Day of firsts - Tour of Rome

We covered some serious ground today. We basically did a loop of the city hitting the major sites. The highlights were all of Jeremy's firsts.

He went into his first European art shop where he got some supplies. He also had his first authentic gelato, Honey and Canella mixed from San Crispino. 'Tastes like Christmas' was his assessment.

We stopped by Sant' Eustachio for a delicious espresso which Jeremy actually joined me in. It's still not his favorite but he actually noticed a difference.

We watched the sun set on the Vatican and Piazza del Popolo from Villa Borghese.

For dinner we went with a classic, Otello right off of Piazza de Spagna where Jeremy drank a whole glass of wine 😳 and had his first zucchini flower. He enjoyed both surprisingly enough.

While meandering back to our apartment we stumbled on an augmented reality sort of show in the Forum where we were able to learn about the history Ina really cool way. They were sold out until the last show of the night leaving us a couple of hours to kill. It was during this time Jeremy got to experience his first vacation bathroom hunt which then lead to his first subway/auto sanitize bathroom. Yay.

Once back at our place we found an old Bond movie in English and promptly passed out. :)

Roma!

This morning we rose VERY early to leave Seville bound for Rome. We made it and found our apartment fairly easily. Downside is the wifi doesn't work and the toilet is in the shower... Going to be interesting. :) check Flickr for Neremys Cribs tour.

Now we're off to get a feel for the city and show Jeremy the highlights. I'm excited because I know there's San Crispino in my future!

Last night in Rome

Today I had to get some work done. While I did Fabio and Chris decided to rewire the entertainment system in an attempt to clean it up and make the iPhone stream video to the surround sound. It was quite distracting, it was amusing to watch them scratch their heads in unison. :)

While we were messing around in the living room, Adrian was hard at work in the kitchen. He recently finished Bartending school, so for an appetizer he made us Medditteranean Mojitos (with tomatoes and basil in them) and bruschetta with an herbed cheese and tomatoe topping. For the main course he made Carbonarra at Chris's request and for me he made something similar with vegetables, amazing as usual.

For dessert he made a homemade Fragole Tiramisu (Strawberry). It was layers of crazy goodness complete with Lindt chocolate spoons! I told him he is crazy. I also told him that all of the other recipes are perfect and ready to be served in our future restaurant, but this one I think he will have to test over and over and over, using us as the guinea pigs.... ^_-

It's very late near (after midnight) so now I must shut down the laptop, go pack all of our things and souveniers away and prepare to fly home. We had planned to fly through Atlant but if we do that it's likely we won't get first class on the way there so we've switched flights. Now we plan to go through NYC so we'll get first glass on both legs, but we'll get home later. Our flight leaves at noon, or 6am EST, we don't expect to arrive home until around 1am EST - it's gonna be a long long day.

I'll post as we get on flights but this is the last fun one...until next time. :-D

Last Day - Errands in Rome

Today we took it easy. Fabio had some work to do so Adrian went with Chris and I to the City Center to wander around the tourist sites. Our first stop was the Pantheon, well, really Sant Eustachio Cafe for the best espresso in Rome. So incredibly good. I don't even like coffee and this is heaven.

The logo for the cafe is of the church in the piazza, not sure the history of Sant Eustachio but it seems that it has something to do with god and an anrgy 14 point buck. Kind of creepy.

After the Pantheon we went to Fontana di Trevi to people watch and then planned to go to Piazza di Spagna but instead went back to San Eustachio for even more coffee and to by supplies to bring home. Then on to Piazza Navona. There is always so much restoration that each time I visit the city I get to see something new. This time the fountain in the center of Piazza Navona had no scaffolding for the first time.

We then met Fabio at the 'bar' (or cafe) of their friend Luna, she opened this Bar six months ago and recently opened a restaurant nearby, though it is closed on Mondays.

It's a cute place, very tiny but makes very good use of the space (kind of Ikea like). We sat in the back and met all of their friends. We let them bring us whatever was best on the menu. I had Vegetarian pasta with Pistacchio Pesto, Fabio had the standard version which had Speck which we think is like smoked ham) and Chris and Adrian both had pasta with Salmon and Asparagus. The food was fantastic (the service could maybe be better our waitress was odd). The name of the cafe was Casa & Bottega which loosely means 'work in the home' which we think translates to 'mom and pop cafe'. The food was good, the prices were very fair and it's quite close to Piazza Navona, definitely worth stopping by.

Back in Rome

We're back home safe, though Fabio drove home in the 'Roman Way' we went 140mph at several points between the speed cameras. back in November I had a chance to do the Richard Petty NASCAR experience at Disney World, I was a passenger and we went around the track six times at speeds up to 140. Roman driving beats NASCAR hands down :)

Don't worry Mamacita, I warned him, if I died, you would hunt him down.

All is well.

Sono felice nel mio stomaco

I am happy in my tummy.

Adrian cooked. Enough said.

We started with asparagus wrapped in procutto with pepper crackers and prune jam.

Then on to pasta with cream sauce stuffed with zucchini, peppers, garlic, onion, eggplant and scamorza cheese. Amazing.

We finished we a bunch of ridiculousness. Spicy pepper chocolate mousse layered with strawberries over homemade port-soaked ladyfingers topped with ammoretti and nuts as well as melted chocolate and chocolate chips. Accompanied by homemade whipped cream, ammoretti cookies, strawberry and fresh mint. Like I said, ridiculous.

I asked Adrian to marry me somewhere between the pasta and dessert but he reminded me of the challenges to that proposal so then I threatened to kill him and he went off to layer the dessert. :)

Domani andiamo a Venezia e staremmo all' L'Amoro bed and breakfast!

We have arrived!

The flight was uneventful. I had pasta, Chris had steak. We watched the King's Speech together (great movie) and slept for several hours.

Now we're at our Italian home making hotel reservations in Venezia. Life is good.

Damiano is a friend of Fabio's that Chris, John and I have met. He's a talented artist and added a burst of color to the condo with the new art piece in the background.

Tonight we will feast in Chef Adrian's cooking. Yay!

Off to Rome

We made it to JFK and are now in 4C and 4E. First class to Rome.

There were a few scary moments but off we go!

Sent from my iPhone

Day 7 - Historic Center

Today Adrian and Fabio had to drive to Genoa in Northern Italy to pick up a car so Chris and I had the day to ourselves. We slept in and then took the bus to the City Center. All of the postcards/pictures of the Spanish steps show it covered in flowers but I've never actually seen this. Today, there were flowers!

We happened to stumble on some sort of ceremony, we still can't figure out what it was but we're guessing that it was some sort of ring in the spring deal. There were soldiers with flags and a full marching band playing all sorts of festive tunes.

After the ceremony we wandered up to Villa Borghese for one of our favorite Roman past times - I creamed Chris at Peanut :) Then it was back to the condo where we made ourselves dinner and found a movie on in English. Next I have to go pack because it looks like we're coming home tomorrow. Delta added an extra flight to the schedule tomorrow so we might even have a chance at first class! It leaves at noon so we'll see. It would be really crazy to end up coming home only at day late after all that's happened.

Sara

10:15pm - Roma

Pictures are up

We used Fabio's computer to download our camera. We put some of the better ones up on Flickr already - you can check them out here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/butterflysunshine/sets/72157623774816619/

Today we went to the City Center - pictures of that to come soon.

Day 6 - Temporary Romans

Today we just lived life in Rome.

We did house work, had a pasta lunch at a random place in town while the car was refilled with freon then stopped by the bank. We droped Fabio at the shop to get some work done and went to the Historic Center to run a few errands. It was funny because Adrian lives in Rome, but in the historic center I was leading the way. We went to a shop to by coffee for the machine at the condo which was a bit of a witch hunt.

Then we found Sant Eustachio for some of the best espresso in the world.

On the way back to the car (which was squeezed into an impossibly small spot that didn't even seem to be a parking spot) we passed by Piazza di Spagna which actually had flowers on the steps! This is my 6th visit to Rome and I've never witnessed this! We didn't have the camera so we'll go back tomorrow to enjoy.

From the Center we went back to the shop to get Fabio and ran into Damiano.

Damiano is a friend of Fabio's that I had met a few years ago at a party in Rome with my brother. He's an artists that has a sort of pop art style but also does amazingly realistic watercolors of cars. He wants to design cars and has sent his portfolio all over the world, including Ferarri, some of his designs have even been stolen and used already! He has an exhibit Saturday that we'll go to if we're in town.

We left downtown and went by the SuperMarket for dinner supplies. Adrian is crazy, he's an fantastic chef - we're trying to convince him to open an restaurant. He made, from scratch, spinach gnocchi (potato pasta) with a white Bechamelle sauce in a parmesean crustee bowl. The gnocchi was light contrasted with the richness of the parmesean.

We made banana splits, at least as best we could with Italian ingredients, using Nutella and gelato. We all watched the Hulk in Italian which was great, Chris and I both are excited by how much Italian we're picking up with the help of the boys.

Tomorrow the boys have to drive North to Genoa so we'll have the condo to ourselves. I think we're going to take the bus/metro to the Center to enjoy the flowers and people watch, but we'll see how early we get up sine it's already past 2am... :)

Sara

2:25am - Roma

Day 5 - Dinner in Rome

Tonight Adrian "threw together" dinner for us. He was lazy and used a box of pasta (he usually makes it from scratch) but he made a sort of Vodka sauce from scratch, boiling and hand pealing the potatoes. Combined with wine it was a delicious meal. I contributed with lemon bars (we brought the mix from the US) and we were all content. We were too busy enjoying it to take photos. Sorry :)

We stayed up late watching Itali's Got Talent - hilarious!

For now we are just enjoying ourselves and waiting to see what happens with the airports. They're saying that FCO may open tomorrow.

Sara

2:00am - Roma

Day 5 - Rome

We are at work with Fabio, the orange Lamborghini is for sale at the dealership. The art on the wall was made by a friend of his.

While we wait for him to finish the deal the sky opened up and the streets are covered in hail!

Volcano in Iceland, hail in Rome. Crazy times!

Next we will go to a grocery store, then dinner.

Sara
4pm - Rome

Day 4/5 - driving

We made it to Roma and were at Fabio's by 6am after dropping Marcello off at his own car. There were five of us in a VW Torreg (the pic below is Marcello with the car).

The middle seat in back is not really made to sit on, there's no seatbelt. The AC did not work. But even after 400 euros for gas and 100 euros for tunnel tolls we were lucky to be able to move around Europe. So many people are stuck that all of the major airports have set up cots in the airport because all hotels are full so we are really grateful to Marcello for being in the car for 30 hours straight to get us and take us back and to Fabio & Adrian for having a bed for us. The picture below is our first gas bill!

Enough of the depressing stuff.

Once Marcello arrived we had a quick lunch of crepes (i had a goat cheese crepe with walnut salad). Then we took Marcello on a whirlwind tour with him and Adrian jumping out to take photos at Notre Dame, the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower. By 3pm we were enroute to Roma.

The drive wasn't bad at all. There was a lot to see, we talked and joked for the first 10 hours and slept through the last four. Granted, I didn't take a turn driving, but it seemed to go quickly.

We saw many castles (the tan spot in the picture above is a castle) and as we neared the alps some castles were on the edge of a cliff which was crazy looking. The country side was lush and green and the moutain air around the alps was so fresh and pure, it smelled if earth, nature and health. You can see the sun setting on the alps below.

We had to pass through many, many, many tunnels. I am claustrophobic and I was already squeezed into the back middle nonseat of this hot car so when we entered a tunnel it was not a good situation for me. Luckily watching the sun set on the alps (4th pic) provided a great distraction. However, there was one tunnel, through Mount Blanc, that is nearly 7 miles long. For this I had to meditate and find my happy place :)

Switzerland is not EU so we tried very hard to avoid it since customs with two Americans, an Italian and two Argentinian Italians in a car that isn't properly registered (Fabio just bought it and it still has the US equivelant of paper tags) would be a nightmare in Switzerland. We passed right next to Geneva though and could see houses that were Swiss while we were driving through France.

We stopped for dinner as soon as we entered into Italy around 9pm. We were in a tiny town of Aosta and were very lucky to find a Trattoria (diner) open so late on a Sunday night. I ordered pizza expecting enough for one person, you how big it was. It was yummy though.

After dinner Adrian and I practiced English, Italian and Spanish before falling asleep. The speeds made it hard to sleep for long, Fabio averaged 220 km/hr which is about 140mph!

It was cramped and crazy. We sped by things that I wanted to stop and see but it was fun considering the circumstances and, as always, I'm glad to be back in Roma.

Now it is 7am and we're a going to bed.

Life is crazy.

Sara
7:10a - Roma

Grand Pari

Finally, after nearly a year since out last trip (a record for us) we going somewhere! :)

We leave for Paris on April 14th where we will spend about three days touring the city with our friends Fabio and Adrian. Then on the 17th we are all flying back to their home town of Rome where we will relax, enjoy their company and hopefully tour some of Tuscany until the 21st when we will come back home.

It's a shorter trip but now that Sara is working again (part time as a receptionist for an insurance company) we have to get home to go back to real life. :) But we plan to live it up while we're gone.

On the agenda for Paris: the Louvre, Eiffel tower, Montmarte, a cruise on the Seine, Notre Dame and a free tour with New Europe Tours.

Possibilities for Italy include: Arezzo, Calcata, Cinque Terra and more.

I've been practicing my French, Chris can even count to 10, and brushing up on my Italian.

Check back for updates and pictures.

Bowling in Italy

Today was very relaxed. We wandered a bit looking at churches near the apartment, then hung out. Around 6 Fabio and Adrian came for us and we went bowling, below is Fabio throwing a Spare. The crazy thing is it was a Brunswick Alley! Also the balls are in pounds even though they do kilograms. After bowling we went back to their place and Mom made french toast which was tummy. We enjoyed conversation including a debate about whether or not Astronauts really went to the moon and their planned trip to the US this summer. Finally it got late and they dropped us back.

We're all packed up and ready to go for our flights tomorrow. I think we're sad to go because it's been so much fun, but we're tired and miss our hubbies.

Dinner conclusion

Dinner was amazing. We were too full for french toast so tomorrow we will do that and maybe bowling! :) it was a fun night.

Pasta by scratch

We are at Fabios with Internet so I uploaded more pictures to Flickr. This one is of Adrian making us pasta for dinner right now, I'm starving, we'll let you know how it turns out.

Later we will make French Toast for desert.

Holiday with Antiquity

Today we slept in a bit for Easter and watched Italian services on TV. Then we went to the Roman Forum as you can see in the photo. But first we went to the Colloseum, all the way inside of it. Mom was impressed by the size of it "it's huge" she said. We got a 'Roma Pass' that got us in free and let us speed by the long ticket line like celebrities, that was sweet.

Then we went to Palentino Hill and then on down to the Forum. I told Mom what I remember from all the tours and followed a walking tour Johnny found online. Mom says my tour was just as good as those she heard around us, so that was nice. We even got to go into the Senate House this time, very cool, same floor, doors, steps.

We have an unlimited Metro pass so we rode back to our apartment for some rest before going to Fabio & Adrians for dinner.

One more day :)

Dinner without Decisions

Last night we were picked up by Fabio in a borrowed car (that's a story for later). He had Adrian with him and we all four went to dinner outside of Rome. It was fantastic to see them again we always have fun and laugh a lot.

This time Fabio chose a place in a village north of Rome in Sacrofano. The restaurant was Al Grottino, it was quaint and quirky. You sit and there is no waiter with questions, they just bring food to the table, and they keep it coming through the whole meal. They made a few exceptions for me being vegetariana, especially with beef, there was a lot of wild boar instead. Our favorites were the fried zuccini with mozzarella, ravioli filled with lemon ricotta, roasted rosemary potatoes, salami, sausage and biscotti.

At desert we had sweet wine on top of the dinner wine so Mom was already loosey goosey. To top it off we got Mom her first taste of limoncello. It was a great dinner, though we gave no idea how pricey because Fabio generously snuck away and settled the bill (thank you).

They drove us back to the apartment after some sweet talking to get us back into the historic center. We parted ways at 1am with discussions of a French Toast dinner at Fabios before we leave town.