Ok, here we go with part two!

DAY 4: Monday, July 1
(This was the longest travel day, and although I would love to not spend 6.5 hours to get to one little town - I wouldn't trade for anything for the memories we made!)
We were up and at 'em to leave the B&B by 6:15am (even too early for Donatella to make us breakfast) so we could catch our train to La Spezia at 7:10am. After misreading the train schedule (turns out Arrivo doesn't mean Departure... who knew?) and being assisted by some very helpful men who worked at the station, we still ended up on the wrong train. We didn't even know until the Conductor came around and let us know... whoops. Turns out we were headed to Viareggio where we would arrive at 9:15am, and then the train from there to La Spezia didn't leave until 12:22pm. 

With over two hours to kill, Nathan was convinced we were near the ocean and I had the same inkling. After walking for about 15 minutes we saw it - the Mediterranean Sea! Viareggio ended up being a super cute beach town where I'm pretty sure we were the only Americans. 

After stopping for a snack (when you've got time to kill...eat!) we made our way back to the train station in plenty of time to get our tickets and get on the train to La Spezia... or so we thought. The ticket machine was moving like a snail and wasn't cooperating with Dave. The minutes kept ticking and our train was due to leave at 12:22pm (I think I'll always remember that departure time!), and we still didn't have tickets. Finally, Nathan was able to figure it out - but it would only let us do six tickets at a time, of course there are seven of us. The first six tickets printed out at 12:20, but we still had one more to go. All of us girls were doing a nervous/I gotta pee dance and when the final ticket printed we bolted. Yes, the seven of us sprinted through an Italian train station and just made the train! (Meagan also had to validate the tickets at this stupid electronic booth right outside the train, so that added another level of stress - and another nervous dance.) Of course, once we arrived we couldn't stop laughing about how funny it had been (except for Dave - he hadn't found the humor, yet.)

After arriving at La Spezia, we had to take another train to Riomaggiore - the first town of Cinque Terre. We planned to take the scenic walk from town to town, but unfortunately all of the paths were closed except for the one most north. Instead, we did sight seeing in Riomaggiore and ate a delicious seafood lunch at La Lanterna. 

Meagan had a delish pesto pizza!

We took a quick train to another town, Vernazza, and took in the scenes there. After watching some scuba divers create an anchor in the bay area, we grabbed some gelato and decided to head back. (I'm certain we spent way more time getting to Cinque Terre than we were actually there!)

Although Cinque Terre was pretty, I have to say it wasn't as pretty as the beautiful postcards. But that may be because I was so tired of travelling I couldn't bring myself to like it (ha!), or because we couldn't walk from town to town on the gorgeous trail. Oh, yeah - Dave also got pooped on by a bird.

We took the right train back (thank God!) and arrived back in Florence around 10pm. 

Beers were a necessity for the ride home.

We hadn't had dinner, but I was saving my tummy for a KEBAB! I was obsessed with kebabs when I lived in New Zealand (which is probably why that was the heaviest point of my life), and I had seen a couple stands when we walked through Florence. Adam and I stopped in the kebab shop, and although it was different from what I had in New Zealand - it satisfied my craving for the time being.

(Disclaimer: This is actually a kebab shop we passed in Viareggio. My two favorite things in one!)

And then it was finally, finally bed time. 

DAY 5: Tuesday, July 2
In true 'Panic by Dave' fashion, we were late meeting our bus driver for the day's festivities - a cooking class! This is the one thing Debbie had been planning since they decided they were taking us to Italy, and after the crazy day we had the day before, we were all very excited. 

We were grouped with another couple and a woman who was travelling around Italy by herself (she actually went to the same high school as my mom - crazy how small the world is!). Our chef instructor for the day was Maurizio Moretti, and we loved him! I knew we would be instant best friends when he cracked open a bottle of wine at 10am. If anyone is looking for a cooking class in Tuscany - Good Tastes of Tuscany is the place to go! It was very hands on, but not at all overwhelming. Plus, you get to take home your apron and a cookbook.

Here's my terrible American interpretation of our menu.

• Panzanella
• Homemade pasta with tomatoes and garlic (Kelly - I thought of you when we cut tomatoes!)
• Onions stuffed with onion, cheese and oregano
• Pannacotta with strawberry sauce

Sisters!

Adam was in charge of keeping the wine flowing - he got in trouble a couple times for not being fast enough.

Adam always gets mad when I preheat the oven and forget to take the cookie sheet out, so I was thrilled to see that Chef Maurizio preheated the oven and the pan. When I asked him why he did it (to rub it in Adam's face) he said, "It heats the pan... and I forget I put it in there." Dangit, so I'm still not right.

No Kid Hungry in Tuscany! (Chef Maurizio loved taking this picture with the sunglasses. For real!)

After the cooking class ended around 3pm, it was time for a wine nap! After a nice little nap, we had dinner at Alla Bella Vecchio again (it's so convenient and good!), grabbed gelato (shocker) and then Adam and I went out. One of my best friends, Christine, studied abroad in Florence in 2009 and sent over some recommendations for food and drinks so we headed in that direction. We accidentally ended up stumbling upon one of the bars she recommended, Red Garter. After one drink we decided to move on because it was all Americans. We headed a couple doors over to a small English Pub, Kikuya, where we actually met a couple of Americans who gave us some tips about Rome. The guy had done his student teaching at an American school in Rome (he taught an Ethiopian princess' daughter!) and was excited to start teaching abroad again once he had two years of real teaching under his belt. I think I need to be a teacher at an American school overseas - he said the Christmas and end-of-the-year gifts are crazy - one of his colleagues got a Cartier watch!

After a few drinks there and chatting with our new friends, we decided it was time for another kebab! This time, we went somewhere else and it was much closer to a New Zealand kebab than the other one - score!

DAY 6: Wednesday, July 3
I barely slept at all on Tuesday night due to some awesome indigestion (total overshare...also, if this is what getting old is like, I don't wanna do it), so I kind of felt like a zombie for a lot of the day Wednesday. We were up early again for our wine tour. Originally, the plan was to visit Venice, but after the mess on Monday we decided no more trains until Rome.

Panic by Dave was in full force that morning, as we thought we were meeting a bus driver at a specified point, but in reality we were supposed to meet at the wine school, Tuscan Wine Time, for an hour wine tasting lesson prior to the actual tour. We showed up 30 minutes late and of course the only seats available were in the front row. Good thing the teacher had a good sense of humor about it and immediately poured us wine. 

After the class, we piled into our van with our driver, Guiseppe. We decided he was a potential suitor for Kelsey, and he said he would marry her when his wife got old in 5 years. Perfect! A quick stop a Piazzale Michelangelo again (and a quick picture in a Ferrari for Nathan), and we were off to the Chianti region.

Brief stop in a cute town for some awkward photo ops!

We arrived at Villa Montecchio about 30 minutes later, and we spent the next hour or so learning a lot about wine and olive oil. Turns out Chianti is very regulated in Italy and there is a very detailed process (through the government) that must be completed or the wine cannot be exported. 

Our tour guide, Ariana.

I always heard that olive oil in America is not regulated, but didn't know how to tell if what I was getting the good stuff. Turns out Bertolli and Filippo are the worst. Here are the three keys to good olive oil.
1. Must be kept in a dark, glass bottle.
2. Must be produced and pressed in the same country. From the time the olive is picked until it is made into olive oil can't be more than 8-12 hours, so it's impossible to pick the olives and have them transported elsewhere in that window.
3. If the grading is on the bottle (it isn't always), it must be under 0.8 to be considered Extra Virgin, 0.8-1.2 to be considered Virgin, and anything over 1.2 is just olive oil. Of course, Extra Virgin is the one you want.

Adam has to touch everything.

We had a delicious lunch of cheese, bread (with olive oil!) and some charcuterie, with plenty of wine to go with it. We tried their Chianti, Chianti Classico, Chianti Riserva and two Super Tuscans. The super tuscans are not made with at least 80% Sangiovese grapes, which is why they cannot be considered a Chianti. 

I think this is the only picture I have of the whole family! (And of course it's in my dumbest outfit.)

Big group shot

Heaven forbid he let us take a normal picture - instead he has to tickle me.

Kelsey's potential suitor, Guiseppe

I don't know what to do with my hands! Love her.

Another wine nap was in order when we got back, so Kelsey, Adam and I headed back while the others headed for a special pottery shop where Debbie got her souvenirs. 

Christine had also recommended Dante's as the 'best restaurant in Florence' and it happened to be pretty close to where we were staying, so we decided to give it a go. Hate to say that it was probably our worst meal in Italy (other than the gross lunch we had outside the Vatican). Now that doesn't say much - because bad food in Italy still rivals some of the best here in America, but we were kind of disappointed.  I did finally have my first veggies on the trip! There were small pieces of broccoli in my penne with chicken and cream sauce.

Guess what we did after dinner? We got gelato! However, I did not partake for the first time all trip. The gelato place (a new one, of course) was located in this super cute area next to a restaurant called 4 Leoni. Would have loved to have had dinner there one night, but we didn't stumble upon it until our last night. 

All week, we noticed a rooftop bar right on the river and decided we were all going to have drinks up there on the last night. We kept our word and headed to the Westin Excelsior for fancy cocktails and amazing views. It was a perfect way to end our time in Florence. 

Blurry, but at least you can kind of see the view.

After a late night kebab for Dave (we had to take him to the second place we went!), we all headed back to get ready to leave for Rome in the morning. 

Ok - I promise to wrap this trip up in my next post!

Italy: Part I

After 3 years in the planning, I can't believe our trip to Italy is over! Even more so, I can't believe how incredibly amazing it was. I tried to recap every day with notes on my iPad and grab a business card from the restaurants we dined at, so I guess we'll see how well I did with that. Here goes nothing!

DAY 1: Friday, June 28
After a 9 hour flight with our TVs not working, we landed in Rome at 7:30am. Customs was really stressful - if you define stressful as the Customs agent not even looking at our Passports. We took the train from the airport to the train station in Rome, where we took another train to Florence - our home for the next five glorious days! After making the mile trek (with luggage), we arrived at our adorable bed & breakfast - Monte Oliveto. We had the whole place to ourselves and immediately loved the woman who ran it - Donatella. She was a little thing with bright red hair and the cutest clothes - all Italians are so effortlessly glamorous!

Don't mind Adam ruining my shot of our room...

The view from our bed.... I could get used to this!

Our private terrace.

After settling in our rooms, we headed off for our first taste of Italian food at Trattoria Sabatina. It was here that we started our trend of being the only Americans in the restaurant (seriously, we were often the only Americans at the restaurants we visited, and I LOVED it!). I wasn't really paying attention when our waiter was explaining some of the dishes in broken English, and ordered Panzanella, basically a soggy bread and veggie salad. As can be expected (we're in Italy!), it was so delicious and I would have never ordered it otherwise. So glad I did! Getting the trip off on the right foot - we also enjoyed a couple bottles of wine.

After a much needed post-lunch nap, we all experienced our first of many (many, many) cups of authentic Italian gelato at La Sorbettiera. We had gelato at least once a day, but none really compared to this place. Donatella told us to steer clear from the "puffy" gelato in the display cases, as it's "puffy" due to a bunch of chemicals they pump into it. Even though it's not as pretty, make sure you get the flat kind.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Florence - crossed the Ponte Vecchio, watched a Ferrari Club whiz by us, admired how much the children and adults hang out outside without electronics, and decided on Alla Vecchia Bettola for dinner (another fabulous Donatella recommendation where we were the only Americans). We learned that Italians eat late - we arrived at 8pm, and the place didn't even start getting busy until 9pm. Another gelato and cannoli stop, and then everyone else went straight to bed. However, Adam and I bought a bottle of wine and enjoyed it on our fancy terrace at the B&B.

DAY 2: Saturday, June 29
I'm going to go ahead and say this was the longest day for Adam. He heard an alarm go off at 4am (he thought it was 5am because his watch had synced up wrong), and couldn't go back to sleep. So he went wandering through the streets of Florence, tasted his first of many shots of Espresso and then came back and hung out on the terrace. Dave is generally an early bird, so Adam decided to be romantic and throw rocks at this parents' window to see if they were awake. Guess what? They weren't. Once everyone else woke up about five hours later, we enjoyed our first breakfast at the B&B, and it was so delicious! It was the perfect amount of bread, pastries and fruit - nothing too heavy that would make us drowsy for the miles of walking we did each day.

Front porch of the B&B

We were planning to go to Cinque Terre on Monday, so we decided to stop by a local travel agent and secure our train tickets. While waiting, we had the pleasure of watching an old man feed his toddler of a grandchild a cigarette to calm her down. That was a sight you don't see very often!

The rest of the day was spent wandering around beautiful Florence. It was my favorite city of all we visited - I loved how relaxed it was, and the scenery didn't hurt! One thing I noticed about Italy is that even the most touristy spots are never very crowded. We started at Piazzale Michelangelo, where we got the best views of Florence. After that hike, we were all starving (and this girl was in need of a big glass of white wine). We randomly stumbled on a little pizza place that had the best pizza we had all trip. Highly recommend I'Pizzacchiere if you ever visit.

Piazzale Michelangelo

The girls!

Love this kid. We had so much fun together!

Insanely delicious pizza at I'Pizzacchiere

After lunch, we visited the Accademia Gallery to see the Statue of David, and since we reserved tickets we only waited in line maybe 30 minutes, but once we were in I could have done cartwheels around David! It was never shoulder to shoulder anywhere we went (except for some parts of the Vatican Museum, but we'll get to that later). By the way, David was massive. I couldn't stop staring and wondering how in the world a 26 year old Michelangelo could pull something like that off in just two years. (Fun fact: I know Michelangelo was 26 because Kelsey and I were good students and sat through a 5 minute video on the history.) We also saw Il Duomo, which was also larger than life. How did people so long ago pull off such incredible architecture?

Il Duomo - and Adam's dome

After all that walking, Adam was basically a zombie (even three espresso shots later), so he headed back to take a nap. The rest of us decided it was wine time and started our search for a wine bar. Turns out Dave has very specific guidelines for what a wine bar is, so we ended up stopping into a little market and grabbing a couple bottles of wine, some olives and some cheese and heading back to the B&B for our own little wine bar. It was much more fun that way, anyway. Dinner that night was in this adorable courtyard of a restaurant called Le Barrique. The waiter was even more charming than the setting, and we tried to talk him into coming to America and marrying Kelsey. (Kels - I have their card, so I'm sure we can still make that happen.)

The night ended with us kids heading to a local pub and playing darts. Adam and Nathan even beat the locals! Must have been the limoncello shots they took.

Excuse me, sir... can I come down there?

DAY 3: Sunday, June 30
Our first day trip was to Siena - about a 1.5 hour bus ride from Florence. After missing the first bus (we couldn't find the train station, then we had to wait in line for tickets, then the line was too long so we couldn't fit on the first train...), the second one pulled up minutes later and we were off! Siena is famous for their annual Palio race, which was occurring two days later on July 2 (thanks for the tip, Jason! I wish we could have gone!). The city is made up of 17 contrades, which have their own flags, mascots and chants. Out of those, nine compete in the Palio race. Although we didn't get to see the actual race, the festivities had already begun - we passed by various streets that were completely blocked off by particular contrades and all of the men were belting out these fun chants. It was very cool!

We walked through the Piazza del Campo, where the race takes place, and found a pizzeria for lunch - Il Vicolo. After stuffing our faces with pizza, we headed over to the Duomo in Siena - another gorgeous cathedral. We weren't allowed in due to our clothes, so after walking around its perimeter, we all sat on the front steps where Kelsey and Adam fell asleep. We contemplated leaving them, but decided it would be best to wake them up. I'm pretty sure we got some gelato at some point, but I can't remember...

Piazza del Campo

One thing I love about all of Italy is that you can be walking down a busy road, turn down an alley way and be the only ones on the next street over. And you can also run into some pretty amazing views!

Espresso fiend! Seriously, he would say he had to go to the bathroom and we'd pass him in a cafe taking a shot of espresso.

The train back to Florence was a nightmare. You're not guaranteed a spot on the bus, so the line starts forming about 30 minutes prior to departure. We were second in line and by the time the bus got there the line was pretty long. The bus driver (totally on purpose) decided to stop the bus in the middle of the line, so it was a mad dash to get a seat. I lost just about all faith in humanity at that point!  Nathan and I squeezed our way on and were able to save seats for the rest of the group, but unfortunately the family that was first in line were the only ones who didn't get a seat! It was very chaotic and I felt so bad for them. However, I happened to sit in front of an American couple and got to chatting with them about all they had done on their trip. The day before, they did a wine tour in Tuscany and loved it. Turns out, we decided to follow in their footsteps on Wednesday.

Once we got back to Florence, we grabbed some more wine and had our own happy hour on the front porch of the B&B (I'm sure there was also a nap in there somewhere). Dinner was on a lovely patio at a place called Napoleone. Per usual, the food was amazing and the wine was refreshing. Again, I'm sure we ended the night with more gelato, but they're all running together!

That's all for now! Rather than turn one post into 37 scrolls, I'm going to split these suckers up. Part II coming up...