When you think of "Cannes" hollywood stars, glistening ocean and crowded beaches may pop into your head...not food poisoning. But, of course, when I go to Cannes that is exactly what happens to me. After meeting up with my mom in the south of France, we had a few lovely meals together before disaster struck. Well, to be honest, it wasn't that bad- atleast, not as bad as in Hanoi (do we all remember that time, i do!). I was awake the whole night, meaning I spent the next day sleeping, which was annoying to say the least. Before my momentary sickness, my mom and I had visited two different markets (and a third was on the horizon), one was in Valbonne and the other, St Tropez. We suspect the killer of my digestive system was the paella we got from the second market. Anyway, the markets were really nice, though half of our time was spent discussing the...interesting...outfits of the passerbys.

After spending four nights at our cosy hotel, we decided it was time to change countries. We got in the car my mom had rented and hauled it to Genova, Italy. Now, I have to give the italians credit, they really know how to build a road. Not only did it have some of the most amazing views, but it was so direct! No going OVER hills, they go THROUGH them. We must have gone through about 50 tunnels in the three hours it took us to get there. After our scenic drive, we arrived at the hotel and they upgraded us! Now, for me, just being in a hotel is an upgrade, so I was a pretty happy camper...until...we tried to go have dinner at 6 30 pm and no where opened till 7 30!!!!!! Mom was not phased but i was not pleased. Anyway, we ended up waiting and having a lovely meal in true italian style. Meaning, the one waiter in the local restuarant didn't speak english and we didnt speak italian (though, believe me, mom tried). We ended up trying just about everything on the menu, and it was all delicious. My main course was tuna with tomato and basil, and it was so good BUT by that point we were both so stuffed that we could hardly touch it! We both went back to the hotel and had baths (i can't remember the last time I had one of those!) and then passed out.

So this morning there was a bit of a jumble about where i was going to be sleeping tonight. My original plan was to head to Venice...but it turns out that Venice is really really really expensive. And when I eventually go there (I have been talking about going to the famous city for yeaaaars) I want to be able to enjoy it. SO, I decided against it. Instead I thought I would head to Cinque Terre and do the hike there that is supposed to be absolutely stunning. But, I wanted to couchsurf there so i could get a local point of view instead of the normal touristy one. One guy had answered my request, but he wanted me to come on thursday...so now i needed somewhere else to go. So I decided on Florence, and I had wanted to couchsurf there as well, but no one had responded to me, so I started looking for hostels. I found some, but nothing really caught my eye...until I saw one called Ostello del Chianti. Its not in Florence, its 25 km outside of it IN THE TUSCAN COUNTRYSIDE. and it was half the price of the hostels in the city. From it I could explore Florence AND Siena. So I figured out the trains I would need to get there, and I booked the hostel. I had to take two different trains and a bus, but I would get there eventually. Turns out, I had the worst directions in the world to follow once I got to Florence and needed to the find the bus station. I had taken the directions from the hostel's website and they were as follows "with the trains behind you, take the stairs on your right. go around the corner for three minutes and you will see the SITA bus station. take the bus to Travanelle. get off at No. 12 bu stop. cross the street and go up via gibraldi. the back of the hostel will be in front of you". sounds easy enough, right? WELL. i found the stairs and went down them, but as for the "corner", THERE WERE ABOUT 5 POSSIBLE CORNERS TO GO AROUND. After trying two of them, unsuccessfully, I asked for directions and it turned out to be the least likely corner of them all. I got on the bus with seconds to spare, had to squeeze myself AND my bag down the aisle to get a seat (I can suck in...my bag can't. I definitely made some italians unhappy). I got off at the bus top an hour later, and went up gibraldi. and I was stuck. I was in a local town, people were staring at me, adn there was no hostel in sight. There was no "back of hostel" insight. So I walked up and down the street again, got stared at some more, and still couldnt find it. I had written down their number, so i called them. I was politely informed that the number did not exist. my heart beat a little faster. i was stuck in the middle of tuscany. i tried again. same result. Now, here, is when I should be in an Apple Iphone commercial. I turn on my 3G roaming (I HAD TO DAD!!!) and get on the internet IN THE MIDDLE OF TUSCANY and find the correct number for the hostel. I call again, someone answers. The guy on the phone tells me that i am 100 M from the hostel, supposedly i should be able to see it. he tells me to go into the parking lot infront of me, then into another parking lot and then i will be there (those were his words, not mine). I walk into the parking lot, and keep going a bit further. There are some decrepit buldings around me...no hostel. I am by a small hostipal so I ask an italian ambulance driver where the hostel is and he has to walk me around a corner to a building that is not marked WHATSOEVER and the guy i had talked to on the phone is sitting inside giving me a look like "now that wasn't so hard, was it?". Anyway, i found it and its big and not too full, but breakfast is only 1.70, so that sounds good. Tomorrow I am going to take a hike around the countryside, he gave me some directions and I fully expect to get lost. The next day I think I will head into Florence. After I plan on couchsurfing at cinque terre, then heading to Naples where I will stay with an italian friend of mine and then heading to Rome!