Happy Friday

Hello, blog world... can you believe its November? Also known as my birthday month! Technically my birthday isn't for two more weeks but, boy am I excited! This weekend we have some fun plans including trying out a new Italian restaurant called Rione XIII which is inspired by Trastevere {a district in Rome that we visited during our July trip, photos below}. We are meeting up with our friends Roen and Felicia of 50 Shades of Delicious to discuss their recent Italy trip! It should be a blast. 

On our way to dinner in Rome, our taxi driver rolled the R for the longest time a la Tras-tay-verrrrrray ... but we just watched a Rick Steve's special on Rome and he called it Tras-tiv-erie, so I have no clue how to pronounce it.

Then, this weekend we will also get to spend some time with our new niece - we havent seen her in a couple weeks, so we are pretty excited to see how she has grown. It seems like she looks different in every single picture I see lately. I guess that's how it goes for probably the next 6 months. Then she will start looking like what she is going to look like for real. Does that make sense?

Have a Happy Weekend!

ITALY Florence | Day 7

Firenze (Florence)

Ponte Vecchio? So hard to keep track of all the bridges

DAY 7: We had breakfast at the hotel in Rome, and then packed.   Our hotel was close to this huge marble structure called the Victor Emmanuel Monument.  We wanted to get a closer look at so we took a quick walk to it and took some photos along the way.  We read about it in our travel book.  The Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II (National Monument to Victor Emmanuel II) or Altare della Patria (Altar of the Fatherland) or "Il Vittoriano" is a monument built to honour Victor Emmanuel, the first king of a unified Italy.  The monument holds the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with an eternal flame, built under the statue of Italy after World War I following an idea of General Giulio Douhet. The body of the unknown soldier was chosen on 26 October 1921 from among 11 unknown remains by Maria Bergamas, a woman from Gradisca d'Isonzo whose only child was killed during World War I. Her son's body was never recovered.  The monument was controversial since its construction destroyed a large area of the Capitoline Hill with a Medieval neighborhood for its sake. The monument itself is often regarded as pompous and too large. It has been described as being "chopped with terrible brutality into the immensely complicated fabric of the hill."

The monument is also glaringly white, making it highly conspicuous amidst the generally brownish buildings surrounding it, and its stacked, crowded nature has lent it several nicknames. Foreign people sometimes refer to the structure by a variety of nicknames, such as "the wedding cake", whereas Romans commonly call it "the typewriter".  Despite all this criticism, the monument still attracts a large number of visitors.

Victor Emmanuel Monument

Huge horse

View from the monument

View from the monument, driving through that roundabout was crazy! There really aren't any lanes

Not sure what this is, but there were ruins like this everywhere

We checked out of our hotel, then took a taxi to Rome Termini train station to catch our train to Florence.  Upon arrival in Florence, we bought Florence Cards which turned out to be a very good investment.  They were expensive, at 50 euros each, but let us skip the line at over 70 museums.  The trick is the card is only good for 72 hours and there is only so much you can see in that short time span.  But, I was very impressed at being able to basically cut in front of everyone in line at both the Accademia and Uffizi gallery.  It was a huge time saver! I read in the Rick Steve book that someone had waited in the Uffizi line for over 6 hours to get in {yikes!!!!!}. Again, there were no photos allowed at both of those museums, so you will have to use your imagination and enjoy the stock picture below.  After we purchased our passes, we took at taxi to Hotel Lungarno, which is on the “other side of the Arno river”.   

Our hotel at night: Hotel Lungarno

Bicycles outside our hotel

Entrance to our room

Our bed

Stairs in our room to 2nd floor

View from 2nd level in our room

Another view from the 2nd floor

I really liked staying in this part of town, it was peaceful but still super close to the main sites we wanted to see.  We got upgraded to a bigger room that looked like the inside of a castle (our room even had a second floor lounge area just for us)!!!  It was really unique and cool, something we probably wouldn’t have picked for ourselves but it was really nice to experience.  After we checked in, we walked around our hotel at all the lovely boutiques. There were so many things that I loved!  We had lunch at a local spot called 5 e cinque {our first menu in all Italian} and we had pizza, but they didn’t call it pizza, so our waitress had to help us out a little with ordering.  I read in our phrasebook a few days later that Italian’s don’t eat pizza during the day, only at night, so that is my best guess at why they didn’t call it pizza on the menu.  

5 & cinque: lunch spot

our pizza - tomatoes and mozarella! So simple but so tasty!

After lunch, I went back to a store that was selling the Longchamp Le Pliage tote.  I have been wanting one for a while, but didn’t pull the trigger because we have been saving so much for Italy. The bags are $145 at Nordstrom, so they aren’t cheap.  The store was an authorized seller and I inspected the bag to make sure it was real {certificate number, detailing, stitching, etc, plus they had a huge display of the bags with the brand spelled out and everything}.  I bought the navy color for 81 euros which translates to $100 US dollars. I read online that the bag is cheaper in Europe, which makes sense because it doesn’t have to travel far. The company is based in Paris.  Originally, I thought about getting black, navy or a brighter turquoise color.  The store only had black and navy and some other green/olive colors.  I got navy because I thought it was a fun, young and fresh neutral but it wasn’t your basic boring black. We have been using it ever since we bought it and I absolutely love it! It is so durable and chic. The only thing I wish they had was more pockets inside so I don’t have to constantly dig around the bottom of the bag if I want to grab my chapstick or something small.  I didn’t realize until we had all of our bags together later that day that both our luggage and my cross body bag are also navy.   Coincidence? I think not.  After browsing some more, we walked back to our hotel and rested and relaxed.  We decided that we probably needed to wash some clothes and the hotel laundry service was absurdly expensive (6 euro for one t-shirt, 3 euro per pair of underwear, etc).  Jake did some research online and found a laundry mat that was close {we consulted our Rick Steve’s travel guide as well}.  We lugged our laundry there {after eating some delicious gelato} and spent about 15 euros to both wash and dry our clothes.  It was a fun experience!

Our 2nd favorite gelato in Florence!

Walking to the laundromat

But, it messed up our eating schedule and by the time we got back to our hotel, all the nearby restaurants had closed.  Our hotel recommended a restaurant called Golden View with a view of the Arno River, which was very nice, but expensive. We only had water and one seafood dish a piece and it was 60 euros.  Oh – speaking of water, I love the sparkling water. 

Prawn risotto

Seafood pasta

Even though it’s a pain to have to pay for it, you feel like you are drinking something special if you get the sparkling kind. I think I am going to start buying Pellegrino at the grocery store now. It’s expensive, but so good! After dinner, we walked back to our hotel and slept.  Goodnight, Florence!

ITALY Rome | Day 6

When in Rome... 

On our walk back from dinner

DAY 6: As per our usual routine by now, we started our day with our hotel breakfast.  We had reservations for the Borghese Museum at 9:00 and took at taxi to get to the Northern part of Rome.  There were no photos allowed in the gallery, but we did do a guided tour and I really liked learning more about the history of some of the works.  We saw some amazing sculptures by Bernini – Jake’s new favorite and we learned to appreciate the art. I really wish I had taken an art appreciation class in college, but if anything, this trip has made me want to read, learn and study more about these amazing artists, their times and the way of life.   

Borghese Gallery

Apollo and Daphne by Bernini, photo via wikipedia

Paolina Borghese as Venus Victrix, photo via wikipedia

 After the gallery, we walked to the Spanish Steps through the subway shortcut.  I liked the steps, but I wasn’t that impressed.  Maybe I need to read more about the history.  

Spanish Steps

We walked through the main shopping district and saw fancy drivers waiting for customers outside of Louis Vuitton and Chanel. That was cool to see.   

Shopping District

 We had lunch at a place called Enoteca Antiqua which was really tasty.  We also had some wine with our lunch {something I could really get used to}.   

Antica Enoteca - lunch spot!

Wine and water pitcher

Our pizza and pasta!

After lunch, we walked to the Trevi Fountain and threw in our coin for good luck that we someday will return to Rome.  We didn’t read the directions in the book carefully and ended up not throwing it over our shoulder. Oh well – hopefully it still works.  

The amazing, ginormous Trevi Fountain!

We made it!

The God of Ocean

Next, we got some amazing gelato right next to the fountain which I thought would be touristy but actually tasted really good. 

Gelato shop

yummy gelato!

Then, we took a taxi back to Hotel 47, napped and relaxed.  After that, we walked to a restaurant called Le Mani in Pasta in a neighborhood called Trastevere where we had a reservation for dinner.  We had coconut mojitos at a dive bar called The Hole on the way to dinner since we were a little early.  

Outside The Hole

We must have gotten there right as they opened because we were the first ones to sit down, but soon they were packed! We got the coveted table right next to the kitchen.  We were greeted with a welcome glass of prosecco {I like!}.  For our appetizer, we shared the raw seabass with truffles on toast. Delicious! Best thing I had in Italy up to that point.   

Seabass with truffles

We ordered a bottle of chardonnay.  For our first course, we shared ravioli.  For our second course, I got boiled Lobster and Jake had beef Carpaccio.  

First course: ravioli

Grilled lobster

Beef carpaccio

The chef and owner came to say thank you! Note the kitchen right next to us

Up to this point, we had been relying on trip advisor for what to order at the restaurant and everyone commented on the Carpaccio – I have to admit that neither of us knew what it was and when it came, we quickly discovered it was raw beef. We looked at each other: both of us whispered “can you even eat raw beef?” We didn’t have a clue. Sure, it was smothered with olive oil, spices and fresh parmesan, but come on, raw beef?  Our strategy has been to share each entrée we order, so Jake ate his half and passed the plate on to me. It tasted amazing, but it was really a mind over matter kind of thing. I had to really not think about what I was eating.  Ever since that night, throughout the rest of our travels, we had to laugh whenever we saw it on the menu.  We had some delicious chocolate dessert {we asked the waitress what her favorite one was, it was so cute, she told us what “mi favorita” was}.  

Amazing chocolate dessert!

We walked back to our hotel, hung out on our balcony for 20 minutes before we went to sleep. It was a fun way to end our stay in Rome. 

Goodnight, Rome!

ITALY Rome | Day 5

When in Rome...

St Peter's Dome (Basilica)

DAY 5: We started our day with our buffet breakfast at our hotel {which was amazing and really nice to have at all 5 of the hotels we stayed at}.  We lounged in our hotel room for a few hours, then took a taxi to our lunch spot called Duecento Gradi {does this mean 200 degrees?} which was right next to the Vatican Museum where I had made reservations for 1:30, or 13:30. We had sandwiches and sat at the bar in the restaurant. They had a bunch of sandwiches advertised with this special 200 degree sauce which is why I thought that might be the translation.

Our sandwiches

The wall at Duecento Gradi, I joked it was the map of Rome

After lunch, we walked to the Vatican Museum.  We got to skip the line because I made reservations which turned out to be really nice. We got lost in the museum a couple times, but it was really amazing to see huge rooms with statues {on this trip we determined that we both like statues better than paintings}. Get this – just after we listened to the Vatican intro on our Rick Steve’s audioguides where he says that 10,000 people visit the Vatican every single day, we ran into our friend’s parents! It was total serendipity! We knew we were both going to be in Venice at the same time the following week, so we had planned a dinner, but we didn’t even know we were both going to be in Rome at that time – and to run into them was just totally crazy! Like Jake said, to be in the exact same spot, at the exact same time is just so hard to believe.  We chatted for a few minutes and then parted ways {we did reunite in Venice at the end of our trip}. How is that for it’s a small world! 

at the Vatican Museum entrance

Statue with baby

There were rooms and rooms full of Roman statues

This looks important... love how the light shines on it!

I loved this ceiling!

Jake said when he took this photo, our camera recognized the sphinx as a face {it highlights faces in green boxes}

The ceiling looked like this for an entire hallway... Incredible!

Amazing huge tapestry

We spent 2 hours at the Vatican and skipped probably half of it due to time constraints but we did see the Sistine Chapel at the very end of the visit and it was incredible. Just so much to look at, absolutely crazy that Michaelangelo was able to paint it all! They said he did it standing up, not lying down as people previously thought.  I cannot imagine standing up, and bending my neck back like that. My neck was sore just from trying to stare up at the ceiling for ½ hour.  We snuck some photos even though there is a man yelling NO PHOTO and SILENCIO the entire time.    

Sneaking our fist photo of the ceiling! Can you spot God and Adam in the center?

The color is so bright! Amazing!

Sistine Chapel!

Rick Steve’s taught us about a secret exit to get to the dome climb at St Peter’s Basilica.  We took the elevator up part way and then climbed the 300+ steps to see this gorgeous view of Rome.  It was claustrophobic at times, but well worth it! I highly recommend doing it.   

View from the top after all out hard work climbing! It was worth it!

Amazing view!

View of the Vatican Gardens

After the dome climb, we checked out St. Peter’s Basilica {per Rick Steve’s, it’s the grandest church on Earth}. I haven’t been to many churches but I would definitely agree. It was HUGE and glorious! 

St Peter's Church

Famous statue of Jesus where people line up to kiss his toe {look how flat it is from all that love}

The pieta behind bullet proof glass in St Peter's Church

I actually got in trouble for not having my shoulders covered, but luckily I had my cardigan in my purse.  The man who scolded me waited until I put it on before he walked away. Oops. It is tough to wear a cardigan when its 90+ degrees, but I did. I wanted to be respectful of the church.  

Our room service dinner and I just noticed my clothes in the corner.... nice touch.

We had room service for dinner – lasagna and pasta {it was actually very good}.  We never order room service so it was kind of fun to try to make a point once in a while to do it.  After dinner, we did something super fun and secret that I will be able to tell you about in 3-6 months.  Now, now... get your mind out of the gutter.  Then, we got back to our room and relaxed.   We gave each other footrubs with peppermint foot lotion that I picked up for us back in Seattle. I read that tip in the Rick Steve’s forum online and I think it really helped my poor feet.