Sigh.. vacation is coming to an end. 🙁 Spent our last day though in a great cooking class with 4 other people. It was really nice, they picked us up in Rome and took us to a house in Mazzano about 30 minutes away. We made 3 kinds of bruschetta, 2 pizzas, 3 kinds of hand-made pasta, sauces & fillers, plus veal cutlets with prosciutto and basil.. and of course lots of vino! I don’t think we’re eating any dinner tonight! If you’re in Maui, and mention this special offer, we’ll even cook this for you. 🙂

Antipasta starters:

Making the Artichoke and Ricotta stuffing for the Raviolis:

Big-Ass pasta noodle for Ravioli & Lasagna:

Shawn was the designated wine bottle opener for the group:

Rolling the Cavatelli Pasta shells:

Ravioli:

Wow, did we really make that? Yep!

Enjoying our creations:

Tomorrow we fly out, head to Philadelphia and spend the night, then onward back to Maui. 🙂

Today Shawn, Heather, and I took a short road trip down the Amalfi Coastline, and ended up in the town of Positano. Had a great lunch, enjoyed a lot of good wine, and the views.. oh, the views! We’re heading back to Rome tomorrow for the last couple days of our trip… I’ll miss this place!

Lemons almost as big as your head!

Disgusting Views from the beach:

Horsing around after some wine from lunch:

Up the f*cking stairs, all the way to the top… Hard after eating a great meal 🙂

Found an ancient fresco of Shawn and myself: 😉

More terrible views:

Rich showing us how he drives the submarines. LOL

So… It was Shawn’s turn to plan our day, and he picked the Archeological Museum in Naples. And even though he had the internet and the Rick Steve’s book… we get there, and it’s CLOSED on Tuesdays… doh!! (He’s lost his planning privileges for a bit, LOL) 🙂

Instead we spent our day roaming this dirty shit-filled city (not all the poo was from dogs), and had a great time!

What, Why read the guide book? Says Shawn 🙂

Ended up on the Naples Underground Tour, hiking through the old Roman aqueducts that span more than 200 miles. In WWII these were lived in and used as bomb shelters also.

Tiny Tunnels:

Underground Wells

I’m also a huge fan of Urban Art around the world, aka Graffiti. Today, finally after travelling the world, I got to see my first Banksy Art!! If you’re unfamiliar, watch the movie about him on Netflix

Banksy Finally!!

And more cool urban art from around the area:

Took the correct train home tonight, and didn’t end up in the next town over from where our friends live, yay!

Heather picked us up at the station, and took us to the crappy view lookout. 😉

Off to Stappos Wine Bar again for wine and food! (Hangover predicted for tomorrow, when we head to the Amalfi Coast) Ciao!

Per advice of our friends we decided to visit the town of Herculaneum instead of Pompeii. It’s better preserved, less visited, more opulent, and was also 25 mins less on the pickpocket train. 🙂 This post will have a lot of pics for the history buffs out there.

Naples, and especially it’s trains, are NOTORIOUS for pickpockets & thieves, and we were not dissapointed! Shawn actually got his back pockets felt-up twice on the train!! But we’re no foolish touristas, so of course they didn’t get anything… I think shawn was amused that they tried though, cause hay, who doesn’t like strangers touching their butt?

Waiting for the train one of three in Torregaveta:

Looking down on Herculaneum before we enter:

This photo gives you perspective on how much this town was buried by the ash, rocks, and dirt (up to 60 feet) from Vesuvius. This used to be the towns edge on the beach, but now the beach is about 3/4 mile away. Also, this used to be sea level, but look at the high cliffs above which is now current ground level!! This town was discovered when a farmer was digging for a well, and tunneled in to the theater building instead.

Serving up some drinks from the bar. The holes are actually clay pots that were used to hold food and drinks at this establishment. Like today, people walked up to the counter and ordered.

Shawn on one of the main streets:

Looking at the old boat-shacks that used to be on the water:

Walls and ceilings used to be covered in vibrant paint, frescos, and art. The floors used to all be tiled with mosaics and colorful stone:

The mosaic floors and art are amazing! I can’t imagine how long it took to lay and arrange these teeny-tiny stones..

Leaving after a long day of sight-seeing, with Mt. Vesuvius in the background:

Why don’t we do this in the USA? Looks like a normal cupboard over the sink right??

Open it up, there’s no bottom. You just wash your dishes, put them on the wire shelf/rack, and they drip dry in to the sink. They’re already put away, after drying.

Sorry this is a long post, but was offline for a few days so need to catch up. Apparently this gorgeous medieval town has no wifi! Montalcino is an old medieval town settled on a hill, which now overlooks the vineyards in the valleys for miles and miles.

The four of us rented a two bedroom apartment in the middle of town for a couple of nights and got settled in. Had a great dinner and did some wine tasting in town, then off to bed to prep for a long day of vineyard visits the next. Heather had to make all the appointments in advance, apparently for the better wineries here, you make an appointment, you don’t just drive up.

View from town:

Our first stop was to Al Paradiso di Frassina Winery. Here they have speakers throughout the vineyards, and play Mozart to the grapes. Sounds corny, but it works, and they grow strong healthy plants requiring no chemicals. It’s so successful that they’re actually part of many scientific studies on this effect, showing the music sound-waves actually do help the plants. Carlos the owner gave us a private tour and tasting, and explained a lot of the processes to us. I walked away with a case. 🙂

Next to Paggio Antico Winery for tasting and lunch:

Things get goofy when you start drinking wine at 10am. 🙂

Eat your heart out Karen, a huge plate of yummy Fois Gras:

Next stop Castiglion del Bosco for Wine and Olive Oil Tasting. Ryan Seacrest was here the day before, and is apparently a douchebag, and didn’t buy any wine either.

Last winery of the day was Il Palazzone Winery, with another great tasting.

At last, back to town lugging 17 cases of wine (only two were mine), the car was struggling, but made it back. Had another AMAZING dinner, but had to imitate the statue, since that’s the theme of this blog.

Aloha. Took a 5 hour road trip to the Tuscan town of Montalchino, a medieval town overlooking the wine valleys. Today we’re going tasting at 4 wineries, and set to eat lunch and dinner at some great places. Pics posted later. Ciao

We started our day in Rome with a visit to Castel Saint Angelo, which was one of my favorites so far. Once you buy your ticket and enter, you get to roam around the huge castle and fortress. At one time this was turned in to the stronghold for the Popes in case of a siege on the Vatican. The views of the city from the top really are stunning.

After that we headed to St. Peter’s Square to take in the sights. We just sat there for a couple hours resting and enjoying, it’s a really really impressive sight to see! Running the half mile gauntlet of hawkers, scammers, and pick pockets was completely worth it.

We packed up and “took a left at Albuquerque”, hopped on the train, and headed a few hours south towards Naples. Our friends Heather and Rich are stationed down here for a couple years, so we’re staying at their house overlooking the Mediterranean. Think we all may take a road trip to Tuscany for the weekend, since they’ve never been there either. Went to their local watering hole last night with great food and excellent wine. Ugh… I’m in need of a strong coffee and some tylenol this morning! 🙂

Bridge to the Castle:

Passage way inside the castle:

Salacious artwork in Pope John III bedroom. Wish I had better pics, but no flash allowed. His bedroom was covered in some pretty bawdy paintings for the time:

Papal Escape Route: Before the pope-mobile was invented, the Vatican built this elevated walkway from the castle to the Vatican. Incase of an attack, the pope could run along this to the safety of the fortress.

View from the Castle roof, overlooking St. Peter’s Square:

St. Peter’s Square is massive! And yes, we’re drinking beers we bought there. You’ll want one too after being hounded by all the aggressive hawkers on the way there. 🙂

Heather on a funny barstool, with proprietor Pascaule behind the bar:

Shawn and Rich enjoying cigars and good wine:

Group at Stappos Wine Bar near Naples:

We’re so hungover this morning, but the view from our bedroom makes us forget about it: That’s Procida Island in the distance.

It finally arrived! Shawn’s bag was delivered to our room while we were out sightseeing.

On to other exciting things for the day. We had pre-booked our time slot to enter the Vatican Museums, and glad we did. We sailed right past a huge line of people waiting to get in. (Pro-tip #2, don’t go during the crowds of Holy Week either like we did)

Another WOW day, as we spent five hours touring the museums and the Sistine Chapel. Saw amazing art from Rafael, Michelangelo, Van Gogh, and Salvador Dali to name a few. We started noticing most of the statues with nudity had a fig-leaf plastered over the naughty bits, and then noticed that each fig leaf was the same. Research proved us correct that at one time, the Vatican had folks who’s official job was to Cover up Every Penis with a Fig-Leaf! They did this with the paintings too! LOL… I wonder what the life of a Vatican Sausage-Shrouder was like, or how you fell in to that job?

After that we went to see the Crypt of the Capuchin Monks. This order used the bones of several thousand monks to decorate and create structures. Sorry, just internet pics for this, as no pics allowed in the crypts. Creepy and fascinating at the same time.

Finally we hauled our aching feet back toward the hotel, and stopped by the Pantheon. Of course with aching feet, we stopped for a couple of beers at a cafe overlooking the square and Pantheon. This is the tomb for the painter Rafael, and many others. Amazing to see the world’s largest dome built with concrete but no rebar or other reinforcing material, and it’s still standing.

Not sure what we’re doing tomorrow morning, but in the afternoon we’re getting out of Rome and heading south to Naples to see our friends Heather and Rich. Stay tuned for more!

Beautiful Walk along the Tiber River on the way to Vatican City:

Circumnavigating the huge Vatican City walls looking for the Museum Entrance:

We made it! Got in and settled with our audio guides. Took a picture with St. Peters Basilica behind us.

The sculptures and artwork on the walls are awesome, but don’t forget to look up at the ceilings too! Took this in the Gallery of Maps:

Rooms and rooms of amazing frescos by Rafael:

For fun, poorly imitating statues in the galleries: (notice the sausage-shrouds in picture 2)

Wheres Waldo? Shawn in front of the Pantheon:

Today was another great day! We walked around the city, and it’s just unbelievable how beautiful it is. Took a tour of the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and Palantine Hill. Our feet are screaming after trotting on cobblestone streets and old stone roads for hours, but it was worth it. 🙂 The magnitude of these ancient sites and cities is mind-blowing, especially realizing this was all built without any modern technology.

Before I get to the pics, an update on the luggage. Got back to the hotel, and my bag was here, but not Shawn’s. 🙁 I spent an hour dealing with American Air tonight, still no luck.. they’re trying to “reopen” our case, since the Rome folks said his bag was delivered. Sighh.. hoping it makes it here tomorrow! To top it off, he’s still not feeling 100%, but was a trooper and made it through the long day of death-marching. 🙂

Here’s to the pics I promised, enjoy!

Lunch: Awesome food, even better view

Details of the Roman Stonework, not sure how they did this by hand.. also it’s amazing it’s still surviving so well.

Roman Forums: The original start/heart of rome excavated, it’s amazing to walk through this ancient city.

Inside the Colosseum:

Roman Forums: Shawn as scale to show just how massive these ancient structures are.

Archway & Colosseum: Waiting outside before our tour

Does Shawn have Cornucopia Envy?

Imitating Statues, but also shows scale of how massive this is.

Tomorrow we tour Vatican City, stay tuned for more pics/details tomorrow. Ciao!

Well, landed about 9:30 am, as you know our bags didn’t make it because of our tight connection (but no ones did from the lax flight). Got a taxi to our hotel, which we think was piloted by Mario Andretti’s grandpa! got checked in,and went to get sim cards for the phones so that’s squared away, we’re connected again. yay.

WOW, its beautiful here! Old buildings, churches, and Roman ruins around every corner.. amazing fountains and plazas.. I promise to post more pics later today!!

Sightseeing was cut short,cause Shawn wasn’t feeling well, so we went back to the room. Apparently he hadn’t watched the movie Airplane! in a while… Never eat the fish on a plane! here’s a refresher for you all

Got him settled with meds and liquids, and set off for some shopping! The airlines allotted us $250 to buy essentials and clothes, and I was determined to spend it! Shawn now owns a suave italian outfit, including Giorgio Armani boxers.. lol. After shopping i stopped for a few pints at Scholars Lounge Irish Pub, before returning to the room for some sleep.

Now it’s a new day, and we’re getting ready to head out to see the sights, and will post pics later! Thanks for checking in, and stay tuned.

Below pic is the fountain in Piazza Navona, just stunning and the pic doesn’t do justice. Nope, not sure who that chick is, she jumped in to my shot at the last second, so now she gets internet-shamed on my blog. 😉

Euro-Shawn strutting his new clothes/shoes, and ready to see the sights.

yep…we’re finally here, yay. bags didn’t make it. I’m good, but shawn didn’t pack any spare undies or deodorant ..ewww… He also flew in his slippers, checking his shoes. lol, time to make him hike around the city in them. on the bright side, i now have a bullet-proof reason to go shopping in Italy!! 🙂

through security, at stinger rays. to lax, then Chicago, then on to Rome! we’ll land 9pm hst sunday. stay tuned,and thanks for checking in!

also, the fire hydrant pic.. is this implying our fire folks will confuse the hunk of plastic for a real hydrant .. or fido shouldn’t pee on it? lol

in lax for 3 hours now, hate this place since it’s the asshole of airports ..but not too shabby with admiral club access.

Stay tuned for our fun adventures and pics!! Feel free to comment/reply. Just FYI, your first comment must be approved by us, but then subsequent comments will auto-post after that. 🙂 Thanks for following! Ciao!

Made it home today. 🙂 Time to rest up and cure the jet-lag. Thanks to all for reading and commenting. Aloha!

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