Today I left my friend’s house in Udine and took the train to Bassano del Grappa.

SN: Holy hangover, Batman!

I took the train from Udine to Mestre and then on to Bassano. It’s really beautiful here and elections are in a few days so there are all kinds of campaign parties going on.

Why Bassano del Grappa? Well, my great uncle traced my mother’s paternal family tree all the way back to Anthony Bassano and Elina de Nazzi in the 16th century. The Bassano family was from this town (obviously) and Elina was from Venice. I am quite aware that it’s silly, but I just wanted to check out this town since my ancestors came from here. Also, other than Udine, it’s the only town I am visiting that I’ve never been to.

When we got to the station this morning, my friend waited with me on the platform in Udine and thank God she did. My train was supposed to arrive at platform 3 and right around the time it was expected a train pulled up and I started to get on it. It turns out it was a different train, going to AUSTRIA! They had changed the platform without either of us noticing! 0__0

I got to Bassano at about 3 and the owner of the B&B picked me up. She’s really nice and comes from even further north, so she speaks Italian and English with a German accent!

The B&B I’m staying at is right on one of the main piazzas, so I have my windows open, listening to the live band that is playing for one of the campaign gatherings-it is so nice. This B&B is really nice and new and reasonably priced; I will post the details when I leave…I highly recommend staying here!

The weather has been gorgeous. It was a little hot today, especially since I was carrying all of my luggage, but I can’t complain.

I bought a first-class train ticket again, but could never find the first-class cars and was carrying all my stuff through the train and pissing people off, so I just sat in second-class…#thestruggleisreal There was no air and lots of smelly, sweaty people, but I got to where I was going so whatever.

My bag is like 45 lbs and hoisting it from the floor onto my back is a major struggle…unfortunately, I can’t recommend Osprey packs after this trip. This is my first time buying an Osprey bag and after 10 days there are already several problems. As I said, I only packed 45 lbs, but one of the buckles has cracked and the padding in one of the backpack straps is already ruined. Mind you I haven’t done any hiking, just walking between trains and hotels and this bag isn’t holding up well…I’m very disappointed considering the cost.

Anyway, once I got checked-in to my room, I unpacked and repacked all of my belongings and threw away some stuff. I calculated all of my expenses so far and then hung up all of the dirty clothes I’ve accumulated since Florence, so that they can “breathe” a bit while I’m here.

After cleaning up all of my stuff, I walked down to the square and went on the hunt for some bottled water and snacks. I got some money out of the ATM since I had to use all of the cash I had to pay for my room. It was already 8:30 so nothing was open except the bars and a few restaurants. It’s so interesting to me that even pharmacies were closed. What are you supposed to do if you or your children get sick or there is some kind of minor issue? I finally wandered around and found a stand selling Crepes, so I bought two bottles of water and a ham, egg, and cheese Crepe. There were lots of people at the stand and it seemed popular. I was able to order completely in Italian and all that good stuff, but then I started watching the woman prepare the Crepes…

1)There was no sink in this little stand, so she obviously didn’t wash her hands…

2)In the ten minutes that I stood there watching her make everyone’s Crepes she touched her nose and licked Nutella off her fingers, before folding the Crepes with her hands, aboutttt 20 times.

I was just going to ignore it and eat it anyway because I hadn’t (haven’t) eaten all day, but I got back to my room and started thinking about it and decided to throw it away. I am here by myself and I don’t want to get food poisoning and be stuck without help and be all embarrassed and whatnot…so, I got a scoop of gelato instead and returned to my room again.

There are no other guests here tonight, so I have the entire house to myself…a kitchen, living room, balcony…it’s super awesome, but also a little spooky!

I was able to take a good long shower, shave and wash some delicates, so other than the snot Crepe, it’s been an epic evening!

I pulled a muscle in my left shoulder today when I was trying to lift my bag up into the train, which completely blows. At least I don’t have to haul a bunch of stuff around until Sunday, so hopefully it will heal a little bit in the meantime.

I will add pictures to my blogs from Udine (Day 8, Day 9, and Day 10) right now, so make sure to go back and check them out!

Tomorrow I’m going to sleep-in and then explore Bassano del Grappa. I saw a porcelain museum when I was walking around tonight, so I’ll check that out and I’ll also hop on The Google and hopefully find some places to go. I hope to see some cool things, but don’t anticipate anything crazy like some of the stuff in Florence *knocks on wood*!

Thanks for reading along so far! 🙂

SN: Below the break is a review of my hostel in Florence, if you are interested!