The baths were amazing, though at some points I was afraid that Lanie  (or I ) would be carried away by the current. At another hot spring in Yellowstone National Park , Wyoming, Nadia and I actually took advantage of the current, riding it down the river but in these baths we would be scraped  on sharp rocks. Speaking of Yellowstone, the baths reminded me very much of the Travertine terraces. The sulphurous smell was very familiar.             

             At the end of our hot spring excursion, Lanie said that she felt sick, though she seemed okay later. None of us felt great due to the long, twisty mountain road. I was despairing in the back of the car as we drove aimlessly through the countryside (Editors’ note: It only seemed aimless, but it was a much longer drive than we promised.). Near the end of our drive, it was made even worse for me by Lanie pointing at every random house we passed and yelling “maybe that’s our villa!”  .

Finally, we reached our villa. I was very relieved to be out of the car. It was a long , hard day but Silvia’s delicious pasta and  tiramisu was a great way to end it.

Silvia’s tiramisu

   

         It was very fun to see the Brookses again after being away from them since last summer.  I feel bad for them having to bike on the mountains around the villa.  They’re not complaining a lot about it, though.  I know we’re going to have a lot of fun. 

 Also at the villa they have two big dogs and even though they are very nice we were scared of them at first because we just saw them barking over the fence and jumping up and down on their hind legs.  The people who owned the villa gave us a very nice tour.  We got to see all the parts of the beautiful house, such as a cool balcony that you get to from the room that I sleep in.  It was fairly easy to sleep that night after I stopped talking with Meredith and Nadia.  It was very late at night, past 10 o’clock.  For the people at home, though, it was only 4 p.m.  If I was in Durham we wouldn’t have even had dinner yet.