Home!

We finally made it home. The trip home sucked so fricken bad! James was pretty sick and we had to take a the underground to the train, the train to the airport, 3 buses to get to our plane. 9 and 1/2 hour plane ride to Newark. That plane was late so we missed our plane in Newark. We got tickets for the next plane to austin but that got us home 2 hours later than planned and then that plane was delayed. 4 hours on a plane later we arrive in Austin at about 12. Poor Andrew who was picking us up a the airport had to wait 2 hours for us. Half way through the flight to Newark from Rome James started to feel better and his fever broke which was wonderful but he still didn't feel good. we are so happy to be done with that. I'm glad I wrote down what we did every day because right now its hard to remember. It was a fabulous trip but we are both very glad to be home. Our animals are glad we are home. yay home.

Last day in Italy ! Ciao Italia!

Today was our last day in Italy! and we did nothing! all day nothing! James got sunsick yesterday and has spent the whole day in bed. He did get dressed to go down to breakfast with me but then came back and went right to bed. Poor thing. I went out this morning to get him some big bottles of water. We laid in bed, in and out of sleep. At noon I walked down the street and bought some pizza and a soda and brought it back to the room. I sat out on our little porch and ate my lunch and read while James slept. It was nice. there is a little fountain in the courtyard below and a nice breeze. then i puttered around the hotel room. I took a shower, slept for a while. at about 5 I got up to go on a walk. I was getting restless in the room. As soon as I said I was going to go on a walk it started raining but I wasn't going to let that stop me. I needed to get out. I got my umbrella and walked to St. Peters. Its such a pretty place and to be walking distance from it is awesome. Then I walked around the little neighborhood that we are in looking for some pastry. I ended up just getting some coffee. then I headed back towards the hotel to eat at a restaurant close by because there is a waiter there that has a Texas pin on his shirt. He says he has friends in Texas. So he is nice to us and I knew they wold be nice to me eating alone. I had some ravioli with ricotta and spinach. yum! When I got back to the room I found James still asleep. its the best I think. tomorrow will be a long day and he needs to be as rested as possible. Poor darling. I hope he feels better by tomorrow morning. See everyone soon!

Roaming around Rome

Today we had planned to get up early and get to St. Peters just as it opened. When the alarm went off this morning I just couldn't get myself to get up. I had another hard night of restlessness. James went off without me. He said it was just him, some nuns, altar boys and a whole bunch of priests as they started to do the morning Masses at each of the altars. He came back and we had breakfast and went back to st peters. the coffee SUCKS in Rome! he showed me around and then we went down to the tombs of the popes. saw John Paul the II tomb and St. Peters. all very cool. then we took the underground to the Colosseum and forum. It was a pretty cool building. very big. We didn't go inside cuz the line was long and I didn't feel like spending the money. We wandered around and saw some churches then headed back towards the hotel to find pizza and ice cream. By then i was in great need of a nap. I slept for about an hour and woke up grumpy! i have a heat rash on my chest and I'm having an allergic reaction to something in the air here. I was tired and itchy and I really didn't want to get up. At 6 we were going to church at the american church in rome called Santa Susanna. We got dressed and headed down there. We stopped in a church called Santa Maria della Vittoria where the Ecstasy of Saint Theresa is. That is an awesome statue and Saint Teresa of Avila is the saints name I took as my confirmation name. Very cool. After that we headed to St. Susanna and met the priests. The service was nice. I was glad to hear english. I was glad to understand everything that was going on. After Mass we chatted with Fr. Tom the priest there. He is a Paulist like our priests back home. Nice guy. After mass James was very very tired. It was strange. Going to church perked me up but wore James out. We headed back to the hotel and James is lying down. I hope he feels better soon! It would suck if he got sick right before we headed home. we will take it slow tomorrow and hope he feels better. Soon I'm going out to find food with or without him but its the first of may which is a holiday here so its hard to find food. So far an awesome trip but we are getting pretty tired and are very ready to be home. Cant wait to see home in 2 days! ciao!

Hello Rome!

Today we got up early! 6:00am to get dressed, eat breakfast, pay the hotel, take 2 buses to the train station, wait at the train station for an hour ride the train for 2 hours and finally get to Rome. All on very little sleep because again I did not sleep well. but I did sleep on the train for a while so that was good. once in Rome we jumped on a bus to our hotel. We got the hook up because James knows a priest who frequents this hotel with pilgrims. so we are special guests. We also told them it was our honeymoon so they sent up strawberries and champagne. as most everyone knows, james does not drink so I get to drink all the champagne. woot! we fooled around in the hotel for an hour or 2 and decided to head out to find food and see some sights. We went straight to St. Peters because its very close to our hotel. It was crazy packed so we didn't go in. James took me to see some other churches and sights. I was very tired but we decided to eat out and go see some other things because we are spending so little time here in Rome. We went to the Trevi fountains and threw a coin in backwards and found a restaurant to eat at. I was feeling a bit more peppy after food so we went to see the Pantheon. That is an awesome building. wow. then some ice cream. On the way home we got a little lost, which is easy to do in Rome. So it was about 9pm when we finally got back to the hotel. I am one tired girl. Our hotel has a bathtub which is something our other hotel did not have and I missed and I really wanted a bath. though it seems i have "if you give a mouse a cookie" syndrome and when i saw the bath tub in our room I wanted some bubble bath. luckly on our roamings around Rome we stumbled on a Lush! James bought be a purple lush bomb. mmm! I jumped right in the bath with a glass of champagne and my lush bath bomb. it felt so good to soak and the bathtub is huge and deep! now we are off to get some coffee and a pastry. Rome is a cool place and I like it but I think I like Florence better. I am pretty frickin tired right now and I apologize if none of this makes sense. we are going to get up early and go back to St. Peters to see the inside tomorrow. woo. busy busy. Ciao!

Last day in Firenze

I didn't sleep well again. Too much napping during the day I think. I woke up itching to walk! Croissants again at breakfast make me very happy! and goat cheese, and salami and mozzarella and cookies. mmm I love the breakfast here. We tried to buy train tickets online for tomorrow but we couldn't seem to get it to work. We decided to walk to the train station since I needed to walk. We got our tickets to Rome for tomorrow and our tickets to the airport on monday. It was nice to walk down the hill from Fiesole in the morning. It was cool and breasy. It took a few hours. we got the tickets, then went walked around looking for something to eat and decided to go over the river to a place we had found good pizza before. Pizza, soda and gelato. it was a fun lunch. I had been wanting a scarf since all the cool Italians had one. We found a pretty lavender pashmina for me. We also went into several leather shops. I tried on some sexy red gloves at one store but my fingers were just a little too long for them and they didn't have any that were bigger. Which kind of boggled me because I have frickin tiny hands. For 28 euro I might have bought them too.We wandered on towards the bus stop and found a present for a friend. Then we realized we had missed the bus stop and had gone way past it. we found another stop on our route and went up to Fiesole one last time. We got some bread for dinner and some coffee. Said goodbye to the little town and went back to our hotel room to pack. Tomorrow we leave for Rome for 3 days and on Monday we will be back in Texas. :) I sure am tired tonight. Its been a good time in Florence. A very wonderful honeymoon. I am both very relaxed and exhausted.

chillin like villians

Today I woke up sick. :( I didn't sleep well last night and woke up with a headache and a general sense of malaise. Though I was very excited at breakfast that our B&B lady was serving croissants again so I ate two! I felt I would be no fun at this point(even with the croissant eating) so after breakfast I went back to sleep till about noon. I woke feeling very perky! We decided to take the bus down to S. Miniato al Monte. It was a very very beautiful church with a very beautiful and large cemetery. Here is James being cute on the street level below the church.


We walked around the cemetery for a while. Then caught a bus over to another piazza. it was about 4 at this point and we were hungry. We hunted around and finale this store opened that had some awesome looking food called an alimentari. We got a prosciutto sandwich, a roast beef sandwich (which when he made it poured the roast beef juices on!! mmm) and a spinach pie. it was all very very very good! the bread was super crusty and the meats were awesome. one of the best lunches so far! though its hard to beat the seafood place we went to. Then we walked back towards town, across the bridge. For once James was tired and I was not! first time the whole trip. So we jumped a couple of buses back to Fiesole to get some groceries and gelato. The guy at the gelato store we like is really funny. He is a fairly young and is very proud of his English. He pronounces everything clearly and slowly. Its very cute. today was pretty awesome. now its time to eat some cheese and chill! we are doing a lot of chilling. but usually after a lot of exhausting walking. well earned chilling. :) ciao!

MUSKRATS!

Today after breakfast we went hiking! we hiked up this big hill that Leonardo Davinci took his first flight experiments. It was fun and great view and lots of fun things to see. some ruins, flowers, and lots of butterflies!

We hiked back into town and got some pizza for lunch. We tried some olive, plain tomato, and tomato with artichoke pizza. The olive was my favorite. We stopped and picked up some pastries and had some coffee. mmm we got some sugar cookies, almond custard tarts and some good bread to take home. We ate the cookies as we walked. When we got back to the B&B I took a couple hours to nap. Then we went down the hill to a little town to get some ice cream. After some very tasty gelato James saw this little road off to the side and thought we should take it. It ended up taking us all the way into the northern part of Florence. OOPS! but we stopped at the river and saw a heron, ducks, some pretty big fish, and some muskrats! We saw some muskrat love too but really I had never seen a muskrat before and was pretty frickin excited about it. I think James took video of them swimming! that was a lot of fun! it started to get dark so we headed home and an awesome dinner of Gorgonzola, belle paese, 2 kinds of bread, nectarines, green olives, and sun dried tomatoes. mmmm! so good! I love cheese.

Yesterday a guy on a scooter was coming up beside this bus that was trying to turn. Apparently the guy on the scooter was getting in the bus' way so the bus driver leaned out the window and slapped the guy in the head. The guy had a helmet on but she hit him hard enough that I heard the noise across the street. pretty funny! Italians are scary drivers. I'm still terrified when I get on the bus or walking down town. Now I'm scared they are going to hit me! Otherwise life is awesome in Italy. :) saw a squirrel today to0!

Post wedding babbling

What a relief it is to not have wedding stuff to worry about anymore. it was all beautiful and wonderful and we are happily in Italy on our honeymoon with little to no problems!
I had been losing weight before the wedding to fit back into my dress. Everything was good but then about a month before the wedding I kept losing weight. The week before the wedding I probably lost 5lbs. I was super skinny. I was so nervous I just couldn't eat. I was worrying myself away. The day before the wedding, the day of the wedding, and several days after the wedding I couldn't eat. I got sick during our trip over to Italy and had a hard time eating once I got here the first 2 days. I have a very nervous stomach. but man, even with all the walking we have been doing I've been gaining it all back. It helps that I eat cheese 3 times a day. Florence and Fiesole have some of the BEST food! we have an awesome breakfast every morning at the B&B and usually some sort of pizza or pasta for lunch then our picnic dinner. add some gelato, pastries and coffee throughout the day. though most of my clothes are still a bit big, I have no fear by the time I get back home I'll be back to a healthy weight.
I went through my email and deleted my wedding folder and threw away all my lists. It feels so good! James was afraid I would drop after the wedding with nothing to plan! I'd spent the last year doing nothing but planning. But I feel the opposite. I feel relieved. I was a stressful year. While I enjoyed most of it, the last couple of months have worn on me and I was really ready to just be married. Now it is everything I hoped it would be. We are just blissful! I'm sitting next to him while he writes postcards to our friends and family. Chatting about our day and our plans. simply wonderful. It really doesn't get much better than this. Beautiful country, wonderful food, the love of my life. I'll post more later tonight about our day. Ciao!

Italy is awesome

Today has been a pretty awesome day. James got up reeeaalllyyy early and went up to the Franciscan church to hear their morning prayers, sketch and generally "hang with the brothers". They invited him to mass and to sit up in the front of the church with all the monks. He was pretty excited about this. I slept and then had an hour to myself before breakfast which was nice. Danced like a dork in my underwear Cameron Diaz style.

I have to give props to the old ladys of Florence and Fiesole. They are badass people. swinging around on the bus like its nothing, jumping on bikes in their skirts and heels riding through heavy traffic that includes crazy bus drivers. These girls don't slow down for age.

After breakfast we went down to Florence to do some shopping. As soon as we get into Florence a pigeon poops on James. luckly it was just his sweater so he could just take it off but it was a bummer. We stopped in at this awesome paper store and bought some things. The guy who runs the shop was really awesome and we spent a while chatting with him about paper and wood presses and marbling paper. It was nice. We then walked around Florence and visited a few churches. They were all so beautiful but even after a few hours they all start to run together. James bought a bunch of post cards so be prepared people. check your mail! we walked past the really rich side of shopping. Dolce and Gabbana, Chanel and some other mainly Italian brand names. James took a picture of me drooling over Chanel. I spent a lot of time thinking " I want that" I want those leather gloves with the fur, I want that sexy leather jacket, i want those 1,000 euro shoes, I want that dress. I want! ooh so hard to want. But as my mother would say "Its good to want."


Then we went to check out the David in the square, I'm pretty sure it wasn't the real one.

After 5 hours of wandering and sight seeing we headed home. We took the bus up to Fiesole to get groceries, ice cream and to mail post cards. Every time we go into this grocery store James comments on this pig leg. He seems to really want to buy it but isn't sure they would let us bring it into the US. Its pretty gross looking and still has hair on it. I think our dog would enjoy it though.

Now we are going to chill for the rest of the evening. relax and have some dinner. Life is good! Being married to James rocks. My life is pretty awesome these days.

Liberazione!

Today was Italy's liberation day from the Nazis. We went up into Fiesole to go to Mass and we see this group of people in red scarfs and think " Oh, we are going to miss the communist parade while we are in church" not really the case. 1) no parade, 2) no communists. they were a choir and there was band. They were playing patriotic type marches and people seemed to know the words. It was pretty interesting.
Mass was very interesting. The cool thing about being Catholic is that every where you go its the same so even if you don't know the language you can still follow along. The priest was pretty un-emotive except for his eyebrows that seemed to have a life of their own. Very amusing. Here is the question of the day I need my friends back home to help me answer. What would make a nun late to mass? Picking up her habit from the dry cleaners? Its not like she was eating breakfast. Got lost in prayer? Who knows but it amused us.
Then we got some tasty lunch at a restaurant that the owner of the B&B we are staying at recommended. I had some soup that was largely tomatoes and bread. James had some pasta in sausage sauce. then some fried zucchini flowers that were only ok. we wandered around a bit and then headed home for some napping. when I finally woke up we took a route to San Domenico that has what the map calls "breathtaking views". The view out my window right now is breath taking. This whole place is breathtaking. Its hard to think it could get any better. It was a nice walk with lovely views. We stopped in San Domenico for some pizza and gelato and coffee. all tasty! James likes the strawberry gelato, that I have to admit is pretty good but I've always been a lemon fan and its really good here. then we went to the San Domenico church and then walked down a road to a church called Badia Fiesolana. It was a lovely church on the outside. Its facade is in white and green marble, typical of the Tuscan Romanesque. It was built a lot earlier than the other churches we have been to. I can only comment on the outside because they wouldn't let us inside. Maybe we will go back and see the inside. When we got gelato we also picked up some croissants for later. I'm looking forward to them because for whatever reason our hostess has stopped serving them at breakfast. :( my life is so hard! here is a picture of the church with the pretty marble facade.



And here is a picture of a typical dinner for us. Bread, 2 kinds of cheese(belle paese and smoked provolone), olives and some sort of fruit. this night it was plums! yummy! We sit in our room and pig out. so good. tonight is the first night since we got here that we went out for dinner because the grocery store is closed on Sunday. Ciao my friends!

Everyday is an Adventure

I was worried that it would rain again today but the gods of rain took pity on us and it has been beautiful all day. Right after breakfast (about 9:45) we headed to Maiano, a town very close to the one we are staying in. Very cute and picturesque. Then we wandered into Florence. its easy to just wander in florence which is pretty much what we did all day. wander. we ended up at a couple of places that James had been meaning to see but a lot was just walking and looking around the city. at about 1 we stopped at a seafood restaurant. we had awesome mozzarella and tomatoes. Then I had lasagna and he had Gnocchi and tiny calamari. I mean really really tiny calamari. They were so cute I almost didn't want to eat them! It was a lovely lunch. we started off wandering again but I find walking like this very tiring and can't do it for very long. So we head to San Marco plaza where the buses stop. We stop in at the church of San Marco which has been turned into a museum type thing. very cool but at this point I was going to drop any second and was ready to be on a bus back to the hotel. We got back at about 4:30. Its a long day of walking! I think I had earned my nap. Now I think its time to wander up the hill and find some ice cream or pastry and coffee. :) Ciao my friends!

This Post is for my Brother

Ian this one is for you. We went up into Fiesole for lunch and only one place was still open. We ordered some antipasta and some of the best tasting minestrone soup I have ever had! My brother being a long time lover of minestrone soup I took this picture for him only because I can't send him home a bowl. It was perfect on this rainy day. Then some gelato and probably the worst coffee I've had since I've been here. Nice to know that its not all perfect.

Raining! Piovere!

So its raining today. i took this as an opportunity to sleep! I needed some extra rest. I feel much more perky after 3 more hours of sleep. James spent the morning researching and plotting and writing post cards. Soon we are going to take the bus up to Fiesole to find some lunch. its just about 2 here so I'm not sure what will be open. Most places close mid-day for a couple of hours. Since we haven't left the hotel today, here is picture of wistera we took a couple of days ago. its all over the place here and it smells wonderful!

Florence is Grande!

Today was a fun day! It started off good with more tasty breakfast at our Bed and Breakfast. I really could eat croissants and coffee all day long. We took the bus to downtown Florence. Though there was a nun glaring at me the whole time. James told me she just wanted me to go to heaven and she probably thought the glaring would help. I think if she knew James and I were married she would approve more. lol. but really there are nuns everywhere! walking the streets in their habits, doing normal people things. talking on phones, drinking coffee. I think I've met one nun in texas and she does not wear a habit.

I think Florence is really happy to have Davids penis back. apparently for a while it was covered by a stone fig leaf and now it is not. You can get anything with David's penis on it. Really anything! pens, shirts, postcards, etc...

Once we got to Florence we walked over to the Duomo again. On the way we stopped at a church called The Church of S. Giovannino Degli Scolopi. We bought some awesome postcards their and lit a candle for my father at the altar of the Bleeding Heart of Jesus. It was a pretty awesome church and there was a guy with book stand outside selling dirty books. lol. We got to the Duomo and this time went in and looked around. Apparently according to a group of teenage italian girls I looked funny. They didn't like my shoes or something. I really couldn't tell but I knew they were making fun of me. I wont wear that dress again. Then we walked south across the river to the Pitti Palace and the Boboli Gardens. Wow those gardens are big and beautiful. Up on a hill so you can see the city. So nice. We stopped a few stores along the way there and back. A beautiful paper store and along one of the bridges is lined with jewelers. We went into a bookstore and bought a italian to english dictionary, a italian phrase book and short stories with each page translated in english. I spent some time in the children's book section and learned that coccinella is the word for ladybug. We stopped and had some good pizza then took the bus back up to Fiesole where we are staying. We needed some more bread so we went up to the grocery store and then stopped for some coffee and pastry. all day we drink espresso but I don't ever feel as jittery as in America. By the time we get back home I am so tired I pass our for an hour or so. Our calfs are going to be awesome when we get back. here is a picture of our travels today. We love knockers in every size but I really enjoy the big ones. Ciao!

Did I mention..

How awesome it is to be married? I'm so in love with him! It is ridiculous! Mio Marito! my husband! It is such a good feeling to be finally married and on our honeymoon. I have found my other half. It is so wonderful. The first day we were here and ordered at a restaurant James ordered for me saying "my wife will have..." ZOMG! I'm a wife! totally fabulous.


On a totally un-similar topic, Mom I know you are reading this so be jealous! there is a radiator next to the shower with a towel rack over it so our towels are warm when we get out of the shower! haha! so fabulous! though the shower its self is only big enough to stand in. Big day ahead of us! Ciao!

A quick note on porcupine and bidets

wild porcupines are very scary. I found a quill yesterday. I hope I don't meet one.

Bidets are not. they are rather pleasant. not sure why Americans are so freaked out by them.

Good day, lots of coffee and ice cream. bed time. Ciao!

Florence!

Today is very special. It is James' birthday. He is turning 51 today. Last night I talked with the owner of the B&B to see if we could have something special for breakfast. She totally came through on that. a strawberry tarte from a local bakery. mmmm! trying to explain to her that James doesn't drink was interesting. she just couldn't believe he doesn't drink any alcohol.



After our tasty breakfast we walked down to Florence. it took us several hours to get to the Duomo. one because we walked and two because we were going the wrong way for a while. Florence is an awesome city. Beautiful gardens and buildings. I have to say that italian drivers scare the shit out of me. tiny little roads with little to no shoulder and they drive fast! woo. I'm glad we don't have a car here, walking along the road is scary enough. once we got to the Duomo were so tired we didn't even want to wait in line to go in. I think next time we will take the bus down. Luckily our hostess had given us a bus ticket so we took the bus back up the hill. Learning some Italian but not as much as would be helpful. Duo espresso I've got down! The coffee here is so flipping good! holy crap. I don't even have to put milk in it to drink it. There is a little cafe in the town we are staying in that has amazing espresso. Pizza not so good but we are willing to go back for the coffee. Last night we got some cheese and fruit and olives and awesome bread from a local grocery store for dinner. we still have a bunch left so we are going to do that again for dinner tonight. mmm so much good food. we had pizza for lunch today in florence. very good. multo bene! and here is the picture James took while I wrote this blog post. lol. yay for honeymooning!

1st Day in Italy

Hey everyone! we are finally married and in Italy on our honeymoon. We haven't done much yet but that was the plan. lots of eating and lying around. we are on the side of the hill/mountain that the town of Fiesole is on. So pretty. its quiet a hike up to it but worth it. all the food so far has been awesome! We had tasty pasta last night and some awesome breakfast stuff this morning. we are going to walk up to the town and have lunch soon. here is a picture of some frickin awesome bread for y'all