July 19th: Mangiareeeeeee!

We made it to the grocery store!.... it was open ;) We stocked up on our fruit and cereal and snack foods! We had breakfast covered and were ready for our first day in ROME!

Look at me!! I can fit the whole plum in my mouth!

Since Florence, we have gotten really good at navigating through public transportation. We had been on a train before when people have come through begging for money... but ohhhh my.... haha this story is definitely worth telling (especially since you are going to hear Nick and I imitating this allllll the time!). We were on the train to Rome and this shameless lady comes through looking at every person “mangiare?... mangiare?.... mangiareeeee?”... (the way she said it was funny enough in itself!)... everyone was trying not to make eye contact... or laugh... as she passed by them, but this lady wanted to get a direct “no” before she moved on to the next person. Well, the lady across from us was NOT amused and wanted nothing to do with her. Avoiding eye contact, the lady stood right in front of her and kept asking.... “mangiare.... mangiareeee..” both of them refusing to give in... she continued.... “mangiareee.... BLONDO!.... mangiareee....” she repeated over and over, now waving a paper in her face, fanning her to wake her up from her “sleep”. This lady was ridiculous! And hilarious!.... I swear this story will be SO much funnier when you see our impersonation of it :).

Rome was BREATHTAKING! Literally.... I don’t know what other reaction you can have when you walk out of the train station and the Colosseum is right in front of you. 

We got asked before entering if we wanted to skip the line and take a tour of the Colosseum instead, which was a great idea. We learned a lot of little random facts we wouldn’t have known otherwise. I think it’s safe to say that we were both in awe of the Colosseum. Nick had warned me that he would do or say things in reference to Gladiator, and that I wasn’t allowed to be embarrassed... and so he did... and I just smiled... and stood juuuust far enough away that it wasn’t obvious if we were together or not ;)... (unfortunately I was forbidden from posting the Maximus Arelius Decimus impersonation video... ;).

Our tour also included access into the Roman Forum. We had a different tour guide for that portion, and we were both so impressed by him that we booked his tour of the Vatican for tomorrow. We had about an hour after the tour to just walk around on our own before they closed.

Nick trying to figure out what to see.

 From there, we walked a ways down the street to see the Victor Emmanuel Monument. We stopped to look at art and street performers along the way, and watched undercover cops chasing illegal vendors, before heading back home for the night. 

July 18th: God Bless America.

Montecatini has officially been declared our favorite spot so far. Of course we would find out riiight after we checked out, that they were having their summer street festival that night.... after we were talking about staying an extra night yesterday. So sad to leave without experiencing that. But nonetheless, we headed to Rome! 

The rest stops along the highways here are much more fancy than ours. In hopes of getting Nick a burger, we chose to pull off at a stop that had an “Autogrill.” To our (somewhat expected) disappointment, there were no burgers... well, there was, but it was by no American standard, a real burger. Nick swore it was meat, but I wasn’t so sure. In need of something edible, we resorted to panini’s (of which we are completely burnt out of at this point in the trip)... and mine was hardly considered edible. But at least we bought chocolate!... But that sad pitstop sparked a whole analysis of our food experience thus far, which goes a little something like this....

Italy is kind of a big disappointment when it comes to food. It’s fair to say that we both had high hopes for delicious pasta and pizza. They do in fact have pasta and pizza, but it is certainly nothing mind-blowing. Let’s just say, I wouldn’t mind running into an olive garden here. Maybe we just haven’t been going to the right places, but we’ve hit a pretty extensive range of restaurants in terms of quality and price. I would hope that we don’t have THAT bad of luck to have managed to choose the worst places every time. Not that any of it is bad.... although their meat is pretty awful (with the exception of Nick’s veal)... but there is an extreme lack of variety. Carbs for DAYS. Breakfast and lunch are non-existent. You just eat pastries and or panini’s (which is fine, until you’ve had them for both meals, for multiple days in a row). Panini’s are ham and cheese, or tomato and cheese (delicious, but again, VERY repetitive). There is NO such thing as condiments here. That one completely boggles my mind. No mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, or anything similar. Salads don’t have dressing (at least the pre-made ones). From what I have observed, most dinner menus have the same 10 or so items... so it really doesn’t make much difference where you go.... Pizzerias, Bars (pastries/panini’s), and Gelaterias are all over the place, but it’s hit or miss when they open and when they stop serving food. We’ve been too early and too late multiple times. We’re still not sure that there is any consistency in the timing. Still paying for what we consider overpriced food (still paying an average of $2.50 euros for bottled water/coke), and lacking in fruits/veggies/meats, we have basically made it a new mission to find any kind of international food. Teriyaki is our current dream.

Continuing with our journey.... we managed to get lost again. This is the second time that our directions have been incorrect, and our map has proven to be completely useless. It seems easy enough to simply turn around when you miss what you think was the correct exit. But it’s not. Not when every exit off the highway, is just an exit onto another highway, and there are crazy Italian drivers trying to run you over. There roads/exits are not clearly labeled. We aren’t exactly sure how we made it to our hotel... but we somehow found our way! The more I think about it, the more I’m impressed with us... haha we were so lost... but we figured it out. We’re smart :) 

Being experienced with driving and knowing how stressful it was going to be, we planned on just hanging out at the pool when we got there. Which was a great idea. Our next plan was to get to a grocery store to buy milk and cereal (since we have a mini-fridge and we could have something else for breakfast). Go figure that the supermarket closes at 8:30pm..... we got there at 8:32pm. 

At a loss of what to do again... and getting hungry, we saw an amazing thing! The golden arches off in the distance!!! Yes. We went to McDonald’s. In Italy.... shame on us. But I don’t think I’ve ever been so satisfied with gross McD’s mayonnaise...(their fries are better here though). And can I just say, McDonald’s was CRACKIN! EVERYBODY was there! There was a traffic jam in the parking lot because there were no spots open. Apparently that’s the place to be at 9pm on a Wednesday night. We waited in line for 15/20min... it was ridiculous. But so worth it! We fulfilled Nick’s burger craving! 

July 17th: Well... We Didn't Get Arrested!!

Even though we had talked all along about taking a wine tour in Tuscany, it never really occurred to us to book one ahead of time. Luckily, we woke up this morning and went to a tour booking agency and they were able to get us in with a tour this afternoon. By the time we had that all set, we had just enough time to get to the creperia for some breakfast :). 

With the tour starting in Florence, it was nice that the train ride was included, so that Nick didn’t have to drive. Our tour started with a trip to the Sant’ Appiano Winery. 

 From there we went to Monteriggioni....... :)

Monteriggioni is an ancient city (fortress/castle) in Sienna that sits on top of a hill. Definitely one of the scenic highlights of the trip so far. So, while we were in this walled city, we paid 2 euros to take the stairs up to the top of the wall so that we could see the view that overlooked the hills. While we were looking over the edge of said wall, we noticed that everyone was standing and sitting ON the wall taking pictures.... and so we did the same. While we were doing this, we happened to notice a few people that were halfway around the castle, walking along the top of the wall, so obviously we wanted to do that too!! So maaaaybe we knew that we weren’t supposed to be up on the wall... and maaaaybe there was a barrier that prevented people from walking any farther along the wall.... but the barrier was conveniently broken in one spot... and everyone else was doing it! (yes, that really was my reasoning :(... and by everyone... I mean 5 people). (I’m sorry Heidi... I think I was the bad influence on this one)

By the time we were 3/4 of the way around..... we heard a car honk from below..... It was a cop waving us to get down. We may or may not have gotten talked to and had our info written down by the polizia! (and by we, I mean Nick... because apparently the cop didn’t need my ID too?... see, the mistake was not doing what we did... it was forgetting that Nick has the unlucky tendency to get caught doing anything wrong) Of course we get in trouble for doing it. Nobody else got caught! The lady that worked there did not seem very amused, nor did she seem to understand when we told her that we weren’t the only ones that did it. The language barrier made it a bit more complicated to communicate what happened. The cop seemed somewhat unsure of what to do (or maybe it just seemed that way because he spoke zero English), we asked if there was a fine, and he said no because there was no set penalty for doing that because it doesn’t happen. Soooo we just left. Who knows what becomes of that... the pictures we took up there, may end up being worth more than the 2 euros we paid. But it’s ok! It was totally worth it! We walked on a castle!

After that small adventure, we headed off to another winery in Sienna!!

Nick was proud of himself. We caught each other sleeping throughout the day and kept taking pictures. (this might have been the winner... although, I have a video of Nick ;)

Recap of the day: Drank wine, got in trouble with the polizia for walking along the castle walls, drank more wine.... and ate really good cheese :)

fun fact: lyrics to the song that was playing at the restaurant where we ate dinner. Think anime/barbie voice... “S.T.A.R., that is what you are, cuz you’re famous in japan, famous in japan.”.... good grief. I love you America. 

July 16th : The Joys of Florence!

Have you ever had a day that you felt everything was against you?  We may or may not have had one of those days on our first journey into Florence.  Florence, as a city, could be personified on that day as a cruel older brother........

We got up and bravely drove into Florence equipped with some tips from home town hero Ricky Steves (who I have some words for about his “hints” for parking).  As we “exited” the highway (in Italy many times you are forcefully exited from the highway, whether or not you found the actual exit you were so frantically looking for.  Many exit signs have like 9 long Italian names on them.  Picture trying to read Shakespeare while you’re playing a racing video game and you aren’t driving the corvette; its a Toyota Yaris.  P.S. We love Yoshi. He keeps us from speeding.) We found some free parking after nearly being run over by an angry BMW that was sure the speed limit was 180 km/per hour. We found a map and decided it was a good idea to “walk” into the city center........................

Oh how we wish we hadn’t done that.

Excluding the inevitable stop at H&M to shop for a half hour(where somehow I ended up buying clothes and Jennifer didn’t), we spent nearly 3 hours wandering, trudging, and dragging ourselves toward the city center. But finally, we made it.

We were tired already. Our feet hurt. So sweaty. We just needed food. And water...  Or gelato.  

Our first interaction with a florentine (?) human was at a Gelateria. I asked for a “cup” of cookie flavored gelato. The kid probably smiled in his mind and said, “tourist”. He handed me a 2 or 3 pound bucket of ice cream and smiled. Ok, it wasn’t a bucket but it was way bigger than I wanted. Jen was smart enough to specify what size she wanted.  She elected for the much more realistic, schmedium sized cup. For 5 euros (still about double what we have been paying for the same size elsewhere). Thats like 7 US dollars!! She wouldn’t even tell me how much mine cost. I think we might have spent around $20 USD on two cups of ice cream. Welcome to Florence.

Shortly before gelato, in attempt to lighten the mood from the long walk, I had the genius idea to do a cute photo booth picture shoot. We hoped to have a souvenir of cute smiling photos, in heart shaped little frames, to remember our date to Florence. But that thought ended quickly, when the machine ate our 2 euros.  We sat there in disbelief.  “Does this city HATE us?!”... 

Jen began to have a short breakdown that I wont elaborate on.  I remember sitting on the bench just outside the famous Duomo church as she whined (sadly staring at her ridiculously expensive gelato), “there’s just too many little things, this place doesn’t liiiiike us.”  Oh man.  She was kind of right.

After our low point we bounced back.  We spent some time in the amazing Duomo church and caught some info from the passing tours.  We wandered the ancient Florentine markets. Jen tried on a leather jacket that made her look like a super hero and managed to let it go.  We left the city by a well deserved, complimentary bus ride (we couldn’t figure out how to pay for it). We found Yoshi at last and headed back to our beloved Montecatini; the town that likes us.  The day ended well as we were happy that the day ended happy. Desperately hungry, ignoring prices, we went to the fancy American Bar.  I ordered a fruit dish.  Jen ordered a caesar salad. I was surprised and laughed at myself when the fruit dish consisted of strawberries and yes, more gelato. :) Jen’s salad was delicious. We ended the day both tired and happy.    We had navigated a confusing city, managed to see some really cool sites in Florence (despite its cruel big brother tendencies), and I ate more ice cream than humanly plausible.  We were proud and smily.  Venni Vitti Vicci. :)

The drive back home to Montecatini!

 Our fancy outdoor lounge "American Bar"

July 15th: She Only Want Me For My PEACH Juice!

We got up. We stretched. We yawned. We checked out and headed into Deiva Marina for breakfast. We found a little place that sold panini's for breakfast and were fairly pleased to know that sometimes Italians have and sell "breakfast" food.  (Not to diss on the Italian cuisine or culture, but at this point in the trip we would have killed for some pancakes.)  Maybe some eggs and bacon? Bagel and cream cheese? CEREAL?... At least we knew we could always count on peach juice, our happy discovery/slight obsession.

But that's neither here nor there. We then hit the local market and I picked up three pairs of socks for 5 euro. I may or may not have brought enough socks for a month long trip. :/ 

After a short shopping trip we hit the road. We had our route picked out. We knew road and street names. It was a fairly flawless ride until we got to town. We discovered that the directions we got from mapquest sent us through a forbidden area. But that was a good thing because from that misdirection we learned a crucial new strategy. We found that if we had time it was helpful to park the car and look around on foot to try and get an idea of where everything was. Very helpful. We walked around and found our hotel-which we loved. Success!!

Later we grabbed a snack at a nearby cafe that soon became "our" cafe. We went there for everything! The owner was really nice and helpful. The rest of the night was spent wandering around an amazing small town, filled with smiling happy people. We shopped at the outdoor markets and ate gelato. The temperature at night was perfect for outdoor music (I think we ran into a concert every single night we stayed there.) and I LOVED that. Montecatini was a great choice to stay outside of Florence. We ended the first night there with a glass of italian desert wine. Done and done.

 Montecatini.

Our street!

I tried to get Jen to buy this hat. No dice.

 Spumante dulce.

Cheeeeeeezin.

July 14th: Laundry Day!

Waking up to quite stormy looking weather, and not quite sure what our plan was for the day, we decided that it needed to be a laundry day (because we both needed it). But first! We needed breakfast. We wandered into the town of Deiva Marina (where we were staying) in search of something to eat (we’re still not sure that Italians eat breakfast). We did find a little pastry/pizzeria shop that looked popular, and decided to try that! We both got a pizza (which was terrible), but luckily I unknowingly bought an apple strudel type thing too, which has been my favorite pastry yet! We went to get drinks at the gelateria we went to last night, and sat and ate there. From there, we headed back to the campsite to do laundry. And it’s a good thing we did, because it was an all day process. 

Disgusted at how much it cost to do laundry (I was disgusted anyways... they make you pay for the detergent and stuff too! even tho we already had some), we decided to wash one load, and hand wash what was left over. Nick and I make a good laundry team!

Proud of ourselves after that, we were convinced that we didn’t need to pay for the dryer. Nobody dries clothes here! You just hang them up! So we hauled our bags of wet clothes all the way back up the hill to our tent.... where we then realized that hanging our clothes to dry requires a line to hang them on...

So we improvised :)

We spent some time just hanging out, had a drink and blogged (yes, we were still blogging even though we couldn't post it). When we checked on our laundry again, it was still soaking wet!! So we gave in and put them in the dryer, while we went back into town to get dinner. We are starting to figure out that finding a place to eat is kind of stressful. It's hard to find a menu to be excited about because a lot of the food is the same. We finally wandered into a fancy looking restaurant (which was really awkward because it felt like we had to whisper). This was where we confirmed that Italian meat is WEIRD. I ordered meat ravioli... but the meat was salty? I tried to pretend that I liked it... (yes Nick... I lied. I'm sorry... haha)

But at least we got gelato! :)

I know. It's kind of a blah day. But it was productive.

July 13th: Are We Allowed to Have Gelato Twice in One Day??

 

(Nick lotioning up, in denial that he is now peeling ;)

Today we went to Cinque Terre! One of the places that is always at the top of Italy must-see lists, and for good reason! Beautiful, colorful little towns built into the cliffs of the coastline. We hiked and took the train between towns and just wandered around the narrow streets full of people!

We conquered 4 of the 5 towns and noticed on the way that each one kind of had its own flavor..........The first town we visited, Riomaja-something, (Riomaggiore) had the flavor of nutella and banana crepes!!  Here is us stopped at a happy little Creperie right when we hopped hungrily off the train.

So.  Sometimes when you travel you come prepared.  Sometimes you don't.  Sometimes you outthink yourself and un-prepare when you were previously well prepared.  Sometimes it doesn't matter that much.  (Too much?) For example: We brought our swimsuits in the car to cinque terre thinking that there may be something to jump off of into the water.  We changed our minds and decided to leave them in said car (shout out to Yoshi who we love and adore).  When we got on the train we talked to an American couple who asked if we were doing several things we had never heard of including jumping off of a "cliff" into the Mediterenean ocean.  Cliff jumping!?  Oh-Yes. 

We were super excited to do that-except for the fact that we left our swimsuits (that we even thought ahead to bring) in the car.  We then discussed the possibility of jumping anyway in our underwear.................. but quickly dismissed the idea.  We were dissapointed.  Sad.  Our sails; less wind.  Oh-No.  

The tables turned and we were excited to find out that the "cliff" that the snoody lady from the wine country in California was talking about was really only about 10 feet high. We had both seen more action on the high dive at the local pool when we were ten or twelve years old! The swimming area was pretty picturesque and refreshing looking but in the end we were only mildly dissapointed that we couldn't jump.  

Funny side note: Just after finishing our first Gelato of the day we went down to the swimming area for a look.  I had tiramasu all over my hands because it was so hot. To cure the stickyness on my hands I edged over to the water that was rhythmically crashing on the ramp down to the swimming area. Each wave pushed water up the ramp a little bit further away than the last.  I probably looked liked a little kid as I leaned over and chased 3 or 4 waves unsuccessfully as they came in, and quickly went back out.  I just wanted to wash my hands...............

Inevitably, the exact moment I really committed and took 3 big steps toward the retreating water, a huge wave came in and completely soaked me from the knee down; including my shoes and socks. 
:( Jen could probably interject and tell you her version better, but the point is, I walked the rest of the day like this: Squish.  Squish.  Squish.  Squish.

This is Jennifer.  She's pretty.  :) 

The first trail we did was the famous Via dell' Amore.  This trail traces the edge of a cliff over looking the ocean.  It goes all the way to the next town.

On the way through the trail many couples leave little momentos. Locks are the most common thing to leave on the trail, but others left scarves or shoelaces. 





We left some momentos of our own...........






On the left was our good advice.  On the right shows another one of our momento's.  Yep.  See that red and white waving majestically in the wind? We weren't prepared with a typical little cute "something" to leave on the trail............... We did however have an American flag bandana hiding in our backpack.  Jen tore the flag in a perfect straight line, wrote our names and a message, and climbed as high as she could before it got dangerous. (Not that danger ever bothers Jennifer, as proven in the log walking video on our hiking trip in Interlaken.  Sorry Danny,  I know I shouldn't have let her do that. She just goes sometimes.)

The Beatles made the trail!!  The quote says, "and in the end, the love we take, is equal too the love we make." -John Lennon

This is Vernazza.  The last stop we had before catching the scary train to Levanto.  (The passing trains were loud and kinda scary.  We joked that it seemed like dementors were going to come out of the tunnel and steal our souls after the train left.  Harry Potter reference. Terrible.)  We ate dinner on the ocean still in search of the perfect pasta dish.  We snagged our SECOND gelato of the day and hit the train station.  Game.

What an incredible day!!

-Nick