Italy 2011

Obviously, we're not really bloggers. This one serves as more as a travel journal for us to remember our trips and what we've done on them. I love going back through old posts and remembering our vacations. This last one to Italy was our longest trip yet, and definitely one of the best.

We arrived (delirious from the flight as per usual) in Rome on Aug 27th and promptly pick up our sweet ride. It's hard not to feel like a real jet setter when you're cruising around in your brand new Panda model, with the body of a roller skate. Either way, it got us to our destination - a tiny town on the Tuscany boarder called Paciano. After a quick nap we were eager to explore the town. Needless to say, the town consisted of two restaurants, two bars/tobacco shops, a butcher and a barber shop. It could not have been more spot-on. The café two doors from our apt served drinks and snacks, and have tables lining the street. It’s the perfect place for a glass of wine that costs less than $2. We later learned that this would be our other home away from home. That, and the small balcony off of the apartment that housed a table and chairs where we would have our drinks before heading to dinner. Our first night, we ate at a place called La Logetta, that happened to have the world’s most mind-blowing handmade pasta – thick homemade spaghetti with wild boar sauce and gnocchi with truffles (both local specialties). Along with three other courses, this was one of our top five meals of all time. And this is also where our journey to becoming fatties began.

The next day, we decided to take the Panda out for a spin and head to the wine town of Multicipiano. Somehow we were caught up in a Ren fest of sorts, and probably would have stayed if an oversized turkey leg presented itself. But this town was high on tourism, and we left for Pienza. This particular town is the home of pecorino cheese, and we planted ourselves at a small store where mother and older mother served us cheese and wine at an indoor picnic table. The next day followed with another gorgeous hillside down called Castiglione Del Lago - home of a beautiful lake (where we later went swimming) and calzones the size of your head. We'd gathered enough provisions in these places to make dinner at the apt, which contained a kitchen that most chefs would be jealous of.

On day four, we woke up early to take the train to Florence. Both of us are pretty wild about train travel, but we happened to land in the train car from hell that morning. Literally, the compartment was at least 110 degrees. Luckily, the trip to Florence was only an hour and a half, and we went straight to see the famous statue of David upon arrival. This work of art really was beyond impressive. We had a nice day travelling around the city, and stopping for lunch. On this evening or possibly another, we decided we'd live like the locals and stop at a bowling alley on the way back home. We were kicking ourselves for not placing bets. Sure the Italians know how to live (eat, drink, nap and smoke), but they're awful at bowling.

After our blue collar night at the bowling alley, we thought we class it up the next day and head to Cortona. Apparently this is the place where "Under the Tuscan Sun" was filmed, and Diane Lane is next to Mary in these parts. We had a fantastic lunch there, but left because we had a winery tour booked that afternoon.

On our last day in Paciano we decide to explore the town, which took all of 15 minutes, so we headed to a long lunch at our favorite restaurant. Seriously, this had been our life for one week. Sleep in, eat lunch, and explore a small village, read, nap, pre-dinner drinks, and late dinner. It’s not hard to get used to this life. We ended the night with more lardo pizza (hence the word lardo) and were lucky enough to catch a beer festival a few doors down. We played a few rounds of foosball, while the owner let us hold her guinea pig, which promptly pooped on Nate.

The next morning we cleared out our leftovers for breakfast, and feasted on bread gnocchi, pizza and pasta before heading to Naples for the day and finally, the Almalfi coast that night. We sprung for first class on the train car, and the biggest benefit was a touch of air condition, and meeting some cool people on the way down to help occupy the three-plus hour train ride. We stopped on in Naples for pizza, and were not disappointed. The place we chose to was crowded, grungy and only served two kinds of pie. Our driver was nice enough to stop a few miles away so that we eat our pizza and drink a beer over a specular view of the ocean. We arrived at our hotel (which was beautiful) in the small Amalfi town of Priano in time for dinner.

For our first full day on the coast, we headed down to the beach. We rented chairs and an umbrella (along with a Jones' size bottle of sunscreen). The man next to us, who closely resembled a catcher’s mit, was only slightly perturbed at the shade it provided him. Note: Everyone in Italy wears a bikini - and a small one at that. Despite some of those views, the water was a gorgeous blue green and the swimming area was perfect.

While in this town, we were able to explore some of the coast, including Ravello, Amalfi and Positano. Since the two of us always seem have some sort of travel malfunction, it was no surprise that on this particular day all Italian public transportation was on strike, but randomly, starting at 4pm. This actually benefited us since were able to take a private ferry back later that evening that happened to provide some gorgeous views. Ravello was beautiful, and we had one of our best lunches yet; Fried rice balls and baked crepes with cheese. (Um, see why we’re fatties.) Unfortunately we didn’t have much time in this cute town, but managed to push our way onto the last bus to make it to Amalfi and then Pastiano. The former being more touristy, and Postiano, which was more bustling, but charming. We ended the night with a swim, and some sort of fatty dinner.

One of our favorite days in Priano was chilling at the pool, which is almost always unoccupied. We stopped for our typical lunch, bottle of white and then finished the afternoon with reading and a nap. Our dinner was one of our best and biggest splurges, at Hosteria Del Pino. We had the local dish of squid and potatoes to start and some the most incredibly plump mussels. Nate had a light, crispy fried squid and prawns. This was only the beginning of our dinner, and we contemplated an exit because we were so stuffed. Not to worry, the two of us managed to force down our main dish, cookies and Irish coffee.

I think it was our day on the boat that was by far a favorite. We took a medium-sized speed boat to the nearby Island of Capri, and while the island itself is worth a visit, it was the actual stops along that way that were best. I'm not sure that meeting Dolly Parton herself could compare to swimming in the gorgeous blue Mediterranean Sea and greeted with a cold beer. It was a perfect way to end our visit to Amalfi.

The next morning we left for Rome, fully educated on train class. We splurged on the first-class tickets for the high-speed AE train to Rome from Naples. This made the trip less than an hour long, and they give you champagne and peanuts for being fancy pants. We arrived at our hotel, A View of Rome, in time to change clothes and walk to the city center where we visited the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps and a few other popular sites. The positive was that they are truly beautiful attractions steeped in history, and it felt great to get a bit of exercise. The downside is that we were one of a million people jammed into history hell. It’s like a more beautiful and historic Times Square. Of course, this called for a drink, and we found a fantastic beer store near our hotel. The shop had a great selection of beers and a dog wandering around the store as a mascot.

On our second day in Rome we woke up early to visit the Vatican museum. After a nap, we moseyed over to St. Peter’s Basilica to see if the line was still a mile long, and surprisingly, there was none. Really, it was an incredibly beautiful sight, and it’s shocking that the two of us didn’t burst into flames upon entering. That evening we wanted to check out the Monti neighborhood, and it did not disappoint. We were out of tourist area, and found great wine bars. We had an incredible dinner (the most perfect gnocchi ever), and ended up at an Ice Bar. They gave us cloak-type of getups, and had banquettes made of ice to lounge in. We didn't lounge long, and the owner made a comment on how short we stayed.

Thought the Ice Bar proved to be one of our latest (I think we stayed up until midnight) nights, we woke up and set our sights on the Coliseum, which was Nate's version of Dollywood. Despite the heat (we’d had perfect weather up until now) it was truly impressive. A quick mosey around the gigantic antique stadium, and we were off to find the oldest Porchetta shop in town. It was indeed old, and we sat at one of the three tables to devour a Porchetta with a tumbler of red wine that came from a faucet. The owner was welcoming to us taking photos of both him, and his prized pig. After our greasy, porky lunch, it was, of course, naptime. We rested our heads before heading to a different ("young, fun, hip") neighborhood in the Traverse. We found the best wine bar here that served incredible snacks, and rather than having our normal multi-course dinner, we decided to find more places like this and hop around. Despite the Irish bar we stumbled into, there are some awesome bars in this area and a great chance to see what the local peeps do on the weekend. (That would be the same as anywhere else in Italy: eat, drink and smoke.)

We celebrated right on our last night of the vacation and despite managing to keep up our boozy lunch at the Dublin airport, it was clear (by the fit of our pants) that this lifestyle had to end.