Right Now...

I am desperately missing the breathtaking Cinque Terre views.

But not remotely missing its endless steps.

[You cannot truly appreciate flat land until you endure these nine kilometers of uphill and downhill. And more uphill. And a little more downhill. And...Yeah. I still want my Girl Scout badge for surviving that hike. But I'm so glad my mom talked me into it, instead of lying on the beach all day. Oh, who am I kidding, I was completely envious of every single person I saw lying on the beach all day.]




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Twelve Hours in Paris.

If you had only one night to spend in Paris, what would you do?

I had planned to post my photos and stories from the trip in chronological order, but I just love these pictures too much to wait until the end. We finished off our Italian vacation with a twelve hour layover in Paris. After already spending an unexpected full day in the Florence airport, we were more than ready to get out of there and end this trip on a good note. So what did we do?

We stepped off the plane and immediately got in line for a cab. "Take us to the Eiffel Tower!" Our cab driver actually looked at us like he didn't understand. Seriously? Sorry we don't speak French, and maybe you don't speak English, but surely that is not a strange request from a couple tourists in a Paris cab.

It was sprinkling when we got in the car, and officially raining when he pulled up to the curb to drop us off. Somehow it seemed appropriate. I think Nichole is responsible for my associating Paris and umbrellas. I sure wished I had one. Unfortunately, both my mom's and my umbrellas were in our suitcases somewhere in the Paris airport, moved out of our carry-ons after the week of sunshine in Italy. And I was wearing shorts.

Shivering and soaking wet, I really couldn't have been happier. We stood in line as the rain continued and the sun went down. We finally crammed ourselves onto the lift with a crowd of fellow awe-struck tourists and made our way up the tower. The view was amazing, especially lit up at night. It's hard to take pictures in the dark when your hands are shaking, but I still have the memory clear in my mind.

It was a short, but very sweet trip. We would have wandered around and found some food had it not been dark and pouring, but at that point getting lost sounded like a terrible idea. We hopped back in a cab and hoped for at least one open cafe in the airport for dinner. Vending machine was not what we had in mind.

I guess I've never been in an airport overnight, but Charles de Gaulle was dead. So we shared the "Italian lunchable" we'd saved from the Florence airport for dinner, and napped in awkward upright positions throughout the night. I have never been so happy to see 5:30 am, when one coffee stand finally opened up.

Despite ten very unpleasant hours in the Paris airport, it was so worth it for our mini Eiffel Tower adventure and a great memory.


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First Taste of Italy.

Our first afternoon in Rome, my mom and I set off from the hotel on foot with nowhere in particular to go. We just wandered. We crossed the bridge near our hotel [Ponte Umberto, I think. I'm already forgetting the names of everything we saw.] and headed left, through a small outdoor market. Through the market we ended up at Castel San Angelo and the Ponte San Angelo, which is lined with beautiful sculptures.

We were running on very little sleep and starving, so we ordered mysterious paninis from a street restaurant near the castle [We had no idea what anything on the menu was, so we just pointed to something and hoped for the best. It turned out to be a good choice.] Next we had our first gelato in the market. I ordered something pink [it was strawberry] and it was pretty good, but after trying other places throughout the trip, this first gelato was probably my least favorite. Not bad, but the others were really good. We also didn't know at that point that you can get two flavors! Mixing is definitely the way to go.

Next we ended up on the other side of the hotel, stumbling on the Piazza Navona, which was full of tourists, restaurants, artists and street performers. My mom will probably kill me for telling this, but we quickly learned our lesson getting "tricked" into buying some bracelets by a couple smooth-talking locals who tied them on our wrists and then asked for money. We must've looked like easy targets, staring in awe at our surroundings. At least we got that out of the way on the first day and didn't fall for it again!

After taking in as much of our immediate area as possible in the first afternoon, I think we were in bed by 7:30. Needless to say, we were well-rested the next morning, for our first full day of site-seeing in Rome...

[more pictures]


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Happy Father's Day!

Aren't these Father's Day cupcake/brownie burgers and sugar cookie fries adorable? I know Father's Day is pretty much over by now, but these are so fun I still want to make some. Maybe for 4th of July?

[via Cake Wrecks, via Bakerella]


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Rooftop Views of Rome.

I don't know where to begin... My time in Italy was both amazing and exhausting. So much for a relaxing vacation. We walked at least five hours a day! Despite sore feet, it was absolutely worth it. I left feeling like we saw everything we wanted to see, and so much more. My mom took the bulk of the photos, especially later in the trip as my camera filled up [I had planned to copy my photos onto my laptop every day, but was unable to use my computer most of the trip. Three-prong plugs don't quite fit into a two-prong converter. Oops.] Luckily my mom's memory card is huge, so we ended up with over a thousand photos of the trip.

After my eight hour drive to Houston, ten hour flight to Paris, three hour layover, and another two hour flight, we finally arrived in Rome. We had a ride arranged from the airport to our hotel. My mom and I were nearly speechless on the thirty minute drive. I think we were both just in awe that we were actually in Italy. Or maybe we were saying a prayer that we would survive the ride on the crazy streets of Rome. And I thought Houston drivers were nuts...

We got to the hotel and immediately went to explore its rooftop terrace. It may have been my favorite spot of anywhere in Rome. Lined with bright potted plants and surrounded by gorgeous views of the city, we spent every evening up there with a bottle of wine, and cameras in hand. From the terrace we saw stunning sunsets, squawking seagulls, and Moammar Gadhafi's huge motorcade passing right by our hotel.

I'll post more later. There are far too many photos and stories for one update...

[For more photos, you can check my Flickr. I'll keep adding them as I have time.]


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Ciao!

[photo]

I know it's been awhile since my last post, and I feel terrible about the lack of updates. There were so many things I wanted to blog about these past ten days...

My little garden [my jalapeno plant is getting so big, still waiting on my lavender...]

Etsy finds [oh it's been way too long since I posted any]

Happy Birthday [yesterday] to my grandpa!

...and the list goes on.

I have been running around like crazy doing pre-trip errands. And staring at my computer for too many days this week. And sitting in my car for too many hours today. I am truly exhausted and more than ready for a vacation. I'm pretty sure this post isn't even coherent [sorry!]

So, I am officially signing off. Going to pack [for real, because this morning I just threw half of my belongings in a laundry basket and hopped in the car to avoid actually packing. I hate packing]. Going to bed. And tomorrow, going to Italy.

I can't wait to share my adventures and pictures with you when I return!


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