I decided to take a quick trip down to macerata this past weekend. Although I'm not sure quick is a good word to describe the trip itself. In order to take advantage of Trenitalia's Viaggi Quanto Vuoi offer, I had to take an IR down from Milano. To make matters worse, I discovered that my MP3 player has decided to stop working. 7 hours of silence later I arrived in Macerata. As always, the last hour of the trip was spent in anticipation, watching out the window for the familar skyline.

When I arrived, both Jackie and Antonello were at work, and I had about an hour and a half to kill. So I made some phone calls, and before long was sitting at bar della sport with some old friends of mine, Billy, Maxi, and Paulo. While I had seen Maxi during my August trip, it had been over a year since I'd seen Billy and Paulo, so it was nice to catch up with them. The biggest news of the night, Maxi's wife gave birth to a healthy baby boy about two weeks ago. It was fun to watch Maxi's face light up as he talked about his first son.

Saturday night was spent with other friends, Matteo and Luca who came into town to see me. After an aperitivo and an unsuccessful attempt to grab dinner at The Palace, we ended up going to 4Porte. With just our luck, there was a birthday party going on that night, with a group of 20 yelling middle schoolers. After dinner we went to bar centrale and hung out for a bit, where the crowd was defiantly older, as most college students were at home for the weekend. Still, it was a fun night out with the boys.

Sunday morning I woke up bright and early to head into the mountains with Jackie and Antonello and a group of caving students who were practicing on the ropes. We headed to an area up above Frasassi caves, parking outside of Genga and hiking in. The hike was quite nice, although rather cold and foggy when we first arrived. As the day went on though the sky cleared up quite a bit, giving way to some very nice views. I always love spending time in the foothills of the Appenines, as the area reminds me a lot of Oregon. On the hike back, Italians kept pointing out to Jackie every red tree that they saw, as she has been missing the way fall looks back home. It's not quite the same here.


(A look back at Genga from our hike)

It was sad to leave Macerata yesterday, and head back to dreary Milano. This trip had been particuarly nice weather wise, making walks around Macerata and the smell of the air even more rememberable than normal. I'm a strange one, as I love the beginning of winter, when the air has that crisp feeling to it. And of course it is always sad to say bye to Jackie, who despite embarrising me by sending random english nursery rhymes to guys at the bar, is always fun to see. It's been odd living in Italy but not in the same town as her. Yet there is a chance she'll be making her way up north at the end of the month, just in time for halloween and some pumpkin carving.