Oh, Italia!

*photos... Pisa, and estelle and I the night of the dinner party thrown by her boss*

Italia! The food, the shoes, the wine, the men, (not in order of importance)

Just got home from an amazing trip... a week in Tuscany at my best friends wedding... what a lucky girl I am!

Getting there was no fun... I guess due to the time of year with school out along with the world cup madness, flights are leaving completely full to Europe. My friend Abbey was working the first flight I tried over to London, and I wanted to passenger on her flight, but there were no seats or jumpseats, so I had to go home and try the next day which always sucks. The next day I was bumped twice, even the jumpseats going senior to me. I became almost like a mascot at the airport bar. I had suitors and job offers, knew the staff, etc. I was like Tom Hanks in "The Terminal". I finally got out on the night flight on the jumpseat. I only did it out of desperation and fear of missing my best friends wedding! I got about an hours sleep in a nest I built out of pillows and blankets on the cockpit floor, before I got kicked out for rotating crew breaks. So, I basically sat on the jumpseat for about 6 hours overnight. Luckily the crew was nice and helped me stay awake, fed me, etc. Once I got to London I had about 24 hours to recover from the shock and horror of it all before I flew confirmed (YAY! what a treat!) on BA to Pisa with the bride and groom. Sarah and Jane, the 2 other bridesmaids followed on the next flight. Jane had just flown up from Melbourne, standby as well as she works for Virgin Blue, and had her own stanby horrors along with jetlag to share. We got to Pisa where we found estelle's relatives a few litres into the sauce. I was done in and went to bed pretty early.

Saturday we spent the morning at the market in Pisa, and went and saw the leaning tower, before leaving to drive to the villa/ winery where the wedding was held. It was the first of many times getting completly lost... we made it though in time to get ready for the amazing dinner party estelle's filthy rich boss threw for her as a gift at a villa he owns on 1800 acres. He is absentee but has a full staff there at all times. 25 of the most fun and beautiful guests were invited,,, leaving the crazy aunts and wedding crasher types behind. Honestly there were about 12 staff for the 25 of us, and about 7 courses of ridiculously delicious food paired with wine so good my toes were curling under the table. We left fat and happy, and got completely lost on the way back again.

The next day was pretty much free time spent by the pool. We had a BBQ party that night with more great food, but sadly pretty sketchy wine, which caused me to start downing the rummers and cokes.. (never a good move for me). I spent that night (the eve of the wedding) in Estelles bed with her. Matt had been kicked out presumably in an attempt to uphold tradition and create and image of celebacy and waiting. I felt honored to spend estelle's last night as a singleton with her. We actually slept. She was not too nervous, and easier to sleep next to than bridesmaid Sarah who spins around all night like a rotisarie chicken....

Wedding day... to be continued....