Italy Day 3, 4, & 5

Welcome back! Hope you enjoyed the quick tour of Rome yesterday. We have a tiny bit more of Rome left, then on to the Amalfi Coast! Breathtaking I tell ya!

Day 3 - Rome - travel to Amalfi Coast -- Sorento.

The next morning, we headed back over to the Pantheon. We wanted to see it in the daytime, and we wanted to go inside. It was really pretty cool. We only stayed for about 15 minutes because we only had an hour total to do all the last minute things we wanted to do in Rome before we had to check out of the hotel.

This is my handsome hubby in the piazza outside the Pantheon. He's listening to his free Rick Steve's audio tour on the Pantheon. I could never catch him candidly!

Our friends Rick and Amanda told us about this gelato place... and our guide book said it had the best gelato in Italy. But we went at 10 in the morning, and it was closed. This is our sad face!! We asked a local where it was so we could take a picture by it, and they looked at us like we were insane for asking where a gelato shop was at 10 in the morning! :) We weren't going to eat it then... well, maybe we would have if it had been open! :)

We then went back over to the Trevi Fountain (right by our bed and breakfast) to catch a glimpse during the daytime.

We also, of course, had to do the obligatory throwing in of the coin. It's a fountain after all. They must clean this fountain a lot, because there weren't very many coins in there, and the place was ALWAYS packed out!!

After this, we headed by cab to the train station, by train to Naples, by tram to the port in Naples, then by boat to Sorrento! That's a whole lot of modes of transportation in one day! But this is what we arrived to in Sorrento. Absolutely stunning! The city of Sorrento is up on top of the cliffs.

None of our hotels the entire trip had less than four flights of stairs. Lots of good workout time on this trip. Usually, we had to carry our suitcases up too, but this time... they had a little cargo carrier!!! It was awesome. It was mechanical and brought them right up! Amazing!

This was the view of the main street from our terrace at our hotel. Really beautiful city. Of course it was a bit loud at night, but that's okay.

We explored the city a bit before heading out for some dinner. I had the wild mushroom risotto, and Archie had a cheese and tomato gnocchi.

We walked around the city and explored the market, enjoying the views and stepping into a bunch of churches.

Day 4 - Sorrento

Day 4 was a day of exploration! I got up early and went for a run in the city. It's a pretty small city, so there wasn't much chance of getting lost. It's such a good way to really see a city. I ran in Sorrento, Florence and Venice, and loved it! We stopped by a local market to grab a picnic (one of our staple lunches throughout the trip) of fresh bread, salami, and cheese. Add a few marinated olives and sundried tomatoes, and we were happy campers. We took the lunch along with us for the day.

While at the market, we saw some of the freshest produce we'd ever seen. This area, Sorrento, is known for it's lemons as well. They grow several varieties, and are even known to mix a hybrid of lemons and oranges together. Look how gigantic that lemon on the left is!!! We also got yelled at for touching the lemons. It's a no-no to touch the fruit here apparently! Whoops.

This was their speed limit sign! Ha Thought it was pretty funny.

We then walked through a lemon grove - right in the middle of the city. It was beautiful, and several of the trees were ready for harvesting. Don't forget to act like an Italian model when you're in the lemon grove.

We did a tasting of the Lemoncello they make on sight at the lemon grove. It was pretty tasty. We had to go ahead and get some.

We took a walk down towards the water and found a little park bench to have our picnic on. This just so happened to be our view. Ah-ma-zing! It was one of the best picnics we had on the trip. (the other was in Vernazza - wait, just wait for that one!)

While we were sitting there eating, we happened to notice this little run down building overlooking the water. It was so cute, quaint, and the perfect bed and breakfast potential!!! It even had this awesome back patio overlooking the sea that would be great for meals and evening fire pit options! We appropriately dreamed of owning said bed and breakfast, escaping life as we know it, and naming it "Vivianna & Rebibi's". HA. Here's to wishful thinking. But it's perfect!

We then took a walk up to the very top of the hill so we could overlook Sorrento. It really is such a gorgeous town. I love all of the colorful boats and their little "laying out" space. :)

We went to dinner this night at this amazing restaurant called the Inn Buffalita. It had awesome salads, pasta, everything, but they specialized in Buffalo Mozzarella, and buffalo meat. It was so good, that I forgot to take pictures. SORRY! But don't worry, the plot thickens soon! :)

We had dessert at this awesome little shop - awesome gelato! I had caramalized fig gelato, Jen had baba - a cake soaked in rum, and look at these Meringue's. They are SOO huge!

We then headed back to the hotel and played some cards on our balcony. Enjoyed the evening, and the very loud music coming from the gelato slash discotec under our room! :)

Day 5 - Day trip to Positano & evening in Sorrento

We woke up and took a bus over to Positano... we definitely risked our life by doing this, (this picture really doesn't give it credit how crazy it was), but we made it! Whew.

When we got there, we realized that it was totally worth risking our lives, and missing our stop for these amazing views! Positano, situated on the Amalfi Coast is stunningly gorgeous.

We, of course, stopped for a picnic at a deli, and got some baked goods at a bakery and took them down to the beach.

We rented these chairs and umbrella's and spent a few hours just basking in the sun on the Mediterranean.

The beach was really beautiful.

It was a pretty surreal moment to be sitting in the sun on the Mediterranean!

And of course, what trip to the Mediterranean would be complete without doing a little searching for some sea glass.

We then drove back to Sorrento on the treacherous bus, with amazing views again of the Amalfi Coast.

After a quick rest back at the hotel, we had our afternoon snack on the terrace.

On our walk to dinner, we found this graffiti on a wall. Ti Amo means "My Love" in Italian - just thought it was pretty cute!

For dinner, we headed back to Inn Buffalito - it was SOOO good the night before that we had to go back. We ended up having the same waitress - who was hilarious, and she teased us, made jokes with us, and treated us like royalty. She even brought us this champagne on the house to toast us coming back a second night. :)

We started the meal with a Capri salad - buffalo mozzarella, the ripest tomatoes you've ever seen, and arugula drizzled with balsamic.

We also had a caponato salad with bread, mozzarella, olives and tomatoes. It was also delicious. Even if it doesn't really look like it in this picture.

Then we moved on to an antipasto plate (which I'm sorry, I know it doesn't look appetizing in this picture - the light was bad), which had sundried tomatoes, a giant pile of buffalo mozzarella, salami, french green beans, and buffalo meat. Again, so so good.

Then we all split family style the lasagna, ragu with buffalo meat, and gnocchi with tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella. This restaurant was one of the best we went to. It was a real treat.

Stay tuned for Day 6... Pompeii and onto Florence!

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Italy - Day 1 & 2

Buona Sera,

I know it's been a while. We are officially back from Italy, although my body still feels like it might be there. Jet lag, combined with 25 straight hours of travel on the way home (after only 5 hours sleep the night before), and going straight back to work the next day does not a happy body make!

Sorry it's taken me a while to get any updates on here, but that's just the way it is. :)

I thought I would do a recap of our trip in 2 day increments for the next week, and include some recipes. So if you don't care a thing about Italy, pictures of amazing architecture and food, and recipes of homemade Italian cuisine, you should probably tune out for the next week. But why in the world would you do that? So, without further ado, welcome to Italy!!! I know you're going to love it!

DAY 1 :

Leave San Francisco - flight to Paris/layover in Paris - arrive in Rome

Off we go - We flew AirFrance, and had a great experience! P.S. This is Tim and Jen (aka "Viviana and Doneroso"). We went together, so you'll see them a lot!

We had a 9 1/2 hour flight to Paris, and Paris airport was completely unorganized. We taxied for 30 minutes out on the runway, had to wait for buses to come shuttle us from the plane to the terminal, and missed our next flight. This is the ceiling in the airport. Very cool!

The perk of missing your flight?? Getting rescheduled into first class on the next flight - leaving only 1 hour after the original!!! This was our "snack" they gave us instead of pretzels!! Plus we got a meal voucher we used in the Paris airport.

We arrived in Rome, checked into our hotel, and went out to do a bit of exploring for the evening. But first, we needed to have our first Italian meal. Unfortunately, we walked over to a more touristy piazza, and sort of got suckered with an "okay" meal. I had pizza with mozzarella and mushrooms.

Archie had the Cacio de Pepe (Spaghetti with Black Pepper). We had this many other times, and this was definitely not the best one. Oh, well. We are in Italy!!!!

On our way home, our walk takes us down small, quaint alley's or via's. They are beautiful, surrounded by gorgeous homes, architecture, and then suddenly, you would walk into an opening or piazza. One of the piazza's we stumbled upon contained the Pantheon! It's so crazy, you're just walking down the street, and then there's the Pantheon. I thought it photographed so beautifully at night!

We had our first of MANY gelato stops that night too! I had zabione (zabaglione in English - see my recipe here) and chocolate. To die for! It was the one and only time I saw zabione flavored gelato. Glad I found it that night!

Our B&B was right around the corner from the Trevi Fountain, in fact it was called 3 Coins B&B. The fountain was seriously, so beautiful. Again, I had to capture it at night, it was so gorgeous!

We went to bed a bit early this night- since we technically didn't really get much sleep the night before on the plane. We had a FULL day of Rome touring the next day.

DAY 2 - Vatican Tour, Coliseum & Forum Tour, Spanish Steps

We began our tour at the Vatican. It was so beautiful. There is no way to capture on camera the beauty of this place. It's really stunning. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the Sistine Chapel, but it was also amazing.

There are fountains all over every city that you can just fill up your water bottles and such. We borrowed a Platypus (similar to a camelback) from Tim and Jen, put it in our backpack, and it was such a lifesaver. Saved us probably hundreds of dollars on buying water bottles. You wouldn't believe how fresh the water tasted too! Not like our water fountains at all.

This is the dome of St. Peter's Basilica. It's so gorgeous. You'll get to see the inside of it in a little bit.

Stairs inside the Vatican museums. I just thought they were so cool. I wish I could have caught it with no people on here, but I would have been waiting all day. I think this would look so cool framed!

Outside the Vatican in the square by St. Peter's Basilica.

This is the shrine created where Peter was buried. It was seriously amazing to see where Peter - who talked and walked with Jesus was buried!! Awe inspiring.

Look at the ornateness of this church. To think that this was built thousands of years ago before the technology we have today is completely insane! This is the dome of the inside of St. Peter's like I mentioned before.

After we went in the church, we proceeded to climb - 525 stairs in dark, claustrophobic hallways to the top of St. Peter's Basilica.... Did I mention I was scared of heights before? No, yeah, I'm scared of heights!!! Big time. I tried to play it cool, like I was a big girl and it didn't really bother me. I didn't want to be the whiney, complainey girl off to the side making a big deal about it. But really my insides were screaming. This is the Vatican square from the top of the dome.

Halfway there - you have to go outside the stairs, continue to look up to where you're going to, and then walk in this treacherous terrace looking down INTO the church. You've gotta be kidding me. But at least I got a gorgeous picture out of it! :)

Made it to the top! Whew. It is a beautiful view.... but do you see how tight I'm holding on! :)

So, this is pretty cool. The triangle shaped building to the right is the Pope's apartments. The last window on the right is his bedroom, and the one right next to it is his study. I would have never thought it would have been quite so accessible.

The front of St. Peter's Basilica.

Next we headed towards the coliseum, but not without a little stop for some pizza, and of course, you gotta see nuns hopping on the subway when you're by the Vatican. :) haha. How cute.

As soon as we walked into the coliseum, this was the first sight. It was so amazing to walk around this very real part of history.

We took a tour of the coliseum (by "Barbara" - pronounced Bawbada, ha) and learned some really amazing things. I won't bore you with all of these details - but one of the most interesting things they told us was that this was not where the Christians were actually killed in the gladiator games. It was actually in a different coliseum.

The outside of the coliseum. It is really quite an amazing structure.

We used the Rick Steve's free iphone app for audio tours, which was a really cool thing to have. Free, great information, you could listen to it in double time, and it narrowed down what was important in some of the big areas that you could get lost in.

We then walked across the street to the Forum - kind of like the old downtown/political center. It was very cool, however my feet were like jello at this point! I love this green door!

This is the front porch/veranda of Julius Caesar's house. Yes, I said that right.... Julius Caesar!!! Talk about surreal!

We tried to pose like the Italian models! haha. Stick out your collarbones ladies! :)

Coming out of the "baths" area of Julius Caesar's house.

These were the views from the veranda at Julius Caesar's digs. Quite breathtaking, huh?!

We then headed back to the hotel for a quick clean up and some yoga stretches for the feet/legs! :) Then headed over to the Spanish steps as well as dinner at a really amazing restaurant. My pasta had a pomodoro sauce and mozzarella. So so good!!!

We then hit the hay! We were exhausted! So much walking, stair climbing, and history.

Stay tuned for Day 3 & 4!

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