Books and Movies

We watched Into the Wild this week. I didn't think I was going to watch it (I DO NOT like Sean Penn), but my curiosity got the better of me. I read the book a while ago. It was a great book, written well, quick read, and my favorite thing about it was that Jon Krakauer didn't glorify Christopher McCandless, or his decisions. He just presented the truth (or as close as I suppose he could get to it), and it wasn't always nice. He wrote people's opinions on the tragedy, or as Christopher saw it, the adventure. The movie was close to the book. Of course some parts were left out, but overall it was accurate. The movie was quite long, but I am glad that I watched it. I think that Tony liked it a lot more than me, but that was probably because I knew what to expect.

I also read Love Eat Pray last month...ehhh. The first part about living in Italy was good, but the rest of it...I wasn't impressed. Who can take off one year from work to travel and find themselves? This isn't anyone I am ever going to relate to. I guess that it is just beyond my comprehension. People look so far outside of everything they know just to find out who they are. All that money and time hunting yourself down? After you 'find yourself', you better lock yourself away and never lose yourself again, it would be too expensive! I enjoyed the part about Italy mostly because I was going there, and I was trying to absorb everything about Italy I could find. I went into this book thinking this lady was just a housewife who had gone through a really bad time, had never been anywhere, and just wanted the opportunity to see the world. No, she traveled all the time before this! She is a journalist. The writing was ok, but I wouldn't recommend this book.

March Madness

Jen and Adam

We've been trying to make the most of what time we have left here. We have a few things on the list that we want to do/see. But most importantly we want to hang out with our friends.
We went out Friday night with Jen and Adam. We went down to Fell's Point for dinner and drinks, somewhere we haven't ever been in the evening. We go to Fell's a lot, to Whole Foods, our fav. brunch restaurant, to get our hair cut, but never to dinner or to the bars.....and it was great! We had so much fun, the restaurant, The Waterfront Hotel, had great food and a nice ambiance, and best of all, great friends. Then we went down to The Horse You Rode In On. They had live music, which is something we never see at the bars in Federal Hill. The music added a lot to the experience. It reminded me of El Patio in Las Cruces, and of High Desert. Oh, good times...the Bloody Mary's at El Patio, the nachos at High Desert.

Then Saturday we went exploring another new place, Historic Ellicot City. I wish we would have found this place sooner! My mom and sister would have loved it! Bunches of little shops and antique stores. Amy would have founds lots of treasures. We went with David and Robin and then ate dinner down there. It was only about 15 or 20 minutes from our house.

Today is kind of a sad day though...my family always had a big get together on Easter. Me and Amy would get a new Easter dress, and a hat when we were little, we'd go to church (this wasn't a once a year type thing, we went to church every Sunday morning, Sunday night....usually Wednesday nights - completely opposite of the heathen I am now), then we'd go over to my grandma's house, or my aunt's house, hunt Easter eggs with my cousins, eat dinner...such beautiful memories. And today I think back on those memories, and I'm sad that I'm not there today, to make more. Sometimes I get so homesick and I am so very grateful that we are moving closer, close enough that we can drive home for Easter.

I still haven't gotten a firm move date though. I've turned in all my paperwork, now I'm just waiting for everything to be approved. Hopefully I'll hear something in the next two weeks. Meanwhile our next few weeks are packed with friends, food, and drinks. Oh, and baseball games. Gotta get as many of those in while we can. Walking to the stadium is one of the many things I'm going to miss about living in the city. We are so blessed that we were able to live here at this time in our lives, while we were able enjoyed it so much.

Destination ROME

Enjoying my coffee
Entering the Vatican
View from Assisi

For this post about more of Italy, I'm taking from the journal I kept on the trip.

Thursday: We left early, destination Rome. On the way we stopped by Assisi. This was unexpected, I didn't remember the stop being on our itinerary. Assisi was the most moving place we have visited. The town felt (is) so ancient. It even smelled old. There were monks, priests, and nuns walking everywhere along the cobblestone streets. Santa Chiarra (St. Clare) is from Assisi, she was a friend of St. Francis (Francesco), the patron Saint of Italy and of animals. St. Clare began the order of Poor Clare's. There is a monastery in Roswell, which is the Poor Clare's monastery. So there was a connection there. The Basilica of St. Chiarra was so moving. I was moved to tears....it was just so peaceful.
We ended Assisi at the Basilica of St. Francis and actually got to see the tomb where he is buried. And also saw Mass being performed at the chapel. One of the things I noticed was that none of the monks were sitting in the pews - at the mass and in front of the tomb of St. Francis. There were either kneeling or sitting on the cold hard floor. I wonder if this is for penance. I really cannot explain the feeling of peace I had while in Assisi. I am very affected by what I saw...felt.
Rome is HUGE! We went out exploring this evening and I was a little nervous - but we found our way! We wanted to look for some shoes for Tony and go to a wine bar that Martin (our awesome tour guide) recommended. We really wanted to try it since Rome is his hometown. It was probably 2 miles away and most of the time we couldn't find the street names. But we winged it and we found the Piazza Cavour where the recommended wine bar was. First thing on the menu was Foie Gras para duo. - 60 Euros....ummm, no gratzia! So we went to the bar/restaurant next door and had pasta. It was a great place, not touristy, good food, relatively inexpensive. Coming back I was a little worried because at one point we seemed lost, but we kept following the wall of the Vatican, remembered landmarks, and found our way back. Once we were reoriented, we stopped at a really nice little coffee bar - my cappuccino was 1 Euro! What a great day!! Only 1 day left. :(
Saturday - Rome is a great city! Our last day was exhausting and overwhelming, but so great! We started off early going to The Vatican. It was beautiful and has great pieces of art. One of the ceilings even appeared to be 3-D and it was painted hundreds of years ago! And then we got to see the Sistine Chapel. Wow...the beauty, the colors, it was wonderful. Tony's favorite part was the back wall painting of Jesus casting people into hell and raising the dead. It was crowded inside the Chapel though, and it was noisy, so it really took away from the experience. People's cell phones were going off. I just don't understand how people can be so disrespectful. That was frustrating. The guards kept shhhing, but it did not good.
We went from there to another piazza for lunch, The Trevi Fountain (where we tossed a coin of our shoulders to come back to Rome), and ended the tour at the Spanish steps.
Last night's dinner was pre-planned. It was called Cafe Concerto. And these people sang opera off and on throughout our meal. It was lovely. The food was ok, the wines were great. Very fun night. After dinner Martin wanted us to see some more of Rome at night, specifically, The Colosseum. It was one of the best parts of the trip. To see a building still standing where Gladiators fought. It was truly Roman times. Then we went to see St. Peters illuminated as well.
Now we are in Paris, CDG airport, waiting to be pushed back from the gate. We are so tired and hungry, but so thankful that we were able to take this amazing trip. I had always dreamed about seeing these places that I actually GOT TO VISIT! I am so lucky! And even the scary parts, like the Rome and Paris airport, we made it out ok. It was nerve wracking and I wanted to barf, but we just tried to go with it and it worked out.
I am glad to be going home though.

So those are my last couple of journal entries. I don't think anything I could write would do the trip justice. I hope we get to go back one day. And as great as Italy was,

More Adventures in Italy

Robin, Jesse, and I at our Tuscan Dinner
Neptune
Rape of the Sabines


On Tuesday we drove on a bus to Florence. On the way we made a stop in Pisa. Yep, the tower is leaning! It's true! The Basilica there was one of the best ones I saw though...the paintings and the mosaics were great. The tomb there is transparent, so you could see the mummified body. Very interesting. Other than that Pisa was overrun with stands selling cheap trinkets.
We arrived in Florence at dusk, checked into our hotel (this time we got to stay in the same hotel as our friends Robin and Jesse!), then we went to dinner together, by the Santa Croce. That night was a lot of fun. The four of us ate a wonderful dinner, drank great wine, and had amazing chocolate cake! Then we walked back to the hotel and just visited. It was a beautiful night in Florence.
The next day was a lot of walking and a lot of seeing. First off we got to see David....that was #1 on my list of things to see in Italy, and it was beyond my expectations. It was so big and had such detail. Michelangelo's Prisoners were haunting though... in these unfinished pieces you could kind of see where Michelangelo was headed. They were beautiful too. After that we walked over to the Duomo, then to the square in which the Uffizi is. Here there were many sculptures. Tony's favorite was of Neptune, my favorite was the Rape of the Sabine Women. We didn't have time to go the Uffizi in the afternoon like we had planned though. There was just too much going on and by the time we ate lunch, looked at some shops, we were very exhausted, I was getting grumpy, and we needed to go back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.
Florence was a city where there is never enough time. There was so much to see!!! I would love to visit all the museums and spend hours staring at all the sculptures. I definitely want to learn more about all the artists and the history of Florence.

Adventures in Italy

Front of our hotel, along the Grand Canal


On the bridge the afternoon we arrived in Venice


View from our hotel window

Our tour was planned through Gate 1 travel. It was a great tour and I would recommend this travel group to anyone.
We flew into Venice on Sunday morning. The plane ride wasn't too bad...but it was hard. About 8 1/2 hours. I slept 4 or 5 hours, so that was better than most. Flying over the Alps was AMAZING!!! It was the most beautiful site I have ever seen. As far as the eye could see was huge mountains with snow caps. Every once in a while you would see a small village below. Ahhhh, what a great first site to see.
Venice had so much fog that we had to circle the airport for about 30 minutes. Tony and I had both dozed off and all of the sudden it felt like we had a hit of turbulence, but no, we had landed. Weirdest landing ever. Everyone was shocked when they realized we had touched down. We had to meet our travel group, but the fog was so bad that they had to arrange for bus transportation as opposed to a boat. But at least we made it! A lot of people on our tour group coming from other places couldn't even land in Venice and had to land in Milan, or have a delayed flight.
Our hotel was great! The Principe. And it had a beday...we didn't use it though, it just looked awkward and uncomfortable. Originally we weren't going to do the tour in Venice, we were just going to wing it on our own, but we changed our minds on Sunday night and went ahead with it on Monday morning. Our first stop was Murano Island. I didn't know anything about this place before we went, but apparently Murano Glass is HUGE! We got to go into the oldest glass making factory and watch a man blow glass. It was cool, and then we got to go to the showroom and look around. It was PRICEY!! I was nervous just walking around. This piece was $20,000 Euros!


After Murano we went to the Doge's Palace. It was so huge and beautiful. Our tour guide for the Palace was Sylvia, a real Venetian. She was great and so tiny! I learned so much on this tour. It was great seeing all the artwork..even the staircases were works of art. St. Mark's Basilica wasn't as impressive as I had hoped though. St. Mark's square was cool, it's in the opening scene of The Italian Job.

CIAO!

Ok, one more post, then I swear I'm going to bed! But I just had to say-

WE'RE MOVING TO DENVER!!!!

What a blessing...our prayers have been answered.

We aren't sure of the date yet, but we are hoping around the 1st of May. I should know more details after this week. We still need to get things in order, like going out for a house hunting trip and getting the movers in here and all that jazz.

Every time I think about it my heart races. I think this is going to be our "home". We can both see ourselves settling down there...having a family...buying a house maybe? (ok, that's the scariest thing I can think about...home ownership?? That means really settling down....)
And I'll only be 8 hours FROM MY FAMILY!!!

Back West of the Mississippi...ahhh, dreams do come true...

Trip of a Lifetime

Italy was amazing. We got back yesterday, late afternoon....extremely jet lagged. 18 hours of travel. Our trip was sooo very wonderful - more than I ever could have imagined and I still can't believe that we got to go! Rome was incredible, I wish that it would have been our first stop instead of our last, because by the time we got there we were thoroughly exhausted. We saw Venice, Pisa, Florence, Assisi, and Rome, leaving last Saturday and getting back yesterday. So much to blog about, but it will have to wait. It's 8pm on Sunday night, and I'm going to have to go to bed ASAP. So I will fill in the whole trip later in the week. I'm going to try and load all the pictures onto Flicker.