Alright kids. Here it is. Email della settimana (email of the week). I think it needs a theme song. You can hum something.

So I'll get right down to it.. I experienced my first earthquake the other night. Nowhere near as bad as L'Aquila, but still.. an earthquake nonetheless.

I was sitting in my bed. Reading. Doing some work, probably. And all of a sudden my bed started shaking! I thought, whaaat??! Who's under my bed? This is not FUNNY. But Alex's bed was shaking too, and then everything just stood still again. Like someone flicked off the earthquake switch.

We were like cool! Earthquake. And that was that.

But! Then. The next morning I wake up and Ana kind of seeks me out in the hallway and asks, all excited,

Did you feel the earthquake last night?
(I said, sleepy excited, Yes! Around 10:30? It was my very first earthquake!)
10:30? No.. I didn't feel that one, I'm talking about the one at 3:30 in the morning.
(Huh?)
You didn't feel it? I woke up and my bed was bouncing and my chandelier was swinging and I went into the dining room and that chandelier was swinging... You really didn't feel it??
(NO!!! -- a little confused)

Guys. I slept through an earthquake. How does this happen?? If I can sleep through a G-D-Effing earthquake, what else would I sleep through??

Anyway. That's my earthquake story. Italy's on a fault line (didn't know that!), so apparently these things are fairly common. But we're all ok here. The David's still standing. But the situation in L'Aquila is pretty serious. The news gives me chills. They'll play their news theme song and cut directly to footage. No music. No commentary. Just footage of a wrecked city and bodies. It's... well, it puts a feeling in your stomach like rocks.

On the lighter side.... I'll lighten things up. I went to Austria this weekend! I hopped in a rental car with my good friend Logan and my friends Delilah and Gerd-Helen in the backseat. I navigated. Yeah, I navigated! Overall that went pretty well except for how they don't mark "road closed for fear of AVALANCHES!!!!" on maps. That was a problem I'll get to later.

So the driving was excellent. It's been awhile since I could roll down my window and put my feet on the dashboard, and I took all advantage. On our way up through Italy we stopped at Lago di Garda. Wow. It was like the gateway to the Alps. Snow on mountains, short sleeves by the lake, sandwiches. And then we drove alongside it!

But what can I say about Austria except that I was actually kind of sad to come back to Florence. I loved it so much. So much I'll make you a list why.

Bathrooms. They're everywhere. They're clean. Soap always smells like roses. They always had toilet paper. It was paradise for someone with an active bladder. Not that I have one... but if you do, then Austria's your place.
People actually seemed happy. That's been my problem with Florence... you walk down the street and people seem in a rush, too busy hiding behind their sunglasses to notice what's around them, judgmental about your clothing... generally not too friendly on the street. And all of the creepers who yell out CIAO BELLA, MA... CHE BELLA.... there was none of that here. People smiled more. If you smiled at someone, they smiled back at you. It was nice.
*** Side note, I actually found out the reason why people don't smile back in Italy -- it's because they think you're laughing at them. That came straight from an Italian. Isn't that weird? Calm down, guys.
Air. You can breathe in Austria. Florence is a little stagnant. It's in a valley so the air just sits. But Salzburg! There was a constant breeze that smelled like grass, freshness, snow, and a touch of cow poop. Maybe that's why Austrians are happier. They get to breathe more often.
*** About the cow poop. If you do through Austria with your window down, you're going to smell it the whole time. Just a constant scent of poop. But it's not bad. It kind of reminded me of Rich's Farm (where we got our ice cream in the summer in Connecticut). It smells like farming!
Wurstel. It might be German, but it's good in Austria, too.

There's a list to start. But my favorite thing overall was the people. They were so kind. They were so patient. They were just happy little Austrians. We got to Salzburg by nighttime and snuck 4 of us into a double room in a pensione (big house turned hotel... they're everywhere), and it looked like a winter lodge. And only 15 Euro for the night plus free breakfast! They were so nice there, and the down comforters were so cozy.

That night we went night-xploring. It was so still, smelled so fresh, and overlooking the city was a big castle on a hill. We climbed to it! We saw all of Salzburg... which means Salt... burg. It's a small place. And I never felt unsafe even though we were climbing a small dark path to a big dark castle.

It just feels friendly there.

The next day I went to a BIG market with meats! Breads! Boiled eggs for Easter! Bought some lunch to take, frolicked through the garden from the Sound of Music, almost made myself sick spinning around on a playground we found, hopped in the car, and navigated us to St. Gilgen (another Sound of Music location!!).

Logan jumped in the lake there. I stuck my feet in and when they started going numb from the cold after a few seconds, I said I was all set. But my feet felt FRESHER!

We stopped at another lake on the way for lunch off the road at a little pull off. We were surrounded by the biggest, snowiest mountains I have ever seen in my life.

That night we stopped in a little Austrian town on the way back to Italy. It was called Taxinbach. There was a nice lady who let us stay in a room for 20 Euro each. It was even cheaper than a hostel and we got cozy down blankets and pillows, a nice bathroom, a TV and a microwave to make tea, and she gave us a massive free breakfast while Austrian mountain music played from a little radio and Austrian mountains played out the window. We made sandwiches out of the free breakfast and headed back to Florence.

Which was interesting. The trip back. Here's why. Roads close down because everyone's all afraig of an avalanche. We ended up seriously backtracking twice. It was nuts.

OH! And I got to run around and frolic on a hill while singing THE HILLS ARE ALIIIIVE. That was my main goal.

When you wake up early in Florence....

Some other things about Austria:

You can find yodeling radio stations. All yodel, all the time.
They make REALLY good jam. Go and try the cherry.
Nobody glared at my flip flops like they do in Italy.
Good beer is CHEAP! And the word "Biergarten" just sounds so nice... like a garden of beer.
Streets are clean... no dog poop like there is in Florence.

In conclusion, I'd like to be an Austrian. Just for a little while. This whole time I've been wondering if I'm falling out of love with traveling, or if I just don't love Florence. Don't get me wrong... I like Florence a lot... I'm just not in love with it.

But after this weekend, I feel more relaxed. I still love traveling... the thing is, you're just not going to love everywhere you go. But I love Austria. I'm a converted Austrian. Even with that cow poop smell.

This weekend I'm going to Rome! The holy city for holy week and all that jazz. I'll let you know if there's a Pope sighting.

So that's all! I hope there are no earthquakes where you are.
Earthquake or no earthquake, keep on rockin'.
Be careful just in case.