Day 1 to Valle d'Aosta Italia

So, we left Thursday from Jacksonville around 7:30 AM to fly to Miami, FL! Our flight from Miami was at 2:20, and it was straight to Milan Malpensa! We arrived around 6 AM Italy time (midnight for Eastern). It was a 10 hour flight that was filled with food, increments of sleep, and crying babies! [haha] 

***

It was all a blur really, because before I knew it--- we had reached the valley that was surrounded by huge, white capped mountains (around 9 or 10?) ! We settled in, then Greg, Nancy, and I set out on a search for food around 11 AM. We went into one restaurant that did not offer an English translation. Once we decided that we would just get spaghetti, we were informed that they didn't even open until 12.... So there that was. Next door there was a little market with a few recognizable snacks. We also looked at the meet counter where there was pizza sitting up top. I wanted to ask about it, but the man just slammed the top of the container open and grabbed the pizza with his bare hands and proceeded to show me that it was a pizza. I just kindly declined because he was rude and I don't want pizza with a side of his hand germs. Anyways, we ended up at a little cafe and had a Margherita Pizza! It was pizza sauce on a thicker flat bread, and it was great! When we finally got some food in our system, I took myself a much needed 3 hour snooze :) zZzZzzz.....

***

^^^^^

Around 4 PM the whole group got together to take a walking tour. We grabbed some more pizza and traveled up through the streets and passes and old Roman Theatre. We got to take some amazing pictures of the incredibly awesome mountains, and we were able to go into a couple of beautiful churches. The churches are filled with so much art and history...it's truly amazing.

Once we got our walking tour in, we stopped by a wine cafe type thing and enjoyed some red&white wine with an assortment of different meats and cheese. While some of it tasted very strange, I enjoyed the salami and bread along with some sort of aged cheese. 

When this was done, we had to help ourselves to gelato--of course! I'd say our events and the nap have helped us get on track with the schedule here. It's 10 PM over in Italy, so I'd say we have beat the jet lag!