Chapter 3: It was all worth it!

When our treacherous journey finally ended, the destination was worth every painful, sweaty step. We absolutely love our humble Italian abode! It's a third-story, one-bedroom little place with big old-fashioned wooden shutters, no screens, and of course, no air conditioning. The first few days were unbelievably -almost unbearably- stuffy and hot. After our harrowing travels, we each took a refreshingly cold shower, got dressed, and set off on foot to find somewhere to eat. Turns out, "finding" a place to eat would be someone we would have NO challenge doing for the next four months. There are multiple outdoor cafes on virtually every street in the city. We sat down outside and looked at the menus...entirely in Italian, of course. We randomly pointed at two items on the menu when the waiter came over. Moments later, we found ourselves relaxed, cooled off, legal beers in hand, with a delicious pasta feast in front of us. Completely recovered, we could finally look around and realize that we are the luckiest girls in the world!