Back to life, Back to reality....

I guess our Italy posts couldn't last forever but they are so much more fun than the routine we call life! Gabe and I have been super busy with work...but that's the boring stuff.

Gabe has two books of his own (meaning he acquired them- he didn't write them:), and then his boss also has a few, that are in editing phase. What all this means is that he is stressed and working every weekend (plus a midnight signing at B and N kept him out after 1am). Work for me has also been nuts....50 interns started and we had about 50 folks start from a company we just purchased- I do the orientation and all of the paperwork for both groups~ fun times! One of the groups were beauty advisors at Bloomindgales and they gave me a little makeover on the spot.
The company also celebrated its 100th birthday...we volunteered out in the community for half the day and then had a huge party back at the office. I was at the Whitney musuem with kiddos for the morning. Then the party was nuts...I danced a bit on the 9th floor with the live band- then I remembered I was at work...JK! I did dance but it was totally acceptable.

We have tried catching up with friends in the hood but as summer is here everyone's schedule gets a bit crazy. Random things that have happened or things we have done include:
Gabe dropping hamburger grease down my neck and back--no worries,I was okay. I was actually on the floor cleaning the grease that had just splattered all over his hand when it happened again. Thankfully the grease wasn't that hot. We were hysterically laughing by the time we actually sat down to eat--I had bits of hamburger and grease hanging from my hair.
I also cut a bit of my finger off while chopping onions. Our friends were over and K dog was great about "mothering" me. As I was cleaning it out she pointed to the onion where the chunk from my finger lay...delicious!
We went to see the Wiz last night--fun musical! I was excited bc Ashanti was in it...she stunk though. She can definitely sing but her acting was pretty bad. She kind of just watched the others act. On the way home someone almost threw up on Gabe in the subway--we got to get out of this city.
Dakota and I went stoop sale-ing (garage sales for those without garages)last weekend. She is such a good buddy. Didn't buy anything but it was great weather to be out for a few hours. Since we have been back it has rained about 75% of the time.

The Complete Italy Photo Package

Click here to see all of our Italy pics. Be warned--there are over 500 photos. Enjoy!

Roma - 2nd post

More Rome pics. Enjoy.

Roma - one of two posts

Last stop Rome! We were pretty tired by the time we got to our hotel (we walked over a mile from the train station in 90 degree heat) but we wanted to give Rome the time it deserved so 1st stop- Pantheon, 2nd stop- restaurant to EAT! We needed some energy! And both of those things rejuvenated us.

We were central (as in all of the cities) bc we wanted to cram lots in. Rome is so walkable and we didn't just check the Trevi fountain out once but if we felt like it, we incorporated it in our walk home as many times as we could. We spent hours in Vatican City, in St. Peters Basicilia, the Vatican museum and after miles of museum we saw the Sistine Chapel! Another day we spent hours in the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum...so different from the day before- the history in both are mind blowing.

We stopped and people watched at many of the squares- my favorite Piazza Navona, with the Four Rivers fountain. Bought pastries and roamed the streets hoping to find something old~ Of course we didn't have to go to far. And the beauty of Rome is that the husband looks at the map while the wife turns around and points and says...Isn't that it? Gabe and I made a pretty fantastic site seeing team and may quit our jobs to do this full time! We wish....
So enjoy the last set of pics...we'll have some other random ones that will make their appearances but we also downloaded all of them to shutterfly. I'll work on trying to connect the blog to that (may take a year) in the meantime...Ciao Italy! With love.








*We did have some pretty cool bonuses while in Rome.
One was meeting family! We had dinner one night with family that my dad had hooked us up with. What a fun time trying to find out how we were related (our grandmothers were cousins).


*Andrea Boccelli was singing in the Colosseum for only 1,000 euros apiece. Of course we went....NOT! BUT WOW I wish. We did join a few hundred sitting outside in hopes that we could hear a note or two. We weren't that lucky so we got some gelato and walked back to our hotel...and watched it on TV.
*Champions League Final was also being held in Rome while we were there. No tickets available for this either. But this is Europes super bowl with soccer. Manchester vs Barcelona...Barcelona kicked some butt. We hung out at Trevi fountain about midnight the night before the game and literally hundreds of fans were singing their anthems. IT was a bit rowdy and the excitment was contagious. We watched the game on the telly as well.

Positano

This is the beach part of our vacation. We drove from Orvieto to Naples to then get on the subway to go to Sorrento were we picked up a bus and drove along the Almafi Coast to get to Positano...one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my whole life.

There wasn't a ton to do here...which was perfect! We had a wonderful balcony with an amazing view, I am sure you can guess what we did out there- breakfast, cards, reading, talking, picnic dinners, listened to music rise from the town square. We spent our days on the beach- there were hundreds of jellyfish in the water so we didn't get into the water much (totally stunk!), found some fun restaurants overlooking the water, we bought fresh cheese and bread...and of course wine (we were in ITALY guys...come on!) at the store for our meals on our balcony.

My favorite thing we did here was take a boat trip (small boat with 12 people on it) and went along the Almalfi Coast. We were able to swim a few times and the water felt amazing! We stopped at a kissing bridge were they made us kiss and take our picture;), we spent a few hours in Almalfi as well (Positano was much nicer)and had some pizza and gelato. Have I mentioned that we ate gelato at least once a day?


These three are all on our porch. During breakfast we heard the school children across the way singing in choir. It was so funny bc they were having trouble with one part and had to sing it about 15 times! So fun...

Heading to Orvieto (think under the Tuscan Sun)

We rented a car in Florence and headed to Orvieto. We were excited about ths part of the trip bc we rented a farm house in the middle of a vineyard and knew that it would afford a lot of down time. We both brought many books that we wanted to enjoy while away! When we arrived to the house we were giddy. It was a four bedroom home (wish family and friends could have helped fill the rooms) with a huge kitchen and family room. We took two day trips- the actual town of Orvieto and Civita. They were these little hill towns and we spent a few hours in each. The rest of the time was spent reading...we got a few bottles of wine, had fresh cheese, bread, and olives and ate outside for each meal. Come to think of it, we spent most of our time outside here.

These first few are of us at the house....






In the town of Orvieto






In Civita....





Stay tuned for Positano and Rome...

Let's go to Florence

We took a train to Florence and walked from the train station to our hotel. We stayed right outside of the Duomo and some of my favorite memories here will be sitting by the window playing cards with some good wine hearing the hustle and bustle below us and eating our breakfast (fresh banana muffins)at that same table with the sun shining in.

We didn't love Florence as much as Venice but we did get one of our favorite meals here. We went to the Academia to see the David first- I took a picture although they told us not to...I got in trouble with Gabe but they didn't catch me. Then we just explored. Our favorite place was the Uffizi courtyard- we spent a few hours here reading. We also sat along the Ponte Vecchio (famous bridge lined with stores) eating ice cream and listening to live music.