Wine Tour: Day Four

In order to get into the “vacation spirit” I’ve been looking at some ideas for my next getaway.  I get a sudden urge of wanderlust whenever I’m on The Blue line.  Seeing people board on with their luggage gets me excited for them!  I miss traveling but I’m planning on booking something in the upcoming weeks.  I need to get out of this rut.  Luckily I’ve been busy with my friends so I haven’t the time to think bad thoughts.  Summer in Chicago is honestly the best time to be here and I’m fortunate to be here.

Back to recapping my trip 2 months ago!!!  I know I’m so bad.  The day after the wedding we assumed we would be able to sleep in late after such an eventful night.  Yeah right.  Our guests next door started ringing the doorbell around 12pm.  Since the bride and groom slept at the venue for their honeymoon night, we had no idea how to open the door.  We luckily found the right key to get the inside door opened but that alone took 20 minutes to figure out.  It was then when our neighbors told us to get ready right away.  We were all heading to a wine tour back at the winery and we didn’t want to be late. 

We quickly got ready and car pooled over to the countryside.  There, other guests were waiting for us.  Someone made some pasta for us to hold us over, and then the bride and groom showed up with paninis.  It was time for the tour and we followed the groom to the wine cellars.  We also had the chance to check out the winery’s vegetable garden.  There we learned the agriculture of this region and why they produce the vegetables that they do.

After the tour, we all car pooled back to the apartment.  The bride’s aunt and uncle stayed behind to catch up on some rest.  We relaxed for a bit until more guests came over.  We decided to have some light bites along with some wine tasting to get us going.  Tonight we were going to head to the center of town to celebrate a saint’s day. 

Once the sun went down we drove up and luckily found parking right away since the whole town was celebrating.  It was a beautiful evening spent with the locals.  We even heard music from an orchestra playing the national anthem.  I loved seeing everyone’s patriotism!  

Our last pit stop was our favorite café for gelato!  What a treat!

Milano giorno due!

I’m recapping my trip in Milano!  Believe it or not, I will be going back shortly to Italy again, and I am very excited!!!  This time I will be meeting up with some friends in Rome.  This will be a different trip for me, since the last few times I’ve traveled I’ve been on my own.  I am already jotting down new restaurants and shops to look into.  I can’t wait!

Back to day two in Milano.  Me and my friend woke up and got ready.  We had an appointment to go to, and luckily it was moved up to an earlier time.  We decided to get that out of the way first.  Once we were finished, we made our way back to Milano.  My friend wanted to go back to the Chanel counter to exchange some makeup she bought the night before, so we went to Rinascente again.  We shopped around some more at the Galleria Vittoro Emanuele, and I found my souvenir T-shirt of Milan.  I am getting in the habit of looking for souvenirs more often because I love to see what cities have to offer. 

I had a craving of gelato and finally got the chance to have some, but I didn’t want to spoil my appetite.  We had dinner plans again.  This time my friend suggested sushi and I was down for it.  Once we finished shopping around we decided to go to a nearby shopping mall to look at some jewelry.  A side note:  Italians prefer 18K gold than 14K.

We went back home to get ready.  I bought a cute button down blouse from Other Stories and wore my black skinny jeans with studded ankle boots.  My friend wore her new black suede ankle boots and a white silk tunic with black leggings.  I wish I would master the-art-of-walking-in-heels in Italy, but it’s impossible for me. 

We went to the Navigli neighborhood and looked for sushi restaurants.  We decided to have a cocktail beforehand and found a cute bar to kill some time.  This bar had a menu of cocktails based on your horoscope sign! 
We settled on Temakinho sushi restaurant and it was delish.  We were seated by the chefs and got the chance to see how they prepared the food.  It was very entertaining!

Afterwards we took a brisk walk over to Gin 012 and had more cocktails.  Considering it was a Monday night, the usually lively neighborhood was pretty quiet that night.  We also assumed the weather had a factor in it as well.  It was cold that night!

Day Six: Florence

Since we were out all night and did a lot that day, me and my friend overslept.  We woke up around 10am and knew we kind of screwed up if we wanted to go to the museums.  We still weren’t sure which one we were going to: the Uffizzi Galleria, or the Galleria dell’Accademia.  We still had to drive into Florence so we figured we’ll decide once we find parking. 

Walking into the crowd, I mentioned to my friend that since it was getting close to siesta time, the line wouldn’t be so long wherever we go.  We settled on Uffizzi since we were closer to that one again.  We practically walked up front when we stopped.  The line was down the street around the corner.  A tour guide was letting us know that there are tours where you can skip the line, but of course, it costs a lot more.  We were stuck.  We were sluggish from being out all night, and we did not want to wait in that line.  The other setback was that if we sign up with the skip-the-line tour, it would last 2 hours.  Hence, we’re back to spending 2 hours in the museum regardless.  My friend was hesitant, but I decided to foot the cost because I really wanted to experience this.  She agreed and we got very lucky with a tour starting right at that moment.  The tour guide showed us to our group and we put on our headphones.  We followed him around with a small group of 10.  He was going to show us the evolution of art through the ages presented in this museum.  I enjoyed the tour very much since it gave us a perspective on how other artists influenced each other.   Of course, the Boticelli room was amazing!!  People couldn’t stop taking pictures of his masterpieces.  

When we finally finished the tour, I bought my gallery book as a souvenir.  This is something I started doing for myself on my trabels, (although technically I’m missing the book from the Louve museum because I was too tired to carry it back to my hotel).  

Afterwards, we knew that siesta was over, and that the restaurants that are opened would be a little emptier.  We found La Bussola ristorante pizzeria nearby.  I told my friend that I wanted to have pizza for lunch and gelato for dinner.  Lol.  This worked out perfectly!  I ordered a Margarita pizza since it was more tomato based.  I had cheese and prosciutto again for breakfast, and was craving tomato sauce really bad.  My friend decided on a Tuscan pizza instead which included cheese baked into the bread.  She loved hers as well.

We ate like queens and decided to walk around and shop.  My friend found a salon that could do manicures, so while they took care of her, I sipped on their complimentary coffee and took advantage of their wifi.

We checked out some interesting shops afterwards.  We ended up at the higher end retailers, but we couldn’t help but admire the stores.  We spent the rest of the day looking around for goodies.  Once it got later, we still had to find some gelato to check off my list.  By this time, both our phones had died out.  Luckily, we ended up finding Perche no! which I would definitely recommend.  It was delish!

As we were walking back to the car to charge our phones, we found the famous boar statue our tour guide had mentioned earlier.  This boar specifically ate truffles, which has been the number one consumer goods imported from Italy.  Legend says you have to drop coins in his mouth and rub his snout.  Hopefully it will bring me good luck!  Lol

We went back to the car to charge up our phones for a bit.  We wanted to have one last drink out and head back to the house so we could say our goodbyes to the couple who were hosting us.  We had seen a nice restaurant earlier while we were walking around and ended up there for drinks.  I will miss my friend.  My flight was leaving at 6:35 in the morning, which meant we had to be at the airport no later than 5:30am.  That to me was cutting it close, but she reassured me that I should be fine.

On our way back to the car again (this time to head home) we ran into the iconic Arno river.  We decided to take one last photo together, but were having a hard time finding that perfect shot.  An Italian man noticed our struggle and offered to take the shot for us.  He was very nice.  We chatted for a bit about the history of the infamous Gold Bridge and how many of the buildings surrounding it were destroyed during WW2.  He knew so much, I wish we had met him earlier.  We exchanged info off facebook and hopefully our paths will cross again.  I loved his energy!  He was a very passionate, happy, proud Italian who love sharing the history of his country.  I love that…

We came home and said our goodbyes to the lovely couple who had waited for us.  I couldn’t help but tear up a bit while I was packing my belongings.  This trip had surpassed my expectations, mostly because I did not know what to expect.  The sense of clarity it brought me had calmed my nerves.  There are good people in the world.  Sometimes you just have to look for them…

Holiday Blues part 2

We're not sure yet what was the motive concerning the mass shooting at a holiday party in California.  My heart aches for the victims involved.  I was messaging my friend in Italy about the current events taking place here in the States, as well as our city in Chicago.  The mood is dreary wherever you go.  She was mentioning that she's been in funk over there as well.  She misses her old life sometimes.  It must be hard being a foreigner in a new country. 
Back to recapping my trip.  At this point my visit was coming to an end.  Me and my friend made our way to Bari to go see the Grotte di Castellano.  We spent the whole afternoon there.  We were getting hungry since the tour to the caves lasted 2 hours long.  Luckily we brought along a change of clothes.  Since the temperature dropped to 57 degrees in the caves, it was hot outside in the 90s.  We wanted to get out of our layers and wear our day dresses.  I bought some dresses in town the day before for 5 euros each!  The local fair was happening and we checked it out to see if we could find some goodies.  My friend was telling me of the scandal that was happening in Italy.  Apparently, some of the clothes in these markets are made in China, but Italian vendors have been sewing tags saying they are made in Italy.  I will say, you can tell by the quality right away where the garment is made.  But since I'm no stranger to bargains, I still bought some budget friendly day dresses.  They were cute after all!
We drove past Monopoli and my friend suggested we check it out for dinner.  We've already been in Bari a couple of times and we wanted something new.  She heard good things about Monopoli so I trusted we were in for another adventure.  The parking situation was a little crazy, for in this town, there were a lot of no parking signs.  We didn't want to risk the car being towed, so we drove around for nearly an hour trying to find an ok spot we felt comfortable with.  We asked around for a good restaurant and they suggested Il Guazzetto Ristorantino.  We walked past it and it wasn't opened, yet (despite it being 7:30pm) but they gave us an 8pm reservation and told us to come back.  My friend joked that Italians eat dinner no sooner than 9pm so they knew right away we were tourists.  Who cares I wondered.  I was hungry now.  Waiting around for 30 minutes was not such a bad idea.  The man who took our reservation also mentioned that the restaurant was completely booked for tonight.  Our table had to be ready for other guests coming in at 9pm.  We told him we shouldn't take no more than an hour for sure.  He seemed ok with that at the time.
We did another passagiata in centro and loved Monopoli!  Lots of outdoor seating for dining and live music playing.  It was a Friday night and there were a lot of people walking around.  We walked over to the dock and people watched there.  We knew we had to go back to the restaurant soon so we didn't walk too far away.
The Il Guazzetto Ristorantino was officially opened!  There were people already inside getting to their tables.  We got a bottle of wine and ordered the specialty fish of the day with pasta of course.  My friend wanted il fruta di mare so we murdered that dish.  It was seafood heaven!
Me and my friend were enjoying our evening, drinking wine and finishing things up at the table.  We decided on no dessert since we wanted to try the gelato there in Monopoli.  Remember, every town does things differently!  The man who took our reservation came up and asked if there was anything else we would need and we graciously said no; everything was perfect!  Then he kindly reminded us that we had to leave.  The guests that had the 9pm reservation have arrived and he needs our table.  Well that's a first!  So much for great hospitality!  We got up and before you knew it, they started to clean up our table to make way for the new patrons.  A great food experience although we were rushed out of there.  This place is definitely high on demand on a Friday night!
We went to the gelato place to sober up a bit.  That wine got us a little tipsy.  Nothing like a double scooped gelato to sober you up!  We did another passagiata for the rest of the night before we headed back to town.  It was sad knowing I had to leave the next day.  This day was perfect...

Beautiful Monopoli!

Il Guazzetto Ristorantino!

Fruta di Mare!

My friend urged me to suck the head of a prawn.  She knew I was grossed out by this...

The fish of the day with pasta of course!

Monday Motivation...

The holidays are upon us and I'm already losing track of time.  I've put up my Christmas stuff over the weekend since we had a mini blizzard.  We're now in the end of November and the next couple of weeks are going to get hectic.  I'm trying my best to finish up blogging about Italy.  I left off that me and my friend were beginning to get into tense situations.  We decided to go out of town and head to Napoli to stay with some friends of hers.  It is now Monday and I still had a week left to make the most of my trip. 
Napoli was a pretty long drive.  Our first destination was to head to Pompeii and check out the ruins.  My friend warned me that there's so much to see and we would spend a couple of hours there alone.  We stopped at Avelino early into our drive for some gelato.  I'm seriously missing some right now!!  It was a hot day as usual, and that was the perfect treat. 

I AM lactose intolerant, but I never had a problem having gelato in Italy!

We got to Pompeii around 3pm.  We found the ruins right away, but the town in general was breathtaking!  I'm surprised how preserved and well kept everything was!  It was if we had stepped into a time machine.  We checked out how they lived back then, as well as the local market.  I learned so much that day! 
We were getting tired.  The sun was really beating down on us that day.  We knew we still had a drive to get to Napoli.  My friend did not want to get there so late.  

Haunting images from the ruins of Pompeii

I fear these people suffered as you can see how they tried to take cover. 

They had no time to escape the volcano's devastation...

Peaking out into a typical apartment in Pompeii...

There is a winery here as well...

So beautiful! 

I wore a maxi dress that day, but it was very hot regardless...

Painted murals...

Checking out the local market...

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The ruins of Pompeii!

Taking a little rest before I continued on.  We could have spent hours here but we were on a tight schedule...

A brick oven!

A beautiful fountain!

We arrived around 7pm and parked the car to take a quick passagiata around la central.  We wanted to check it out before the sun went down.  My friend did not feel safe around there, but I think it had to do more with the quantity of people there.  It's huge, almost like New York.  There's people everywhere.  It was overwhelming.  We picked up some desserts for later on and headed to her friend's place.  But that alone took another 2 hours just to drive to her house!  The traffic was horrendous.  So many people around, plus we got lost too.  We were starving and tired.  When we finally arrived it was 9pm.  Luckily they had dinner waiting for us.  We finally turned in after 11pm, but there was so much noise coming from the outside.  A group of teenagers were at the corner of the street and would not stop yapping.  I'm assuming people tune them out, but it was hard for us to sleep.  My friend closed the windows to block out the noise, but as the night went on, we both tossed and turned because the room got hot.  She eventually opened the windows around 3am but before you know it, it was time to get up.  It was 8am and we had to leave out with her friend.  We quickly got dressed and headed off to our next adventure.  Too bad Napoli left us tired and groggy...

Checking out the madness of Napoli...

So many people all over...

Tomorrow we are heading here to the Amalfi  Coast!!