Monday October 31 – Ancona, Italy Day 2

                The sun in Ancona comes up very early, before 6:30 it has risen fully. Michele took us to a fortified park that I think was built by Napoleon, the park was a nice park and we had a nice walk, I never thought walking in parks would be something that is hard to find in Europe. Then we walked to the coast line and walked along it, there was also a World War II monument but unfortunately it had a lot of grafidi on it, we also climbed Pope’s Rock which was just a small rock right next to the ocean. We met up with Valeria at the beach and walked to some Roman ruins and a Roman bridge, next we again ate at Michele’s mom’s house and there again were his grandparents and little brother. We ate pork and lamb and had “spicy” noodles but I think the U.S.A. has trained its citizens to have a high spice tolerance because I could not taste the spice, neither could Adam. We hung out at his house until 4:00, Adam and Erik shared music and I fell asleep hard on the couch because they told me Michele tried to wake me but I did not move and Adam slapped my leg which woke me up in a confused state, I did not feel it and I later asked how I woke up and he told me the story.

                Michele’s dad drove us to a mountain where I got to see Sofia again, one of my favorite Italians, and she had a friend from San Diego, she was nice. We drove down the mountain where there was a pond with Mallard ducks and just beyond that was the sea. We skipped rocks, I tried to teach Erik how to do it but he was unsuccessful. We walked along the beach and to another church on a hill overlooking the sea. Afterwards we drove to a small town nearby and played in a park, I hid and scared Erik, so my streak of scaring someone on Halloween is still alive. There were kids walking around in costumes but it is a controversial thing in Italy because it is American and they want to preserve their Italian culture. We then drove back to Ancona and got a drink at Prince Edwards where they have unlimited “tapas” of many different varieties. For dinner, we went to a fancy restaurant and Adam and I saw a girl that we met at the birthday party the night before who waved to us and so we waved back. When we sat, Alessandro and Michele asked how we knew her because they did not know her and they were the ones from Ancona, I thought that was very funny that we knew an Italian that they did not know.

                After dinner we stood in a plaza for awhile then walked to a bar and some got a beer, it was funny because Michele got slightly tipsy off a glass of wine and a beer and was much more open and silly because typically he is a more serious guy. We walked to the World War II monument by the sea and talked about our two cultures, it was very interesting as usual. I was sad when it came time for them to go home because I know it is the last time I will see them for a very long time. I miss the already. When we got back to Michele’s dad’s house he gave us another small glass of that lemon liquor, I found that part very interesting.