ROME ENTRY FINALLY FINISHED!

SCUBA Certification Classes....

Tues. May 16 - SCUBA class went so much better today. I personally worked with Kevin and did a bunch of underwater skills and really worked on relaxing with the regulator and going over a bunch of other things. I've done so much reading in my book and really enjoying learning the theories, science, and info about the equipment details involved in diving. By the end of the pool session, I did the mask clearing, regulator retrieval, and buddy breathing.

Thurs. May 18 - SCUBA was awesome today. Only one more confined pool session left. The group worked in the deep, diving pool today which is 13 ft. I started with Joe, but ended up working with Giueseppe, the master diver helping teach the course with his wife, Sylvie. I did the lesson where you take off your entire BCD and regulator underwater and put it back on just in case you would ever have a problem with your tank. Guiseppe and Sylvie own an underwater video camera so he let me swim around and tape everyone. They are making a video for everyone in the class for us to keep that they've been filming since our first class. After I got comfortable enough, I went over to the entire group and we played around in the pool with torpedos for awhile. It was a lot of fun, but it was getting dark so we had to head home. I was really hungry so we headed home, dropped off my truck, and walked over to Days Inn for some dinner and a Murphy's. When we got there, we saw our friends Pirate, Travis, and Ryan so we sat down with them to eat. I had the grilled chicken and salad. It was a fun night and turned into a much longer one than I expected.

Fri. May 19 - I worked at ITT for the beginning of the day from noon to 4pm and worked on my Citta del Mare trip. I am escorting the trip with another woman, Michelle, who has gone on the trip for the past 2 years. Leslie and I went and bought a bunch of prizes for the trip to give away during the drive there. I have to come up with a bunch of trivia questions for the kids and adults for the trip. There were quite a few people working, so it was kinda boring. At 4pm, I headed over to Take 5 to work from 5-midnight. OH YEH!!! I put on a billiards contest, ordered some pizza, and had 8 contestants play along. It was fun. I searched online for jobs for hours while talking to Crystal, but didn't find anything that really caught my eye. I watched the movie called "The Hills Have Eyes" among the hundred I've watched since I've been working here, and let me warn you all, it was HORRIBLE! I have a super long day tomorrow and getting off at 12:30 at night SUCKED. Oh well. I'm looking really forward to tomorrow.

BBQ & Beach Weekend

Sat. May 13 - I worked for Take 5 again today, but this time, I was in charge of doing a BBQ on NAS I (the base I live on). I had been working out the details with CeCe and I was going to meet the DJ at noon and we'd start the BBQ. The day before, I made flyers and put them all over the barracks on NAS I since that was the crowd we were trying to attract. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, tons of soda and water, a DJ, and lots of people brought their own beer. We couldn't provide beer since it was a Liberty sponsored event. We also played horseshoes and volleyball during the day. It was scheduled to go until 6, but everyone was pretty much gone by 4:30pm. We figured they all wanted to do their own thing since it was a Saturday. Before CeCe and her husband left, they invited me to the beach tomorrow before I had to be at work. I needed some more sun, so we planned for them to pick me up at 8:30 the next morning. It was fun though. I took a nap after the BBQ, but we planned to have a "Tamale Night" in Joe and Pirate's room. Tamale Night consisted of homemade beef and green corn tamales and refried beans that Joe's parents brought for us directly from Arizona. They were so good and we've got enough for one more Tamale Night. As I was eating, I decided to watch Saw 2. It was so good. If you haven't seen that one and you loved the original Saw, this is a great sequel. After the movie, I went to bed since tomorrow was gonna be a long day in the sun and then work.

Sun. May 14 - HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! I left my room for the beach around 8:45 this morning with CeCe, her husband Eric, McGhee, and their daughter Britney. We drove to La Cucharachas since we all really like that beach. Not as many people ended up wanting to come that originally planned, but we figured if they really wanted to come down, they'd get there sometime in the afternoon. We needed to leave around 3 or 3:30 so I could shower and get to work by 5. The beach was pretty empty when we got there, but the weather was perfect. A nice breeze and a nice hot sun. We set up our towels and beach chairs and the tanning began. It was an awesome day. I studied my SCUBA book for awhile, listened to my IPod, and got some nice sun. Around 11, a few of our friends came to join us. A few of us occassionally went to go play in the ocean, and wow...the water has definitely improved over the past few weeks. It was actually bearable today. Once you got in past your waist, it felt really good. I ended up staying in the ocean for awhile just swimming around. The only down side to playin in this ocean is that it is sooooo salty. It's a lot saltier than the water around the States. For the last hour of the day, I ended up playing in the sand and water with their daughter. She's so cute. Britney's 7 years old. We made sand soup and ended up jumping over waves for over an hour. She was lovin the water today. CeCe said usually she doesn't get in since it's so cold. It was a lot of fun though. We packed up and grabbed some lunch around 3:30 and were on our way to drop me back off at my barracks. By the time I got outta my shower, I realized I got a nice amount of sun today. It felt good though, not like last month when I burned the hell outta myself. This was nice. I got to work in my big old ghetto truck and had another typical night at Take 5. I tried calling Mom to wish her a Happy Mother's Day, but she wasn't home. SOOOO...Happy Mother's Day to everyone that it applies to and Mom, Grandma, and Grandma..I love you and thanks for everything.

SCUBA has officially begun...

Tues. May 9 - I worked all day at ITT and had to leave there around 4:00pm to get everything ready for our SCUBA class tonight. Joe was suppose to be getting back into town today with his parents by 1pm, so I had originally planned to just ride over to NAS II with him. He never showed up during the day, so I figured he was running really late coming back home from Sorrento. I left ITT and had to meet with the SCUBA instructors outside of the main security gate on NAS II to sponsor them onto base. People that are not military related or have the special pass to get onto this specific base must be sponsored on by an ID holder to assure that they leave base by 10pm every night. This base is a lot more strict on rules and has some totally other ones than the base I live on and work at for ITT does. I got them on successfully and we headed over to the General Education Building for the first 1-hour section of the class. The class is going to be for the next 2 1/2 weeks, every Tuesday and Thursday for 4 hours. 1 hour classroom and then 2-3 in the pool doing confined dives. After that, we will be required to have 4 open water dives at their company in Aci Trezza (home of the Greek mythological Cyclopes Rocks). The class was full at 16 participants and they started the class by giving out the waivers and having us fill out a bunch of paperwork. I honestly thought Joe wasn't going to make it, but he showed up right before they started the first lesson. He's gonna be my SCUBA partner. Class went well and they wanted us to hurry up and get over to the pool for the "real lesson." I was in charge of getting the pool key, but then after that everyone helped unload their vehicle with all of the equipment we would be needing for the next 2 weeks. It took awhile to get everything underway, but we were soon ready to learn how to put the tanks and BCDs together. After fitting everything, we got into the water for the introduction. I was the only person in the class who could not get the hang of breathing in and out of the regulator. It was such a weird feeling and being nervous on top of that did not help. It was really frustrating, but the instructors promised me they would work with me next class and I would get it. I wanted to cry, but I promised I would come back next class. While I was spending time in the pool trying how to breath into the damn thing, everyone else was working on some basic procedures and hand signals. Oh well, I couldn't even imagine doing any of that yet since I would first need to feel comfortable breathing. The class went well though and I knew I'd get it sooner or later. I would talk to Leslie about it later at work one day to see if she had any problems like that when she first learned how. I figured I couldn't be the only person to not be able to figure it out right away. I was nervous for another reason now, I only had 4 more classes to be able to learn everything and get this down. Sylvie, one of the instructors was really sweet and told me she'd personally work with me on Thursday until I figured it out. That was cool. After class, Joe and I went and picked up Pirate from base and we headed up to Taormina to go see his parents before they left. Pirate hadn't met them yet and he had tomorrow off ( I didn't have to be at work til 3 and Joe was still on leave until Fri) so we figured we'd go up there and hang out with them tomorrow morning and afternoon. We didn't get up there until almost midnight so we decided to go grab some beer before we headed to the hotel. There was only one place open, so we went to it. It was a really cool Irish Pub called Time Out. We ended up having an awesome time, of course, and stayed there until almost 3:30am. We stayed at the Hotel Isobella that his parents rented a room for us all and they were staying at. There was a cute little note on the bed saying they'd meet us after breakfast in the lobby at 9:45am. We all crashed and went to bed so we had a good amount of time in the morning to hang out before I had to get to work.

Wed. May 10 - We all hung out and walked around Taormina all morning and early afternoon. The weather was great, a little on the hot side. We stopped to eat lunch at a trattoria/pizzeria. It was so good and the wine was great. I had to be at work by 2, so we packed up and left the town. There was quite a but of traffic, so I ended up running a little late for work. It was cool though. We brought his parents down with us and Pirate and Joe showed them around both bases after I went to work. Work was alright, I got an email from Dr. Cole finally asking if I could call her so we could talk about my internship stuff and graduation. I gave her a call as soon as I knew she in her office and we talked for about a half hour. It was so nice to finally get ahold of her and talk about everything that's been happening lately over here and back at school. She told me that she was going to be leaving Mizzou because she got offered a job at Indiana University starting next semester. She did get her tenure at Mizzou, but Indiana also offered her husband a job. I told her that I would definitely come visit her, especially now that I can visit Kate and Meg if I go up there. She sounded really happy about it, it will kinda suck not being able to come visit here though when I go back to school. I'll miss her for sure though. I will try my hardest to keep in touch with her since she's been a great reference for me for the past 4 years. When I get back into town, I told her I'd head down to see her before she leaves so I can get my internship manual and other stuff that I've turned in. She also told me that I won the "Senior of the Year Award." I thought that was really cool that all my friends and staff recognized my dedication to the Parks, Recreation, and Tourism department over the past 4 years. She told me I can pick up the award when I get down to school. The rest of the night was same old Take 5. Watched movies, made lots of popcorn, played Ping Pong with Smitty, and so on.

Thurs. May 11 - I woke up at 4:00am to go help pick-up Joe's parents and bring them to the airport. After I got home, I went back to bed and worked at ITT for the day. I just helped them catch-up on some work and helped Leah get the weekend trip ready. She is escorting a trip to a spa in Taormina for the weekend so she needed my help getting all the treatments and times ready. It was kinda hectic, but the day went by really quick considering I had SCUBA tonight again. I left work at 4:30 to go sponsor the instructors onto base and get to class on time. We learned a bunch more today and my lesson in the pool went so much better than Tuesday. I spent time with Sylvie on my own to practice breathing into the regulator and get comfortable with being underwater. I'm glad I didn't give up and really felt much better by the end of the night. By the end of class, I worked on clearing my mask with a few of the guys. I think my next class will go much better and I can start to do the underwater techniques and emergency skills.

Fri. May 12 - I worked at ITT Gear-N-Go all day helping Leah again with the Spa Weekend. She was freakin out all day. Near the end of the day, I helped Leslie with a 10-person birthday party in the Rock-Climbing Wall. It lasted about 2 hours and by the end of that time, I probably belayed those kids over 20 times. I was so sweaty, that gym has practically no circulation in there. The kids loved it though, we're gonna start advertising doing parties more often and maybe start charging a small fee for our labor (it takes about 2 or 3 of our staff to help belay everyone for a few hours). It was fun though, but I was ready to get outta there. I finally got back to my room around 6:30 and Smitty called me seeing if I wanted to go eat with him and his friend at the Hard Rock in Catania. I hadn't been there yet so I took him up on the offer. It ended up just being him, our friend Baumann, his Italian girlfriend, and myself. It was good. A typical Hard Rock Cafe, just a little empty since it was still pretty early for Italians to start eating dinner. I ended up just going home and watching the movie I've heard so much about, Hostel. It was retarded though so I went to bed so I could sleep in in the morning.

Rock Climbing on Mt. Etna

Sun. May 7 - Kat came and picked me up at 9:00am this morning and we drove up to Mt. Etna. They climbed here last week, so she knew where to go. It was to an old waterfall on the south side of Etna about 3 miles from the base camp we usually park at for snowboarding. The location was called Acqua Rocca and it took about a mile hike to get up to. We drove up there with 8 other people so we all helped carry the gear and everything together. We got to the bottom of the waterfall and I immediately knew this was gonna be a good day. The waterfall was about 80 feet tall and the instructor, Pascal, told me we'd be climbing about 50 feet on most of the pitches. We started to set the climbs and he led climbed a few more to get everyone started. Another couple was there that day too, so they set 2 more pitches for us all to use. We eventually had 5 paths and they were each so different. We all took turns belaying each other and climbing throughout the day. I spiderwomaned up some hard ones and everyone was pretty amazed. It was awesome, it had been over a year since I've been climbing, but it all came back so quickly. The day was so much fun and we took a bunch of pictures to be able to put up at ITT. 4 oclock came by really quick and I had no idea we'd be there so late. We hurried up and took down all the routes and cleaned up. I called work to tell them I'd be a little late, but Kat tried to get me back as fast as possible. It all worked out and the day was what I had been craving for awhile now. I'm gonna start using the rock climbing wall in our gym more often with the club on night's that I'm off. I finally got to work at 5:45pm, but the guy on the earlier shift didn't mind. It was a quick shift and I got home around midnight since I had a lot to clean up and drive home in my big ole hoosier truck.
*** I love Mt. Etna for so many more reasons now... she's not just good for snowboarding. I can't wait to go hike up it once all the snow eventually melts.

Acqua Rocca on Mount Etna

Pascal and I climbing the center routes. I beat him on the way up. It was an awesome climb.

If you look in the very center of the picture, you can see the rock waterfall. Its about a mile hike to get to the waterfall from this parking lot. We are about 1/2 mile East from Mt. Etna South base camp where I snowboarded this winter.

I finally got to go Sea-Kayaking

Sat. May 6 - I woke up and headed over to ITT at 8:30am to get packed up and load the kayaks for our trip to Giardini Naxos, which is about 35 minutes up the coastline from Catania. I rode with one of our drivers, Steven (he works for Public Works) and we took the truck with the kayaks on back while Rosario drove the 14-pax van. The weather was beautiful outside, but Rosario was worried about the strong winds being a problem getting the kayaks into the ocean. We arrived safely and started to unload the racks with the help from everyone. After about an hour, we finally had them all walked over to where we were gonna enter the water. The seas were kinda rough at the beach, but we had to try. The first few people tried, but everyone was tipping over out of the kayaks shortly after getting a few meters from the beach. The waves were just knocking people over. We were all getting pretty beat up on our legs and feet from trying to help people get in successfully, but the boats were coming right back in and bashing into our shins. It started to get really annoying, but it was definitely hard to get everyone into the sea successfully. After over an hour, the 11 other people were far enough into the sea that the waves were calm. The entire day was a lot of fun, we kayaked all the way past Taormina and ate lunch at a beachside restaurant. Some of the girls got sea sick throughout the day, but overall, it was exciting. The workout and suntan was nice too. We got back to Giardini Naxos around 3:30pm and had to pack everything back up. We got back onto base around 5pm and I just chilled in my room for the rest of the night. I went up to Pirate's room to borrow some of Joe's movies since he was still on leave. I had rock-climbing in the morning and work tomorrow night so I wanted to catch up on some sleep too.

New Job and Cinco de Mayo

Wed. May 3 - After I got back to base, I took a nap and had to start my new job at 3pm. I knew I'd have to take the bus over there since it's on the other base, NAS II. The bus schedule is really inconvenient, so I have to leave my base over an hour earlier than I would if I could drive. James has found a vehicle for me to drive temporarily while I haven't really mastered a manual transmission. For these next few days, he is going to drive me home from work since I don't get off until 11pm or later. I am taking my drivers test for my Italian Translation on Friday so that should be cool. I get to drive a huge camoflauge pick-up truck once I get my translation card. The place I'm now gonna be working at a little more than part-time is Take 5, the recreational building complex for the single and unaccompanied sailors E-5 and below. I got there and CeCe, the manager, showed me around and gave me the run through about closing the building at night. I was going to be mainly working by myself and had to close out the register at the end of the night, take out the trash, turn out the lights, and lock-up the building. She went over everything pretty quickly, but I figured it couldn't be that hard. The shifts I'm gonna be working suck to say the least, 2pm-11pm each night I work. That means I won't be getting home until around midnight on nights I work. The night went well overall. I just sit there and play 8mm movies all night long, make popcorn, manage the Internet station (we have 20 unlimited access computers for them to use), keep the dining area clean, rent out pool sticks, ping pong equipment, and XBox 360's. It's an easy job, but I know a lot of the customers that come in through the night and a bunch of my friends come in and visit me while I'm on duty. The biggest challenge of my night was learning how to make popcorn in a popcorn kettle machine. I remembered going to the airport and visiting Dad at work when I found out I would have to make popcorn all night long. It was kinda tricky at first but a friend of mine that works at the movie theater gave me a thorough lesson. The night FINALLY ended and it felt like it took forever. Oh well, I will only be working about 25-30 hours per week here and filling in the rest of the time at ITT. James bought me dinner and brought me home when I got off. I got home around 11:30pm.

Fri. May 5 - CINCO DE MAYO!! I woke up early this morning to take my driver's course at 9am. I got there and there were about 15 other people in the course with me. It was cool, I knew the chief teaching the class. It was a good class, he said it would last until about 2pm. We went over basic laws, rules of the road, road signs, and some other boring stuff. The street signs were the best thing to learn because the signs here in Sicily and Italy are crazy. It was cool though, I took the test and passed with a 98% and then had to run over to NAS II with Pirate to pick up the actual license since I needed to start driving tomorrow. After class I headed over to ITT to hang out with the girls and catch up on what was going on for the week. Leslie asked if I would help her hand out rock climbing gear on Sunday morning for her club, but then she just asked if I would be interested in going with her. I told her yes and she called up our friend Kat to see if she would bring me up there on Sunday to Mt. Etna. Kat told me she'd pick me up after I handed out the gear and we'd go rock climbing for the day. I just had to be back for work by 5pm at Take 5. I helped Rosario clean all 12 of the kayaks for the sea-kayaking trip to Giardini Naxos tomorrow afternoon. He asked me if I wanted to go and since I had nothing to do, I said HELL YES! After that I headed back home for Cinco de Mayo to begin. I went and bought some Corona and limes and a bunch of friends went and played in a Halo Tournament. It was fun, I tried to play for a little bit but I am not coordinated enough to play video games. After the tournament we all sat around and drank margheritas. It was a lot of fun but I needed to get up early tomorrow morning to go kayaking with Rosario.

My FABULOUS travels to ROME & Pompeii

Fri. April 28 - It started off as a super busy day at work and it only got crazier as the day went on. I was running around the office, cleaning tents and paintball guns, meeting with James about work, and gettin all my final info ready for Rome. I ended up not being able to book train tickets to get up there because for some odd reason, every overnight cabin was sold out. I ended up just booking plane tickets for Joe and I to get to Rome. We didn't get the best deal, but atleast we had a way up there. The tickets were $120 each for the one-way flight, so I wasn't too worried. It only ended up being a little more than $20 and saved us from an 11-hour train ride. Now we had time to get into Rome and party for the first night before his parents were meeting up with us the next afternoon. Work continued to fly by and I needed to leave early to finish up any last minute packing and find a ride to the airport. I came back from picking up my plane tickets and the girls at work threw me a going-away party. When I got back from Rome, I was gonna start working at Take 5 (the recreation building for the single sailors) so they thought I wasn't gonna be working at ITT any more. Oh well, the party was awesome and really sweet. James told me I would be filling in any extra hours that I wasn't at Take 5 back at ITT. We have a lot of outdoor adventure trips coming up that I will be helping with and escorting. Im excited about June and July trips. I left work at 3:30pm to catch our 7pm flight at the Catania airport. Our friends Sara and Travis dropped us off. We waited for about an hour in a half since our flight ended up getting delayed 45 minutes. Its really hard at this airport because they don't translate anything into English, so basically you never really know when to get into line to load the plane. We started communicating with a family and one of their kids and I started to play with the Slinkies Joe bought for the Spanish Steps. It was a lot of fun but then we realized we needed to get in line for the plane. Catania is so funny, you have to get on a shuttle bus to go 200 ft onto the flight line. Everyone always laugh when they see how far you actually ride on it. We got on the plane, Air One, and arrived at Fiomocino in Rome in about an hour and 20 minutes around 9pm. We took the train to Termini Station for 9.50 Euro each to try and find our hotel that we were staying at during the week. We eventually found the Hotel Lirico and dropped our bags off there so we didn't have to drag them around with us all night. The problem was: We weren't staying there tonight, we had nothing planned for a hotel or hostel for tonight since we were originally gonna be sleeping on the train. We quickly began to realize that it was an Italian holiday this weekend (Labour Day) and every room in Rome was sold out for Fri and Sat night. Even the hostels were completely booked. Oh well, we figured we'd be out all night partying and walking around that we could just work it out until noon the next day when we could check in. We started off by walking towards the Trevi Fountain cuz that is Joe's favorite thing in Rome. We first grabbed some beers and gelato right outside of the hotel and began our journey for the night. We finally found it after walking through the Piazza del Quiracle and took some cool pics at the fountain when it was all lit up. We knew two friends of ours that were up here this weekend too, so we called them and decided to meet up with them at the Hard Rock Cafe. After asking a million people where the Hard Rock was, we finally found it and ate some dinner. It was really good, but we were ready to keep exploring. Right outside of the Hard Rock Cafe, I found the Lamborghini dealer on Via Veneto. It was awesome. I took a few pics for the boys and Dad and Bill. We continued on our way towards the center of town. We eventually ended up at the Colosseum which was absolutely gorgeous all lit up and quiet. There was no one around and I was beginning to realize that this city is a lot smaller than I ever would have imagined. I got some cool pics of us with the lit up Colosseum in the background. Our friends left to go back to their hotel and Joe and I continued to explore the city. The Roman Forum was right next to it so we chilled out there for awhile and then walked around the Vittorio Emanuale Monument which we originally thought was the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It started getting really late and we were sick of walking so we started off to try and find a place to stay the night. We looked EVERYWHERE and couldn't find a single room. By that time of the night, we had probably already walked over 7 miles and this was only dragging it on. I could barely walk anymore so we decided to walk to the famous Spanish Steps and try and sleep there for a little bit. They were watering the plants when we got there so it was kinda hard to sit on wet steps. Oh well, then we started walking back towards the hotel to see if we could sit in the lobby but we ended up just sittin on the ground floor and fell asleep for a little bit. Overall, I could not sleep so I just made sure no one messed with us. The morning came quickly and we headed back to the Roman Forum. We walked around and found a perfect spot to sit and get some more shut eye before his parents were going to arrive around 11pm or noon. No one was really out and about yet so I didn't feel bad for falling asleep. This wasn't a good way to start our trip, but we knew this wasn't going to happen ever again. Oh well, we both got a few hours in and I was surprisingly not tired for the day to begin.

Sat. April 29 - This morning we walked around until 11am when we started to head back towards the hotel. We stopped in a few times to see if they had checked in yet, but nope. We decided to go walk around some more and we soon stopped in at an Internet Point to check my email and look for any openings for a hostel for the last night I was going to be here. His parents were insisting that I stay with them during my trip, but I just wanted to check out my options to take the opportunity to see what staying in a hostel was all about. I wrote some quick emails to a few friends and Amy telling them that I got to Rome safe and how beautiful the city was. We left there after about a half hour (the Internet is so cheap at those places) and walked around the Termini Train Station for a little bit before heading back to the Hotel Lirico. When we got there, the front desk clerk told us they made it in safely and that they would be meeting us at a restaurant down the street for lunch at 2pm. We started walking towards the restaurant and soon ran into them as we were about to cross Via Nationale. They were so cute. It was so nice to finally meet them. About 5 minutes after meeting them, they were ready to head to lunch and grab a beer. We walked across the street to a nice little Irish Pub called Flann O'Briens for some Guiness and Kilkenny's. We stayed there for about an hour just talking about everything, the ride up here, my internship and schooling, how Joe likes the Navy, etc. It was really fun, I felt very comfortable from the get go. After trying to help pay for my part of my tab, Joe informed me that I might as well give up trying to pay for anything for the rest of the trip b/c his parents wouldn't allow it. Okay, whatever. It was awkward, but cool at the same time. After having a nice Kilkenny, we walked around to find a place to eat lunch. We stopped into a small pizzeria for lunch. It was really good pizza and local house wine. Joe and I still needed to put our stuff in the room, so we headed back to the hotel for a few minutes (we had to sneak me in since the room was only reserved for 3 people and they were retards about changing the reservation). We got to the room (the joke of sneaking me in past the little Chinese desk clerk was an ongoing joke for the rest of the week) and laid out our things. The room was small, but nice. I had the couch and Joe demanded on taking the floor. Gotta love hard Italian beds though... After cleaning up and taking showers, we decided to head towards the Colusseum. It was only about a 15 minute walk to get there and once we got there, we decided to take a guided tour through it to get through the lines quickly and learn the history. I had my little guide book with me the entire weekend, but this would make it a little easier. The tour paid the admission into the Colusseum, a tour guide, and audio equipment to be able to hear better for only 19 Euro. It was a really good tour. The Colusseum is still in great shape and is just breathtaking when you walk into the ring. Most of the original structure is still intact and only the outer ring is really missing. The hallways were amazing. The ceiling was so high and the arches were captivating as you walked around the stadium. Once we got into the center of the Colusseum, the stories and history all of a sudden came alive. Hearing the tour guide talk about the battles, the animals, the 50,000 people in the stands, Ceasar, etc you just kinda looked up and spun around slowly. If you thought about it hard enough and closed your eyes, you could feel the intensity of the gladiators. It was so fun. We walked up to the top of the stadium too where we got a 360 degree profile of the gigantic structure. I got some amazing pics of the pit (which is now exposed due to the original floor being wood) and the entire Colusseum. We left the Colusseum and headed across the way to the entrance of the Roman Forum. The Roman Forum is huge and includes a ton of structures, churches, parks, columns, and temples. Its like a giant historical playground with great photo opps. We spent well over an hour walking through it. We made it through the main walkway of the Forum, Palantine Hill, and to the Vittorio Emanuale Memorial when it started to rain pretty hard. It was a long walk back to the hotel since it was down pouring and out "waterproof" Columbia jackets just weren't cutting it. We eventually got back and decided to go take a nap back at the hotel since Joe and I were starting to slack from the night before and his parents were starting to feel the effects of their jet lag. Let me tell you, that was one of the best naps of my life. I felt so refreshed after I woke up from that. It was dinner time so we all decided to go back to Flann O'Briens to try out their food this time. It was by far a great choice, we had a great waitress and the food was wonderful. It felt so nice to sit and talk that we ended up stayed there for quite awhile. When we left the restaurant, it was still raining. Joe and I had planned to go on the Spanish Steps Pub Crawl (Bar Hopping tour) tonight, but since we got outta dinner kinda late and were now soaking wet, we decided to wait until tomorrow night. There are 2 pub crawls in Rome (Colusseum and Spanish Steps) and they go on everynight of the year, rain or shine, at 9pm. Since it was already kinda late to run over there, we just decided to go have some drinks with his dad at a nearby bar. We walked down the street and had a seat at the bar. Tom (his dad) and I were drinkin really good wines. I was drinking an Italian Cabernet that I unfortunately never got the name of and he was enjoying a Chardonnay. Joe was testing their selection of whiskies. We ended up hanging out there for quite a while and racking up a hefty bill, but it was a lot of fun to talk to Joe and his Dad about life back in Arizona. We needed to head back to the hotel because Joe and I decided that we were going to wake up early to go into Vatican City. His parents wanted to sleep in so they told us to go ahead without them. I slept so good and we had the alarms set for 7:30am.

Sun. April 30 - Joe and I woke up at 7:30am and headed down the street to Termini Station to catch the Metro Red Line to Vatican City. The train was only 1 Euro, but it was a nasty train/subway station. There had to have been a million people on that train and of course, we're in Italy, so they just keep on pushing in eventhough no one else can possibly get on. The ride took about 20 minutes, but brought us right into Vatican City. It was only about a 5 minute walk to get to the Vatican. The city was quite trashy, but with millions of visitors a week, what can you really expect. We got to the entrance of the Vatican and saw a giant line of people about 10 deep. It was insane. We wanted to wait in the line to see the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican until just a few moments later when...... we kept walking along the Vaticans 30 ft walls and just kept seeing the line go on and on and on. There must have seriously been hundreds of thousands of people in that line and it was NOT moving. We thought about it for a minute and agreed not to wait in the line. It would have taken over 10 hours of standing to get into the museum. Not worth it. I can always come back another time or just look at some picture books to get the sense of its beauty and majesty. At the end of the line was the entrance into Piazza San Pietro. The line to get into St. Peter's Basillica wasn't too long so we went ahead and got in line for it. The Piazza was absolutely breathtaking. The size of it alone was unbelievable. There was of course St. Peters and then inside on both sides of the giant plaza were two gorgeous waterfountains, all surrounded by giant arches and columns. I felt like an ant in this grand piazza. St. Peters was beautiful, the sun was shining on its huge dome and there surprisingly weren't too many people around yet. I got a bunch of pictures with it in the background. The line only took about 45 minutes to get through and neither of us couldn't wait to get inside. Joe has been to Rome a few times before this, but since they always came to party, this was actually his first time to get into St. Peters. We had to go through metal detectors before we could get into the basillica, but as soon as we walked through the giant gold doors, all we could see was beauty. Everything was perfect and peaceful. I was in awe of the massive size of this entire building and each corner you looked into was another huge addition to its structure. The ceiling was by far my favorite. The ceiling and walls were covered in gold, detailed with angels and birds, paintings, and mosaics. Directly to the right side of the entrance was Michaelangelo's Pieta. It was really cool to see his work since I knew we probably weren't going to be seeing the Sistine Chapel. We kept wandering through the giant church and made it up to the center of the church where tomb was. We were a few minutes into our visit when we started to be directed by security guards to stand still and move away from the center. Music began to play and a procession was soon to follow. It included about 40 people and they walked in line all the way up to the alter. A mass started and we stayed for a few minutes, but we really couldn't see since we were kinda far away and everyone in front of me was tall. After we watched the ceremony, we started to walk around the rest of St. Peters and headed out. I wanted to mail a postcard from the Vatican City Post Office, but since it was Labor Day weekend, the post office was closed. Oh well. We started to walk back into the Piazza when I saw a bunch of red shiny things glarin in the distance. What was it? Oh, what else but almost 40 Ferraris. I honestly thought it was a sign there for a second. How crazy was this. I started running over into the Piazza cuz this was like a dream come true for the sake of Dad, Bill, Gene, and Eric and I got to witness it (Na-NaNa-NaNa-Na). A Ferrari show in Piazza San Pietro. What could have been better? There were old ones, brand new ones, red ones, black ones, yellow ones, etc. It was a gorgeous site! I was in awe for like a half hour. Joe thought I was crazy, but I also took almost 30 pics of just the cars. It was so cool. The owners of the vehicles were walking around in their Ferrari gear and revving their engines. It was so cool. Joe had to practically slap some reality into me to leave, and then we headed over to a nearby store to buy some goodies. I bought some presents for the Grandmas and got some postcards of Rome and Vatican City. After we finally left St. Peters, we headed towards St. Angelo Castle to take some pics and walk back towards the city of Rome. We had to walk over a bridge over the Tiber River and stopped to eat some gelato on our way back. It was by far the best gelato shop I've ever been to. I had half mango, half mixed berry and Joe had Baileys. It was Fabulicious! We had planned to meet his parents at the Trevi Fountain at 1pm so we headed in that direction from the Vatican. On the way there, we finally found the Pantheon. It was gigantic, but not what I imagined it would look like. The dome on the Pantheon is only 4meters in diameter smaller than the dome in St. Peters Basillica. We headed down Via Corso and found them waiting for us at the fountain. The Trevi Fountain is so freakin cool. Its so popular in that town and theres hundreds of people in this tiny little square in the middle of a street intersection. After we met there we headed to a small trattoria for lunch. The little restaurant was so cute and they just had a few things on their menu so we each had a glass of their house white wine and some really good baked lasagna-ish noodles. After lunch we walked to the Piazza di Spagna and took pics at the Spanish Steps. There must have been a few thousand people on and around the steps. The street that is right in front of the Spanish Steps is Via Condetti. Via Condetti is the street with all the fancy couture shops and big brand names that you would associate Italian fashion with. We walked down the famous street after walking into some normal shops that his mom was looking at. We walked into the Burberry Store to look around, but I felt so awkward in there. On the street was Yves Saint Lauren, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Armani, etc. It was pretty cool, I felt like I was in a magazine and could not stop thinking of how much my friend Bronson would be having at this moment. We got to the end of the street and I FINALLY found a sign for the Ferrari Store, which I had been looking for my entire time here. We got there and it was soo cool. The inside was all painted red and covered in Ferrari symbols and decorations. There was a full-size race car in there too. It was 2 levels of Ferrari heaven. I bought a bunch of souvenirs for everyone from there since I knew I wouldn't be making it up to the factory in Bologna during the rest of my internship. Sorry Bill. It was cool, eventhough my credit card got denied. I fized it quickly but the bank had just caught on that I was in Italy. DUH! Ive been buying things on my credit card in Italy for the past 4 months now. Oh well, inconvenient but comforting that they were actually watching it. I had just paid for 2 airline tickets, my overnight train ticket, and my $320 SCUBA class all on Friday. I'm sure that put up a red flag. We finished walking the streets, ate some more gelato (Pineapple this time) and started to head back to the hotel. We tried to ride the Metro from the Spanish Steps trainstop, but the train wasn't working at that time. We went ahead and walked the long way back to the room and took a nap before Joe and I were going to our Pub Crawl for the night. We woke up at like 8:30 and had to catch a taxi to the Spanish Steps since there was no way we'd make it in time. We hadn't eaten dinner yet so we grabbed some pizzas from a kiosk at the top of the Steps where the pub crawl started from. We soon joined the fellow team and paid our dues. There were 24 people in our group, we got our infamous Pub Crawl T-Shirt, and started to drink the nasty free beer they provide for the first hour. It was only 15 Euro and we were going to be going to 3 bars/discos and have little games at each one. We headed to the first bar right at 10pm. There was a beer chugging contest at the first bar and Joe totally won. I didn't think I had any competition among the girls, but wow, was I wrong. This one chick gave me a run for my money and beat me by a millasecond. I was so mad. Oh well, there were more to come. Joe and I won another contest at that bar but then we headed out to the next one. The group was already starting to dwindle down in size by the time we got to the second place. It was a small little underground Irish Pub. I drank some New Castle there, it was the first time I had seen that beer over here. There were body shots and a bunch of drunk people at this bar. It was fun though. This is definitely where I had most of my drinks. We headed toward the last place, which was a disco on a boat on the Tiber River. As soon as we got onto the boat I started to feel sick so we left. I didn't want to get sick and I knew we had a long way to get home. It was cool though. I found the way to Piazza del Poppolo to find us a cab. We got home safe and I immediately fell asleep in the room. We have a long day planned for tomorrow.

Mon. May 1 (Italian Holiday - Labour Day) - I slept in this morning and once we all woke up we headed down Via Corso to eat lunch at a really cute little ristorante with his parents. I had some pesto pasta and oil and balsamic bread. Lunch was really pleasant and did some fun people watching. The weather was absolutely gorgeous so before we headed out around town, we went back to the rooms to return our jackets. We decided to take the "City Siteseeking" tour around Rome and Vatican City. It's a big red double decker bus that is pretty common for sightseeing throughout the big cities in Italy and stops at the major destinations. You can get off at any spot and just jump on another bus every hour to keep going on the tour. We caught the tour from the Maria Maggiore Basilica that was near our hotel. Before loading the bus, we went into the Basilica to take some pics and admire its beauty. It's the second largest one to St. Peter's. It was gorgeous and very similar to it. We rode the bus through the first major stops and got off at the one in Vatican City. We walked the streets and I did some final shopping. The Vatican was closed due to the National holiday and the streets were filled with people. We met up with his parents a little later in the Piazza San Pietro because they wanted to visit the inside so we just walked around Vatican City before meeting up with them. We got back onto the bus and finished at the starting point. We got to drive by the garden Villa Borghese and through the Piazza del Popolo. It was beautiful and sure helped our feet relax. ** Here are some fun facts I learned on the bus ride: 1) Vittorio Emanuele Monument - 20 columns on the top represent Italy's 20 regions; Fountains on the right and left represent the Adriatic Sea and the Tyrhennian Sea. 2) Via Nazionale - 1st major rode built in Rome. 3) River Tiber - 3rd longest river in Italy; Runs through Rome for 55km; Tiberina Island is the only island on the river. 4) Largo Argentina- Julius Ceaser died here on March 15, 54BC; Largest Roman archaeological area. 5) Pantheon - translation into "Dedicated to the Gods"; Has the tombs of Italy's greatest historical figures. 6) Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II - Connects Rome and Vatican City. ** His parents got off at Maria Maggiore and we stayed on the bus to head over to Campo di Fiori. We ended up staying on until the Vatican again so we could go to this Chinese restaurant that Joe visited during one of his past visits to Rome. We ate Chinese, drank some sake, and then started walking towards the center of town. We walked all along the Tiber River so I could see the only island on it and go through the Jewish Ghetto. We also saw the Mancello Theater and some other things around the Via Emmuale Monument. It was a long day so we caught a cab to catch his parents before they left the hotel at 8:30pm. We convinced them to come with us to Campo di Fiori for some last night relaxing before I left in the morning. We jumped in a cab to save time and our feet. We ate some really good gelato and went to I Giganti bar for a beer. While we were there, we watched this crazy Indian magician guy. It was hilarious! He was doing the oldest tricks in the book, but he was definitely the entertainment for the center for about 10 minutes. We left there and went to Sloppy Sams for a last beer and glass of wine. None of us were impressed with Campo di Fiori cuz it was dirty and kinda slummy. This place is really popular so maybe it just wasn't cleaned up yet for the high season. We caught another cab back to the hotel and Joe and I headed back to that Internet place to find a train schedule for my trip to Naples in the morning. We checked our MySpaces and were headed back home. I packed up my bags and we hung out in the room with his parents before all heading to bed. My train left at 6:15 in the morning so we went to bed kinda early.

Tues. May 2 - I woke up at 5:30am, showered, packed some last minute stuff, and left for the train station with Joe and his tamales that his parents brought him since he wouldn't be back to Sigonella for another week and a half. I caught the Diretto train to Naples at 6:49 and arrived at Napoli Centrale at 9:30am. It was only 10 euro and I slept the entire time except upon arrival when I loved loooking at Mount Vesuvius and the awesome coast line. I checked my luggage at the train station so I didnt have to carry it around all day and went to buy my ticket for the Circumvesuviana to get to Pompeii. Round trip for that wasnt even 5 euro so that was cool. I caught the 10:41 train and man was it nasty. The train was pretty ghetto and Naples is so bad that they even have to announce "watch for pickpockets" every 30 seconds at the station. I arrived in Pompeii at 11 and got a panini (sandwich) before heading to the museum grounds. Entrance fees were 10 Euro and I went ahead an got the audioguide and map for another 6.50 euro. I walked the entire site until 3pm. It was nice, but hot and a LOT of walking. The sites were beautiful and had so much mystery and history involved around them, but by the time 4 hours had passed of seeing ruins, temples, rock paths, etc, it got kinda repeatitive. I took tons of pics and really enjoyed it on my own. I started to realize that traveling by yourself gets kinda boring and I really need travel company. I snuck into the top of the ampitheather that is there and took some cool pics. It was a really small version of the Colusseum, but it was nice. The art and grafiti around Pompeii was amazing that it could last through everything and the giant volcano eruption. Mount Vesuvias in the background was breathtaking. I loved it, it reminded me of Mt Etna so much. I finally headed back to the train at 3:30 because there wasn't much else to do in the town of Pompeii. I figured I could spend some time in Naples since I had quite a long time to burn before catching my overnight train at 10:30pm. I got back into Naples, got a map from the tourism office, and started to walk the nasty dirty town. The driving was absolutely NUTS and I almost got ran over like 20 times in less than a mile. I walked forever along the coast to see the port and marina and then finally made it to Castle Nuova. I continued to walk looking for a toilet to go pee and find some food. I tried walking into an Internet place, but it was too busy. It was surprinsingly really hard to find a sit down restaurant but finally found one called Zio Circo Mangianapoli. I had some tasty brushetta, 1/2 litre red wine, traditional Napolian pizza with buffalo mozzarella, basil, olive oil, and tomatoes. It was soooooo good. I loved it and the people in the restaurant really liked trying to talk to me. I was the only one there since it was still kinda early and I was impressed with my Italian speaking skills when I was talking to them. I walked around Naples some more and stopped back into that Internet place and talked to Crystal on MySpace for awhile. I needed to kill as much time as possible. I grabbed some banana gelato that was gross! and headed back to the train station to get my luggage and play the waiting game. The train came at 10:#0 and I loaded into my 4-bed compartment with 2 nuns from Siracusa. Our car wasn't full so it gave us some space to put our luggage. I listened to some music and slept until 6am when the conductor came by telling us we'd be in Catania in 30 minutes. I went and brushed my teeth and packed up. We got to Catania and the train pretty much emptied out since the last stop was Palermo. I had plans for my friend Travis to come pick me up in Catania, but I knew I'd have to wait 2 hours since he had a meeting all morning. I was originally just going to ride the public bus to NAS I but the busses don't start running until 10:30am. I ended up getting picked up by my friend Josh instead and we drove into Catania and I bought him breakfast for coming to pick me up. I finally got home to NAS I, took a shower, did some laundry, went online at the library, and then went to my new job at Take 5.

Beach bums

So lately when I'm not traveling off the island, I've been chillin at the beach on Saturday and Sunday afternoons with some good friends. We have currently been going to "La Cucharachas" lido (pay beach) in Catania. We just chill out and soak up the sun for like 4-5 hours. The Ionian Sea has still been really cold, but we get in every once in a while to get the sand off of us. If any of you are wonderin or to answer the emails I have received from friends, yes, Italians love to be naked and show lots of skin. If you want to see some nude beaches, you can come here. It's not technically a nude beach, but there are tons of women (most are old and nasty) with no tops on. Also, its like Speedo centrale here. Old men, young kids, teenage guys, any of them. It's really funny and amusing to make fun of them all day though. Oh well, just wanted to mention that since I've been asked by a bunch of my guy friends back at school. It's not always pleasant on nude beaches just to warn you all. The beach is a lot of fun though and I've been down there a few times now with Joe, Pirate, Sara, and Travis. I can't wait for the weather to keep heating up. I'm gonna turn into a beach bum soon enough. There's a beach called Fontana Bianca down near Syracusa that I'm dying to get to. It's one with beautiful white sand beaches and tons of rocks and cliffs to jump off. I can't wait. I'll have some pics up soon.

Gotta love a snowy active volcano and a beach with a gorgeous ocean in the same photo....?

I LOVE SPEEDOS AND THONGS!!! NOT....yuck!

Aeolian Islands Sunset Pics

Standing on the upper deck of the ferry looking back at Vulcano and Lipari.
The absolutely gorgeous sunset

The sun was almost finished setting
After the sun had set and we were pulling into Milazzo port and you could still Vulcano and Lipari in the distance.

Aeolian Islands Day 2 pics

Standing on Lipari looking out (L-R) at Alicudi, Filicudi, and Salina. This is my fav. pic of the weekend.
Carlos, Joe, and I jumping off the pier at the Pumice Mines
Rosario and I on our moped after mine broke down down the road.
Doing my famous front flip off the pier.
The beautiful crystal clear waters near the pumice mines. The body of water that the Aeolian Islands is in is the Tyrrhenian Sea.
This is our awesome "moped gang" from the last day on the island. We had like 12 mopeds and a 4-wheeler driving the entire island all day. It was the most fun I've had in a long time.

More Aeolian Island Pics

Me burried in lava rocks on the beach of Stromboli.

Island of Stromboli. This is one of the most active volcanos in Europe and has famous nightly eruptions.
This is the small island of Stomboliccia off of Strombolia. Thats a light house on the top.

The sun was starting to set on our boat tour as we were floating around the little island of Stromboliccia.

Aeolian Islands Pics

The island of Salina
This was from our first drive around the island. We are on Lipari and thats looking out to the island of Vulcano.
This is the beach/bay that was right in front of our hotel, Baia Unci, in Lipari
Me standing on the giant rocks on Panarea during our boat excursion. The next island we were heading to was Stromboli to see the volcanic eruptions.
This is on the boat driving by Panarea and looking out into the distance is Stromboli

Aeolian Islands: My Special Project

Planning
Early into my internship, I started to brainstorm on what I wanted my special project to include. Before I came to Sicily, I was looking in guidebooks and researching Sicily and discovered the absolutely breathtaking Aeolian Islands. I knew from the second I saw the pictures in the books that I wanted to visit them during my trip. As early March arrived, I started to research the islands and find out what activities and tours I could include on a weekend trip with approximately 13 customers excluding Rosario and myself. James Shipp and I decided to plan this as a Liberty (single and unaccompanied sailors, E5 and below) trip so we could get government assistance with costs and aim the trip to the younger community. I have worked with many of the single-sailors since I’ve been here and felt very confident that I could escort that population the best. Rosario and another local national in the office had been to the Islands in the past so they gave many suggestions for me to look into and Rosario told me that he would volunteer to drive my trip at no overtime costs. That gesture right there was a giant stepping-stone because drivers are very hard to find for a weekend trip and there are a lot of overtime and per diem costs involved. I wanted Rosario to attend my trip for so many other reasons, but the most beneficial would have to be his Italian/Sicilian translations during the entire weekend.
Since lodging is usually the biggest factor in determining prices, location, and availability, I immediately started looking for a nice, but affordable place to stay. With the single sailor community, I wanted low cost over luxury. Shortly into my search, my bosses told me about a place they have stayed at with previous ITT trips called Baia Unci. I found their brochure and website and had Rosario call them for prices and availability. Baia Unci offers camping and apartments (they call them bungalows). They were very interested in having our group stay with them and they quoted us a really low price of €15.50 per person per night. That was great news for my project and it gave me a good feeling about being able to make this a low-cost trip for the single-sailor (Liberty) community. The only thing I would have to do with Baia Unci from that point on would be to keep them updated on my room list and the size of apartments I would need.
After confirming the Aeolian Islands as a quick getaway and having my lodging guaranteed, I started to look up activities, guided tours, museums, and popular tourist spots that we could visit during our 2-day visit. Originally, I chose sea-kayaking around the islands, but a few weeks into that decision, the weather never started to warm up and the local nationals told me that I should probably find a new idea. After that major change in plans, I wanted to add a big tour and museum into the trip. I found a lot of information about guided boat tours to Stromboli to see its nightly volcanic eruptions. The prices were high, but I had to remember they were all day/night excursions on private boats. I knew that this was going to be a good addition to the weekend. The tour company we ended up using was called Paloma and they gave us a rate of €30 per person for an 8 hour tour of three islands. They later told us that they would cook a big dinner for the group for an extra €10 per person, but I vetoed that idea. The excursion was already going to cost the same as the apartments for 2 nights. I later went online to look for good museums on the island and immediately found great reviews about the archaeological museum on Lipari. The hours of operation were good and I figured that I could add that to the last day’s activities right before we left on the ferry back to Milazzo. The prices were also listed online so we had an exact figure available for our expenditure request.
After planning the activities, I started to figure out the transportation issues. Our ITT van was available at no cost for my trip and I wanted to be able to bring it onto Lipari so we had a vehicle to get us around the island. After that issue was solved, I started to look up ferry information. I did not realize it, but there are 3 different ferry companies that work out of the Milazzo Port. Since the timetable for the trip was during the low season, there were limited ferry departures to the Aeolian Islands. I had to find a time that would coincide with the customer’s work schedule and allow us 2 hours to get up there. After looking up each ferry company and their winter timetables, I decided on a company called NGI for the ride to Lipari on Friday night at 9:00pm. This would allow me to advertise the trip to leave at 5:15pm after everyone had time to get off work, drive to Milazzo, stop at an AutoGrille for dinner, and arrive in Lipari by 11:30pm. Since people could sleep on the ferry or hang out and play cards, I figured everyone would be ready for an exciting next day. For the ride back to Milazzo, I had to choose a different company. The second company, SIREMAR, is better known and has more departures on Sundays than the previous company. I found one that left at 6:00pm, which was perfect for a descent arrival time back to Sigonella. Salvo and I tried to call and fax the ferry companies, but they never responded with price quotes or confirmations. When Leslie, Salvo, and I tried to determine the expenditures for the ferry, we compared them with past ITT trips that they had made to the islands. Just to be safe, we overestimated the costs a little. The ferries are very risky during the off season and sometimes don’t run if the weather is bad or they haven’t sold enough tickets to cover the costs of fuel and labor.
After all of the decisions were made on daytime activities, lodging, and transportation, I had to start contacting the companies via phone and fax to confirm the reservations. At the beginning, we were estimating the costs and reservations for 14 people and an escort. I had Salvo assist me in making the phone calls and typing the faxes since they all had to be in Italian. This was a lengthy process, but everything except for the ferries were soon confirmed. Once the reservations were in, I had to sit down and create an expenditure request with Leslie to get the money for the trip. We estimated the costs, including covering all of the fees for Rosario and I, and came up with $114 per person. We decided to ask for a check request so I could carry cash during the trip and pay the expenses as it went. For the trip to get down to a catchy price of $99, I went to Gerry Morris for assistance with government subsidization. We talked about the trip, went over the expenditure request, and he told me that they would be willing to subsidize $15 per person through the Liberty program. Gerry and Leslie each gave me permission to start selling the trip ASAP. As soon as everything was settled, I wanted to discuss advertising the trip with the Marketing Department. Rebecca Wissler told me to come to her office the next morning to create flyers and posters so I could quickly get them hung up around base and in certain facilities. I met with her the next day and we created a fun, eye-catching flyer with a program called FreeHand. Before I started to hang them up, I headed to ITT to inform the staff on all of the details and told them to start selling the trip as soon as we got any phone calls or walk-ins. Rebecca called me over to the main office to pick up the printed flyers and I immediately started to hang them up around NAS I. I finished getting them up around our base and I got a ride over to NAS II to hang them up there and have a quick meeting with CeCe and her Take 5 staff. Her staff came in early for my meeting and they really responded well to the information and details I gave them about my trip. We were ready to sell this trip and I had a feeling it was going to sell out quick.
By the time I got a ride back to ITT Gear-N-Go, the front desk clerks told me that they had already sold 2 seats and had a few phone calls about the trip. I soon found out that an email from the Command Master Chief was sent out to the entire hospital staff. That was a great, unexpected helping hand. I sat at the front desk all day and the 12 seats for the trip were sold out by that afternoon. When we all sat back and realized that this was a huge success and a great offer for single-sailors, I started to plan for another 13 people to go to Lipari. The major task would be to find another driver for the van that would either volunteer completely or accept the least amount of overtime costs. I called CeCe at Take 5 and she was more than happy to accept the offer to drive for free. Since she was going to drive the second van without charging MWR overtime costs, I made sure to pay for her activities, excursion, ferry fees, and some meals to help keep her costs for the trip to a bare minimum. She was excited to help with the trip since Liberty is her program and she knows much of the community. With this settled, Rosario set aside another van for the weekend and we began to write up another expenditure request. Leslie only had a few days to get the check approved so we sat down and made sure all the costs worked out for 26 people and got it sent over to Pam at the financial department at the main office. Everything was looking great and we started to advertise that we had another van going to take more customers. Once again, the seats sold quickly and we had a waiting list forming by the next day in case there were any cancellations before the final payment day. After the trip sold out, Rosario began to worry about how much room we would truly have available in each van if each customer brought one bag and a cooler with them for the weekend. Each seat in the van was going to be full, so he thought about bringing the Forino with us up to the islands to help carry luggage and coolers. The Forino is a small truck with a large covered truck bed on the back of it. CeCe brought up the idea of having her husband come along on the trip to drive it at no cost to us. The idea went over well with my managers and we figured that we would have enough money to cover his costs during the weekend. Rosario began to feel much more comfortable with the luggage situation and we could easily bring a large BBQ pit with us for the beach now. With the luggage situation as a constant problem on short, weekend trips, I wanted to be able to conduct my Packing Demonstration before the trip. I have seen these young guys bring so much junk/stuff with them on a 2-day trip that it’s absolutely ridiculous.
Once all of the seats for the trip were sold out, I started on my rooming list for Baia Unci and my contact sheet for sending out important emails. The rooming list changed a few times due to people canceling and replacing them with new customers, but Baia Unci was very flexible with us since we were their main group of customers for that particular weekend. I created my contact sheets on Microsoft Excel so I could keep up with their payments and contact info such as phone numbers and email addresses. Once the list started to settle down and the cancellations were complete, I started to send out emails with important information for the trip. I created my documents for my meeting and mailed those out to the customers also. I really wanted everyone to have all of the information for the trip, including the correct times and location of departure and my contact information in case they had any last minute questions for me. The day of departure finally arrived and Rosario and I worked together to prepare the vans for the trip. Each van was clean and full of gas and CeCe’s husband, Eric, had the Forino with him at Take 5 prior to the trip so he could get the vehicle ready. CeCe was on time to ITT Gear-N-Go to pick up her van and we were soon on our way to the NAS I pick-up spot.

Fri. April 7 -
From the start all the way to the finish, the trip went absolutely wonderful. From the first pick-up at NAS I, I had a good feeling going about it. We were on time to the first pick-up and everyone that had originally signed up for this stop got on and the luggage situation was working itself out nicely. After a short drive to NAS II, we picked up the remainder of the group and took some group photos before leaving for Milazzo. Everyone was divided evenly into the vans and we had plenty of room for luggage and coolers thanks to the extra vehicle available. We were immediately on our way towards the Autostrada and we had time to spare so we took it slow and stopped at the AutoGrille on our way through Messina. We arrived to the port in Milazzo around 8:00pm and Rosario and I had to find the ticket company for our ferry ride to Lipari. Everyone got out of the vehicles to stretch and walk around while Rosario went to pick-up and pay for the ferry tickets. Since the ferry company had never faxed us back with confirmation prices, I did not know exactly how much they were going to end up charging us. The total was higher than we figured, but it was alright. I started to get a scary feeling about the price coming back to Milazzo. The loading time soon rolled around and everyone got back in the vehicles to drive onto the ferry. After we parked the vans and Forino, I got out to inform the group that they had 2 ½ hours to relax on the ferry until we would arrive in Lipari. I paid special attention to remind them to not get off at the first docking, which was the island of Vulcano. We locked up the vans and headed to the upper deck with the group. The ferry ride was smooth, a little chilly outside, but a great bonding time for everyone to get to know each other. I had a really diverse group of people sign up for this trip so it was fun to get to know everyone and where they worked before the trip truly got off the ground. We played cards, hung out on the front bow, drank cafes and beer, and shared stories until we started to pull into Lipari. The ferry was on time and everyone got back into the vans in a timely matter also. When we drove off the ferry, I had to meet the owner of the company that would be conducting our boat excursion to Panarea and Stromboli to pay him a €200 down payment. We found him easily, paid, and then met up with an employee from our hotel, Baia Unci, to drive us to our lodging destination for the weekend. They were waiting outside for us at the hotel and everyone got their bags and headed to the front desk. There, I met with Francesca and we divided everyone into their assigned rooms for the weekend. I switched a few customers into different rooms until everyone was satisfied with their room arrangements. The rooms were really nice and way better than what I would have ever imagined for only €15.50 per person/per night. Most of the people went straight to their rooms to either hang out or go to sleep, but a few of us decided to have a BBQ on the beach. I bought BBQ supplies and meat for our dinners, so we grabbed the pit out of the Forino and started to grill. A few of us hung out on the beach for a few hours until we were ready for bed. I showed Rosario how to BBQ "American style."
Sat. April 8 -
A group of people were up pretty early in the morning along with Rosario and me so we decided to take a van out to explore the island and find a place to eat breakfast. Rosario has been to the island before, but it is generally very easy to navigate since it has one major road to get around the entire island of Lipari. We drove the island, stopped at some nice view points to take pictures, and ended up in the main city of Lipari for brunch. Eight of us ate brunch together at a small restaurant and then we went out into the town to shop for souvenirs before we headed back to the hotel. At the hotel, a group of people were up on the roof of our hotel hanging out partyin so we went to join them for a little bit before the boat tour. On my way up the steps after putting my brand new sandals on from Crystal, I slipped and fell directly on the edge of the step on my knee nap. It bled like hell right away and Joe and John told me I needed some stitches. For once, Joe forgot his sutchure kit, so they just closed it up with super glue and wrapped it for me. It hurt so bad and felt like I broke my knee cap. I crippled my way up the steps and hung out to take some pictures before we needed to leave. The night before, I informed everyone on the trip that they had to meet at the front of the hotel at 1:30pm to head out for our boat excursion. The excursion company decided to pick us up at a marina that was closer to the hotel so we didn’t have to drive to downtown Lipari. This eliminated our need for the vans altogether now. A handful of people had already rented mopeds for the weekend, so I asked if they wouldn’t mind driving each of us to the marina that was only about ½ mile away. Everyone agreed and in less than 15 minutes all 27 of us were at the marina ready to catch the boat. By this time, I knew I was definitely going to be renting a moped before I left that island. We walked to the boat together and took a group picture before loading. Our group took up the majority of the customers on the tour so we all headed to the upper deck to enjoy our ride to the islands. The tour started off by driving around a portion of Lipari to get to Panarea. The ride was kind of rough, but everyone was having a good time taking pictures and relaxing. Some of the guys who had been drinkin all day got sick, but it was totally their fault for taking shots of Tequila before loading the boat. It took over an hour to get there, but once we got there, we had an hour to enjoy the island. Most of us walked to the large rocks and cliffs to get in the water and take some beautiful pictures of the Tyrrhenian Sea. A few of the guys jumped in, but I wasn't prepared to freeze my booty off and then hop right back onto a boat. After that, we all stopped at a small café to enjoy ice cream and beverages. The boat announced that they were ready to load up and head to Stromboli. Stromboli is one of the most active volcanoes in Europe and displays famous nightly eruptions. The boat ride to Stromboli was breathtaking and we saw many giant rock formations along the way. We arrived in Stromboli and had 2 ½ hours to explore the island until the started to set to see the volcanic activity. The group split up and some went shopping, some went to eat at nearby restaurants and cafes, and I headed to the black sand beach with Rosario and Jow. We hung out there the entire time and we burried each other in lava rocks. Rosario ended up fishing with the locals for awhile. Everyone started heading back to the boat. The sun was starting to set and the wind was getting colder. The boat had plenty of seating on its lower deck and everyone sat at the tables for the last leg of the journey. The boat went around a small side island called Strombolicca for photo opportunities and was then on its way to a small bay directly below the crater. I got some awesome pics of the sun starting to set around this cool little island. The boat never stopped moving, but we were able to watch the volcanic activity for almost 45 minutes as we rode back to Lipari. It was an amazing site to see and we had a few great eruptions that some people were able to catch on video. Almost everyone slept on the ride back, but I stayed awake keeping an eye on everyone. We arrived back to the marina at 9:30pm, but some members of the group were sea-sick from the long day. I made sure to pay the company and we all headed back to the mopeds to ride back to the hotel. From the hotel, some people left on their mopeds to explore the island and the other half had a big BBQ on the beach. Before everyone went their own way, I had to tell them about the check out process. Check out was at 10:00am and each person could put their bags into the designated room that the hotel was providing for us. I also told them about our departure time of 4:15pm. I was very upfront with everyone when I told them that they had to be on time so Rosario and I could get to the port to buy our ferry tickets. The group agreed and no one had any questions for me so they were on their way. Rosario and I cooked again, but this time we had a crowd of about 15 people. It was a lot of fun and kept the morale of the group high. I got everyone’s feelings about the excursion and we all talked about what they wanted to do tomorrow afternoon before we left the island. I started to get some great feedback about the trip, its low price, how much fun everyone was having, and received a few questions about Liberty and ITT. The BBQ went for a few hours and afterwards they all wanted to go out to a club or bar before they went to bed. I had to remind everyone that it was the low season and there are not many things to do on this island after hours, but Rosario asked the hotel staff if anything was open this late. He found out there was one club open in downtown Lipari, so we all made arrangements to get down there before the night ended. Once again, we rode the mopeds to Lipari and finally found the club. I rode with Rosario and he let me sit in front of him so he could teach me how to drive it. Let me just say...Rosario is freakin nuts on a moped and I was scared to death with his sharp little turns and no-hands. After awhile though, I got a little more comfortable and I started to drive pretty well. It was a lot of fun to ride the mopeds through town and by the time we arrived, everyone was determined to rent them all-day tomorrow for exploring the island. The club was nice but we did not stay for long since we were underdressed and beginning to get tired. We each had a drink and wanted to get back. Most of them told me that they would rather get some sleep tonight to be able to wake up early and ride all day tomorrow. We got back to the hotel safe and the group worked out a time to meet in the front.
Sun. April 9 -
The last day was already here and at 8:00am there were almost 20 people outside ready to go rent mopeds from down the street. Rosario came with us and in a short time we were all ready to explore the entire island. The first stop was breakfast. We all drove together to Lipari again and sat down and ate a big breakfast. More souvenir shopping followed the meal and we headed back to the hotel to put everything away. In no time, we were on our way and we headed in the pumice caves direction. Of course with my luck, my moped died up the first hill. I was the lucky one out of everyone who's tank had no gas in it. There was a huge group waiting to explore, so I decided to leave my moped on the side of the rode to pick it up later. I ended up riding on the back of Rosario's all day, which worked out better anyways so I could take pics and video of everyone driving around. It was a short drive to the pumice mines, but we took our time to get off the bikes and explore the crystal clear water along the coast. After taking some pictures, we headed down to the dock where the pumice is shipped out. Here, we all relaxed for awhile and some people jumped into the sea before heading out for the rest of the day. I jumped in of course! I was doing front flips and we were doing group jumps. The water was freezing, but it was a fun memory to add to the weekend. It was really cool because I had someone takesome time-lapse photos of us doing jumps off the pier. We continued on around the island for a few hours, occasionally stopping to take pictures and to walk along the beaches or cliffs. The entire island tour on mopeds took about 5 hours and everyone had a blast. I got some absolutely breathtaking pics of all the islands. From Lipari, you can see all of the other 6 islands. The skies were clear and the weather was perfect. The day on the mopeds was by far one of the funnest days of my life. Everyone just had such a good time driving around and stopping every 1/2 mile or so to take pics and enjoy the views. The mopeds had to be back by 3:00pm so everyone rode back into the town of Lipari to do any last minute shopping they wanted to do before we left. All of the mopeds were returned and I started to pack and arrange the vans for our departure. After everything was packed and people’s bags were in the vans, Rosario and I went to the main office to pay the balance. The company was great and we got some more information from them about rates and dates to possibly create another trip before I leave since this one was a huge success. Most of the group was on time to the van but I did have a few stragglers. The problem was resolved quickly and I took a head count in the vans before pulling away from the hotel. We arrived to the port and they had an hour to go get dinner before loading onto the ferry. Rosario and I went to pick up the tickets and once again, the ferry was more expensive than we originally had planned for. It was alright though; we had some extra money from not going to the archaeology museum. I decided earlier this weekend that we would only offer the museum to the people who wanted to go. In the morning when I asked everyone about it, no one seemed interested, and of course in the afternoon, no one wanted to leave their mopeds early. I had also heard a few comments after the boat excursion yesterday that some people wanted more free time to do things on their own anyways. We got the tickets and went to grab some dinner. Everyone was back in the vans ready to head home on time. The ferry loaded and I informed everyone that we only had a 1 ½ hour ferry ride this time around. I asked for everyone to be back in the vans as we pulled into Milazzo. The ferry ride home was much nicer. The company we used on our way home, SIREMAR, has large couches and chairs, a faster motor, tables to play games on, a larger upper deck, and overall a smoother and more enjoyable ride than NGI. I sat on the upper deck the entire ride home and watched the sunset over the islands. This was my first real "Sicilian" sunset I've seen since I've been on this island. It was beautiful. I sat there by myself, listened to my IPod, and was mesmorized by the gorgeous sunset. I took almost 15 pics of that alone. All together from the entire weekend, I took almost 225 pics. We pulled into Milazzo at dark and headed directly home for Sigonella. Halfway into the drive home, we stopped at another AutoGrille for people to grab some food and drinks for the remainder of the ride home. We pulled onto base at exactly 10:30pm, which is the time I originally had planned for. All of the vehicles had to come to NAS I due to the large amount of people to drop off, but only one van and the Forino went back to NAS II. I thanked everyone for coming and made sure the vans were clean and no one left anything behind. Many of the customers thanked us back and told us they had a great weekend. It was a really good feeling to see everyone go home happy and talking about the fun they had. Once everyone from NAS I headed home, CeCe and Eric headed to NAS II to end the night. The weekend was a huge success and I could not thank Rosario, CeCe, or her husband more. They really helped me out a lot and made this trip a definite success. I am so glad I decided on the Aeolian Islands for my school special project. I hope to make it back up to the islands before I leave so I can do some swimming and sea kayaking.