Not surprisingly, the train to torino was WAY overbooked, so yes us showing up only 15 minutes before the train left we were stuck in the compartments between the train cars with all of our luggage. If you can picture the 6 of us, with packs just as big as us, stuffed into a room about 6 by 10 feet right next to the bathroom, maybe you can feel a little sorry for me! Somehow we managed to sleep because it was only 7 in the morning, we were darn tired! So 2 hours later we arrive in Torino, the home of the 2006 winter Olympics!!!!!! This year's motto "Passion Lives Here" I can't believe I was actually there!!!! Tornino was cool, a very big city. There were orange flames all around the city for the Olympics, and we just wandered the streets for a while because we had a while before our event. When we arrived to the city center, we were surprised and soooo please to see that they were filming the Today show! I WAS SO EXCITED! The Today show came to Florence a couple of weeks ago and I wasn't able to go because I had class! So it was cool, we showed up just in time and watched a little bit of the world news and it was definitely a cool experienceJ Did anyone see me??! After picking up a few souvenirs from the Olympics, Steph and I headed to the stadium, because we defiantly didn't want to be late for our hockey game! We were watching the Sweden vs. Latvia game, and there were 4 red wings representing the Sweden team. I knew from the first minute of the game that Sweden was going to completely dominate! They were awesome, and hey, Sweden went on to win the GOLD! I saw the gold team play in the Olympics... I guess I picked the right game to go to!!! We had a few hours to kill before our 11 o'clock train back to Florence, so we went to dinner where I had to most amazing Pizza of my LIFEEEEEE! Granted, it was very busy and we basically had to wait an hour for our pizza, this is UNHEARD OF! When you order Pizza in Italy, you never have to wait more that 20 minutes MAX! But we were basically all passing out because we hadn't eaten in hours, and felt completely fatigued. I had a tomato, Gorgonzola cheese and apple pizza, and let me tell you, that may sound weird but it was definitely the best combination EVER! Here is where the story takes a turn for the worst... I lost the reservation code for our tickets back to Florence, stupid me I don't know how it happened, still to this day, but apparently there is not a way to retrieve the code, so after running around the train station for 30 minutes, I ended up having to buy 100 euros worth of tickets for us and that was TERRIBLE, and even more terrible because now by this point the train was WAY overbooked and we didn't have seats. So, this was the last train leaving Torino for the night, and you know that means that everyone that is staying for the Olympics is trying to get this train out of Torino to get to wherever they are staying in a hotel, so talk about craziness, and was overcrowded. We were running to the doors of the train and the lines were at least 10 people long going out the door, we knew there was no way we were going to make this train, and there were no hotels in Torino. This was a bad situation.... I wanted to cry, but hey, that wasn't going to get me anywhere! We were about to give us hope, we were getting ready to abandon our mission and just sleep in the train station, but I looked up into the train to see Nicki and Nolan, my roommate from the villa!!! I yelled to her, because we always know what to do, she told us to push through and to hand out bags to her and she would hold on to them, that was a lot harder than it seemed. The train was leaving in 5 minutes, and either all 4 of us had to make the train or all 4 of us had to stay, I was the first one to push my way onto the train, and as I pushed my way through the people I had to bend down and practically crawl between the people's legs, talk about the most claustrophobic situation that I have ever been in, it was hot, sweaty and windows were able to open, it is just painful talking about it right now, so I am going to stop! We had a 5-hour train ride, and we stood like this for about 1.5 hours, then we were able to get the little seats in the hallway for an hour, and eventually after some people got off we were able to get some seats.... That was definitely the mort train experience in my life; I am hoping that it can't get much worse than that! Didn't get home to the villa until 6 am... I slept for 4 hours, then got up to head to Via Reggio for CARNIVALE! (Don't ask me how I ever had energy for that)