One gelato, two gelato, three gelato, four....

The question is, how many gelatos is it acceptable to have in one week... in a day? Also, what makes one gellateria better than another and what is truly the best flavor of italian gelato????  I have decided it is my quest to figure this out.  Someone has to, right?!

But seriously, gelato is everywhere.  And it is dang good.  Even though Merano has so much influence from Germany and Austria- their gelato is on point.  I suppose maybe its not too hard to mess up ice cream or maybe I am biased and like every kind of ice cream there is... but this stuff is gooooood.  The flavors are so interesting too.  It is actually a thing that nutella and hazelnuts are all over the place here.  Gelato, chocolate bars, croissants, cakes.. are all very common to have hazelnuts.  So far, this is my favorite flavor partly because its not so common in America and also its just really good.  Next post maybe I will talk a little about Italian coffee.  Ok enough about food and more about what I have been up to the past week.

So today is like literally treacherous weather outside.  On my walk home in the pouring rain and wind (as I was laughing to myself at my circumstances and feeling a little nostalgic of Ireland), I wanted nothing more than to sit inside with a huge mug of steaming hot chocolate, a baked good, and write a blog post.  So here I am, sipping my hot chocolate, hoping that the weather is not so treacherous when I have to go outside again in a few hours [insert crying emoji].

This past week has been pretty low key with a few random excursions and events that are worth sharing.  Merano is a city that is famous for its spas- meaning really fancy hotels with the extreme pampering opportunities, so spa treatments like massages, skin treatments, nail treatments, and also things like fitness programs, thermal baths, pools and saunas.  The most famous in Merano is called the Terme.  So I decided to take advantage of this beautiful facility that is only ten minutes away from the apartment to take one of the fitness classes as a sort of free trial.  Did I mention that most of the tourists here are retirees? Yes, well I went to this Pilates class (that was in Italian mind you) and I was definitely the only person under at least 50 years old.  I still had a lot of fun and the instructor was kind enough to include some english for me- and I think some of the other participants kinda liked having a younger person there.  They even invited me to the pool after the lesson! Sadly I had other obligations, but told them maybe next time.

This weekend was a girls weekend- Emanuele was away for work so the three of us (Barbara, Beatrice and I) planned a day trip to a neighboring city called Bolzano which is basically a larger version of Merano.  Can I just say that I LOVE train travel? No motion sickness like with busses, and no long lines like the airport.  The landscape is incredible here as well so train travel is definitely the best way to go to see the surroundings and get where you are going quickly.  Mostly we just walked the streets, did some shopping and got gelato of course.  But we did go to an archaeology museum with one of the oldest mummys in the world-  I forgot how fascinating ancient history is so this was really fun for me to learn about.  The mummy or "ice man" is called Otzi-  He was found in the Otzal Alps in South Tyrol in 1991 by some recreational hikers who took some pictures and informed an archaeologist, who returned to the site about a week later to discover more about the body.  The mummy is the first most well preserved find of a human that is at least 5,000 years old, and alongside his body were many well preserved artifacts that helped to identify when he was living.  So he actually died before Stonehenge was built to give a point of reference-  this guy is really old!  It was very cool to have something SO OLD be right in front of me.

My other recent adventures consist of walking around the many paths in Merano and going up to a nearby village to hike around to a castle.  The rest of my free time is usually spent walking or sitting along the river, walking along the streets and looking at shops, trying a new place for coffee or gelato, reading, writing, or planning excursions or weekend trips. The other "down time" that I have with Beatrice is spent coloring, painting, playing barbies, baby dolls, restaurant, library.. you name it, this girl likes to play.  Otherwise we are going to and from school and ballet, working on homework or practicing English, and eating meals together.

A friend told me this summer, "Maybe the Lord knew you needed a period of rest and rejuvenation".  And I think she is right- of course the Lord knows everything but somehow His plan is working just how it needs to in this time in my life.  Unexpected or not, it has been good for me to work on trusting in whatever the future holds and that the timing will be good and right.  This time has forced me to do some soul searching and lots of thinking because I spend so much time alone, so in that respect it has been good to figure out what kind of a person I am/want to be when nobody else is influencing my decisions.  This is probably more than you care to know so anyways thanks for being interested in the happenings here in Merano :)

Here are some of my moms pictures from her short stay in Merano:

And here are some randoms of around Merano:

City streets

Shameless selfie because #solotravel

Fall is coming here too!

Part of my daily walk to and from school

Classic italian breakfast: Cappuccino and croissant

The pools at the Terme