baby baby baby oh

we had many a good time in italia but probably one of the favorite was this. limher was well known for his singing of baby by JB. he would sing the catchy pop song while walking down the strade, on the way home from church, in our nonna's house (basically anywhere at anytime) and one of those times was on the treno coming back from cinque terre. after many failed attempts we finally caught him on film. please enjoy this glorious video of us trying to get those luscious wind pipes belting the sounds of one mr.bieber. thank you all for the good times and a special thanks to limher for this.

*please note limher's facial expressions. they are great.

a birthday

this year i was once again away from home on my birthday (this makes year eight now...wow). but this year i celebrated my birthday in italy! schveet! i know right. it has been an excellent day, one of the best birthdays i have ever had.

i woke up and listened to a tape made by my besties ie alexi, alexis, kj, celine and eliza (if you were on the tape and not named im sorry, part of the tape was inaudible becasue it was recored on fast forward or something and i couldnt figure out how to slow it down). it was a great way to start the morning: best friends bashing you and talking about how amazing you are. a few things ladies: i like how ALL of you commented on my out of control hair, obsessions with men and one man in particular, and hands. also lex and celine i appreciate the play by play of the door step scene that you were witnessing. felt like i was there. and kj said and i quote, "you are one of the funniest people i have ever met" end quote. thanks ladies. i love you and that tape made my birthday ohsomuchmore better.

[there would be a picture here of me listening to the tape, but i looked really gross in all of them so i wont subject you to that]

then nonna took me and liz to see the turtles that she has in her backyard. whoa.
they were so cute, until one started peeing all over the watermelon rind that it was eating. ew.



i went into work. why you ask, its my birthday i should have taken the day off. well as i told amanda, "today is my birthday and i like attention so im going to work" and i was not disappointed everyone at work wished me a happy birthday and told me how young and great i am. haha.

after work me and the girls headed to the aquacalda, the local swimming hole here in siena. it was great and perfect timing because it was deathly hot outside. oh man. so much....to see and comment on.



thanks girls back home and the ones right here in siena for making this the best birthday ever!

la scelta

Sienas ancient tradition, Il Palio is approaching quickly and there has been a whole week of festivities. We went to the selection day. the horses are randomly assigned to each contrada and once they are assigned a horse there is no changing it.


behold Palazzo Pubblico with all the contrade bandiere. the bottom 10 are the ones that will participate in the race, the top 7 will be participating next month . unfortunately my beloved l'onda will not be racing this month.


got my self a l'onda flag and wore it as a head band. inspiration: margaret tata


a member of the chioccola--the snail--contrada whos biggest enemy is ironically tartuca--the turtle. i will chuckle to myself now.


why a horse of course.

liz and i rockin our bandiera, shes a supporter of tartuca...but we can still be friends, i guess.


the selection was really fun, there were so many people there and as each contrada came into il campo they were singing there sons. but my favorite part of the day was as l'oca was leaving torre started to beat them up there were fists flying everywhere as liz says torre are the slytherines of the bunch . here are some vids from the day for your enjoyment.

and they came marching into the piazza one by one singning their songs

start off with some trumpets it will build tension.

the selection, well a part of it anyhow.