weekend in conegliano

so friday afternoon i hopped on the train and took it 4 hours north to a town called Conegliano. it is about 40 min (by train) north of Treviso in the Veneto region of italy. this is where my friends live. michele invited me to stay at his house for the weekend, which was super nice, so i packed up and left. his mother is from england and his father is italian. he has an older brother that speaks perfect english though.

anywho, so i arrived on friday at about 9pm (since the train wasnt on time). i was picked up by michele, mattia and alberto c. it was so cute that they all came and were all excited to come get me! we went to a bar called The Garage. which is a very chic bar in conegliano that used to be a service garage for trucks that was recently converted into this posh space. we had a glass of proseco and then all went home. michele put me in a very cute little room (my camera died, but i will upload those photos later) and i fell right to bed. whenever i sleep in a new bed i always pass out right away and sleep through the entire night. its great! and needed...since i have influenza right now =[

i woke up in the morning around 930. and you know me, i spazzed out and didnt know if i should shower, or ask first, or go downstairs for breakfast in my pjs, or if that was offensive, or what. and michele (the little prince) was still asleep. soo....i finally just threw a sweatshirt on and walked downstairs to the kitchen. his mother, Miriam was already down there and greeted me with a huge smile and said 'oh sit sit, lets get you breakfast!' she prepared me a wonderful breakfast and was saying it was so nice to see someone eat a real breakfast since italians only have a sweet for breakfast. they eat a pastry or something. we talked for so long and also with his father, and then michele finally got up sometime around 1. we then got showered, dressed and were out the door by 1 for the boys soccer game =] it was fun, just against each other for some practice. there was much yelling and fighting and hand gestures a flyin, but it was all in good fun =]

michele
mattia

our friend davide

mattia (excellent photo if i do say so myself!)

alberto c

mattia, getting a little aggressive!
alberto c

mattia

alberto c goofing off for the camera!




then michele and i went into town and walked around for a bit. it was really nice. we had an apparativo at a little wine bar and then went back to his house for lunch. which was unbelieveable! his mother really went all out for me =] after that and hung out with his brother and mom and dad for a bit. we went with mattia to get some shoes because that kid has more shoes than anyone i know! bless him... anywho, then we all got changed and then went to mattia's house because he was having a dinner party =] they had SO much food there it was insane! there was pasta with TONS of seafood in it, crab, every type of meat you could possibly think to have on the table, wines, breads, cakes. you name it! everyone was so happy to be there and see each other =] and as mattia was grilling everything it was pretty funny to see all the boys get up one by one at separate times to check on him to see if he was doing it right. it was very cute.

mattia having himself a little drink with dinner



then we freshened up and went back to the garage (the bar) everyone has a little apparativo.
the bar (alberto steffan looking into the camera)
michele and alberto

michele, mattia, alberto


then we drove into Pordenone to the disco.the whole way, mattia played the song 'california' by phantom planet for me. (BIG fan of the OC haha) it was really fun and i met some really nice girls there too! it got to be very late so we went back home after dropped everyone off and said our goodbyes.
they made me open the champagne because they said it was the honor of opening it that they wanted to give me...whatever that means....but it was really cute and ast took these photos:

couldnt really manage to open it on the first try!

finally! and then i poured everyone a glass =] (dont you love mattia's pink shirt)

=]


the next morning, i woke up on the dot at 10 and walked down to the kitchen. micheles mom and i prepared lunch and chatted about EVERYTHING =] it was really nice. she asked if she could adopt me seeing as how shes always wanted a girl. after a big lunch with homemade quiche! mattia called and asked if he could bring me to the train station too, so we went and picked him up and they dropped me off. i miss them so much! they are my little italian family! i plan on visiting them again soon, maybe in like 3 weeks after all of our exams are over. i wish my school was up there so that i could spend more time with all of them. im trying to get them all to come to florence soon =] that will be fun! also, they really want to come back home to california some day with me. maybe next summer they can come for a month and we can do a road trip down the state and show them everything. just thinkin'....