We LOOOOVE Volcanoes!!!!

So, we planned our trip from April 7-21st. It is now the 21st and the skies over the UK are finally open after being closed for a week thanks to the Icelandic Volcano "Elihjialuoiajeineoin aeorijeoiheoi n" or some thing like that. Can anyone really pronounce it? Anyways, the odds of this affecting our life at any point in history have to be pretty minimal, like 1 in 10,000,000. But apparently we won the lotto! I am not going to complain (besides above) because some people have been stranded this whole time, missing important events like weddings, funerals, births, and we are just trying to get back home "on schedule". So, I know we don't have it that bad if we are a day late.

Our flight today was scheduled to leave at 11:45 Rome time with departure out of London-Heathrow at 3:10. We are now scheduled to leave here (Rome) at 2:20. So, unless this is a Deep Space Nine - trekki deal there is no way we make our flight, unless of course something awesome happens like a 2 hour delay on the Seattle bound flight. Worst case scenario (besides closing the airports again) is that we are on the flight home tomorrow and get to spend a night in London tonight, which we have never been to, so we can check that off the list!

Anyways, enough with the boring details of flight delays....here are some pics from Venice!

The Grand Canal with Rialto Bridge

Venice

Piazza San Marcos

Rach and gondola's

I think all coffee shops in the states should add this slogan: "Walk Coffee Man".  Pretty awesome.

Venetian Street

Papa Smurf's toilet? Seriously, it is times like this where I am glad I am a male. Who can sit on this? Honestly? It is like 8 inches off the ground. I don't want to smell my knees.

We had heard many things about Venice, some good, some bad. We stayed 2 nights, had a good time, but were OK with leaving on the 3rd day. I am glad we were able to see how beautiful it was and some of the architectural history, as well as enjoy the "fruits of the ocean" aka fish.

Cross your fingers for us so we can get home!

Ciao!

Back to Blogging!

Sorry for the pause in blogs, as a lot has happened since the famous Waffle Sandwich. We went from Florence, to Venice, and are now in Rome where we just experienced a thunderstorm complete with hail. It was awesome. Not only that, but we are hoping and praying that we can get out of Europe on Wednesday and get back home. Unless you live under a rock, there is an Icelandic volcano which erupted about a week ago and has completely grounded planes in and out of London's Heathrow airport, which of course is where are scheduled to fly to from Rome and fly out of to Seattle....so maybe we will get to see London for a few days before we head home (hoping not, but if so, oh well). Here are some pics from the last few days:

View from of a typical "Chianti Classico" Region vineyard.

Rach enter's the cellar underneath the castle at the Castello di Monsanto winery in Tuscany. Happy Birthday Babe!

We each did one of the large barrels before leaving. And then we forgot who we were for 3 days.

View from the lawn of the castle...below the ground is the cellar containing all the reserve bottles.

Some of the reserves in the cellar beneath the castle. Yes, they do clean off the bottles if you purchase them. 

2nd winery of the day. Solitione. Small, family run winery. They spoke very little English and did not know the Balzarini's (big name drop)

Tasting at Castello di Monsanto in "Chianti Classico" region in Tuscany. It should only be about 2014 by the time our bottles arrive at home, so they should be well aged.

One of the amazing sites on the road through the Tuscan countryside.

Florence was beautiful and we had a fantastic 3 nights there. Rachel's birthday was on the 15th, so we went into the countryside to try wine. We went to 2 different wineries in the region and also had lunch next to a 600 year old monestary, which was awesome. Our English speaking private tour guide Silvia was a blast and helped fill us in on everything from how to speak Italian and pronounce certain words, to  Italian automakers to Mussolini. If you are ever heading into Florence and want to do a tour of wine country that is worth it, check out Le Baccanti Tours at www.lebaccanti.com. 

We followed up the tour with a run along the Arno river which splits Florence right down the middle and then ended up at Nove for dinner, which apparently is a hot-spot for the well heeled swingers in Florence. Very entertaining people watching and very good food. We split the steak Florentine, which was about the size of half a cow. It seriously looked like the steak John Candy ripped in "The Great Outdoors". If you haven't seen it, Google it. Also talked to a guy and his daughter at the restaurant who were from Staten Island. Well, Mr. Staten Island was on the train today from Florence to Rome...and sat directly next to Rachel. Totally random.

We also have seen the same couple on every train we have been on. We finally talked to them and they are from Houston, but after talking to them I thought they were from Boredomville, USA.  

Anyways, hoping to get out of here on Wednesday! More to come....

Waffle Sandwich....

OK, so you are a pretty standard American such as myself and all you want to do is see the Duomo and Michaelangelo's David on your first day in Florence. But then you are sidetracked by a familiar smell that takes you back to your childhood. It's a smell you can't resist. The smell of FRESH WAFFLE CONES! So you have to look at your surroundings and see where it is, thinking it is just one of the 248 Gelato places in town. But to your surprise you see a little Indian lady standing on the edge of a business with a waffle iron in one hand and a huge smile on her face. In front of her: 25 fresh made waffles. Being who I am, I decided that this is too good to pass up, I had to at least see what the deal was....Well the deal was WAFFLE SANDWICHES!!!! The choices were plentiful, you could do a waffle sandwich with butter, syrup, or one of 15 flavors of gelato. It was only about noon, so I decided on 2 hot waffles with a nice hot section of Nutella in the middle...yep, you guessed it...bomb.com #2 all time favorite desserts. #1 is a secret. It was amazing. Best sweets I have had in Europe hands down!

So I tell these ladies, "this would be a huge hit in the USA, where did you come up with this wonderful idea?" Then they said a bunch of stuff in Italian and I caught a "Ben n' Jerry's" in there and I was like "you guys like Ben n' jerry's?" and they were like "oh, yes, of course"...well 5 minutes later I walk by a Ben N' Jerry's store!!! And guess what? Yep, they were selling Waffle Sandwiches with ice cream in them! I was dealing with a counterfeit operation. This is like buying a rolex for $40 off the street and realizing a real one is $3k....(wait, no one does that, do they?)

We also had a great day of touring Florence, checking out the sites and the shopping and outdoor cafes. I also was fortunate to get a solid run in along the Arno River, which was beautiful.

Dinner tonight was the best we have had in Europe, at a place called Burger King. We had Chicken Tenders and Fries, super sized of course (we are Americans!). Actually we went to a great Tuscan restaurant called Buca Lapi just a few block from the hotel and were treated to some amazing wine, pastas, and steak. If you have a special occasion and are in Florence, try it, you will love it, unless you are Vegan.

View from Balcony

Other View from balcony at sunset

Duomo through the streets of Florence

Our Hotel, Hotel Margherita (the yellow one)

'tis m'lady Angelina and I, Giacomo (with the fresh kicks on the right) Town of Vernazza behind

Monterosso alleyway

The Cinque Terre trail

Trail (easy part)

Vernazza

View of Monterosso from Riomaggiore

So we are in Cinque Terre for the last 2 days and it is absolutely gorgeous. If you haven't been here:

1) Go

2) Picture your favorite small resort town, add the sun, Italian food & culture, wine, and an amazing 5 hour hike and you have the Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre is a region along the NW Italian Coast consisting of 5 towns linked together by an 8 mile, 4-5 hour hike with elevation rises and drops of up to 400 feet. Apparently the people who built it thousands of years ago built it all by carrying and carving large stones up and down the mountainside without any adhesives and it is still mostly in tact. It is absolutely amazing. What else is amazing is the people who do the hike. There was a 6 year old on the trail finishing it with his mom. We saw people that must have been 70+ wearing sweaters, jackets, khakis, and dress shoes, and it was 70*! We saw women wearing sandals with heels, flip flops, and a 65 year old with his shirt open like fabio! The scenery was fantastic. The hike took us a little under 5 hours, with a stop for lunch in the town of Vernazza for about 45 minutes. We took some amazing photos and had a fantastic time. 

Had some awesome pizza tonight at Piazza la Smorfi, where a real pirate makes your pizza! Also met some awesome people from Bham tonight at a wine bar, Tom and Sandy, so a shoutout to them, who will never see this blog!

We will be heading to Florence in the AM and keep you posted!

Ciao,

Giangelina

Thunderstorms in Roma!

While eating at a streetside ristorante this evening, it began to rain. Real rain. Harder than Seattle rain. And then came the thunder, the lighning and the realization that we didn't have an umbrella. No worries though! You remember the guys selling the roses on the Spanish steps I wrote about a couple of posts before? Well, they are Jacks of All Trades and sell umbrellas too! There were up to 5 guys selling umbrellas at one time outside of our restaurant (some sold roses at the same time!).

So when we were done, I thought, "wow, it is really coming down, we definitely need an umbrella and it will be cheaper than a cab, I'll go buy a couple". So I finish paying for dinner and walk out to the meet the guy under an awning. I said "How much" he said "five", I said "Ill give you $5 for 2". He replies "$10 for 2". "Deal", I say...so much for my negotiation skills I learned at the fireworks stands growing up. I should have asked him to toss in a couple of Piccolo Pete's and some M-80's....Crap. Oh well, these guys are stone cold salesmen.

Ciao!

Giangelina!

An Italian Game of Chicken...

... does not occur on the cobblestone streets of Rome, but rather the dangerous sidewalks. 90% of the time they win, because if you don't move someone will have a broken nose. They do not move out of the way for you! First of all, the sidewalks are narrow, maybe 2 people at a time side-by-side, but most of the time is single file. Countless times we have been face-to-face, couple vs. couple, heading for a head on collision, then BOOM! We hop off the sidwalk onto the street as they blow by, no "excuse me or move it turds" coming from them, barely escaping a serious concussion. I would more than likely have a bruised sternum due to the height differential, but m' lady Angelina may not be so lucky...

Anyways, today:
Villa Borghese - Large park in the center of rome with walking trails, museums, a zoo, lots of dogs, a bounce house (!) and balloons for sale!!! Walked through and took some great photos from the top of the park with amazing views of the 7 hills of Rome and the gorgeous domes.
Shopped - Crazy shopping. Thousands of People. Thousands of weird stores. I would have to be the lead singer in a major rock band, a male model, or 5'3" to wear some of this stuff back home. Don't get me wrong, the selection of stores is amazing and it was a fun experience. Plus, the good news is we didn't do too much damage.
Afternoon Wine & Antipasto - Angelina was not thrilled with the selection of dirt scattered about the table, the ashtray or the smoke blowing into our faces from nearby diners. It was pretty bad, but we survived and will try to do better this evening.

Tomorrow it's off to Cinque Terre and the amazing seaside villages!

Giacomo & Angelina aka Giangelina (get it? Like Brangelina? hahaha! no adopted kids though)
XoOOxXoO

Postcard from Italy!

2 days in and we are ready to go home....psych! Italy is gorgeous, we have been blessed with back to back days of temps in the 70's and bluebird skies. Also have been fortunate to see lots of skinny jeans on dudes and some sweet gold tennis shoes on the ladies! Trying to persuade Rachel to get a pair. Here is a rundown of 1st 2 days:

Day 1:
Trevi Fountain - packed, but very cool. May have contracted CO2 poisoning from all the Euro-smokers...also saw The Statue of Liberty! It was amazing, it was about 5'7" tall standing on a milk carton and had a face of a young spanish man...Not sure how they did that, but it was pretty special to see an American icon in Italy
Colosseum - Amazing....HUGE! Great stories too from our tour guide. My favorite being that when a gladiator was killed in battle, they opened these doors and out came a guy painted blue with huge wings on his back who would take a hammer and smash the dead gladiators skull to prove he was dead to the crowd...Sorry for the graphic, but it was interesting...We also got asked if we were Australian...is this good or bad? I thought it was excellent.
Pantheon - Again, totally crowded, and unfortunately half of it was under scaffolding.
Spanish Steps - Steps. Lots of them. People. Many of them. Street Hustlers. Everywhere. Roses, bubble blowing guns, glow in the dark helicopters, clanging metal balls, fake purses, small glass boxes with 'Roma' carved into it...

Had a bomb.com dinner at Dal Bolognese in Piazza del Popolo. We did tagliatelle, maccheroni al gratin, and ravioli. Then we went to 'Gusto and had a great glass of wine and talked with the waiter whose only experience in America was when he lived in Houston...he thought all Americans talked with their mouth closed and said "howdy y'all"...funny stuff

Day 2:
Sat in an outdoor cafe and waited FOREVER for a latte and a yogurt parfait. Seriously, speed of service here is short of horrible so far...But we are enjoying sitting in the squares and being able to people watch and eat outside.
Vatican - Took an amazing tour of The Vatican, including the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica, both of which were amazing. If you ever come to rome check out Rome Odyssey tours, they provide you with a scholar for a guide, who is extremely well versed in Roman history and the history of the Catholic church.
Now...blogging, letting my feet recover from the walking
Tonight...what else but wine?

Ciao!

-Giacomo & Angelina

Bonjourno! It's me, Giacomo and m'lady Angelina!

Rach and I are sitting here in the British Airways Club World Lounge at SeaTac airport, ready to depart for our 1st EVER trip to Europe! Many of our friends have been and raved about it, so we decided we were due. We cashed in our Alaska Airlines points for some biz class tickets and our Starwood Points for some hotels and next thing you know, Boom! We are like Rick Steves, except without the knowledge of Europe...so nothing at all like him.

I decided if we are going to Italy we should have Italian names. My party name is Dutch Carpenter, but my Italian name shall be Giacomo, which is Italian for Excellent Name. I said, "Hey Rach, we need Italian names, what do you want yours to be"? Pause. Pause. Pause..."Angelina" she says...I accept the name, but thought there might be a better selection out there.

Anyways, the trip lays out like this:
Rome - 4 nights
Cinque Terre - 2 nights
Florence - 3 nights
Venice - 2 nights
Rome - 2 nights

Sprinkle a few train trips in there and some banana hammocks and you have yourself a tour of Italy! See you on the flip!

XoXoxxOO,

Giacomo & Angelina (I would have gone with Santa!)