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| tony bennett looking dapper in capri |
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| lake como |
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| venice parking lot |
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| too bad these things cost 80 euros for 20 minutes! |
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| firenze's finest |
ban enormous cruise ships and italy might just become the best destination around. but watching four carnival cruise ship monstrosities descend on venice like a pack of locusts within a span of 15 minutes and it's hard to feel the amore. i swear italy is everyone's 'first vacation' with bright hawaiian shirts and gilligan hats for all to enjoy. that said we were ecstatic to see several of our friends here, and food & friends are what this country is about. great to see my buddy rock klinefelter from amherst (the h is silent) who lives near venice. just awesome to see rick and eryn & amy and paul who let us crash at their villa in tuscany for several glorious wine-infused days. and fabulous to hang with cayman and vanessa down on the amalfi coast in capri, and thanks too to tony bennett for joining us for lunch. it's really not about the number of tourists that stress me out in italy, but rather the 'ratio' of tourists to locals. venice and florence are not big towns and they are blanketed by tourists of all kinds. it's difficult to get near the duomo in florence. h&m, zara, mcdonalds too have managed to squeeze out many locally owned smaller boutiques (clearly a global trend), killing a lot of the local flavor (clearly a global trend). but enough about the negative...the food is just disgustingly amazing. my tee-shirts and jeans feel like they have shrunk numerous sizes. the pizza in napoli is from another stratosphere- i don't care what hip new pizza spot in sf opened by some dbag with an imported oven from italy. the vina de la casa for $8 a liter is plentiful, unpretencious and plentiful. the handmade pasta dishes are like ambrosia from the heavens, replicated perhaps at campagnolo in nyc but at 10x the price and with 20x the attitude. love me some italy, but has to be done with friends and in smaller cities with fewer my-first-vaction.com members.
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| the ponte vecchio |
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| the duomo |
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| sippin a spritz in capri |
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| where's wolmut in pompeii |
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| the last bite of real napolitano pizza in naples |
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| the real bellagio...waayyy better than vegas |
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| venetian traffic |
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| the grand canal |
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| girlfriends in tuscany |
oh italy, how do i love thee? let me count the ways.... honestly if italy was not a significant threat to me fitting into my j brand jeans, i may just consider moving here. this trip to italy was especially bene because we were able to meet up with so many of our dear friends throughout the country. after a few blissful days living la dolce vita in belagio on lake como (side note- no george clooney sightings were had. sad face.), we caught up with emil's college buddy rock and his lovely girlfriend in venice. though sadly, i must report that both venice and florence have been absolutely taken over by mass tourism. unless you want to hang with folks fresh off a cruise ship and/or blindly following an umbrella holding tour guide, i suggest you steer clear. our next stop was tuscany where we got to live out our 'under the tuscan sun' fantasies by staying in a gorgeous villa courtesy of our good friends rick and eryn and new friends amy and paul. many a glass of wine were had at our sprawling wine country estate. so much so, that i was barely able to attend our wine tasting in adoreable multipuciano the next day. thankfully, we discovered that consuming massive amounts of handmade truflled pecorino cheese is a sure fire hangover cure (who knew?). huge grazie to our friends for inviting us to their stunning vacation home, it was an absolute treat! from tuscany we mozied over to the amalfi coast to meet up with our buddies cayman and vanessa in positano. i absolutely loved this sparkling seaside gem. the highlight of our time here was our day trip to capri where we happened to be lunching in the company of mr. tony bennett. of course we could not resist a photo op! our last stop in italy was a quick trip to pompeii followed by a delicious napolitano pizza at the original pizzeria in naples- also known as the place that compelled julia roberts' character in 'eat, pray, love' to buy fat girl jeans. noted. which returns me to point #1 about moving to italy. ciao!
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| wine tasting with friends |
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| the boys |
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| amalfi coast |
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| gorge positano |
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| pompeii with mt. vesuvius |
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| sunset in capri |
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