Its now January 8th and I've been here for 3 weeks already! Time is flying by. Jet lag got the best of me for the first few weeks, but I'm finally starting to feel somewhat "normal" again. Within these past 3 weeks we have already checked off 4 cities from our "to-see list" ( Verona, Padova, Vicenza, and Florence) And we celebrated Christmas and New Years! Yes, we visited Verona this past summer, but this time we went to the Christmas market which was beautiful!
VERONA
The one thing I loved about Verona during Christmastime are the lights!! I'm glad we went a little a later in the day because by about 4 pm the sun went down and out came the sparkly twinkling lights! Here's a variety of pictures including the entrance into the market, us with the nutcracker outside the very busy German-like store, posing as snowpeople, delicious chocolates and pear grappa we purchased, and one gigantic gorgeous tree dazzled in thousands of lights!
CHRISTMAS
On Christmas Eve I made chicken fettuccine alfredo and used my new mixer (thx babe) to bake some delicious chocolate chip cookies- probably the best I ever had! Then, with cookies in tow, we headed over to our friends' house for drinks and a movie. On Christmas, we dedicated ourselves to an ultimate lazy day, sweats and hoodies included:) I made a holiday breakfast casserole and fruit salad (all made from scratch- no cans necessary) for linner (that's lunch and dinner combined hehe). After digesting all that meat and cheese, I forced the hubs to take about 20 self-timer pictures in front of our adorable little tree :) and then Rockford and I snuggled on the couch:)
VICENZA
A few days after Christmas (Dec 27th to be exact) we took a spontaneous trip to downtown Vicenza, only about a 20-30 minute drive from our house. We stumbled upon a courtyard area that was an entrance to a cathedral (one of many we have found in this country). In Italy, there's always an abundance of statues carved in great detail- and I love taking pictures with them; Corey not so much, but he does it for me;)
This is a picture of a street downtown- nothing special.
Here we are at a restaurant, or as the Italians call them, a snack bar. They are all over Italy- just little cafes that serve a small menu including light meals, coffee, desserts and alcohol- spritz is a popular fizzy drink that almost every customer in every snack bar orders. I ordered a little lasagna and what I thought was going to be hot chocolate. I referred to it as a "warmed-up chocolate snack pack" (hehe). It was tasty but you had to drink it with a spoon because it was almost to thick to sip. Corey ordered one similar but his was vanilla.
Just another selfie in front of pretty lights downtown (Corey is getting really tired of the selfies haha)
PADOVA
On December 29th we headed to Padova which is also a short drive, probably about 25 minutes. The plan was to visit a castle, but when we arrived it was closed- good news was that it was going to open in a few hours. So we had some time to kill. Corey had found a botanical garden online that he wanted to visit and luckily it wasn't far from the castle. So we headed there first. Visiting a botanical garden in the winter was a little silly since the trees and bushes were quite bare, but it was still a beautiful sight. And we can always visit again in the summer! Again, lots of statues, this time covered in moss.
We also found this crystal museum/exhibit next to the botanical gardens that was free admission- score! We love to visit anything that is free :) It was pretty cool and I found aquamarine (my birthstone) and pink morganite (the stone in my wedding ring)
Next up was the castle! I could only take pictures outside, but I did sneak one pic and video from inside (shhhhh don't tell).When we arrived we found out that we could only go inside on a group tour, which wasn't starting for about 30 minutes. To kill time we walked around the courtyard area- which was full of trees and beautiful. The tour was spoken in Italian (obviously), which left Corey and I looking like idiotic tourists haha...just staring off into space doing our own thing :) It lasted for about an hour and 40 mins. and by the time the tour was led back outside, we snuck out early. Hey, we were cold, a little bored and had no idea what the guy was saying anyway ;) We soon realized we had started a trend, as a few other people started to follow us back to the parking lot (lol). Also, take note of the gorgeous sunset in one of the last pictures. The very last picture is the one I took while inside. Corey asked me if I wanted to have our family tree painted in our house...ummmm...no thanks babe! Haha.
NEW YEAR'S EVE
For New Year's Eve festivities we partied over at the same friends' house that we went to on Christmas Eve- the Dahlstroms. Corey has known Richard and Steffani since his Fort Bragg days and they happen to live a few minutes from our house here. We were in charge of bringing a dessert so I whipped up a s'mores pie courtesy of pinterest and good ol' chex muddy buddy mix. Yum! The pie turned out very yummy and tasted just like a s'more. Corey also bought an Italian cake that seemed very popular, as they were sold at every store and in everyone's shopping carts. It really didn't even taste that good according to my sweets critic husband. So we just hung out over at their house drinking, eating, and chatting all night. It was so surreal and still is that we were in Italy for New Years. Heck, its surreal that I'm actually living here. I have to pause a minute to really think about that fact. Its safe to say that on January 1st we devoted ourselves to sweats and the couch, like on Christmas :/ All in all it was a great memorable evening that I will forever cherish!
FLORENCE
On Friday January 3rd we ventured down to Florence for one night. Its only about a 2.5 hour drive but decided to make it a little weekend trip. Corey had to return to work on the 6th so we wanted to knock out one more city off our list before then. Oh and I also passed my driving test on the 3rd- woohoo!! I looked up a few hotels before we left but just decided to wing it and see if they had any rooms available when we arrived. Luckily the one we liked had a room. It was about a 15 min bus ride from downtown which was nice because they had free parking. Driving downtown was pretty much impossible so it was handy to stay on the outskirts a bit. We didn't arrive until about 2:30 or 3 pm. We quickly checked in, took a peek at our room (which was beautiful), and hopped on the bus to downtown. The bus cost 2 euro each way, unless you'll be taking it again within 90 mins, which we weren't. When we first arrived to the piazza (plaza) we saw a cathedral that was open, and free, so of course we had to visit that. It was amazing and beautiful, as all cathedrals in Italy are. My pics turned out a little dark because of the lighting inside and unable to use a flash. There were some candles already all lit on this candle tree, but I found an unlit one to light and say a little prayer. After that, we also planned to visit the Uffizi gallery, but the line was long so we bought tickets for the following morning at 11:15 am. By this time, our appetites had increased so we stopped in a little restaurant for some food and of course some wine too! It was kind of funny because the restaurant only played 80s music like Journey and Kenny Loggins. Corey and I were singing to every song lol. After lunch (or whatever you call it at 4 pm), we just walked around, taking in the sights of the beautiful rainy city- yes it drizzled a little, but we came prepared with umbrellas like true Seattlites. My camera had a mind of its own that night and I would capture some dark pictures and some ok pictures. After fighting with my flash all night I just decided to give up and plan to bring the Nikon camera the next day. Soooo next, as my luck would have it, we stumbled upon jewelry lane (or so it seemed). Jewelry stores lined this street on both sides for like a mile. We just window shopped (I mostly said ooohhhh aaahhhh to all the sparkly jewels) at first but then on the way back I snuck away from Corey to try on this amazing blue topaz ring I had seen earlier. He found me in the store and I immediately showed him how pretty it looked on my right ring finger- he wasn't convinced though...boooo. After 3 or 4 hours downtown we took the bus back to our hotel for some relaxation time. By about 10 pm I was starving, so the man at the hotel front desk directed us a to a restaurant down the street that was still open. Italians don't eat dinner until late anyway which was to our advantage. Everything Corey has ordered so far he has loved. Me- not so much. He thinks its because he's been living here a while and growing accustomed to their foods. I'm still used to American type food- I'm not hating the food I've ordered, but I think I can make most of it better. Except the one thing we agreed on that was absolutely fabulous was the dessert the waiter brought out for us. We had no idea what he was bringing, as we didn't quite understand his English and our Italian is, well you know, minimal (lol). Anyway, the dessert is called millefogglie and it is straight from Heaven. At least at this restaurant it was. We found it again the next day at a little snack bar and tried to test it out again, but it wasn't as tasty as the previous night at the cute little restaurant. It is 4 layers of this flaky crust with a custard type vanilla pudding in the middle. Its the bomb.com. Here are pictures from our first day and night.
Our hotel room- and the view from our window.
A nativity scene in the piazza to the right. Below is a cathedral
A look at the piazza from afar. So many statues here as well.
A look inside the cathedral to the left. The pictures are a little dark. But you can see the "candle tree", me lighting a candle, Jesus on the cross at the altar, another nativity scene and a look at the amazing ceiling. The detail and architecture in this country is undoubtedly the best there is.
And then there's me with my handy umbrella and 2 more gorgeous Christmas trees. Seeing the trees and lights in this country amazes me every time and I never get sick of staring at them! The last picture down on the right is the amazing millefogglie. The picture doesn't do it justice.
Florence- day 2
A quick stop for pictures on our way to the Uffizi gallery for some cultural art fun!
When you give these statues money they move and take pictures with you :) Kinda creepy but they are all over Italy. I also have some video footage of us with them.
Next, we visited the Uffizi Gallery. The gallery is one of the oldest and most famous art museums of the western world. It was built in the 1500s! Michelangelo and da Vinci are a few of the artists with work displayed here. It was amazing, beautiful and huge! Our feet were pretty sore after walking thru this museum. But it was worth it. There is a "no pictures" policy, but when has that stopped me before? :) Hey, everyone else was taking pictures too!
My memory sucks so having pictures to reflect upon is important to me. It was definitely worth the money and time spent in line. The cost was only 15 euros each- so not too bad. This picture of the river was the view from inside the gallery. The pictures really don't do the museum justice, because I couldn't use a flash so some of the detail is lost. Trust me though, it was amazing!
These next 3 pictures were taken from outside the gallery- on top of the roof. The view was stunning!
Next we headed to the "Galleria Della Accademia" where "David" is located. That's right, we saw "THE David". Never in a million years did I think I would have the opportunity to witness the amazing sculpture that is David. There were also tons of other great artwork here. One particular theme that stands out is Jesus. This is a religious Christian country so its not quite a surprise that there would be an abundance of Jesus paintings. But I felt very cultured and spiritual after leaving the Uffizi Gallery and the Galleria Della Accademia.
Ok so that is all I have for now. My video that I made isn't working at the moment so as soon as I fix it, I will upload it next.
