we had two main reasons to come to italy – a wedding, and ann used to live here! the wedding was in the city of brescia, east of milan. it belonged to my friend matt from college and his new wife adeola, and i was one of the groomsmen! it was great time. it was at a little estate out in the countryside, and the reception was composed of at least 16 courses of amazing food and lasted from noon to 3 am, which is apparently the italian way! it also had some nigerian flair! it was really fun; congratulations matt and adeola!
another day we went to the city where ann lived for 2 years, vicenza! it was great to see where she lived and what she liked to do around the almost perfect old city streets. we hung out with one of her italian friends laura and her parents, who run a small coffee shop across the street from ann’s former apartment. they provided us with copious coffee, took us to a nearby museum, and took us out for a passegiata (walk around town at dusk to see and be seen), which is the italian way! even though i made a fool of myself by mistiming the goodbye italian cheek kiss, accidentally making it into a kiss on the lips, hopefully they remember our visit fondly. they were really nice to ann while she lived there and really wonderful people.
one more place we visited in the area was a touristy town called sirmione, on a the very large lake garda. a very nice town to walk around, without any shortage of gelato!
