Let's Go Roma! and then Let's Go Homa!

Our whirlwind European tour was drawing to a close and our last stop was Roma.

We took a commuter train that lasted about 3 hours. Apparently, we passed through some beautiful Italian countryside, as in Under the Tuscan Sun, Italian vineyard beautiful, but we didn't get to see it. The windows for our seats were completely covered by an advertisement. Fail. So, I just had to occupy myself with the beverage cart that brought copious amounts of espresso and wine.

When we arrived into the city, we made our way to the hotel, checked in, and then set out to find, what else? Lunch! I love that eating in Europe is not rushed. Two hour meals are not unusual and could be considered on the shorter end of meal times. You get to sit, relax, and ENJOY the company and the food. After lunch, we wandered around the city for a bit and then went back to the hotel for a little siesta before dinner.

The next morning Ryan took me on the walking tour of Rome. We hit the Colosseum, Circo Massimo (Circus Maximus), Forum Boarium, Capitoline Hill, the Forum ruins, and Il Vittoriano. There are also several aquaduct ruins and just fascinating historical buildings that are amazing. We also happened along an apartment/dormitory complex that looked like it was going through some major excavations. What happened was that the complex was wanting to expand, but when they went to break ground, they found some more ancient ruins and now had to excavate instead of building. I joked to Ryan that Italians are probably so used to this happening that when it does, they get upset because there will be a delay in productivity. But if something like this were to happen in the States, we would be over the moon.

The walking tour didn't take very long so on the way back we stopped at a cute little restaurant that was decorated in Cracker Barrel style in that it was all kitschy. A great atmosphere with the wait staff breaking into song every now and then, and they gave us a free eggplant starter that was yummy! Another thing about eating in Europe, everything is so fresh. I noticed that the menus will indicate if an item is made from a frozen product. We could definitely tell that the pizza and pasta that we had that day was fresh dough and fresh pasta. After lunch, we trekked over to the Fontana di Trevi. I threw in the requisite coin and off we went to get away from the enormous crowd of tourists. We stopped for an afternoon gelato and wine. Once again, we stopped for a siesta before dinner. Our last dinner in Roma was stupendous. We were plied with several complimentary starters and my main course was a penne vodka dish that was made table side. Molto bene! Unfortunately, and I do mean unfortunately, with all the starters that were provided, I did not have it in me to indulge in the dessert cart.  Both Ryan and I settled for a cappuccino and caffé corretto. A very enjoyable end to our time in Roma and Europe.

So the trip home. On the plus side, we made all of our flights. The bad side, we had to do what I call the Home Alone sprint for each of our connections. We had a connection in NYC and Atlanta. The connection in NYC would have been fine had our flight from Roma not been over an hour late, nor had we had to wait 45 minutes for our luggage to come through just to recheck it again. Thankfully, both Ryan and I have global entry that allowed us to bypass the hours long line at customs. Thankfully, a Delta counter agent let us cut through the security line (where we saw Penn Jillette, of Penn and Teller fame, waiting in line just like the commoners). We knew the connection in Atlanta would be a little dicey as we only had 40 minutes between flights, and we were arriving in E terminal and departing from B terminal, but yet again, we were late leaving NYC, so again, we ran from the gate to the train and from the train to the gate. And then we were home.

What an amazing, amazing trip! I had a grand ol' time and can't wait to go back! Thanks to Ryan for taking me on this trip of a lifetime!

Milano- and not Alyssa or the cookie.

Our time in Paris had come to a close, and we were off to Milano. We decided to be adventurous and take an overnight train. After navigating through the train station, we finally made it into our private car and were pleasantly surprised when the train attendent came by and gave us some goodies (toiletries, slippers, bottles of water, etc).  

During our trip planning, we (and by we, I mean Ryan) read that the dining car can get pretty crazy, so we decided to not mess with it and stopped by a grocery store and stocked up on bread, cheese, and vino. When we were all settled in, and the train was on its way, we started a movie and broke into our grocery store goodies. At some point during the night, we passed through the Alps, but it was too dark to really see anything. We pulled into the Milano Centrale at 5:30. In. The. Morning. Let me just say, that 5:30 am in Milano in December, it's dark and it's cold. As in there was snow on the ground cold. Luckily, our hotel was only a few blocks away, so we trudged on. Did I mention that check-in time was 2:00 pm? The desk clerk let us leave our bags and advised us to check back around noon to see and maybe our room would be ready early, depending if the current occupants checked-out early. Back out into the darkness and cold we went.

Almost 7 hours to kill and absolutely nowhere to go. Nothing was open, and we had no idea of when things would start to open. We headed back to the train station and bought a day pass for the metro. We went down to the Duomo and Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. The Christmas lights were still on and the piazza was completely deserted, so it did make for some great picture taking. We wandered down into the Galleria and saw all the high end shops that would have been fun to go into had it not been so early o' thirty. Finally, shops were starting to open, and we ducked into a small café for coffee and pastries, which perked us up a little bit. 

Fast forward a few hours of more aimless wandering and metro riding and window shopping, we decided to take a chance to see if our room was ready, even though it wasn't quite noon yet, and it was! Praise jeebus. And then we napped.

Roused and ready to go, our only plans for the night was to see Da Vinci's Last Supper painting. After meeting up with our tour group, we took a tour of Castello Sforzesco. Although not in use now, it is home to some great art, including some wall sketches from Da Vinci as he worked on another fresco, and antiquities.

The Last Supper was ah-may-zing(!) and in pretty good shape for not being a fresco, but simply a wall mural and for being nearly destroyed by bombers during WWII. Of course no pictures were allowed, pretty much nothing was allowed outside of breathing, and that probably would have been restricted if it were possible. It was neat to find out that the painting is in the dining hall of the monastery, so way back when, the monks got to be in its presence for meals. Only groups of 20-25 people are allowed in at a time and only for 15 minutes at a time. It was truly a humbling experience to be in the presence of something that I have known about for almost my entire life. Of course, I went all Dan Brown and examined it for the hidden clues listed in the book.

After the tour, we made our way back to the hotel to wash up and then headed out for pre-dinner drinks and then found a small restaurant for dinner. The one thing that I really liked about eating in Europe was that the tax and tip is already built into the price. So for our dinner: 2 waters, a bottle of wine, a pizza, a pasta dish, 2 gelatos, 1 cappuccino, 1 caffé corretto (espresso with grappa) was 37 euro flat. 

 And that was our Milano adventure. Lesson learned? Book the hotel for the night before so that we have somewhere to sleep when we get in at 5:30 in the morning. Next stop- Roma!

 

Le Tour de Europa 2012- Intro and Paris

This amazing trip came about when Hubs was trying to get on at a conference in Paris. He promised me, however, that no matter what, we would be going. It was just a matter of who would be paying for said trip. He also sweetened the deal by asking if there was anywhere else that I would be interested in going. Well, duh. I think the question was more where do I not want to go. Taking into consideration that it would be dead winter when we traveled, we decided to head for Italy. This is what our trip would look like: TUS-ATL-CDG. Overnight train to Milano. Commuter train to Roma. And then FCO-JFK-ATL-TUS.

TUS-ATL:

•  Nothing out of the ordinary, just left at the butt-crack of dawn.

ATL-CDG:

•  Short layover in ATL- thank goodness for status that let us into the Delta Skylounge
• Was it terrible of me to answer a lady who asked if I spoke Spanish, that no hablo español?
• No joke- I was excited to be on a plane for the next 7 hours.  

Finally, Paris:

• We actually landed an hour earlier than anticipated, again at the butt-crack of dawn. (Sidenote: CDG is a seriously weird airport. Nothing about the layout makes sense, and I will take my cue from Hubs and be thankful that we did not have to fly out of there). We made our way to the metro station and arrived very early to Ryan's friends' apartment and promptly woke them up out of bed. Apologies to Pierre-Arnaud and Constance. They were very gracious and plied us with coffee and fresh croissants and chocolate pastries. 
• Weather was dicey; we had to carry an umbrella with us everywhere.
• Got acquainted with vin chaud (mulled spiced wine) and just vin in general with every meal.
• Food, food, food. Incredible, amazing, would move there just for the food itself.
• Experienced Avenue des Champs-Élysées and Avenue Montaigne. Avenue Montaigne seemed to be a little bit higher end, and I was informed that had the shopkeepers actually seen us coming out of the metro station, we probably would not have been allowed inside. I did enjoy being offered champagne when we went inside Dior. Both husband and I came home with little souvenirs from this delightful little avenue.
• Got my fill of my favorite Impressionist artist, Monet, and many others.
• Introduced to the Raclette- which I expound on here.
• Introduced to Parisian dining in general- which goes long and late, but very enjoyable.
• Finally got to meet all of Ryan's Parisian friends. I had met a couple already, but had yet to meet everyone. It's a very good thing that they were wanting to practice their English.
• Visited all the touristy must-sees: Arc de Triomphe,
  Place de la Bastille, La Basilique du Sacré Coeur de Montmartre, Moulin Rouge, and Notre Dame. We saw the Eiffel Tower, but did not take a special trip to it.
• I was proud of myself that I could figure out the metro system. It actually makes sense and runs on time. Who knew that a subway system could run efficiently after growing up on MARTA. We never waited more than 5 minutes for a train. Although, it was weird to me that at each stop, if you wanted on or off, you had to open the doors yourself on the older trains.
• I definitely busted out the Asian photographer by taking pictures of everything on the camera AND the iPhone.
• Extremely grateful that Hubs has a pretty advanced working knowledge of French. It allowed us and will allow us to not be trapped into the tourist areas when we go back.  

We had a grand old time here, and I know it will not be the last time we visit. 

  
  Next stop: Milano.

A Mile High and a Mile Long

**Apologies in advanced for my long-windedness**

A couple of weeks ago, Hubs and I got to visit Denver. He was going for a conference, and I just happened to tag along since I had never been. I was really looking forward to this trip. A few days off work, an airplane ride, and a hotel stay. Good times ahead.

When I arrived to my gate, I was surprised to see that Hartsfield had installed little walls of outlets, 2 on each side, between every other row of seats at each gate, which is nice, but very hard to come by unless you get to the gate really early, which I did. I was all settled in with my electronics plugged in, happy in my little social media stalking world, when hunger struck. D'oh. The drawback to traveling alone. If you get up, you give up your seat. In the end, the stomach always wins, and I went off in search of sustenance and caffeine. Luckily there was Dunkin' Donuts near the gate that could provide both. Getting food at the airport is always an adventure. For example:

Me: My biscuit was supposed to have cheese (I know, not very Paleo, but I was on vacation dammit).
Server: (Blank stare)- Okay.
Me: I don’t think it’s on there.
Server: You ordered cheese? (Sheesh, I thought I was speaking English, maybe I should have been speaking “text”.)
Me: Um, yes.

Fortunately, I was able to watch her add the cheese and only the cheese.

The actual flight itself was fine; I slept through most of it. Take-off was interesting with all the swaying back and forth in the wind and rain. And I think this was my first flight ever that had a female captain. Girl Power!

I made it to the hotel and got my key from the front desk and had really bad “der” moment. Although, not entirely my fault. I guess I don’t stay in fancy hotels enough, and by fancy I mean the Sheraton. My ass is usually relegated to a Holiday Inn Express. Apparently, nowadays at these fancy hotels, you have to swipe your room key to get to any floor, instead of just the fancy penthouse suites. Ms. Front-Desk-I’m-Only-Working-Here-Until-The-Wedding-With-My-Rock-Of-Gibraltar-Sized-Ring forgot to inform me of this teeny, but oh so important fact. When I got into the elevator, I pressed the button, and off I went. But then I stopped on a floor that was not my own. It wouldn’t have been such a huge deal except for the fact that the doors did not open. Not so good. Leave it to me to get the defective elevator. Talk about an extinction burst. If that 17 button wasn’t broken before, it was now. Luckily, I kept my wits about me and pressed the open door button. I stepped out into the hallway and pressed the up arrow hoping to get a different elevator. No luck, same elevator. Okay, let’s try this again. 17. Doors close. Up, up, up, wait you missed my floor. Again. 19. This time, I finally saw the little room key swiper. Let me give it whirl. I am such a genius.

I was able to meet one of my sorority sisters for dinner at a brewery called Wynkoop where I got to taste my first bison burger ever. It was fantabulous. After dinner, before dropping me off back at the hotel, she drove me around a little bit pointing out different things that I might like to see. She specifically pointed out the capitol building. Remember this. This is the impetus that would lead me on a walking tour of downtown Denver that I am pretty sure that I didn’t want to have.

With Hubs busy most of the day with the conference meetings, I was on my own for entertainment. On this particular day, Hubs had a meeting that was in a different hotel, so I decided that I would walk him to the hotel and then go exploring.

Okay, so I will preface this by saying that when my friend was driving me around, I had no clue where I was in relation to my hotel. So, when I decided to go exploring it was very last minute and very spontaneous, as in, I did not consult Google. I figured, hey it’s a capitol building, I’m pretty sure that I can pick it out of the skyline and head towards it. Well, that might have worked had I actually picked out the right landmark. So to save myself the humiliation of actually typing out what happened, I will let Google Maps illustrate.

So, this is the route that I could have taken had I wanted to be there in, oh, five minutes:

This is the route that I actually took because I was walking towards the wrong building and too stubborn to look at the visitor guide maps:

On the bright side, I got to peruse the 16th street mall and since it was such a great day weather wise, I didn’t mind being outside, and I got some exercise. At the end of the day, I got the picture of the mile marker. Of course, that didn’t stop Hubs from the obligatory pat on the head when I relayed yet another story of my lack of directional intuition.

On an even brighter note, I discovered a great little place to eat that is not here in Georgia. I had actually planned to go down to the hotel coffee shop for lunch and pick up something there, but as I found out, it is a coffee shop in the true sense in that once the muffins run out, they’re out. Now I was in a pickle. And then I happened to look outside and see that right across the street was the 16th street food court and the first thing closest to me? Noodles and Company. What the hell? Definitely can’t go wrong with a name like that. So, I hopped on over, and it was like stepping into heaven. A place dedicated to serving all things noodles. The best part? Their signature dish is macaroni and cheese. Oh. My. Gravy. It’s almost a good thing that there isn’t one here in Ga. I would be HUGE and poor from eating there every day. Which is what I did. Mac and cheese the first day and beef stroganoff (pictured) the second day.

After the conference was over, we stayed our final night with friends who live in a nearby town. I cooked a big family meal, as a thank you for letting us crash and carting us around. And let me tell you, there is nothing more out of your comfort zone than cooking in someone else’s kitchen. Our last morning there, they took us to a place that is known for their awesome brunch and also featured on one of my favorite tv shows, Man vs. Food.

We made it out of there just in time, a foot of snow was dumped on the city the day after we left. All in all, a great city. I thoroughly enjoyed my first time out there and hope to get back there soon. Although, my skin wasn’t so thrilled with the extreme dry air. I am still trying to recuperate from the snake skin that I developed out there.