Visitors

It is officially May which means that it is the month that people start to come and visit me!

Here are the places that I have made plans to visit:

• Venice, Italy
• Rome, Italy
• Munich, Germany
• Barcelona, Spain
• London, England
• Paris, France

Here are the people who have planned to visit me:

Mom & Dad

My first visitors are my parents! They will be in Italy from May 9-18. They land in Venice a week from today! I got permission from my coach to take practice off on Friday and meet them in Venice and spend the day with them! I have a double header of home games on Saturday evening but in the morning I am going to show them around Forli and maybe catch a train to go to a nearby beach town. On Sunday morning we are on our way to Cinque Terre! Cinque Terre is made up of 5 "beachy" villages. (5 in Italian is cinque.) We will stop by Pisa on our way and then we will spend Sunday and Monday around the villages of Cinque Terre. On Tuesday morning we are taking a train that gets us to Rome at noon. I will spend the day and night in Rome and on Wednesday I am taking a train back to Forli to be back in time for afternoon practice. My parents will be in Rome until Saturday when they head down to Caserta (near Naples) where I have games that evening. If you would like the in-depth and detailed itinerary... please contact either of my parents. They would LOVE to talk about it.

**My games tomorrow are cancelled due to rain. The make-up games are not decided yet, but we might play them on that Tuesday I was planning on spending in Rome with my parents. Once we get a definite answer on the game schedule, my parents and I will talk and change plans if necessary. It is possible that I come home on Monday night from Cinque Terre and skip out on Rome with them. There are other options as well but we will see what happens...

Chelsea

Chelsea and I started playing softball together when we were 8 and our families have been friends ever since. She went to Poway High and then played softball at University of Nevada. She graduated last year and has been working at a psychiatric type facility for a while. She has been very interested in traveling and seeing the world and she booked her flight to come to Italy at the beginning of June! But stopping in Italy to see me is only part of her trip. She leaves May 12 to spend a few weeks in India before coming to Italy. She lands in Bologna (the closest airport to Forli) on the Tuesday evening of June 3. She is going to stay for about a week with me in my apartment and hopefully my practice schedule will allow for some day trips! Maybe we can go somewhere fun on her birthday, June 4. I have my last set of home games that following Saturday which she will go to and then we will definitely find a place to go on that Sunday (because we always have Sundays off) and maybe even Monday depending on when she leaves and my softball schedule. I won't be able to visit the Vatican with my parents if I go to Rome with them, so Chelsea and I have been talking about possibly going there but right now our plans are up in the air. Once she leaves Italy, she is flying to England to visit another friend who is studying there.

Ken

My boyfriend, Ken, will be flying out to spend three weeks with me right after Chelsea leaves! He will be here from June 10 to July 2. He gets in on a Tuesday morning and we have lots of fun things planned. For the first few days (because of my practice schedule) we will probably just be spending time together around Forli which we are both happy with because we will finally be together after  3 months of me being gone. We might try and go to a beach nearby or take a day trip to Florence or Venice, or just take walks around the city of Forli and enjoy the nice parks there are here. I have my last games of regular season on that Saturday. Unfortunately, they aren't home games so he will be traveling about 2 hours to come watch me play softball for the first time! After my games, instead of going back home on the bus with the team, we are staying the night in a hotel nearby. The next day (my birthday!!!) we are taking a scenic train from Verona, Italy to Munich, Germany! This is about 5 hours and we get to go through and see the Swiss Alps. We will have that evening and most of the following day to see Munich. That Monday evening, we have a short flight that takes us to Barcelona, Spain! We have all of Tuesday to enjoy Barcelona but then on Wednesday morning we are flying back to Italy so I can be back in time for practice on Wednesday. Playoff games for the division start on Saturday so once I get more information about time and location for that, we can make more plans on any other day trips we want to do. On Sunday we plan to spend the day and night in Rome and spend more time exploring on Monday as well. Even though we won't be spending a lot of time in specific cities... we are seeing a lot of different places together!

Paige

Paige and I played softball at Ohio University together. She is two years older than me so we only got to play two years together but we have remained friends ever since. She's from New Jersey, graduated with a science major from OU (biology? chemistry? physics?), and then went to grad school to study science education at Boston College (which you remember if you were there when she got the news). Now she teaches at a boarding school in Boston. When she gets out of school at the beginning of June she is taking a two week trip through Italy and even though she has a lot of fun plans and a lot of places to see, she has made some time for me! She is going to come to my last games of regular season... the same away games that Ken will be at! I won't be able to spend that much time with her but it will be fun to see her at my games! And maybe if I have any available days, Ken and I can meet up with her at whatever city she is at and see her a little bit more.

Maddi

Maddi and I have been close friends since my senior year of high school (her sophomore year) when we played varsity volleyball at Westview together. She is finishing up her junior year at UC Davis right now studying some type of engineering (civil?). During July she is studying abroad in Ireland! She gets done at the end of July which happens to be great timing for me. There is a break in my softball schedule around that time because there is a tournament that I can't play in because it is for Italians only. I talked to my manager and coach and they have allowed me to make plans to travel with Maddi from July 26 to August 1. We are meeting in London on Saturday, July 26 and then on Tuesday, July 29, we are taking a train to Paris and spending the next few days there until we go our separate ways on Friday, August 1. We are going to have our first hostel experience together! We looked online and got some recommendations from people and booked some exciting looking hostels we will hopefully enjoy.

Karen

My little sister will HOPEFULLY be coming to visit in August. She is finishing up her junior year at Boise State, studying biology. She is taking classes this summer but has a break between summer school and the fall semester the week of August 16. Although I don't think I have any softball games scheduled in August, the biggest tournament of the season is at the beginning of September so I will probably have practices that week Karen is available. If I get more information about my schedule and days I will have off, then maybe Karen can book her flight to Europe. She may want to spend a week in Italy, but we could also meet in another country and spend time exploring cities that I haven't seen yet. Again, this is not for sure, but I really hope it works out!






I have already talked to some people who know more about some of the cities I am traveling to but if you have any more information then please let me know! Or if there is a city in Europe that you think I have to see while I am here for the summer I would love to hear about it.  I am up for any suggestions or advice.

GELATO TRACKER

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