Casale Monferrato

our flight arrived late... dark-bedtime-last-bus-to-town Oclock. The logical money concious decision would be to spend the night in the airport. But, WE fueled by the energy and excitement of a new place (FUCKING ITALY GAWD!!!) and the idea of getting really drunk eating lots of pizza and passing out in a park sounded magnificant.
SO we took the 45 minute bus into Milan, one of the fashion capitols of the world. We got off the bus still Thrilled to be in this new place. BUT very soon we realized there was no one on the streets. We were in the heart of the town and all the shops were closed. Not even a McDonalds to be found. So we wandered about aimlessly, not knowing what to do with ourselves. Also realizing how sleepy we were. Still wandering around we tossed around the idea of sleeping outside the train station, as we had not seen a single park.
And in the distance, a light of hope. A kiosk in the Median of this main road in Milan was open. They sold Biere and Italian Hoagies!!! This brought us much cheer. Jake had a couple beers and I had a spicey eggplant and roasted red pepper hoagie. This made both of us exremely happy people. But the Post hoagie-beer effect ended up making us even more tired then before. So we dragged our lazy bodies around to the nearest hotel and paid our dues to this man with glasses with only one lense whom spoke absolutely no english. and slept in a nice bed and watched italian porn adds and Italian Mtv (this italian thing is seriously a whole new world).
Next day we cought the train to CASALE MONFERRATO. This involed 2 train changes.
we accidentaly missed our stop by one station. It was a small town stop so we worried about how long it would be until the next train. In agreement we began to hike back to the previous stop. I tried to hitch hike... only one car passed. we got no more then a Kilometer when I, still oblivious to the idea that some people do NOT speak english, asked a middle aged lady fixing up her flower box with Italian accordion music in the background for directions to the previous stop. She looked blankly at us. Jake chimed in with, "do you speak english, we are american?" and she replied "AYE MAMA MIA, AMERICANOS!" and proceded to give us instructions in Italian. I gathered from her that the previous train stop was too far away. So Jake and I walked back to the train stop. We desifered the Italian train departures chart and found a train to be arriving in jsut 30 minutes. I contacted our host Christian and told him to expect us around 5.
From emails Jake and I imagined Christhian to be this middle aged woman with an alternative living facility that need some help gardening. But when we met him he was not middle aged or a lady at all. A hadsome 29yearold hippy Italian greeted us at the Train station with a hug. He invited us to a feast at his friends that evening.
When he mentioned it I imagined a drive to the otherside of town with a couple friends of his. But we ended up driving for and hour or two into the mountains while the sun set. Feilds of Canola flowers blooming and poppys along the road. Up and UP we went into the mountains passing 800yr old churches and homes and towns. When finally we reached the town Union Valley (i forget the italian name). There were hundreds of people drinking wine and eating thin crust pizza on this organic farm on top of a mountain. They wine was made and sold on the farm 100percent organic for only £2 a bottle. The best wine Ive ever tried. All the people were awesome but unfortunately most of them didnt speak english. .... to be continued