So the point of this whole holiday was to go visit Italy with dad and meet the relatives and I have to say I’m really glad I made it over. The 3-and-a-bit days I spent there was awesome.

The flight from London to Venice was ok, but the view of the alps as we flew over was incredible. I really have to get back to Switzerland sometime soon…

Farm houses in Italian countryside

Everything is really making a lot more sense in my head now, one of the first things we did was went to Piran, where nonna came from. It’s a small coastal village which is now a part of Slovenia. The weather turned out great and we ended up spending almost all day there.

Obligatory terrible humour photo:

All aboard the poser bus

Piran is pretty much what all my preconceived ideas of Italy was. Cobblestone roads, tiny alleys, lots of hills and apartments all squashed in together.

I made a few friends while there too:

Pirate ship. Badass.

The next day we went to Grado (on the opposite side of Trieste), a small vacation type village. There are a handful of cool old time buildings and ruins, but it reminded me of Forster: really not a lot to do there, except go to the beach and eat. Or in my case have my aunty get me completely faaaaarked and drugged out of my mind.

You see, I’ve been battling nasal congestion (mmm, doesn’t that sound sexy) so with the help of Vivian as translator she took me to la farmacia (that’s wog for “pharmacy”) to get some meds. As the image in the below post suggests, taking 2 tablets and chasing it with beer and a shot of grappa probably isn’t the best suggestion. Knocked me right on my arse, passed out in the car on the way home and slept for most of the afternoon. By all reports I was looking pretty out of it.

Here, have some photos of Grado:

In the night we went off to meet dad’s cousins Lucio (and Sandra) and Mario (and Lena) for dinner… The night was well wicked. It’s been a while since I’ve had a proper home cooked wog meal with all the crazy loud yelling across the table and at each other. I may not speak Italian but I picked up on a little of it. Had a bit of a chuckle at the loud “FUNGOULO” from Lucio to Mario!

The next day was much of the same, off to Prosecco for an amazing lunch with the same relatives as last night, plus their kids and Zia Valeria who reminds me ridiculous amounts of Nonna.

So incredibly happy I got to come to Trieste with the folks and meet the family.

Now back to London for RATM with Team Awesome.

xoxo Gossip Girl.