Under the Tuscan Sun

In Tuscany I got the Italian experience I had been hoping for, it was so beautiful and romantic, I wanted to rent a villa and stay for a month! We stayed in Florence, which I loved. We started the day off by visiting Michelangelo's David, which was so beautiful and awesome. It's kind of dumb, they have him in a different museum than all the other good art, but I guess it's a good way for them to make money off the tourists. After that we went to the Duomo, but the line was long so we didn't go in, just looked at it from the outside. Next we went to the Uffizi gallery, which I think was probably my favorite museum of the trip (and that's saying a lot considering the other amazing museums we visited like the Louvre and the Prado). It didn't have as many paintings as the Louvre, but I think there were a higher percentage of paintings that I really loved, like the Birth of Venus, and some more great Carravagio paintings. Right outside the Uffizi is the Piazza della Signoria, where we sat and enjoyed some.... you guessed it, gelato. Then we crossed the Ponte Vecchio and climbed up to the Piazza Michelangelo, which has amazing views of the city.

The next day we took the train to Pisa, where we jumped off just long enough to see the leaning tower, and then ran back to the train station and headed to Cinque Terra. Cinque Terra is really beautiful.... we spent some time on the beach there and a little bit of time wandering through the city before heading back to Florence. That night we had maybe the best meal of the trip (tied with Switzerland, in my mind). We read a recommendation in a guide book for this little Trattoria, that was kind of underground and tiny with tables packed in. It was VERY authentic, a lot of the people eating there were locals, which is a good sign. They sat us at a table with about 8 other people, which was different, but cool. The food was amazing!

The Tuscany area was quite possibly the most beautiful, romantic place I have ever been, and I was sad to leave. To see all our pics, click HERE.

When in Rome

Our first stop in Italy was Rome, which was really different from what I expected. I don't know why, but I guess I was picturing something kind of rustic and romantic. Rome is crazy! Granted, we were there just a couple of days before the European soccer championships, so I think that added to the craziness. But everywhere we went there were giant crowds of tourists. It was hard to move without bumping into someone taking a picture, or someone trying to sell something. So a little too touristy for me, but still very cool to see such amazing historical sites.

Our first stop was the Colosseum, which really was amazing to see, even with Steve chanting "Maximus, Maximus" in my ear ;) After that we explored some Roman ruins and Piazzas and monuments. It was so, so, so hot, and with no trees anywere for shade, so we were forced to get some gelato to cool down ;) Actually, we were forced to get gelato every day in Italy, sometimes twice a day. It really is so good! I was so excited to discover that there are Italian gelato places near our new apartment in Miami, because I have been missing it! Steve remembered where his favorite gelato place was from his last European trip, right near the Trevi fountain. So we visited the fountain and threw our coins in, and then got our giant 4 flavor cones.

Next we headed over to the Spanish steps and the Villa Borghese park, which was my favorite spot in Rome, with a beautiful view of the city. Finally the romantic Rome I had been looking for! Steve bought me a rose from a vendor in the Piazza del Popolo, and we ended the night with, of course, Italian food for dinner.

The next day we got up early to try and beat the crowds at St. Peter's and the Vatican Museum. It worked at St. Peter's, we got in with no line and were able to spend some time admiring the amazing cathedral, including Michelangelo's Pieta. By the time we left, the line was already long for the Vatican, so we had to wait out in the hot sun with our 3 euro cans of soda :( It was worth it though, the museum had a really great collection, and of course, the Sistine Chapel was a must see.

After we left we had an awful Italian lunch....win some, lose some... and while wandering kind of aimlessly we happened to come across the changing of the guard outside the palace! We were so glad we got to see it since we hadn't heard anything about it, it was really cool. They had a band playing the National anthem and two military groups exchanging the post, it was a fun thing to watch. Then we went to the Pantheon, which we had seen from the outside the day before but not the inside. Next we walked over to the Saint Angelo castle, and then had some dinner and went back to the Trevi fountain to see it at night and get gelato for dessert.

We had been planning on spending a third day in Rome, but since it was so crowded and crazy there, and since we had already seen most of the main sights, we decided to head north the next morning to give us a little time in Switzerland at the end of the trip. To see all of our Rome pics, click HERE.

We Love Spain!

Steve and I were both surprised to discover that out of all the amazing places we visited, Spain was our favorite! Especially Barcelona, it is such a nice, beautiful city. Our first night in Barcelona we went to a flamenco show at Tablao de Carmen in the Poble Espanyol. It was so amazing, and a perfect Spanish experience to begin our time in Spain. The dancers were so much fun to watch, and we got a dinner of Spanish tapas to enjoy during the show.

The next day we explored the giant Montjuic Park, including the Montjuic castle. We went to the Olympic Village and soccer stadium, and then found a great outdoor cafe to have lunch way up on a cliff with a view of the city and ocean. After lunch we headed to the main street, Las Ramblas, which was filled with vendors and street performers. Then we wandered around the Gothic Quarter, which is full of really interesting architecture. As it got closer to dinner time (which doesn't even begin until 8:00 in Spain), we were seeing TONS of restaurants, most of them pretty empty, and then we came upon this long line of people outside a building. Since I always assume if people are lining up for something it must be good and I need to join them, we checked it out and discovered that they were all lining up for a restaurant that wasn't even opening for 20 more minutes. So of course, we got in line too! And we were so glad we did! The restaurant is called La Fonda (if you ever go to Barcelona, go here!) and it's right off of Las Ramblas in the Gothic Quarter. It is very fancy, upscale dining, but the price was maybe the cheapest we paid anywhere on our trip! I guess it's run by a culinary school or something like that, which is how they cut costs, but it absolutely had the feel (and taste) of a very expensive restaurant. We were really happy to have stumbled upon such a good find!

The next day we headed to the beach. It was a little overcast, but Barcelona has a great beach area, better than the French Riviera in my opinion. The beach is set away from any main streets, and has a large boardwalk area with cafes, bathrooms with showers, etc. Just a really good set up. We hung out for several hours. The only thing that took away from the experience were the multitudes of people trying to sell stuff! It seemed like every 2 minutes we had someone in our face trying to sell us henna tattoos, or beers, or the worst, massages. Seriously, these asian women walking up and down the beach offering massages for 5 euros were so aggresive it was scary. And it was constant, as soon as one walked away, another one was right there. But other than that, it was a nice day at the beach ;)

We waited in line for a long time that afternoon before finally getting into Barcelona's cathedral, La Sagrada Família. I have to be honest, I think if I had known what I was in for, I wouldn't have waited. I knew it was still under construction, but I didn't realize how far from complete is really was. Basically we paid 12 euros a piece to walk around a construction site. The outside is cool to see though, I don't really personally like the style of the cathedral, but it is really elaborate and worth checking out. For our last Barcelona activity, we finally found the Gaudi building Steve had been looking for the whole time we were there! Glad we didn't miss it!

We only had one day in Madrid, and would have liked to spend more time there. It is a really pretty city also, much greener than I expected. It was a rainy day when we were there, but we still had fun exploring. First we went to the Plaza Major, and then the cathedral and palace. We spent most of the day at the Prado Museum, which was a really amazing museum! It had a lot of works by Velázquez and Caravaggio, who I really like, and a lot of crazy Goya stuff.

We definitely hope to return to Spain someday. When we got home, we even started looking for internships Steve could do for law school to spend a few months there! To see all of our Spain pictures, click HERE.

Ooh La La - The French Riviera

Oh I am an awful blogger, I've waited so long to finish posting about our Europe trip and now it's hard to remember everything! After Paris we went down to the South of France. We stayed in Aix-en-Provence, which we picked because it seemed like it would be a central location, but it turned out to be really inconvenient because we had to take a train into Marseille in order to get anywhere. It was still a really cute little town though, and I'm glad we got to see it.

By the time we found our hotel the first day we didn't have much time, so we decided to just explore Marseille. It's not the nicest city, has a real industrial feel to it, and we definitely didn't want to be there after dark. The only thing we really wanted to do there was go to the major cathedral, which was WAY up on a hill, so you can see the whole city and out on the water and stuff. So, we took the metro to what looked like the nearest stop, and figured that everyone must just walk from there.

We were wrong. People don't walk, they take the bus that goes right up there. After hiking uphill for what seemed like forever, we started to realize this probably wasn't the best way, but we had already come so far we didn't want to turn around. Then we came upon this giant sheer rock face, straight up, and the cathedral was at the top. At this point Steve was like, no way, we are not going up there. We were already sweaty from walking up all the steep streets to get to this point, and it really did look ridiculously daunting. So I did my best Jillian Michaels impression to motivate us to keep going ;) We went around to the other side where there were lots of winding stairs to get up the hill.... and finally made it! Right before sunset, so we got to enjoy a beautiful view, and then hurry all the way back to the metro to try to get out of the city before it got too dark and scary.

The next day we took the train to Cannes. The film festival was going on, so it was really crazy there, but fun. They had all these tents along the beach for VIPs and music playing out on the beach, and we kept seeing paparazzi following people, but they must have been European stars because we didn't recognize anyone. We did check out the theater and the red carpet, but mostly we just enjoyed time on a really beautiful beach!

The next morning we went to Monaco, which was really, really pretty. They were setting up for the Grand Prix, so we got to see some of that excitement. We went to the casino first, but it wasn't open yet, so we went on a tour of the palace. Then we just wandered around for a little bit and hopped back on the bus returning to Nice. We really only spent like 20 total minutes in Nice, we just walked down to the beach, walked up and down it for a minute, and decided we'd rather be back in Cannes. I think Nice is probably a cool city, but the beach was totally unappealing, all rocks! So we took the train back to Cannes and enjoyed a little more beach time for our last day in France.

To see all our French Riviera pics, click HERE.

Paris in the Springtime

Wow! Just got back from 18 days in Europe, which somehow seemed like both a long time and not long enough. I think it's a good thing we didn't take Snoopi with us, because if we had her we might have been tempted to just never come back. It was amazing! We took almost 500 pics, obviously I won't put them all on here, but if there's anyone who wants to see them all (i.e. our moms), I'll include links. We left Salt Lake on a Wednesday morning and arrived in Paris Thursday morning. It was too early to check into our hotel, so we spent our first day exploring a little worn out and ragged looking, but it was still amazing. First stop was the Notre Dame cathedral, but much to our delight, just outside we discovered tents set up for the Fete du Pain. Steve later corrected himself to tell me the real translation was Bread Festival, but I preferred his original translation, Bread Party. Nothing better to start a visit in a new city than a bread party with free samples! Yum! Fitting for the trip, too, since for the rest of our time in Paris I ate pastries for pretty much every meal. Now that we're back home I'm still having major cravings for croissants and gelato (which I ate every day in Italy....how do Europeans stay so thin?). After Notre Dame we headed over to the Louvre, where we spent 4 hours, and probably would have stayed longer if we weren't so tired. It's a little overwhelming, but in a good way, it's hard to believe we were arm's length away from some of the greatest masterpieces in the world's history. We checked into our hotel room (tiny, but clean and cozy) and our little nap before dinner turned into a full night's sleep. The next morning we went to the Sacre Coeur cathedral, which was cool because it's high on a hill with great views. Then Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower, where we waited in line for a while to ride an elevator to the top. As amazing as it was to be on top of the Eiffel Tower, it was a little hard to enjoy because I was SO COLD! I had not been anticipating the cold weather in Paris, and hadn't packed for it at all, so while other people were bundled up in winter coats and boots, I was in a light cardigan and flip flops, and the wind on the top of the tower was chilling! I bought a scarf from a street vendor when we got down, but could not warm back up. So we went to the indoor venue of Les Invalides, home of Napolean's Tomb. There was a French war museum there, and Steve was in heaven, so we stayed for a while. As a reward to myself for the time in the war museum, the next stop was shopping ;) I found an H&M and bought myself a coat and some leggings to pull on under my dress. Much better! Then we walked along the Seine River and back to Notre Dame (in the hopes that the Bread Party would still be there, it wasn't). Once again, we went back to our hotel room to get ready for dinner and...fell asleep at 9:00. All that walking is really tiring. On our last day, we woke up early (easier to do when you're going to bed at 9) and took a train out to Versaille. The palace is a really good symbol of the opulence of the French royalty at the time, kind of ridiculous, but cool to see. Then we came back to Paris and hung out for a while on the Champs-Élysées (where we got crepes for lunch-yum!) and saw all the cool shopping and car showrooms, and then just wandered around the sitting taking in all the sights we could. That night we FINALLY made it out for a night on the town in Paris....unfortunately, we went out a little late, thinking that since it was a Saturday night the city would be bustling late into the night. Not true. So many places were closed! You can find open restaurants in Provo, Utah at 10:00, but not in Paris- crazy! So we got ourselves lost looking for a restaurant, it was raining, and we wandered around these empty neighborhoods full of closed restaurants until finally, close to midnight, I broke down and hailed a cab and had him take us back to the Champs-Élysées, where we found this nice French-Alsace restaurant and had a great dinner. It was a fun last evening in Paris, and Paris was a great place to begin our trip! So chic and cosmopolitan, and such a good example of a very European city, I'm really glad we had a few days to spend there, but I'd love to go back for more! To see all our Paris pics, click HERE.

Steve's Graduation

So it's 1:00 in the morning and in less than five hours we will be heading to the airport to fly to Paris, and I am sitting here writing a new blog post. But I know that when we get back we will have tons of new pictures and stories, and I didn't want to miss out on the opportunity to share the exciting news that Steve is a college graduate! Graduation at the University of Utah was last Friday, so Steve and I and his parents attended the ceremonies and went to lunch at Red Robin to celebrate. I'm very proud of my husband and excited for him to start the next phase of his scholastic journey at the University of Miami :)

Also, a few weeks ago, I ran my first half marathon! Running the Salt Lake City Half Marathon was definitely an accomplishment for me, expecially since six weeks earlier I was hardly running at all, and I decided to do the race just one week before it took place. I probably would have been a lot less sore the next day if I had trained more, but it was still really cool to know that I was able to accomplish that. Now I'm looking at doing my first full marathon, possibly in Miami in January.