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Anonymous asked: Msg me on Yahoo Messenger right now my SN is wilsonneslerMM121381

Ummm, why? And I’d prefer to see a face…

To be perfectly honest, I haven’t had the proper amount of time to blog about our trip since… well the last time I posted a lengthy update. My dad and I have been going non-stop for the last week trying to see as much as possible, and it’s totally caught up to me. I’m surprised he’s made it this long at such a pace, too.

Last I checked in, we had just visited Pompeii and stopped in Sorrento somewhere to eat cheese. So much has happened since then - I’m going to try to recover as much information as possible. 

The day of the wedding was Thursday, the 13th… all I can say is WOW. That was one hell of a wedding. The ceremony was held at this beautiful villa nestled in the cliffs off Rovello, and the reception was hosted in and on top of a restaurant in a castle jutting out onto the water from the coast line. I don’t even remember what the place was called, but it was magical. With a 4-hour, 8 course dinner to boot. And fireworks… in typical Bergendahl, Sarno and Marshall fashion. 

The following day poured rain. Like, unnecessarily large amounts of rain. It kept us indoors all day until that evening when we dined one last time in Rovello. Saturday morning was “go” day. We packed our stuff up and left the paradise of Villa Casale with two of our friends who also attended the wedding. The following 12 hours would be absolute hell… It all starts with an expensive cab ride into Salerno, where we catch an expensive train ride to some other station and then another train ride into Rome. TOO. MANY. TRAINS. Perhaps the worst part was the over-booking of the first train, so seats were unavailable and people were mad… in the end, I wound up inbetween two seats, with our suitcases in the actual chairs so the armrest would be up my butt for the 3 hours that the ride lasted. And believe me, if it were possible to have had the arrangement differently, I would’ve made it happen. After all is said and done, we finally arrive in Rome. 

The walk to the hotel we thought we had reserved lasted almost an hour before we stumbled into it, only to find that the reservation was never approved because the hotel was booked. We didn’t know because we hadn’t checked our email soon enough before leaving Rovello. Then we spend another hour walking around the ghetto of Rome looking for hotels with vacancy, and out of at least 20 different ones, we found 2. My dad and I stayed in one, our friends in the other. Totally unaware of exactly why all the hotels were so crowded, we waddled off to dinner, tired, frustrated and hungry. Our friends’ hotel recommended this little family-owned restaurant around the corner and gave us a card for some free Limoncello. We dined and had a wonderful time. Excellent wine… lots of excellent wine. And lots of walking vendors trying to sell us cheap crap you could find in Downtown LA… like dancing robotic cats that sing suggestive songs. My dad loved it, so he bought one. Once dinner had digested, we took advantage of the free limoncello; the owner came back with a new bottle of the yellow liquid candy and plopped it on the table. A WHOLE BOTTLE? Challenge accepted.

Ok, so we only got through half the bottle, but by the end of it, I was “walking on lemons,” so to speak. And then our friends wanted to dance. So we stumbled upon a discoteque about 20 minutes from where we ate. And we went in and got mojitos. And then I stopped drinking… but the others didn’t. And the girls [our friends] made friends with the bartenders. And then they got on the bar and started dancing. And then the whole place was in a crazy Italian dancing uproar hootin’ and hollarin’ at the girls shaking away amongst the alcohol and loud music. My dad and I sat back and laughed. Now things get interesting…because the owner of the bar wanted one of our friend’s pants. Mind you, she was a woman, as was our friend. She just wanted to trade pants for free drinks. And that happened. She came out with some pair of like booty shorts or something…but she was so gone that it didn’t even matter. We walked into that bar at 11pm. It was 2am when we left. And then we had to find our way back to the hotel. And you can believe that dancing cat kept on dancing and singing the whole way back. Even in the cab. 

The next morning was a tough one, but we managed to get up by 8:30 and get to the train station to pick up our car and head off to some distant land to meet our cousins, with whom we are still with. 

I don’t think I can continue blogging for tonight because I’ve given myself a headache trying to remember everything from that night at the discoteque. Let’s just say that will NOT be happening again any time soon. The rest of the trip gets much more PG and “Italian”… but for another time. I’m still missing like 3 days between then and now.

It started with the non-stop 12 hour flight from LAX into Rome. We few Alitalia, which had what was quite possibly the worst flight staff EVER. Granted, they were Italian and we were just annoying Americans on their plane, but they were just plain rude, even to the native Italians that were on the flight. So, that sucked.

Coming into the airport was just like any other terminal experience, but we had no idea we would be spending the next 9 hours trying to get to where we were staying. That movie “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” came to mind immediately. We took 2 trains from the airport in Rome to Solerno. That was another 2.5 hours of travel, followed by a cab ride from Solerno to Rovello. Mind you, this cab was just a smidge bigger than the Fiats we see cruising around the States now. We’re 5 people, each with a suitcase and carryon luggage. And yet, this little Italian man managed to cram ALL OF US, luggage and bodies, into the back of his car. Unbelievable.

He spoke no English, and non of our Italian was decent enough to really guide him. So we gave him the name of a hotel nearby our villas and he took us there. Through the crazy winding paths along the cliffside of Amalfi we went, where the streets are narrower than the alleys of Downtown LA and the drivers are more angry than Grand Theft Auto players. 

We arrived at the airport at 12:30pm. We didn’t get to the villas until 9:15pm. Oy vey. But when we arrived, it was SO worth the hassle of getting to the destination. We’re staying at Villa Casale, which sits on top of Rovello, looking down on the Amalfi coast. The whole complex is rented out for our family and friends for my cousin’s wedding, so it’s essentially like having a little piece of Italy all to oursevles. 

There’s a little town just outside Villa Casale that has an awesome restaurant, mini deli and markets, various shops and excellent views. Truthfully, it’s hard to live in Italy and NOT have an amazing view of something. 

Yesterday was our second day here - we took a guided tour through the ruins of Pompeii… my dad and I were having a field day admiring the decaying architecture that was once a great city in Rome. Actually, in terms of what is still standing and how much history there is, it still is pretty great… definitely beats out anything you’ll find in the South Bay back home. The drive back was even more hectic than the drive over, so to take the edge off we stopped in a village off the beaten path, wherein we would find some of the BEST lattes EVER. This was also where I would try smoked mozzarella for the first time… unbelievably delicious, undeniably sickness-inducing when consumed in large quantities. 

I passed out at around 9pm, shortly after we arrived back at the villa. I was up at 7am this morning to a gorgeous sunrise reflecting off the water of the Amalfi coast and shining onto the cliffs and houses lining the shore and dotting the mountain side. Today’s adventures will take us… well, I don’t really know. Somewhere awesome, I’m sure.