Anyway, we only could spend a few hours in Lugano because we had to meet Marco, my really good friend from film school who had lived with me in Utah for a year, in Milan that night--where he is from.
This picture pretty much sums up Marco. He's wearing a RED Color Code shirt which says: "I'll try being nicer if you try being smarter." Haha. He is a Red personality for sure--for those of you who know what that means--but not in a bad way. He's my best friend from film school, and ironically when I first saw him I didn't think we would be friends at all.
Anyway, he picked us up at the train station and drove us to his mom where we got to meet his amazing mom and dad. The next day, even though it was raining, he gave us a tour of Milan. Here are a few pictures from that day.
We stopped off at this place to try some true Italian pastries and Hot Chocolate... about a billion Euros later we were on our way. Haha. Crazy expensive and it was literally like you were drinking liquid chocolate...but really good of course.
That night we went out to play mini golf with Marco and some of his buddies. But this was not like any mini golf you've ever seen before. It was much more technical and crazy. The old men who were there couldn't help but share their knowledge of the game with us. I wish I would've gotten some pictures of them. It was kinda funny. A good time for sure.
This is what I mean by technical and different. For example they didn't even have a hole to hit the ball into on some of the "holes." Also, the ball was more like a squash ball than a golf ball which was interesting. They also had different textures of balls depending on what "hole" or obstacle you had to approach.
The next day, Marco's mom packed us a sack lunch full enough of goodies to feed at least four people and we caught a train to visit Venice for the day.
Laura was elated when she discovered this popcorn vending machine...however, the elation was short lived when she tasted the popcorn and it wasn't good at all.
The main goal of our trip to Venice was to go on a romantic gondola ride in the canals.
It's a coveted job and not just anyone can do it apparently. Also, the boats cost a crazy amount of money.
This was our guide. He was a good guy for the most part except for the time he was on his cell phone. haha! Laura still made me tip the guy 20 bucks even though I didn't feel he deserved it after that.
All in all it was a romantic-ish fun experience--except for the part where the guy was talking on his cell phone. (see below) haha.
We stopped to eat our massive sack lunch after the boat ride.
And then walked around for a long time--getting lost a long the way a few times. I swear there is a conspiracy in Venice with the "signs" to create the ultimate tourist trap or drive people past store fronts.
Whether it was a conspiracy or not with the signs we ended up seeing everything we wanted to see and only got lost a few times along the way. Here is one of those such times below when we ran into this little street.
And then at the end of the day we enjoyed a great Italian dinner and caught the train back to Milan.
The next day Marco took us and his friend Silvia (I think that's her name) to see George Clooney's favorite place in Italy. Lake Como.
The flea market.
Of Como.
This face of Marco's about sums up the boys feelings of the whole shopping experience while the girls had quite the time bargain hunting.
I thought this red carpet street was pretty cool.
Pardon Marco's flying finger but if you ever get the chance to drink this drink DON'T. It is so gross and basically tastes like black licorice in a bottle with some fizz. Sorry Marco (he happens to love it).
I had to take this picture to show how narrow the streets were around there.
But it was definitely beautiful.
Another tight squeeze.
The Gang.
Another tight squeeze--of a different nature. :)
I had to see how the water was. Pretty cold actually.
Man I miss the cheese shops.
This guy was my kind of architect.
Rosemary plants the size of small trees.
And we ended the day with some of the BEST stinking Gelato around.
The next day we did perhaps my favorite thing we did the entire time we were in Italy...
Marco's mom--who just so happens to be the cutest little lady in the world pretty much taught us how to make authentic Italian pizza.
She LOVED Laura. You can see that proud smile on her face can't you? :)
She wasn't as concerned with me getting it. :)
And then Marco did some showing off.
Once you prepare the dough. You spread tomato sauce--that came from Marco's grandparent's garden.
And a little olive oil is a nice trick. Then you add all the toppings you want.
Italians keep it pretty simple they told us. Just a few quality ingredients as opposed to a whole bunch of crap like we do here in the states mostly.
Mozzarella. The real kind.
Fresh basil leaves.
And we ate and ate and ate!!!! We thought it was going to be one or two pizzas so we filled ourselves on the first two. But then it ended up being four or five at least and we couldn't turn them down they were so good.
Another night Marco's dad made for us this seafood pasta that sets the standard for fine dining. I COULDN'T believe how good it was. I forgot to take pictures of that night but needless to say we ate very well with the Brandi family. I still have dreams about all the food we ate there and can't wait to go back.
Okay so the next place we went was Florence. We said our goodbyes to Marco and co and then caught a train to the south.
And it just so turned out the we had arrived on the same weekend a big gelato festival was in town.
Needless to say Laura was beyond happy about this news. :)
You payed 5 Euros and then waited in these little lines and got to get small samples of all the gelato you could handle!
Amazing.
This was our hotel. It was sooooo ghetto and hard to find. We barely spoke Italian and the lady definitely didn't speak English so it was quite interesting checking in.
I thought it was funny that they even have "Dollar Stores" in Italy.
Incredible markets with leather goods, art, food, jewelry etc.
Can you believe this guy did this with sidewalk chalk!
Everyone in Tuscany likes to lie down on cement I swear.
We tried it and it wasn't too bad. I however prefer grass.
Okay so you may recognize this as not being Florence anymore but actually Siena. This square was in a famous movie you may have seen.
Again with the sitting on cement.
Anyway, we didn't end up spending that much time in Siena. Just about a day. We wanted to get on to Rome! I was really excited to show Laura this place and it just so happened that I had a good friend from film school who was from there. This is Eugenio.
Eugenio was such a great host--especially for a single dude. He also picked us up from the station and let us crash at his house as long as we wanted.
And to welcome us he had bought some meats and cheeses and groceries.
Anyway, he was a great host. We were so lucky to have so many good friends on this trip take care of us. It was the only way we could've afforded it and it made it so much better.
In Rome we saw of course the main attractions:
And ate a few gelatos along the way. :)
We thought this was the fountain Trevi based on some local directions. At the time we thought it was pretty anti-climatic. But then we found the real thing. See pic below.
One of the nights Eugenio took us out to dinner for our wedding present. He took us to see some famous spots and then...
To even better gelato than we had had before!!! This place put a whipped-cream like topping on their gelatos that made it that much better.
Oh ya and we saw the Vatican museum. Here is Laura contemplating the size of a pinecone.
And having a Dan Brown moment.
After Rome we caught a train to Cinque Terra. It was really beautiful. We took the train to the second town and then walked along the trail to Vernazza. (I hope I'm spelling these places right).
Just above Vernazza.
Vineyards.
Our friends we stayed with in Switzerland told us we HAD to go to this place and get this pannacotta and strawberry drink thing. It was truly amazing. The Italians really do know how to eat.
This is a small town called Masa. It was cheaper than the towns in Cinque Terra and had it's unique charms as well.
After this area of Italy, we caught the train to Nice. This was our fine dining as our budget was starting to wane towards the end of the trip. haha. :)
The beaches in Nice aren't so "nice" ahha. I'm so funny! Okay not really.
It was good times but I prefer the sand.
After Nice we went to Cannes and then Marseilles. This part of the trip we were getting a little tired and unfortunately didn't take any more pictures. We just really slept a lot in the hotels and didn't get to enjoy the south of France on account of being poor and tired toward the end of our month long trip.
The good news is that we rested up in France and were ready to hit the ground running again once we got to the wonderful place called Ireland!
In Costa Rica, a few years back I had met this really cool guy named Robin Halpenny. He was a world traveler in his own right (waaay more than me) and as you can imagine I loved hearing his stories down there.
Anyway, he was passing through the states on his trip around the world and so I invited him to swing past Utah if he wanted and check out a few cool things around the area if he wanted. He did and we ended up becoming pretty good friends.
So, when we planned our Europe trip we were stoked to have Robin willing to take some time off work and show us around along with his girlfriend Frankie.
The first night we slept at Robin's parent's house. They were really great. Then we went off on a weekend camping trip to the west coast. Here we are stopping off for lunch at our first pub on the road trip.
This is a great pic of Frankie. I knew she was cool right away when she nonchalantly put her pocket knife in her mouth in an attempt to untangle a fishing line.
We jumped in the Irish sea as a road trip tradition/right of passage. And let me tell you what. It was COOOOOLD!
Robin took us around the west coast of Ireland camping, fishing, sightseeing and even some surfing!
It is such a beautiful place. And the people are so cool.
Here we are camping the first night. I was impressed with my new wife's camp skills.
fishing.
and FISHING. :)
Such a fun couple to hang out with.
We didn't catch anything so Robin treated us all to an amazing meal in some tourist town I can't remember the name of anymore.
Wow. right.
I thought this was quite the ad.
After the bar I was the DD. It was fun to drive on the right side of the road.
Camp spot number 2.
The Cliffs of Insanity!!! From the Princess Bride.
A little rebellious.
And after the camping, Laura was pooped.
When we finally made it back to Robin's parents, they put on a big bbq for all of us in town. The dude with the mohawk is Robin's brother. He was in town from Budapest where he is studying to be a veterinarian.
Robin took me to the coolest driving range around while everyone else was cooking the meat etc. The balls came out of the ground and automatically teed up for you.
And finally we enjoyed the feast. It was really amazing food and we had an incredible time.
After the feast, Robin took us to the airport and we flew back to the good ol' US of A. It was a great month of seeing amazing places and wonderful friends. We were so lucky to have been able to do it. Truly a once in a lifetime experience.
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