Oh Venice (Part 1)

Oh Venice. What can I say about Venice?  Well a lot actually.  Venice was an interesting addition to our itinerary.  It was a city we were both curious about and wanted to see, but at the same time it wasn't at the top of our list (Cinque Terre was).  It wasn't in the exact same vicinity as the rest of our stops so we hesitated with whether or not to add that travel time.  In the end, we obviously did, and I couldn't be happier with that decision.

We took the earliest possible train from Siena to Venice.  We arrived early afternoon, and it was bright and sunny and wonderful.  I think I was most nervous about navigating Venice with the vaporettos and canals and winding streets.  I didn't know the half of it.  When we got there, we grabbed a slice of pizza around the train station and headed to catch a vaporetto to our hotel.  We were staying near St. Mark's Square, which I would highly recommend if you're only going to be in Venice a short time.  The vaporetto station was a disaster.  Chaos.  I don't know if it's a European thing, an Italian thing, a Venetian thing, but lines weren't such a "thing" there.  We waited forever trying to figure out what was going on.  People were pushing, attendants were yelling, and I hated every second.  My back pack was so heavy, we were sweating, and we had no idea why we weren't moving.  We eventually got on a (packed) boat, and that's when we found out.  The America's Cup Regatta race was in town, and it messed up all the vaporetto times and stops.  Many of the stops were closed, including the one we needed.  We got off at the last one we could and just spent a lot of time looking at the map.  Or actually Ben spent a lot of time looking at the map.  We could see some of the sailboats though which was awesome. 

We also kept seeing people stopping and holding up traffic on one of the foot bridges and couldn't figure out why.  Finally as we were crossing, it was all clear.  It was the view to the Bridge of Sighs!

Anyway, after about 3 hours, we finally made it to our bed and breakfast, the B&B San Marco, and it was lovely. We had a huge room, and even though we were sharing a bathroom, everything was clean, well located, and very well priced.  We ate breakfast in the family's kitchen the next day, and Ben loved getting to talk to Marco about the city.  He spoke English extremely well and was very informative. The view from our window helped release any frustration the initial ride took.  Check it out.

We changed out of our traveling clothes and took off to see the sights.  With Venice, we did a lot of just wandering and taking it in. The bad thing about Venice is that it is extremely crowded.  We were there in mid-late May so I can't imagine what it would be like in the summer.  In some of the narrow alleys, it would take awhile to make it through.  We found the Rialto bridge and saw the gorgeous, post-card views. 

The first two pictures of this post were actually taken from the Rialto bridge.  We continued to wander, seeing St. Mark's square, and sitting by the canals watching the gondolas go by.  It was relaxing.  We finally had to go back and change into warmer clothes and headed out for an evening on Venice.  We stumbled onto a restaurant that ended up being one of the best meals of our entire trip.  Best house wine of our entire trip, fabulous service, intimate, fun ambience, and delicious food.  Plus we only had to wait about 10 minutes.  It was a good thing because I think Ben was getting a bit frustrated at my indecision on where to eat.  Next time, we'll come prepared because we will just go back to da Mamo.  And I really hope there is a next time.

A huge lobster.  His name is Crusty. That's a joke for my family.

This caprese was ah-mazing.

Ben's meal.  Yum.

I hope to see you again da Mamo.

 We ended the night on the square of San Marco or St. Mark's for us Americans.  My mom's best friend, Kitty, travels to Italy a lot and adores Venice.  She said the number one thing we had to do was sit at one of the cafes on the square and listen to the orchestras.  You do have to purchase a drink to sit, and it is pricy, but we were so happy to indulge in the one drink.  The orchestras were so good, and it just seemed like such an Italian experience for our vacation.  It was quite chilly so there weren't many people around, but some were dancing in the square.  I imagine that when it is warm, there are people everywhere.  I hope to experience that someday as well. 

So that was our first day in Venice.  This post is already a bit ridiculous so Venice is going to get a part 2!  Yay!  Be prepared for the Doge's palace, St. Mark's Basilica, our intro to Prosecco and Bellini's, small world stories, and surviving the earthquake..dum, dum, dum!!

 

An odd day

Saturday was an odd day.  Plans had been made quite awhile ago to meet Ben's mom, step-dad, sister, and brother-in-law in St. Louis for the day and night.  They live, respectively, 6 and 7 hours from Columbia so St. Louis cuts 2 hours off that drive to see us.  Of course when we made the plans, we didn't know that we would be closing on our (first!) home on Friday, but oh well.  We have all month to move.  More on that later.

So we took off Saturday morning and arrived at our hotel on the west side at about 11:00am.  About 15 minutes out, we got a call from Eileen, Ben's sister, telling us there was an issue.  The power was out in our hotel, and they had no idea how long it would last.  Huge storms and tornadoes had gone through Missouri the night before and St. Louis had some damage, primarily on the side of town where we were staying.  We didn't see any damage until we about 5 minutes out.  They started calling places we wanted to go to see if it was the whole city or just sections, and then started calling other hotels.  We finally found one with 3 available rooms and booked it.  Luckily the other attractions all had power so we were good to go.

We ate lunch at 5 Star Burgers in Clayton, which, well if you like burgers, go.  Best bison burger of my life.  Then we headed out to the Anheuser-Busch brewery to do the tour.  We then had plans to go to the Arch, although you couldn't pay me to go up it again.  People with motion sickness should not go up that thing.  Then we planned to hit the City Museum and get dinner while hopefully catching the Bruins game.  The brewery tour was great!  The highlight for sure is seeing the Clydesdales. 

Those horses are magnificent.  They are ginormous and absolutely gorgeous.  We did the tour and ended up in the tasting room at the end when plans got a little, um, messed up.  My friend was letting our dog Ollie out while we were gone, and she called, panicked, because Ollie had pushed the gate to our fence open and made a break for it.  He ran to the woods around our neighborhood, and she saw him go through the creek.  Then that was it. She couldn't find him.  So Ollie is my baby which means I was internally freaking out.  He also won't listen to anyone but Ben or me.  It took us quite awhile to even earn his trust, and we knew he wouldn't come to anyone else calling him.  After some panic, a few tears in the tasting room (just a few--I was trying hard to stay stoic and respectable), and giving them about a half hour to look, we decided we needed to head home.  So we started the 2 hour drive back.  Ben's family decided to come too so we had to cancel our 2nd hotel room of the day.  That drive was not what I would call fun.  I was trying to stay positive--of course we would find him.  But there was also that part of me that couldn't help but worry that I would never see him again.

To make a long story short and sweet, about 15 minutes away from Columbia, we got a call from a neighbor that he was in their fenced-in back yard.  We have no idea how he got in there, but it looks a lot like our house so we think he thought he was in his backyard.  My friend went and got him, and he was waiting when we pulled in our drive.  That nutter.  He was soaking wet and covered in burrs but seemed to be quite happy.  I felt horrible for Christy, and I was a bit emotionally on edge.  So our plans changed quite a bit.  I am just so glad he is okay!!  And so that's the rest of the story.

Remembering 1994

This picture is of me and Carmen Dell Murphy on May 26, 1995, a day after Carmen's 14th birthday.  We both had May birthdays and loved that fact.  "May birthdays are the best!" Carmen was my best friend for 2 years of my life in junior high. She wasn't my only best friend. There were four of us.  Nicole, Kathryn, Carmen, and me. Together we helped each other through those awkward early teenage years. Then I moved away. 

I moved the summer before our freshman year of high school not long after this picture was taken.  I only moved an hour and a half north, but this was before cell phones, email, and facebook.  Basically the stone age. We wrote each other letters. I went to visit, and they came to visit. They became my "best friends from junior high" which is still how I refer to all of them. It's like because of the move they couldn't ever move on from that label. 

We had some very good times. Carmen had a juke box and a bottled coke machine at her house so of course that was our favorite hang out spot.  The sleep overs we would have.  Carmen and I cheered together, and we used to call each other and tell each other to make sure to wear our favorite "tradition" cheerleading shirts with neon green shorts the next day.  Being twins was super cool at 13. Carmen is the reason I like country music. I always felt good enough with Carmen as my best friend.  She was smart, pretty, and so kind. We had crushes on best friends. We made up nicknames for our crushes on those best friends. We traveled to Myrtle Beach for cheerleading competitions. We spent hours listening to Joe Diffie's album, 3rd Rock from the Sun, and cracking up over the two ridiculously silly songs at the end.  The somewhat ridiculous Jason Aldean song, 1994, takes me back so clearly to that time. We watched the movie 8 Seconds and cried our eyes out late at night.  We passed a ridiculous amount of notes (that I still have).  We helped each other through insecurities and made each other love life. 

After I moved, we did stay in touch.  We actually ended up both attending Purdue.  We didn't see each other a lot, but whenever her roomates and she would have a party, she would invite me and I would go and catch up.  Sometimes Nicole would come up from IU, and we would all hang out.  They were still best friends, no junior high adjective needed. We grew apart. She had a serious boyfriend, and I was busy with my various college involvements (there were a lot). We were both good students. We lost touch.

After college she went on to get her Physician's Assistant degree.  We reconnected via Myspace.  She lived in Pittsburgh for awhile and then back to our small town outside of Louisville. I moved to South Carolina. And then one early Sunday morning, I received a call from Kathryn, which was unusual. I was actually getting ready for church and almost didn't answer, but it took me by such surprise that I did. She told me that Carmen was dying of cancer.  I think colon cancer.  Not that she had cancer; that she was dying of cancer.  She said it had been going on for the last few months (nothing was on myspace), and she and some of our other friends realized that I probably didn't know. She wanted to let me know to see if I could make it up to our small town hospital to say my goodbyes. I would need to come within the next week or two. I didn't make it. She died during that week. That Sunday in October will live forever in my mind. The guilt I felt for not knowing and getting to try to comfort her and say goodbye, the complete and utterly overwhelming sadness, the sermon at church that seemed to be aimed directly at me and this situation even though it wasn't. The phone call to my mom where I could barely speak for crying. Ben was understanding, but he didn't know Carmen. My mom did. She knew she was special.  She went to the hospital and saw Carmen and her mom and some of my old friends. She shared that sorrow with me.

I made it to the funeral in Indiana the following Saturday, not even a full week after I heard the news. It was such an odd time. I was excited and happy to see my friends who I hadn't seen in years. Some of them I literally had not seen since I moved. But how can you be happy at a funeral for a friend who made us all friends?  We laughed, and we cried. I felt like an intruder to their sorrow. I felt so sad, but I kind of felt like I didn't deserve to be that sad because Carmen and I had lost touch. They were the ones there for her for the past few years, not me. It's a weird weird feeling. I sometimes still feel that guilt or intrusion, like I shouldn't miss her like they do. I don't deserve it. But the truth is that I do miss her. I don't know how to describe it, but even when we lost touch, it comforted me to know she was out there in the world living her life. When you love someone, I think you don't ever want to truly let them go from your life. She made my life better, and I still grieve for her. I can still hear her laugh.  She had a great laugh.

Carmen was a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a fiance, a dog mom, a PA, and the very best kind of friend.  She lost her battle with cancer at the age of 27, and she would have turned 32 yesterday.  It was 18 years ago today that we took that picture. I always think of her on May 25th and will always be grateful for the memories I have and for May birthdays. She made this world a better place.

The Office

So with all the retrospectives about The Office going around, I felt like I should contribute.  The Office has been one of my all time favorite shows.  I love TV so that's saying a lot.  Ben doesn't love TV the same way I do, but this show was special to both of us and our relationship.  I mentioned it before, but there was one night in particular that stands out for me.  Ben and I were in a long distance relationship for a long time (which is another post in and of itself).  I was visiting him in Clemson from Indianapolis where I lived.  Ben lived in an apartment with a brick wall so he set up a dart board.  I get pretty competitive, but Ben will never let me win (thanks for that).  We stayed up the entire night playing darts and watching episodes of The Office, maybe seasons 2 & 3??, and just having a great time.  It's such a good memory for me.
 

There are just so many ridiculously hilarious moments in this show over the years.  Yes, I think it changed a bit when Steve Carell left, but there still so many fabulous moments.  Watching these retrospectives I was reminded of so many absolutely gut wrenching funny moments that I had forgotten about over the years.  I think we have the first 5 or 6 seasons, and I'm really looking forward to going back and watching them. It was just truly the best.  Let's remember:

• Agent Michael Scarn
• Michael and his jeans
• Andy and his anger control issues
• Big Tuna
• All the hilarious pranks Jim pulled on Dwight
• The Injury (my personal favorite)
• The fight
• The assistant to the regional manager
• That's what she said (obviously)
• Prison Mike
• Michael's lady suit
• Oscar and Andy getting drunk and bonding in Canada
• I want people to be afraid of how much they love me.
• Yankee SWAP
• Andy's southern accent...It's like molasses spilling out of my mouth
• and soo soo many more

(And Jim and Pam....THE BEST.)

Montalcino

Seriously beautiful up there huh?  So in 3 days, I will have been in Montalcino exactly one year ago.  I'm not really sure what happens to the time, but I'm ready to blog our day adventure.  As you can see, I'm totally on top of things over here.

So Montalcino.  I explained in my Siena post that our one truly spontaneous moment took place when we decided to take a day trip to Montalcino.  With some help of Carlotta, we figured out how to buy bus tickets and where to catch the bus (not the main bus station).  It's important to know that neither Ben nor I speak any Italian.  We learned some basic words, like hello, please, thank you, glass of red wine, but that's pretty much it.  I was pretty proud that I learned to order two bus tickets though.  Anyway, we waited at a bus stop on the side of the road outside the town gates constantly repeating the bus number because we only had one chance to catch the bus that day for the hour long ride to Montalcino.  When it came, it was FULL.  And I mean full.  We didn't really know what to do, and we couldn't really ask.  Two or so people pushed their way on in front of us so we did too.  I mean it was our one chance!  We were standing in the aisle, past the little line, basically crowding the bus driver who didn't seem to care at all.  Remember this was an HOUR long drive along country roads.  I was sweating up a storm sure I was going to fall right onto someone, the bus driver, or the windshield.  Every stop I kept hoping someone would get off, but no one did.  Then at one stop, this little old lady got on and pushed her way on just like we did.  At that point, I had one hand able to grasp the back of a seat, and Ben, behind me, squeezed my knee between his legs to help steady me on curves.  Finally at some stops, a few people would get off, but that meant we all had to get off the bus in order to let them out.  The little old lady at one stop just started chuckling, saying something to me in Italian, and rested her head on my shoulder.  So apparently the fullnes of the bus was not normal, and it was nice to commiserate together without even being able to understand each other.  About half hour or so into the drive, about half the bus, all teenagers, got off in a small town, and we were able to get seats and breathe the rest of the way.  It was an experience.

When we arrived in Montalcino, we were blown away by how pretty it was.  We walked around the walls of the city and went to a wine tasting room in the fortress.  We tried another glass sitting outside of Caffe Fiaschetteria Italiana, a cafe founded by the creater of Brunello,  until the cold got to us.  We walked some more and ended up at a wine store where you could swipe your card, taste a bottle, repeat as many times as you wanted, and then pay at the end.  If you bought the bottle you tried, the tasting was free.  Unfortunately we didn't have any room to fit wine bottles into our backpacks especially at the beginning of the trip.  We finally ended up eating dinner at a random restaurant where the entire back windows were the view of the hills.  Amazing.  But really the Brunello was the star of the day.  That wine is good, let me tell you.  A bit pricey over here, but oh so delicious.

The wine tasting was in here

Happy

We sat outside in the seating you see there on the right.

 

This wall had the stone painted on it.  It cracked me up.



Add caption

Now do yourself a favor and go try some Brunello!

Blogging

So here's the thing--I'm not really a blogger. Yes, I have this blog, but I'm not a writer, and as you can see, I rarely update it.  I've never really been a writer.  Yes, I did win my grade's Young Author awards in maybe the 4th grade with my inspiring story about my family and my neighbors living in Biosphere 2, also the title.  I did not win the county, but the school is decent enough right?  I also tend to ramble so coherent writing isn't really my thing.  However, I am a reader.  A voracious reader.  I would pretty much be choosing to read a good book at any time rather than anything else I could be doing.  Especially if it included a glass of wine and maybe some brie.  Blog reading has basically become my modern form of reading.  It doesn't replace a book, but I feel like I get to know and follow along with a life and an adventure every time I discover a new blog that I love.  And I really love it.  I love discovering a new one and reading a few posts then bookmarking it.  (So apparently there are technologies I should be using other than GFC??  I just bookmark the blog in my favorites really.)  I then start at the begining of the archives and slowly make my way through AFTER I've caught up on all the new posts from the blogs for which I've previously done this.  Then I get sad because it's like a good book series---except it's not over!  I get to keep reading. 

So basically I love the blog world.  I feel like I need to have a blog to participate, but I really think that even if I do get going on posting consistently, my love is really going to come from continuing to read and become internet friends with the authors of all my favorite blogs.  Also, I have a LOT to learn regarding HTML and how to make a pretty looking blog. 

FYI--the picture has nothing to do with this AND I was watching one of the last episodes of The Office while I was finishing this and got all teary.  That show was the best.  My husband and I actually spent an entire night (I'm talking until like 3-4am) once when I was visiting him back when we were still dating (long distance stinks) playing darts and watching episodes of The Office. I feel like it means a lot to our relationship, and even though it hasn't been quite the same the last few years since Michael left, I'm still so sad it's ending.  Jim and Pam forever. :)

Siena & A Super Long Post For a Day and a Half

So I know I said Siena and Montalcinio would be up next in my Italy journal, and they are!  Just a couple weeks later.  If you are able to spend some time in central/northern Italy, I highly highly recommend going to one or more of the smaller hill towns.  You don't need much time, and it just gave us such a great feel for Italy. 

Initially, when we planned our itinerary, we just planned on going to Siena because so many people we know raved about this town.  We pre-booked rooms at a hotel in Siena for two nights, but we didn't pre-book any train/bus tickets TO Siena because we wanted to give ourselves some flexibility with the timeline.  We knew it wouldn't take long to get from Florence to Siena and that there are lots of trains/buses that go between the two.  We didn't know if we would want a bit longer in Florence to do anything or if perhaps we would take a short trip to Pisa to see the famous leaning tower.  I had seen the tower as a child so I was really leaving that decision up to Ben.  ANYWAY...our one truly spontaneous moment was then allowed to take place.

When we went on our day trip out into Tuscany, our tour guide, Marc, raved about the town Montalcino.  We like wine (hence our day trip to taste wine), and he said if we could fit it in, we absolutely had to go to Montalcino to taste the famous Brunello wine.  Well, it intrigued us.  We asked my cousin Jessica about it as well, and an idea was formed. 

We decided to take an earlier bus from Florence to Siena to have the full day in Siena and bypass Pisa.  Ben truly didn't care (again, his decision), even though he was passing up on one of the great wonders of the world.  Let's concentrate on Siena now though.  This town is truly amazing.  We stayed at the Albergo Bernini which I have to recommend.  You do have to share a bathroom, but there were several for the 11 rooms, and we never had to wait.  Plus there are sinks in your room.  It was clean, in a good location, and the terrace was truly unreal.  That's why I have to recommend it.  It is a large terrace with several tables and has an incredible view of the town.

Um, yeah, incredible.  We had lunch on that terrace both days and snacks the second night and just enjoyed being there.  We were lucky to have great weather that day in Siena.  It was really the only day on our trip warm enough to wear one of my dresses.  After we settled in, visited the local grocery, and ate lunch, we were ready to explore.  With our trusty Rick Steves guide in hand, we knew exactly where to head.  I felt like Rick was my best friend after that trip, just an FYI. 

We set out to the main part of town to the Duomo.  We payed the nominal amount to go inside, and it was there that I found my favorite church/museum in Italy.  It was so beautiful and full of fun facts.  If you go to Siena, you have to go inside.  Promise me!

Here's a fun fact for you courtesy of Rick.  In the church, the heads of 172 popes are lining the main nave.  If you look at them, it's really the same 4 heads, repeated over and over.  See the picture below.



After being awed by the Duomo, we went and hung out in Il Campo, the main square, to enjoy the sun.  In the summer, they hold a huge horse race on this square.  We bought some ricciarelli, one of the local sweet treats in Siena, to enjoy while relaxing.

 After some relaxation, we headed back to our part of town and visited the Church of San Domenico.  The church holds many of relics and paintings of St. Catherine including her head. Truly, her head. It's interesting. However, we actually couldn't figure out how to get into the church and since it was almost closing time, we gave up and decided to try again the next morning. We ate at restaurant called Osteria Il Campaccio for dinner which came recommended from some friends and was located just below our hotel. The wonderful daughter of the owner of our hotel, Carlotta, actually just yelled down to them that we wanted to eat there. When we arrived, they asked if we had reservations, and we said no. Turned out, we did. That was the reservation. So we ate in a lovely little courtyard and had some of Siena's trademark pasta, Pici. I also had it with some of the trademark cheese of the region, Pecorino. So I went all local. 

After dinner, we went back to Il Campo to enjoy the square at night. We got some traditional Italian drinks (Limoncello and Agrappa--don't care for either) from this bar, Key Largo, and went up their tiny little stairway to enjoy the evening out on their benches overlooking the square. Beautiful.

(I felt very Alice in Wonderlandesque)

The next day we went back to the square to eat breakfast. It was pricy, but we felt like we should do that at least once on our trip. I enjoyed a nice croissant and cappachino while Ben had some espresso. He came back from Italy an espresso fan.

When then tried our luck again with the Church San Domenico, and this time, we were successful. In a serious departure, St. Catherine is the patron saint of many things and one is the patron saint for miscarriages. Upon arriving in Italy, I had received an email that a close friend had suffered a second miscarriage. For some reason, my phone wouldn't let me send outgoing messages, and let's be honest, I'm not techy enough to figure out why, so I wasn't able to send her my support and sympathy. I am not Catholic and I don't pray to the saints, but I did send some prayers there for her. I was overwhelmed by thinking about her in that church.

And so ends the majority of our time in Siena. After the church and lunch on the terrace where we had some panforte, another local delicacy, we caught the bus to Montalcino. But that's for the next post after I just realized how ridiculously long this one is. Probably too long, but Ben's my only reader, and this really is going to be my journal of our time there so so be it. On to Montalcino and WINE.