, you think of narrow streets, and tall, extremely old buildings. Well, that's exactly what it is like here! Classic Italia.
When we got to the house I was in awe. It is so beautiful and so large! The family lives on the first floor during the summer, and then in the winter they live on the second floor. There is a third floor with one room. It is fairly large, a little like the size of a normal classroom at home. That room is used for when the girls have friends over. The house is so beautiful, and very classic. There are wood and stone floors all over the house. Right after we arrived at the house, they served lunch. We ate on the patio right outside of the kitchen. We had pasta first. I thought that was the whole meal, and I couldn't even finish that because they gave me so much! I would say now that that is the normal size serving here. Then after the pasta Nadia (my host mom) brought out chicken, salad, grilled vegetables, and a lemon cake. All I could eat after the pasta was a little bit of salad, and a small piece of cake.
After dinner I took a shower and Giulia took me out to where all of the kids hang out. First we walked a little bit of the center of town, and found ourselves in the "medieval" part of town. It was absolutely bellissimo! Absolutely outstanding! We walked back up to a little area that is outside. There were chairs and tables spread out through the fenced in area. Here it was littered with so many kids my age, I couldn't believe it! It was probably as many as half as the high school back home. Later Giulia told me it was a pretty small crowd that night because of school. I was amazed.
Then we went  back home to eat supper at about nine (which is the normal time for supper, and lunch is about 1:30-2:00). After dinner some of Giulia's friends came over. At that point I was so dog tired, I just had to go to bed, so I couldn't meet everyone.
I'll keep this short, and write more about my second day soon!

Cheers,

Janie <3