Okay, our last few days of Senegalese life ended with us spending a lot of time in the airport sleeping (our flight was 2:30 a.m. in the morning!). Prior to that, we busted out the last few days by spending time riding a four-wheeler through the salt flats, seeing the Pink Lake with Maria Pia's step-mom (which is only pink outside of the rainy season, so epic fail there), eating our last meal of pasta (we stopped eating all street food and stuck strictly to pasta for many, many days), and seeing a few museums. Senegal, you have been fun, but have mercy, it's time to go.
But where, oh where, did we go? Surprise, surprise.....Italy!!!! After about two days in Senegal, we realized there was no way we could last five weeks there, so we pushed up our tickets. Nobody knew we were going to Italy because it was a surprise for Sila. So, if we talked to you and said Kenya was next, we're sorry. We lied. Kenya is next--after six weeks in Italy!
After a few days in Venice (how about some extinction tourism?), we got the hell out of expensive land and settled in a little town called Reggio Emilia, a town very close to Parma, which is the "home" of Parmesan cheese. Ah-maz-ing. It's a quaint town, complete with many parks, a kick-ass Saturday farmers market, and three weeks (maybe four) of snuggling in to some chilly weather and easy living. We're already stressing about the money, but hey, if we go with our mantra of "Go where we want to go; see what we want to do; stay where we want to stay; do what we want to do," how can we not stay six weeks in Italy?
Mark and I loved Reggio Emilia when we were there in 1980. Mark was on a Junior Fulbright doing teacher training. If you get a chance, you should do to Sicily and visit Catania. There are some awesome ruins there. So exciting that Sila is old enough to enjoy this adventure. Keep posting. I love experiencing your travels through you.
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