Summer!

Well, here we are again, rolling through the heat of August and looking forward to another new school year. It's hard to believe that a year ago I was counting down the days toward the big move and already I'm preparing for year two. This summer provided some nice relaxing times with friends and family and a birthday that moved me into a new box on every form. Bleh. Here are some of the highlights and memories I made.

Mexican food! Those who know me well know that I am passionate about all things Mexican food, including guacamole and cheese dip. Can not get enough! Love that so many were willing to accommodate this indulgence of mine.

Dinner at the Green Truck Pub. If you live in Savannah and haven't dined here yet, you're missing out. Seeing as I am a Trip Advisor "Top Contributor" I regularly read and review everything I can so when Anna Pierce told me to pick where I wanted to eat I scrolled the TA rankings to see what stood out. I had such a nice meal here, and the company was even better than the food!

Melissa and Cece on a bridge connecting Trastevere and historic Rome

Floating in the Woo Lake with Sheila and Janet. You know, it's funny sometimes who you become friends with and how everything falls into place. We all may be at different places in our lives, but yet, hanging with these wonderful women just seems to make everything complete. I know that I can count on them for anything, and that, is priceless. I can't wait to have them come to visit in the spring. They will out-party me on day 1, I have no doubt!

A highlight for me...catching a nun in 'tourist mode' in St. Giovanni of Laterano

Family! It was nice to spend a lot of time this summer with my precious Aunt Joni. We watched the Reds win, and win, and win (I thought I might not be allowed to leave with such a streak going on) and hours of Olympic coverage. We've always loved sports and I'm glad we could share so much this summer. I spent time with many of my cousins and other relatives and it's so nice to see everyone and get to share so much of the wonderful year I've had.

One of the many busts at the top of Trastevere, looking out on to Rome.
This guys' head was so HUGE compared to the others!

Friends!! I feel so blessed to have so many people that made the effort to seek out time with me. It is hard to make it all work, but so many went out of their way to include me in their lives this summer. To Christy, who let me share in the 4th of July festivities, cooked me a "Christy Classic",  and gave me a tour the new house the day after they closed. To Laurie, who found a way to make room for me among all the craziness of two boys and a newborn. To Jessica, Meia, Susan, Tudor, Lori, and Anne, who made time to catch up on old friendships. To everyone else who made the effort, who sent a message, met us at the beach, floated at Woo Lake, thank you.

This past week I had the opportunity to share part of Italy with my sister, Cece, and niece Melissa. We met in Rome on Tuesday and spent the rest of the week touring the famous sites the city has to offer. It is always nice to see the reaction of someone who hasn't experienced these sites or the culture and see how they respond. I'm so glad they enjoyed their time in Rome and that I could share it with them. Even if it's not Paris...    ; )

So, now I'm headed out to Madrid in the morning. And, the funny thing is that I don't even want to go at this moment. We did so much touring in the Roman heat, I feel a little "toured" out. But, realizing that the opportunity I have in front of me is one so many dream of and so few realize, I will gather the motivation and remind myself that these are days to cherish. Here's to remembering my high school Spanish...

Capri- A Perfect Vacation!

Returned late last night from my vacation in Capri. So sad to leave such beautiful scenery behind. The views of Opera just don't quite compare. But, nonetheless, it's time to rehash the last few days for posterity's sake.

After Saturday was so amazing, I feared the rest of the trip wouldn't measure up. However, Kate and I loved so much about our trip, we are already dreaming of returning next summer. Who wants to come?

On our way to the top...At this point, I thought we were close! WRONG!

On Sunday, Kate wanted to hike Monte Solara. Ok, no problem. Except it was about 150 degrees outside. Let's compare it to climbing Stone Mountain in the middle of July. Who does that? No one. Perhaps that's why most of the people Kate and I saw on the trail were going down it. Smart- they took the chair lift up and walked down. We did the reverse. We really earned our meals that day.

On the way to the top of Monte Solara

View of the Faraglioni rocks from Monte Solara

On Monday, Kate and I did the tourist thing and visited the Blue Grotto. We resisted the boat trip there and took the city bus and hopped in a little rowboat with an Italian with unintelligible English. He was difficult to understand, but I did make out that he wanted a tip. Classic. Anyways, it doesn't matter how touristy that site gets, it's worth a look. A.MAZ.ING. 

Inside Grotta Azzurra

Monday night we stumbled into another little restaurant that was a great find. They had an amazing Caprese salad and a pasta dish with a pumpkin sauce. Nothing like having Caprese salad in Capri! Kind of like eating French fries in France, right? 

Anne Shealy, are you proud? Whole slices of tomato! 

Have I ever mentioned loving pumpkin?

Tuesday, Kate and I headed to Sorrento for the day. It is only a short ride by ferry from Capri. We had high hopes of heading to Pompeii for the day or trying to do Sorrento and Positano, but in the end, just kept it simple and meandered around Sorrento. There must be a large British or Irish population because there were several places catering to that crowd. Kate and I both have an affinity for cider beers so that was a decisive factor in our decision to have beer and fries for lunch. Have we mentioned this new diet we're on? It's called "Eat Whatever You Want". We headed back to Capri late in the afternoon and found our way later that evening to another off the beaten path restaurant. It allowed us to see the more residential section of Capri and proved again that my iPhone is indispensible in helping us find our way. 

Finally, Wednesday we had to make our way back to Napoli to catch our evening flight. Kate had wanted to try authentic Napolitano pizza along the way. A little research led us to Pizzeria da Michele, the pizza joint featured in Eat, Pray, Love. It's a busy joint, with tourists and locals alike, and at €4 a pizza, it's hard to go wrong! The pizza was different from others in Italy I've had for sure. The crust was thicker and chewier, and coming from the thick US crusts, this made me happy!

Pizzeria da Michele

We had a name of a cabbie in Napoli that was supposedly super nice. So, after lunch, we gave this guy a call and in our broken Ital-ish told him how we got his number. He drove us towards the airport, insisting that we hop out of the cab with him at a local pastry shop to have traditional Napolitano pastries, sfogliatelle, before we left. He even paid for them. No worries, though, I'm certain he got his money back and then some with our tip. 

It was an amazing trip. And, I'm ready to go again! Who's coming next summer? 

Headed to the US on Sunday! Hoping to see so many of you!

Capri- Day 1

Our first day in Capri was so fantastic it is worthy of its own blog post! Kate and I woke up at the crack of dawn to hop on our flight to Naples. Everything was relatively uneventful; however, we're certain that there a few members of the mafiosa on our flight!

We took a bus from the airport to the port and the ferry with seriously 500 others to Capri. In another life I think I'll run a ferry company here. At €17.50 a person, they've got to be making a ton of profit!

Our hotel is on the opposite side of the island, right along the beach above Marina Piccola. From here you can see the well known Faraglioni rocks and many yachts of my dreams!!

The view from the beach at Marina Piccola

Kate and I spent the afternoon on the pebbly beach. It really hurts to walk on and they get hot. I'm thankful I brought a pair of water shoes to make all this less of a problem. And, no worries, I brought I gallon of sunscreen along too! From the beach we went to the pool...so happy to have this option as well! Though Italians are famous for requiring swim caps in their pools, this one doesn't seem particularly interested in enforcing that rule entirely. Kate and I did make a special trip to Decathalon, a sporting goods store, just to buy a swim cap in case we'd need it.

We shuttled into the town of Capri. I was surprised at how big the town actually is- I expected it to be much smaller! We had dinner at a great little family run restaurant, Scialapopolo. It was some of the best food! I had a pasta and veggies dish that I'm pretty sure is what the family was eating for dinner also! For secondi, Kate had the best gnocchi! I kept stealing from her plate! I had a piece of roast beef that was rolled with spinach and pine nuts and set in a homemade tomato sauce. My dishes were on the specials of the day and cost only €8 each! What a steal! The meal was so great, I'm worried that the rest of the food here won't measure up!

Love.

After dinner, we returned to a shop where I had ordered a pair of shoes. Apparently, sandals are the order of the day here and we happened upon a guy who fits your feet to the sandal base and then custom fits the leather or suede you've selected just for you. So, I am the proud new owner of a pair of sandals made by Francesco Pasta. It doesn't get more Italian than that! He also embosses your initials onto the base of the sandal. One pair might not be enough!

On to Day 2!

Francesco

The End of Year One

Wowser! I can't believe that I'm sitting here thinking about the end of the year and how it is finally here. I know many of my US friends have been out for weeks, but we are still hanging out at school, trying with all our might to keep our over-excitable children contained for a few more hours. Tomorrow is our last day! Thinking back to August, this felt like a lifetime away.

Seemingly, throughout my life I have had challenges placed in front of me and wondered how in the world I would manage through such tasks. I seem to remember a lot of these in particular from my college days, especially when I was finishing my Ed.S. and they told each of us our projects of two years would likely not make it through the committee defense process. That was such a pleasure...Janet Gnann and Christy Lynes, you know what I'm talking about!! I think they told us we each would fail! But, nonetheless, there always is light at the end of the tunnel, and here we are.

I worried about my ability to adapt to a new lifestyle, a new culture, a new language while managing a new job all the while. Certainly there have been challenges, and some days better than others, but, overall, I think that my first year on this adventure went really well.

I've traveled in five different countries, none of which I had seen a year ago. I speak a good bit of broken Italian. It's getting better, thanks to my wonderful friend and teacher, Bruna. I live without a car, a microwave, a dryer, and air conditioning. (Though, at this time of year, the lack of air conditioning is becoming a bit of a HUGE annoyance!!) And, I'm still alive. And, better for it.

I want to thank everyone who has supported me in this journey- those of you that read this blog, make comments, that send me emails, cards, and packages, and have made the effort to keep in touch.

A special thanks to my neighbor and friend, Kate, who has become my traveling buddy, my wine drinking companion (as long as the wine is not from Tuscany), and person I can list as my emergency contact. Those people are hard to come by and are greatly appreciated! We survived the first year...and as a reward...vacation comes this weekend!! WooHoo!

 Some rights reserved by Davide78
This is where we're headed!!

Guest Writer(s)

When I last posted, I mentioned that I had asked my parents to share their thoughts about Italy and their experiences after having lived my life for a few weeks.

Here is what they shared.

From my mom:

Our trip to Italy was really a lot of fun and I even learned new things.  Carrie was a great tour guide.  It was really nice when the restaurants offered the menu in English as well as Italian.

Our trip included staying in a 1 bedroom apartment between visiting Venice, Rome and Florence, Como, Varenna, Bellagio (these last 3 were on Lake Como). My favorite was Venice—the unique canals and we had a great visit to Murano, which was where Murano glass comes from. I was hoping that we would be able to see glass actually blown but we checked several places and it was not happening that particular day. Carrie and I had a great day shopping and looking at jewelry. Of course, Richard was not that crazy about shopping.

During the week, while Carrie worked, Richard and I went into Milano. To get to Milano from Opera one takes a bus and then a tram (45 mins); so the 1^st day we had to learn about the transportation and what tickets took us where. On the way into Milano it was very interesting to see how some of the people parked cars (mostly Smart cars-small). They parked on the sidewalks- some were normally parked, but some were pulled in head first. I understand they charge to park in town. Some days I would read about a place in Rick Steves' guide book and pick a place to find or Carrie would mention a place such as SuperPolo, the international grocery store.  Well, that one took a little bit of asking directions, but I managed to find it and brought back more American food products to Carrie. Streets in Milano seem to appear and then they disappear.  I was so glad for the maps that I carried all the time. Weather was another factor—cold and rainy—not particularly inviting to go site seeing.

Grocery shopping was also a learning curve, but we managed to figure out most of the products.  One does not touch the fruit/vegetables in Italy; you put a plastic glove on and then pick them up bag and weigh. Milk that Carrie buys is not refrigerated, but it tasted fine. I believe that one thing I noticed the most was how many people walked everywhere. I walked to the grocery; I walked to get drinking water to refill the plastic bottles. I am going to make an extra effort to ride my bike or walk to places more often. We take many things for granted here in the USA.

Rome had a lot of history.  During our stay, we did get to visit many places: Colosseum, Forum, and the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel. It was beautiful, but way too crowded. All of the Duomos in all the cities were just beautiful. Seeing the Trevi Fountain at night was very impressive.  Spring was in full bloom at the Spanish Steps and I enjoyed the sight.  Breakfast and Lunch seemed to be pretty much the same thing everywhere, such as cresent rolls with chocolate bits (brioche), fruit tortes,  prosciutto (ham) and cheese or pizza (but not US pizza) again ham and cheese sandwiches.

It was great for me in Florence as our Hotel was right in the shopping district and easy to find. I liked seeing Michelangelo's David, but I really enjoyed the view of the Ponte Vecchio Bridge. We get up and do the museums in the morning and then just start walking around. One day we went to a botanical garden (not quite up to par) but some of the gardens had similar flowers to what we have here and then we saw a few new things. I wrote down some of them to look up when I got home. We did the Resaissance Walk and decided that it was just looking at mainly olde buildings that some had some unique facades and some were pure ugly. People watching was more fun there than here and I really enjoy people watching.

So to sum up our adventure it was truly great-from Milano, Bergamo, Bellagio, Rome, Florence, Venice and even Opera where I walked or ran through the cornfields.

From my dad:

Milano
Plusses	Minuses
-Duomo (cathedral)	-Dirt
-Last Supper	-Rude people
-It’s flat	-Graffiti (although some of it is quite good)
-Apertivo bar -10 euro for cocktail and all you can eat
-Super ground transportation
Venice
Plusses	Minuses
-Exceeds expectations	-Pigeons
-First view of grand canal
-San Marco piazza (with the tide bubbling up thru the stones)
-Chefs Wife where we stayed- building was put up in 15th century
-Food (sea bass and pasta dinner we shared)
Rome
Plusses	Minuses
-Sistine Chapel	-Crowds
-The Forum	-Crowds
-Trevi Fountain	-Pickpockets
Florence
Plusses	Minuses
-David	-Bells to blast you out of bed
-David
-David
-Ponte Vecchio
Bergamo and Varenna
Plusses	Minuses
-Funicular	-Hills
-Lakeside lunch, Snow-capped mountains in background	-Hills
Note: train travel at 187 mph. WOW!

A Day on the Lake

The weather is warming up here in Milan, and without air conditioning, some friends and I decided that Saturday would be a good day to check out a new spot. We hopped a train to Stresa, a town on Lake Maggiore. Stresa is about an hour's train ride north of Milan. The train we took was headed to Basel, Switzerland, so I almost "forgot" to get off in Stresa to go visit Savannah buddy Pat Downing, who's living there now.

Lake Maggiore

We arrived in Stresa and headed towards the cable car that takes you up one very tall mountain to Mottarone, which appears to be a ski resort in the winter. There were two sections of cable cars and then one final chair lift to the very top.

the chair lift to the very top of Mottarone

Looking down on Lake Maggiore and the islands within the lake was quite spectacular. There were snow covered mountains nearby and beautiful, if somewhat cloudy, skies overhead. This did keep the temperatures really pleasant!

From Mottarone, with Lake Maggiore down below

A special congratulations goes out to my niece, Melissa, this weekend on her college graduation! What an accomplishment!

Danielle and Melissa, my two nieces

And, wishing all the mothers out there a very enjoyable Mother's Day, especially my mom! See you again in about 7 weeks! Here's a special flower for you! Love you!

So Behind on Everything!!

So, it's been awhile since I've had the chance to write about what's been happening here lately. Mom and Dad arrived two weeks ago and ever since I've felt like I am so behind with everything. Even though I know that's not necessarily true.

This weekend I sent Mom and Dad to Florence on their own and it's giving me a few moments to catch up on some things that I've not had a chance to keep up with- blogging, for one.

I was very excited for them to arrive! I would estimate that half of their luggage was brought for me, so now I am fully stocked up on Skyline chili, cake mixes, taco seasoning, Italian dressing, and some other odds and ends for awhile.

Just a small sampling of the goodies they brought!

It seems like they just had arrived and we turned around and headed out for a quick weekend trip to Venice. I had not been there yet and was excited to see another part of Italy. I had made reservations at The Chef's Wife B&B, a great place to stay recommended by my good friend, Sue. If you're headed to Venice, look into this place...just one small apartment to rent for 2-4 people. Stacy and her husband, Domenico, are great hosts and helped make our stay so enjoyable!

We hit the major sites of Venice, including the Basilica di San Marco, Palazzo Ducale, and a vaporetto ride down the Grand Canal. We took an afternoon and headed to Murano, the glass making island. Ladies, this is not a good place to go if you are on a budget! I spent a lot of money that afternoon, but it was worth it!

A plate I purchased in Murano...which I later saw in the Murano Glass Museum as part of the Moretti family display of their glass making over the last hundred years. This picture does not do it justice!

The weather in Italy this April had been relatively wet and gray, so we were so thrilled to have a beautiful Saturday in Venice. On Sunday, in true Italian fashion, we had just gotten slices of pizzas to eat while walking down the street, when a hail storm broke out. Thankfully, we hid under some arches of a closed business and tried to minimize the icy hail we ate with our pizza. 

The following week, I took my parents to a nearby city, Bergamo, for the day. I had been there in the fall with Kate and we thought it was such a charming city. We took the funicular to the upper city, the old quintessential Italian town, and wandered about. We took a very modern elevator up an old clock tower. Mom and I climbed the final set of stairs to the very top, only to realize that it was exactly noon as the bells starting ringing LOUDLY!! Yikes! 

A beautiful day in Bergamo

By this point, Mom and Dad were becoming well versed in Italian public transportation. They had been taking buses, trams, trains, and the metro to get around. I must admit, my mom had been doing a really good job of acclimating to the system. She has been going into Milan by herself on the days when Dad isn't up to it. She found the international grocery store and brought back more American products, found Laduree, the French macaroon makers and bought us some treats, and used my travel guides to find other things to check out. She did, however, comment that life without a TV "stinks!" So, you see where I get it from.

This past weekend was a four day weekend for me and we headed to Rome. Even though I had been in January, there were plenty of things I wanted to do that weren't possible the first time around. Sadly, I came down with a terrible cold that put a bit of a damper on the weekend, but we pushed through and hit the Colosseum, the Forum (way better than the Colosseum), St. Peter's Basilica, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, the Borghese Gardens, Piazza Del Popolo and many others. While Mom and Dad visited the Vatican Museum, I waited in a ridiculously long line to climb up to the dome of the church. The best part is that the first half of the ascent lands you inside the church looking up close at the interior of the cupola. So amazing. And, I didn't even realize that this would happen. The views from the exterior part of the very top were great, but there were too many people to enjoy it. 

View from the dome of St. Peter's Basilica into St. Peter's Square

You can walk out onto the lower roof line...
these statues can be seen in the picture above .

Looking towards the front of St. Peter's Basilica from up in the dome

Besides my cold and the massive crowds in Rome, the only other downfall was that Dad's wallet was "lost" in Rome. I say lost, but I really mean pick-pocketed. Just a reminder that you can never let your guard down. My iPhone proved to be invaluable that day, as I stood in the middle of a street and Googled the number for every credit card company and bank and called them directly from Skype. The nice, little, old lady at Savannah Bank kept asking me if I was in a car and wondering what all the background noise was...she didn't understand that I was halfway around the world in the middle of a busy street.

But, all in all, I think they've had a great visit. It has perhaps given me a new appreciation for respecting everyone's space and I am so thankful that when I stay with them for 4 weeks this summer we have more space to spread out in and more things of our own to do. I've asked them to consider writing a guest post on this blog about their experiences, living my life. We'll see if I can get them to do it!