and they lived happily ever after

these pictures are a continuation from the last post - we couldn't decide which ones to put, so we did ten!)

note: in case you hadn’t guessed, we won’t be posting anymore on this blog, at least until further notice… Thanks for keeping up with us while we were in Europe – it was fun to hear from you, and we’re glad we got to share our trip with you!

we did!!!

We had a great last day in Rome/Italy/Europe! We had a delicious breakfast at the hotel (which included CEREAL for the first time!!! I tried to have it one other time in Florence, but the milk they served with it was warm – yuck. So it really ended up being only like 28 days without cereal – I kind of feel like I cheated or something… or like we should change the name of the blog… but it was worth it!!!), then took the first shuttle into the city, went to The Roman Forum and Palatine Hill (a bunch of old brick piles and buildings from first century Rome), and the Colosseum; then had some yummy lunch before wandering through the Vatican and seeing the Sistine Chapel! We love Rick Steve’s, by the way – that book was worth its weight in gold, especially the way it helped us avoid pretty much ANY lines at all of the sights we went to in Europe (just by getting certain passes beforehand, etc.) – it was awesome! After grabbing some gelatto, we went back to the hotel for a siesta of swimming, napping, showering, trying to post our blog… and then went out one more time to take Rick Steve’s “Night walk through Rome” (which we had actually attempted to do on our anniversary… yeah, not so much), and it was PERFECT this time! We started out at a cute (jason says “loathed” – ‘cause we got lost so much getting to and from it) little square called Campo Dei Fiori, got a piece of pizza and focaccia, sat on a fountain to eat it, then wandered through “the walk” to Piazza Navona, which is a super-fun evening place to be. there’s tons of people around, just hanging out, people making money playing beautiful guitar music or drawing caricatures, kids chasing pigeons… We sat down at an outdoor café there to have “tartufo” – an incredibly chocolatey ball of ice cream rolled in more chocolate chunks - Rick Steves calls it "death by chocolate"(we also had a banana split)! they let us sit there for about an hour, just enjoying the scene before we finally asked for “il conto” (the bill) and continued the walk. there were some cool fountains, but the most amazing one in Piazza Navona was under construction and almost completely hidden from view (as were about a fourth of all the sights we went to in Europe as a whole – apparently July is “restoration month” or something?). We passed some obelisks and columns that must have some historical importance, and took a detour to Giolitti’s (Rome’s most famous gelatteria) for one last taste of Italian gelatto (which we were WAY too full for, and they “had” to give us 3 flavors, piling off the cone, and it was melting like crazy and we had to eat it so fast)! Then we went to Trevi fountain (another busy night scene and beautiful fountain) and tossed a coin in… We finished our walk off by stopping by one of the world’s largest McDonald’s to use their toilette, then stopping at the Spanish Steps – another local evening hangout place – and then got on the Metro and made it back to our shuttle bus just in time! a perfect end to the perfect trip!

…but it wasn’t really

we were still wiped out and I think just burned out on seeing sights and all the little cultural nuances were even getting to us. We made it to St. Peter’s Basilica and the Pantheon, with lots of little things going wrong – paying too much for bad food, etc, but we made it back to the hotel just in time to go for a dip in the pool before it closed (it had been raining when we got to Rome, but it heated up to the 90s VERY quickly the next day!). Spent the rest of the day just relaxing, hoping (once again) that we’d get some sleep and wake up the next day refreshed and ready to enjoy our last day, and…

We had to have ONE bad day, right?

…but why’d it have to be our anniversary??? We knew going into the trip that we were going to have to travel on the 27th – our actual anniversary day – but had come to terms with it, since it was just a 4 hour train ride, and we didn’t really have any other option (we had to arrive in Rome in time to see it before leaving, and we had already made hotel reservations) – plus, we kept saying that the whole trip was celebrating our anniversary, so the day itself didn’t have to be “the perfect day”— and we kept trying to keep a good attitude, but it got not-so-comical the more things that went wrong all day! We had planned to have a leisurely “American” breakfast (with eggs and stuff – Rick Steve’s says they take breakfast about as seriously as flossing… which is NOT) before leaving on the train. So we went to the one restaurant in town that served “american” breakfast, and ordered a smoothie, some eggs, and hot chocolate… but they were out of hot chocolate, a smoothie was “not possible at this time” and the kitchen didn’t open for making the eggs for another hour! So, we got our little croissants and juice and headed out. We hadn’t realized initially that the “4 hour train ride” we had tickets for didn’t actually leave from Cinque Terre, and while it was only a half hour train ride to La Spezia where it did leave from, we had to take the train that left 2 hours beforehand, so now our travel time became 6 hours in total… we made the best of it, chilling in McDonald’s at the station for lunch, then enjoying first class on the 4-hour train to Rome… when we got there, we had to switch to a Metro and then we were supposed to take a shuttle bus to our hotel (How far is it!??)… we got to the corner where we were supposed to take our shuttle bus and couldn’t find it anywhere on that bustling street, so we called the hotel (worked from the 3rd payphone we tried), and they told us that the 5:00 one had just come, and the next one was at 6:15… and so, we stood – in the RAIN – and waited for over an hour until our shuttle bus came, and we finally made it to the hotel at 7pm, after having left Cinque Terre at 10am. so our “4 hour train ride” turned into 9 hours of travel time. And we still wanted to go out to dinner on our anniversary, so we got a little cleaned up and headed back out on the next shuttle at 8:00 to go out on the town and see Rome… but we got lost trying to find our restaurant (which, once we got there, was actually closed from July 15th-Aug 31st, so we had to pick somewhere else to eat, which had horrible service but okay food), and by the time we finished eating, we were stressing out because the last shuttle back to the hotel was at 11, and it was already 10:30. We tried to book it back, but finally at 11:00 gave up and hailed a taxi, which cost us 20 euro ($30) to get back to the hotel. we were both so exhausted (very close to tears) we just crashed in bed, hoping we’d be refreshed and the next day would be better…

“Those are the happiest backpackers I’ve seen yet!”

we overheard this walking into Vernazza on the first day we arrived (and I forgot to put it in the blog for the first day) – the girl was referring to us :)

The third day, we got up a little later (having learned our lesson about Italians and their time-orientation, or lack of it ;), went to the same Pirate place for some more AMAZING pastries (like the panzerotto – filled with sweet ricotta, vanilla, cinnamon – mmm), then hiked the other direction to Monterosso, the town to the north of us. once again, beautiful! but you had to pay for the beaches there, so we went back to our little town of Vernazza and went to the beach there one more time. we pretty much just chilled the rest of the day! watched an episode of House with a pesto pizza… remind me to make pesto pizza when we get home!!!

The second day...

...we got up early, stopped at “Il Pirate delle Cinque Terre” for breakfast (which was supposed to be open at 6:30, but we got there and waited until about 7:15 before all the pastries started coming out of the oven – one of those “cultural” things), then started our hike through the 3 towns south of ours. We took the coastal trail and stopped in each town for a drink or some food, and to take some nice shots of the Cinque Terre towns… then, when we got to the last one, we boarded a boat (using our last 13 Euros we had in our pocket) and took “the scenic route” back to Vernazza… like the trail wasn’t scenic – the whole thing went along the coast, with the turquoise water on our right and gorgeous terraced vineyards on our left! We got back and crashed on the beach again, taking dips when it got too hot to lay out, getting a little bit tan (jason gets a little browner than me ;). Then, we went kayaking! It was kind of strange ‘cause they didn’t give us any instructions whatsoever (like “stay on this side of the buoys” or “if the kayak tips, then…”); the only thing they said was “if water comes in the boat, it’s normal” – lol. We had SO much fun chillin’ out there in the middle of the ocean – even JASON relaxed! Came back, got cleaned up, went by the “internet point”, then went to dinner at the restaurant at the top of the town, next to the castle tower (Lynn AND Rick Steves recommended it, so…). We had DELICIOUS pesto lasagna (after we each finished our pasta, Jamie had to order ANOTHER lasagna just ‘cause it was so good!), hung out with Mario our waiter and discussed the state of the world, before going down and hanging out on the rocks with the water lapping up around us – so peaceful…

If we got to pick one place to come back to…

We’ve just left Cinque Terre after 3 wonderfully relaxing days there! It is such an amazing and beautiful place!! it is a series of 5 little Italian towns on the coast of the Mediterranean, with a 7-mile walking trail (and some train tracks) connecting them. Each of the towns – Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso are so totally picturesque, with all these pastel homes bunched together into their own little niche in the coastline. The first day, we got there in the afternoon (after a short stop in Pisa to see the leaning tower), and after wandering through town and finding a place to stay, dropped off our bags in our own little apartment, and immediately hit the beach! I don’t think either of us was expecting the town we stayed in (Vernazza) to be so resorty, but it was FULL of people enjoying their vacation at the beach! There was a concert in the square that night, which was nice when we were out there, but very LOUD when we were back in bed trying to sleep!!

"the perfect trip"

Jason keeps saying that this is “the perfect trip” – every time something ELSE goes right, and now even the weather is cooperating!!! I had written that it was super-hot everywhere… well, it was hot that one day in Greece and when we first arrived in Florence, but the rest of the time it has been perfect weather, barely getting into the 80s! We even rented bikes for a few hours and rode around the city in the middle of the day, and it wasn’t too hot! We are definitely enjoying this “siesta” thing – get up, go do stuff all morning, eat lunch around 2:30, go back and take a nap for a while, then go back out until late! this time we went to “Il Gatto e la volpe” – the cat and the fox, again per Lynn’s recommendation, and it was yummy (except for the crostini toscani, which we didn’t know what it was when we ordered, and ended up being toast with chicken liver pate – looked and tasted like cat food)… not quite as happening as the place the night before, but a fun atmosphere and delicious bread with balsamic vinaigrette! Our last day in Florence, we made it to TWO gelatterias for some excellent ice cream (jason had the rice flavor after dinner and it was scrumptious!!!)!
p.s. we never want to sit down again, after riding bikes on the incredibly bumpy streets of Florence for 4 hours! Oh! it hurts! ;)

“Mamma mia! Che musculo!!!”

We picked Italy as our place in Europe to stay for longer in order to relax and take it all in more, with Florence as “home base” – and i’m SO glad! it has been perfect! relaxing, beautiful, great food, just lots of time to hang out and wander (and eat gelatto ;)… We went to both of the major Galleries in Florence today: the Ufizzi (where the largest collection of Italian Renaissance art in the world is housed) and the Accademia (where Michelangelo’s David is!). The quote in the title of this blog was what one of the guards at the museum said when he grabbed Jason’s arm to “wand” him after he set off the metal detector – lol! Mike and Lynn recommended a couple of places to eat while we were in Florence, so first we stopped at Acqua al 2, where there were only two seats left in the whole place when we got there! All these people after us got turned away, and by the time we walked out of the restaurant (after a DELICIOUS blueberry/balsamic steak – thanks again to Lynn’s recommendation), there were about 25-30 people outside waiting to get in! it was a very fun atmosphere, with lots of people and energy – we had a great time!

Venice doesn’t smell…

I’ve heard multiple people say that they didn’t like Venice ‘cause it was dirty and smelly – but it sure wasn’t when we were there!! it was beautiful!!!! overwhelmingly beautiful – so pretty everywhere you look that it almost gets to be too much! When we first got there, we took a 45-minute boat ride down the Grand Canal, just to get an overview of the city. The boat (and most of the city) was EXTREMELY crowded with tourists – so much so that people were getting in fights about bumping into each other! It was “Italians vs. Tourists” and it was craziness! But we got to stand by the edge of the boat almost the whole time, so we got a good view of one side of the canal. then we had a little canalside lunch of lasagna and raviolis before taking off just wandering the streets of Venice, looking for a good place to sit and draw… it is all just so elegant and classic and… beautiful!! we found a quiet spot WAY off the tourist route where we sat on the edge of a little canal with our feet dangling over while I drew and Jason napped. We saw almost no one during the hour we were there, just the occasional Italian on their cell phone crossing the bridge or small boats coming down the canal and splashing our feet – it was so restful. Then we went to try to find the Rialto Bridge, which took us like 2 1/2 hours of fast walking (and stressing at the end because it didn’t seem like we were going to make it back to our train on time, and it was the last one of the day going from Venice to Florence!). Once we got there, we enjoyed some more gelatto, then boarded a boat to take us around back to the train station – a very sweet ending to our day!

We’re in Italy!!

I’ve always wanted to go to Italy, and especially Florence (could it be because of While You Were Sleeping? possible.), and now I know why! it is AMAZING! we have loved just wandering the streets here and seeing the architecture and everything. It just has so much character. no museums or anything yet, but we got pizza and gelatto on our first day here! our hotel is nice, but not as nice as Rick Steves says… There’s a whole bunch of construction in the middle of what would have been a cute little street – now it just feels ghetto outside… but very nicely air conditioned inside (whatever happened to that rain?? now it’s super-hot everywhere!!!)! All the museums are closed tomorrow, so we’re taking off for a day trip to Venice!

THIS is a ferry???

After all our experiences with public transportation in Europe (especially Eastern Europe and Greece), we weren’t expecting much for our boat ride to Italy. We figured they’d have deck chairs and maybe somewhere to crash below deck (for a 21-hour ferry ride, they’d better!!). but, wow! this is a CRUISE ship (with a few bonuses, like cars, RVs, and semi’s stored below deck)!!! a little less organized than one coming from the states might be, but it has been AMAZING! they had no cabins left by the time we were trying to book our tickets once we got to the port 2 hours before departure, so we took beds in the men’s/women’s dorm rooms (the first time we haven’t been able to sleep together this trip! unexpectedly – we thought we were going to be doing the dorm thing at L’Abri, but when we arrived, they had a whole house just for us!!), and got started enjoying our cruise! The sea, of course is BEAUTIFUL, and all the Greek islands we passed on the way… there’s a pool, nice restaurants, a casino (we didn’t make it that far ;) – Jason keeps saying “so, we’re taking this back to Greece?” just ‘cause it’s SO relaxing! 3 more hours, and we’ll be arriving in ITALY, though!!!

Greece trip redeemed!

So, it was all worth it in the end… We got to Athens at 4am, after maybe 2 or 3 hours of sleep in 5-10 minute segments here and there. A very nice taxi driver (who charged us 10 Euro = ~$15 to take us like 6 blocks) picked us up and took us to a hotel of his recommendation (we were sure he was getting kickbacks, but at that point, we really didn’t care – we just needed SOMEWHERE to sleep and shower!), which was very nice and fairly reasonable. We slept in till 8:30ish, took much-needed showers, and took a taxi over to Jason’s uncle Alex’s sister’s house in another part of Athens. We hung out with Alex and Didi the rest of the day, and they took us to the Acropolis, the Parliament building with funny soldiers, to get yummy gyros and baklava, hung out with Alex’s family back at the house for a while, and had dinner down by the sea! it was such a good day, and so fun to be with people we knew and spoke the same language! Alex and Didi were great tour guides, and it was crazy ‘cause they were just there for a few days after an Israel trip, and our planned trip to Athens perfectly coincided date-wise with theirs! Alex’s mom made us a bunch of sandwiches and stuff to take on our journey to Italy the next day, and sent lots of hugs and kisses back to the States (mainly to Jason’s parents)! we were so glad we ended up going to Athens, even just for that day; instead of finding a quicker way to the coast and Italy, like we had considered!