Christie and Luke

DISCLAIMER – I am in no way biased one way or the other

As most of you are painfully aware Christie went to the University of Texas at Austin for undergrad and she is a very proud alumni. I went to the University of Colorado at Boulder for my undergrad and I am a very gracious and gracious alumni. With these ties that we have with our alma maters we make the trek to Ausin, Texas to watch the Colorado Buffaloes take on the Texas Longhorns this past weekend.

Friday night we took a late flight to save some money so we landed around 11:00 PM and made our way to an awesome bar called Cedar Street to catch an 80′s  cover band. Now when I first heard that we were going to see an 80′s cover band, let alone any cover band, I was a little hesitant but I was soooo wrong. The band was SKYROCKET and they kicked ass. Their energy was great, they were entertaining, they played a very wide genre, and they loved what they did. We only got to see one of their sets since we got there late but I’m glad we got to see them. They do some touring so check out their site for tour dates.

Saturday we were on a mission to see as much of Austin as we could before we started tailgating for the main event. As we started walking there were already people tailgating at 11:00 AM and I was impressed. On our tour we saw the capitol, campus, where Christie used to live, the main drag, and of course the University Co-op (bookstore).  This is no normal bookstore, it takes up a large portion of a city block and has all things Texas. Seriously, everything. Sure, they have clothes but they have everything else. Anything and everything you need for tailgating you can find there (except booze) and anything you need around your house. They even have a Texas Snuggie (if you are looking for something to get Christie for Christmas here you go).

We met some friends at the Iron Cactus for lunch where a Mexican Martini was ordered. I thought it would be some crazy drink but really its just a margarita in a shaker that you put in a martini glass. The food was awesome though and we had a good time except for the fact that we sat on the rooftop and it was 59 degrees outside. I thought Texas was supposed to be warm? After lunch we made our way to Sholz Garten for a beer and a photo op!

Next up was a tailgate party next to the stadium. I don’t think I have ever seen so much burnt orange in my life. The stadium seats 100,119 people and I think there were more than that in the parking lot as there were a bunch of TV’s with satellite dishes so they could hear it and watch it on TV. Anyway, I was expecting some heckling or harassment since I was in CU gear but everyone was actually quite friendly and up for small talk. We had fun, ate some more food since that is what you do when you tailgate, then made our way into the game.

I won’t give a overview of the game but the first half was….. AWESOME (for me). I was cheering, high-fiving people around me and in a much better mood than I anticipated I would be. at half-time we went to the Alumni Center across the street to hang out and get a beer and again I was thoroughly impressed with the Texas fans. There I was, the lone CU fan in the line to the bathroom and people were actually congratulating me on how well CU was playing and other friendly non-football related conversations. Then we came home and the trip was over. I wish. We went back in to the game and the wheels fell off CU’s bus.

Fast forward and the game ended and we went out to have fun on the town and I even showed off my amazing dance moves. No, I didn’t do the worm but I’m pretty sure I made an impression. To top off the night Christie and I got a large pizza with the intention of sharing it with our friends but when Christie went to put some oregano on the pizza she didn’t notice the lid was unscrewed and, well, it was a heavily seasoned pizza. We still managed to take most of it down before we went to bed.

Front to back it was a great trip and I want to go to another game again (when it is warm since I already have enough cold games here) so we will definitely go back again. But not for a CU game. I can’t handle the stress. Good job Texas, you showed me a good time and made a memorable weekend.

Our townhouse is for sale!  -  Realtor Link – Trulia Link

Now to the story…  Luke and I decided that we should put our house on the market right around the time of our wedding/honeymoon.  More specifically, we listed it the day we left for our honeymoon and two days after our wedding.  My advise to anyone thinking about this: It’s better than listing before the wedding… Why?  One word: cleaning.  The days and last couple weeks leading up to the wedding our house became a mess.  We got presents everyday (THANKS EVERYONE!!!), we had goodie bag stuff from Costco, and of course we had my craft projects everywhere.  Is it a good idea to make your own centerpieces and programs?  YES, because they were exactly what we wanted and lot cheaper, but again a mess and that also may make you crazy.  So thankfully we waited, because cleaning now rules the house.  Basically when you list your house on the market, the place officially becomes not yours.  It’s this place you get to live in, but must not make a mess in and must clean every morning.

Why on the other hand did we feel the need to put the house on the market right before our honeymoon?  Gunner.  My parents (Mom & Dad Brandt) were kind enough (THANKS!!!) to take Gunner up to the mountains during our honeymoon.  What better time to have a chance to keep the place clean for two weeks than our honeymoon.  So we worked really hard and managed to get everything done – wedding and honeymoon.  And by working hard I mean that last week while I made decorations and programs, Luke was touch-up painting the whole house.  We cleaned up the backyard.  We de-cluttered the place and moved some of our belonging to storage.  Why?  I’m a clutter queen, but that makes a place look small, so we followed the advice of all those HGTV shows we like to watch and decided to remove things – like Gunner’s futon.  Sorry Gunner – but really how many dogs get their own large piece of furniture? So, we de-cluttered as much as possible before the wedding.  My best friend, Jen, got us a maid as our wedding present and so she cleaned the place the morning after the wedding.  And by Sunday evening we were hitting up AFW.  I guess I should watch how I write that, but all I mean is that we forked over some money to get an awesome dining room table.  We set it up on Sunday night while my Realtor and friend, Amanda, came over to collect the paperwork.  Her husband, Ryan, Luke’s former roommate and close friend, helped Luke put the table together.  They are also awesome and brought us over some red wine for our dinner.  So all we had left to do on Monday was to finalize cleaning, oh, and that little thing you have to do before travel called packing.  We packed and cleaned from 8am until we absolutely had to leave for the airport at 5.  We left and felt awesome.  It was now time to start the awesome adventure of our honeymoon!  Our place was ready for the world to come see (and hopefully purchase).

So would I recommend putting your house on the market while getting married?  Probably not if you can avoid it.  On the other hand – not much motivates you in life like getting ready for your wedding.

The last stop on our cruise was in Cannes, France. At this point we were kind of looking for an easy going day and after speaking to some of the crew on the ship we decided to hit up the beach. Most of you have heard of the Cannes Film Festival so you can imagine what a lot of their clientele are like. Now, Christie and I are two very classy people but we didn’t want to appear snobby or to flaunt our wealth so we hit up the public beach and schmoozed with the locals. The only true portion of that last sentence was that we went to the public beach. The water was a perfect temperature and the view was awesome but I would be much happier if they could get the salt out of the ocean!

After soaking up some rays we went for a walk in search of some French wine to take home. We heard there was a market just up the hill so we started hiking to see if we could find it. The first place we stumbled upon was a convenience store so to continue the “rare find” path we were on we went in and picked up a bottle of Bordeaux to bring home. We don’t know if we will like it but hey, we got it!

It was getting close to when we needed to head back so we started back down the hill still in hopes of finding this amazing market. Well, we got stuck on top of the hill because there was an elevated road with train tracks under it surrounded by fences. We had to keep walking to get to a place to cross and we stumbled upon Christie’s house (Villa Christine).

As we were walking down the street (finally) we actually stumbled upon the market but they were all closing up. We didn’t see any wine but we did see a TON of cheese and fresh produce. If we had more time we would have stocked up and done something amazing.

On the way back to the ship we stopped in a local bakery to get a sandwich and Christie tried speaking French to the woman and she came back with great English. It is kind of funny that we were trying to speak their language (it happened in every country) and they would jump straight into English as if to tell us to stop butchering their language. It was very helpful but it didn’t really force us to learn a whole lot and we kind of want to learn too! Anyway, we got a baguette with ham, tomato, mayo and cheese (and egg as we found out later which made me happy but not so much for Christie). We took it back to the ship to eat since we still had a bottle of wine on the ship to drink. When we got back we dined on our balcony with a bottle of wine then spent the next hour on the chaise lounges soaking up and sun and reading.

We came inside to eat a quick snack and while we were in there some workers came to tie up all of our chairs. They didn’t explain anything but I did notice it was getting a little windy. Apparently there was a storm coming and they didn’t want anything blowing away. As the night progressed the weather got much worse and for the first time there was noticeable movement on the ship. I’m not talking about a couple inches, I’m talking about a foot or more which was enough to make it look like I drank too much when I was walking but for once I hadn’t. The rest of the trip had been very smooth so it was crazy to me that a ship of this size could move that much in the water. Luckily neither Christie or myself got sick and the rocking motion actually helped put me to sleep.

That’s it, cruise is over. Good-bye ship, it was a great time. Now we are back in the land of bag thieves.

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The last stop in Italy was Livorno, Italy. What’s in Livorno you ask? I don’t know, we didn’t check it out. The nice thing about Livorno is that is is a port town that has access to some really cool places so it is pretty easy to skip over the city. The three places people usually go are Florence, Pisa, and Cinque Terre. Of course Pisa is the home of the Leaning Tower of Pisa (which incidentally they are able to straighten it out but decided not to for tourism) but besides that there isn’t a whole lot to see. Florence is one of Christie’s favorite cities in Italy but we didn’t want to deal with the 1.5 hour train ride into town in case there was another non-air conditioned train incident like in Rome. We opted to join our first “shore excursion” (i.e. pay out the wazoo to have the cruise take you on a tour) so we didn’t have to think about anything. This turned out to be a fantastic idea.

We boarded the air conditioned bus around 7:30 AM and started the hour ride up to Cinque Terre. Along the way our tour guide introduced herself as Fulvia and to say she could talk was an understatement. As we were leaving the port she said that she had never really had a chance to see Livorno so she got a copy of Lonely Planet and it said that the place was “a dump” so we weren’t going to see any sites there. Along the drive she told us very interesting stories about the surrounding areas and places we were driving through. We drove past Pisa and could see the top of the Leaning Tower, she spoke about the Tuscan region and some of the towns, and she also told us about how a large portion of the worlds marble comes from Carrara, Italy. Michaelangelo got the marble for his “David” sculpture there and the marble was also used in the Pantheon. Very cool. The way the sun was hitting the mountain of marble in the morning made it look grey and you couldn’t see much but on the drive home the entire mountain was white. It was all marble. Along the highway there were giant blocks of marble waiting to be processed. Coming soon to a counter near you….

As we are getting closer to our first stop in Cinque Terre, Manarola, Fulvia starts to tell us more about what were are about to walk into. As it turns out the charm of Cinque Terre is the fact that it has been more or less cut off from the rest of the world for the majority of it’s existence. The five fishing villages were accessible only by walking and water (when weather permitted) so they have not been heavily influences buy the hedonism of the rest of the world. With that charm comes a set of it’s own problems. They had to plan ahead for things such as medical and other supplies since the walk was so treacherous. The mountain side is very steep making travel very difficult. Another interesting side note is that since they are cut off from outsiders there is a lot of inbreeding. Pretty much all of the locals are related so they call each other cousin.

I’m falling behind on my history but a long time ago there was a path between Manarolo and Riomaggiore and there was a terrible landslide. The two towns spent 30 months building a path and reinforcing it with cement and cable nets to ensure that it would survive and be safe. In the middle of this path there was a lock placed there, supposedly by two lovers, and the story was that they were from the two different towns and that they had met there, locked the lock to the railing and threw the key away to symbolize that their love was forever. I think a girl locked her cheating boyfriend up, chopped him to pieces and threw him into the ocean because Italian women are crazy but I digress. Since then hundreds of locks have been added but apparently the times are catching up and people are using combination locks just in case.

Okay, just a little more on Cinque Terre. It consists of over 4,300 miles of terraces that are used to grow grapes for wines. That is longer than the Great Wall of China and is almost straight up. Since they didn’t have a lot of horizontal space they had to build up. Also, since this was a small town cutoff from civilization, they didn’t have machines to go up and down the hill sides so they walked. Apparently there are some women there that could kill an ox with their thighs. I didn’t see them but I was trying to avoid eye contact just in case.

After we walked to Riomaggiore and poked around the town a bit we hopped on a boat that took us up to Monterosso. On this boat we found a shaded seat outside and dried off on the boat ride. We had a couple hours to spend in this town so we got some lunch and wowee; it was good. The traditional dish in this region is Trofie al Pesto and I highly recommend it. If you like pesto then you will be happy with this. We also got a bottle of Begasti wine because it was local and it was white (I was sweating and wanted something cold) and it was delicious. It was so good in fact we found it at the liquor store and bought one to bring home. To top off the trip we got some Gelato to finish the meal then made our way back to our air conditioned bus for the ride home. I didn’t think I was going to enjoy the shore excursion but I have to say that it was very nice not having to worry about anything. They had all the transportation lined up and we had an awesome guide as well. Oh yeah, it was also the cheapest shore excursion they had!

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It’s the second week since we came home from our honeymoon.  We swore that we would ease into eating better (i.e. healthier) and that the second week would be the start of this healthier lifestyle.  Well, a few days into week 2 we wanted another nice meal.  Next up, chicken with garlic.  We decided to add in strawberry risotto since it’s one of Luke’s favorites and we had just bought fresh strawberries.  See the other posts, for notes on that recipe.  As for the chicken with garlic dish, it helped us learn some new facts about our new pots and pans (thanks Mom and Dad Rogers!).  Fact #1 – our new pots and pans conduct heat a lot better than the old pans.  We couldn’t understand what was sticking to the bottom.  They were supposed to be non-stick.  But as we washed them we realized that they didn’t really stick, it was more that the heat was so hot that they were burning to the pan.  When you wash the pans everything comes right off.  So they are non-stick after all. 

Chicken with Garlic (pg. 924) – Pollo All’Aglio
Just like the chicken roulades, you are supposed to cook the chicken in oil turning frequently before letting the chicken simmer over low heat for a while.  We realized again that it is important to sear the chicken quickly over the high heat before covering on low heat.  The chicken got a little dry, but we realize now that part of that is getting used to the heat conduction of our new pans vs. the old set.  Not that the old set was bad, but when I say old.  They were my grandma’s set from the 70′s, so I consider that old…   Although since I’m from the very late 70′s, maybe I should watch that comment.

A couple days later, we decided to have over our friends Ryan & Amanda for dinner.  We just got a dining room table before we left for the honeymoon, so we were excited that we can now invite people over for dinner.  We decided to make the chicken roulades again since we had chicken, bacon and sage in the fridge. We also had eggplant in the fridge since that is my favorite vegatables, so we decided to try Eggplant Risotto as well.  (note: we got used to calling this aubergene when we were in Europe – apparently that is the proper English name).

Eggplant Risotto (pg. 333) – Risotto alla Melanzane
We ignored the first part of the instructions that said that we should sprinkle the eggplant with salt and let drain in a colander. We decided that a little extra juice from the eggplant will be fine and as it turns out, it really didn’t matter.  Once the eggplant and risotto have been mostly cooked with the vegatable stock, you add in the diced mozzarella cheese.  Having had issues with fresh mozzarella, we used shredded mozzarella and it blended in perfectly.  It made the perfect gooey consistency.  We added salt and pepper to it and kept it warm in the oven.  It turned out amazing.  Like the kind of pasta you expect at an authentic Italian restaurant in Italy.  Definitely keeping this one around.

Luke and I got home from the honeymoon last week.  Thanks to Fergi we came home with several bottle of nice Italian wine and a bunch of Italian spices.  Well after being spoiled for two weeks with great food and great wine, we were missing it by our first weekend back.  So we cracked open The Silver Spoon again and started trying to re-create the great food we had in Italy.  We also just happened to have a lot of fresh roma tomatoes from our garden to use in these recipes.  So first up, we decided to try Penne Arrabbiata.  Mainly because it requires a bunch of tomatoes and we could use our new arrabbiata spices.  It turned out delicious and before the night had ended we were already scheming our next meal.  Some notes from Penne Arrabbiata:

Penne Arrabbiata (pg. 295) – Penne All’Arrabbiata
Some of the spices that we threw in early before the garlic had browned burned.  Next time we should just throw them in right before you add the tomatoes.  The recipe called for garlic cloves to be added to the oil and removed once they were browned.  Luke and I love garlic so a lot of times we like to load up  a dish with garlic, whether it’s minced, powder or even sliced garlic cloves.  This was new for us to not add lots of garlic, but by just browning the garlic in the oil, the garlic flavor came through without overloading the dish with the garlic flavor.

So after success with the Penne Arrabbiata, we decided that we couldn’t wait to cook again, so two days later we were looking through the cookbook and saw Spaghetti with Zucchini.  While we were gone our zucchini plant decided to sprout a few insanely large zucchinis.  What quantifies insanely large you might ask?  How about 18″ inches or so long and around 4″ in diameter.  Actually, when we came home we thought that our friends Ryan & Melissa didn’t pick the zucchini that had begun to grow when we left for the honeymoon.  But we found out that while we were gone the plant had sprouted 3 huge zucchinis they had picked and the one we found when we got back was the 4th.  We picked that zucchini on a Monday night and by Friday, another one even larger had grown in its place.  So we decided that Spaghetti with Zucchini would be a great new recipe to try.

Spaghetti with Zucchini (pg. 303) – Spaghetti con le Zucchine
The recipe calls for mozzarella, so I assumed that to be authentic they must mean fresh mozzarella.  We cook the sauce which is a combination of tomatoes, oil and zucchini.  Once the spaghetti is cooked you are supposed to add in diced mozzarella and shredded parmesan.  We add them to the pot and before we can stir, the mozzarella starts to clump.  We try to let it melt more so that it might stir in and adhere to the noodles better but after mutliple attempts and 10 or so minutes going by, we think this is the best we can get.  We decided that we should try plain old shredded mozzarella next time.  I checked elsewhere in the book to see if they had any instructions on this, but they didn’t.  (note: we tried a different recipe that called for diced mozzarella a few days later and the shredded mozzarella worked perfectly).

Grilled Zucchini:
Since we’re talking about zucchini, I thought it only appropriate that I share a recipe that my co-worker Scott provided to me.  You slice up the zucchini into strips.  You coat the zucchini slices with olive oil, salt and pepper.  And then you grill to “perfection” (per Luke).

The first time Luke met my parents was for my 29th birthday (March 2008).  We spent the day skiing at Keystone and then met up with my parents for dinner at my favorite restaurant in Summit County: Ti Amo. ( Little did I know that this would be our last time at Ti Amo before it closed. ) My favorite dish is chicken and strawberries, but Mom and I were shocked to see that it was no longer on the menu.  So when the owner came around, a typical Italian looking man named Luigi (sp?), we questioned him on the lack of our favorite dish.  In previous trips he had told us how it was his Grandma’s recipe and would always be on his menu.  He explained that no one really ordered it and his chefs had changed, so he took it off the menu.  But we then got very lucky, because when I asked him for the recipe he provided it and the recipe for another dish.  I wrote them down on the envelope of the birthday card my parents had given me.  I’ll have to write them in another blog post.

Back to Ti Amo though… later in the evening I went to the restroom and while I was away Luigi came up to Luke and gave him the name of a cookbook he should get me.  So a couple days later on my actual birthday, I get a big present.  A cookbook called the Silver Spoon or in Italian “Il Cucchiaio D’argento”.  This is the cookbook that if you grew up in Italy your mom or grandmother would get you on your wedding day.  For those of you from the midwest, it’s like the Better Homes & Garden Cookbook.    The first edition of this book came together in the 1950′s with over 2,000 authentic Italian recipes.  There have been 7 revised editions over the years.  It was translated to English for the first time in 2005.  The thing about the cookbook though is that it is fairly vague on measurements, cooking times, etc.  How you would imagine authentic Italians would cook.  But, I’m not a chef, so for me every time we cook it is a great experiment. Oh, and don’t think by Italian I mean a bunch of pasta recipes.  There is the primi piatti section, but the vast majority is meat, vegetables, etc.

When we first started cooking from The Silver Spoon, we soon realized that we should take notes on what we’d done so we could learn from it.  I didn’t really want to write it in the book so I remember writing stuff down, but I have no idea where those notes are now.  So, now I’m going to write a blog.  Since that movie just came out about Julia Child’s cookbook, I feel like  a copycat.  Or maybe I’m just in style?  Nevertheless, I’m going to record our notes from each recipe.  Here’s what I remember from those first few meals (page numbers from the book for each recipe are included).

Chicken Roulades with Sage (Pg 914) – Involtini di Pollo alla Salvia
This is a dish where you pound out chicken stuff with sage and roll up with pancetta.  Awesome.  The first time we made it was perfect.  The oil in the skillet was going everywhere making a nice mess to clean up, but the chicken came out nice and juicy with lots of flavor.  One of the next times we tried it though it was really dry.  So, a few notes.  When it says to turn frequently until brown all over, you should really get the heat up high to sort of sear all sides of the roulades.  Then when you cover and cook all low, the juices won’t drain out so the chicken will stay moist.

Strawberry Risotto (pg. 332) – Risotto alle Fragole
This is one of Luke’s favorite dishes.  I think almost every time we have made this one it has turned out great.  A couple notes though – really use vegetable stock.  When it says one onion it probably never imagined the huge hormone filled onions that we grow over here, so either go organic or just go a little lighter than a full onion.  We made light cream by mixing lactaid with heavy cream the other day.  That seemed to work ok too.  Oh, and mashing the strawberries with a hand masher is much better than trying a blender.

Radicchio and Walnut Rolls (pg. 549) – Involtini di Radicchio alle Noci
This was my first big mistake in trying to modify from the book.  You mix walnuts with ricotta cheese and stuff them into radicchio leaves.  Well, I thought I would be healthier and choose the fat free version of ricotta.  The radicchio came out so dry and the middle just seemed to stick to your tongue.  It’s better to eat less and just buy the good stuff.  I’m guessing the part-skim would have been fine but the combination of chopped walnuts and fat free ricotta was just too much like a dry paste.  I re-made the dish when Luke was gone with the real stuff and it was a lot better.  Since I’m a bigger fan of almonds than walnuts, I could see trying to use that some time as well.

Eggplant and Ricotta Lasagne (pg.272) – Lasagne con Melanzane e Ricotta
I made this one per the books.  Yet it came out a quite dry.  We’re used to lasagne’s that are really rich and full of lots of sauce.    The way my mom makes it with real Italian sausage, it sometimes even drips with some grease.  So we weren’t quite ready for a dry lasagne.  When we re-heated the leftovers we put some diced tomatoes and a little tomato sauce over the top of it.  Mmmm – much better.  We’ll probably just add a little more sauce next time.

Our second stop in Italy was in Rome and wow what a day. I have never been to Rome but I know there is a lot of stuff here and I want to see it all. We only have 12 hours in port and we need to take a hour long train ride to/from from Civitavecchia (the port town) so our time is limited. We jump off the ship and make out way to the train station trying to catch the first train since they don’t run as often as a late traveler would prefer. It turns out that a couple hundred people  from our ship also had the same idea so there was a line. While we were in line Christie saw a ticket machine so she jumped out and worked her magic and we were set. The train we took is also a commuter train for workers so the closer we got to Rome the more crowded it got but we had seats so it wasn’t a big deal.  When we got to Rome we decided to be smart and buy our return tickets and figure out times so we wouldn’t have to worry about it later.

Next we jumped on the subway to head over to the Coliseum because I really wanted to see it. Christie read in her travel book that it was smarter to go to Palatine Hill where the emperors used to live as it was a shorter line and would also get into the Coliseum. She was right. We were about 20 people back in the line then we had our tickets. We then toured through Palatine Hill and saw a lot of wrecked buildings but it wasn’t all that fascinating. We exited and went over to the Coliseum and walked past about 1,000 people in line waiting to buy tickets and went right in. If you are going to see the Coliseum go to Palatine Hill about 200 yards past the Coliseum and get tickets there; it is way faster. We walked through the Coliseum fairly quickly as we had a lot of ground to cover. I loved the movie Gladiator and felt like yelling “MAXIMUS” but better judgement prevailed and we settled for some sweaty pictures. In case you haven’t caught up with the theme of the trip it is sweating.

Next we went over to tour through the Roman Forum and apparently is no longer free. Apparently the last two times Christie has been in Rome it was a free thing to walk through and wasn’t protected by fences so it was a cool free thing to do. The good news is that the ticket we bought for the Coliseum included entry into the Forum. The bad news was the there are only 3 entrances and we walked way past the first one and had no idea where the others were. We walked around the forum and wound up inside an old church that you could walk around. We walked over a sarcophagus then down some stairs into the nave of the church. It was kind of creepy so we got out of there pretty quickly. It seemed like we were touring through some sacred area that regular people shouldn’t be allowed but the church was wide open and there weren’t any ropes anywhere and my curiosity got the best of me. We left the church and finally found the entrance and walked around the forum. Not a ton to see here since it has been destroyed but there were some cool columns to look at.

The next stop was Campo de’ Fiori to hit up the market and buy some authentic Italian spices. Christie found this on past travels and we have been enjoying them since I have known her. We actually registered for spice containers with the sole purpose being to house the spices we were going to buy on our honeymoon. We set out to get spices and that is exactly what we did. The guys working the stand were awesome and they had us smell each spice before they bagged it so we knew it was good. Unfortunately when I was smelling the spaghetti spices I got a little too close and ended up snorting them. Thank God it was spaghetti and not the arrabiata spices or else I would have a third nostril.

The next stop on our trail was probably my favorite. We went over to see the Pantheon which was one of the few buildings that wasn’t sacked and destroyed so it was amazing to see what condition it was in and what the other buildings would have looked like today if they had survived.

We them moved on to the Trevi Fountain and I told Christie that I had already seen it. She was confused since this was my first time in Europe so I told her that I saw it at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. She punched me. There is a legend that says if you throw a coin over your shoulder into the fountain that you will return to Rome again. My interpretation is that legend was started by a homeless person that would steal the money at night but I have no facts to support it. According to Wikipedia about 3,000 Euros are thrown in the fountain each day and the money is used for a supermarket for the needy so I guess it came full circle.

This was Christie’s third trip to Rome and each time she has visited the McDonald’s there. She initially says that she goes because it is the worlds largest but the truth is that they have large restrooms that are also free to use so she hits them up. I don’t know if she has ever bought anything there but she definitely knows how to work the system.

Just a short walk from the largest McDonald’s you can find the Spanish Steps which is a cool staircase which is apparently the longest and widest in Europe. We sat there for a minute, took some pictures and were getting ready to leave when a man tried to give Christie a rose. This wasn’t your Romeo trying to pick her up or a nice person just giving out roses he was trying to get you to take the rose then ask for money. We tried saying “no thank you” and moving but he was a persistent fella. He put the rose between her arm and her body and I had to physically remove his hand from her personal space and get between the two of them.

It was around 2:00 and we were getting hungry so we decided to hit up a local restaurant for some authentic Italian food and a bottle of wine. I can’t recall the name of the restaurant but holy cow, it was awesome. I got gnocchi in a tomato mozzarella sauce with basil and Christie got farfalle in a roasted garlic sauce with eggplant. When we ordered the bottle of wine the waitress looked at us like we were crazy because we ordered a red wine saying “you know that it is not cold, right?” Yes, we know it is not cold but red wine goes that much better with the food! She was probably looking out for our best interest since both of us had visible sweat lines but we aren’t in Italy very often so we were going to do it up.

On the way back to the train we were walking through the train station and we wanted to keep an eye out for a hard sided suitcase because we were planning on smuggling bringing wine home with us and we didn’t want it to explode in out bags. As we rounded a corner it was like there was an aura around a luggage store and there it was inside the display window. A bright green carry on suitcase. We walked in and pointed, paid and left within 5 minutes.

Next up was the train back to Civitavecchia so we found it and got on trying to grab a seat while they lasted. We found some and sat down quickly but noticed it was as hot inside the car (if not warmer) than it was outside. I thought it was because the train wasn’t running and the A/C would kick in once we started moving. I was wrong. There was no A/C on this train and the wind was afraid to come in the windows in fear of turning into a fourth state of matter that results in molecular oblivion. The car was so hot that I was sweating more than I did the majority of the day and I don’t think there was a square inch of my body that wasn’t wet. Even my shins were sweating and that is crazy to me. I didn’t know shins had sweat glands.

Once we departed the Heat Express life was much better. As we were walking back to the ship we passed a,  well, I guess gift shop was the best way to explain this store. We saw that they had some wine in the store so we popped in to check it out. After looking at the wines they had we picked out 3 bottles of wine and a bottle of grappa to bring home. When we were checking out the man asked if we were drinking it or travelling so we told him our intentions and he actually bubble wrapped the bottles so they wouldn’t break. That was awesome and he was extremely nice. Right before we left he was talking with another woman that worked there and she told us that he wanted to give us a magnet to take home since we made a fairly sizable purchase. We didn’t know what to do. Do we take a crappy magnet to make him happy? Do we say no thank you and insult him? We decided to take a crappy magnet so we looked around and actually found a really cool “Roma” magnet and it is now on our fridge.

Rome was my favorite city of out trip and I only saw a tiny portion of it. I’m glad we threw the coins over our shoulders while we were there so we will get to go back.

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The first place we were excited to go to was Capri which is an island located a short ferry ride aware from Naples, Italy. We got into port at 8:00 AM and we made our way to the ticket counter to get tickets to Capri which was about a 5 minute walk from our boat through the hoards of cab drivers. Once we finally figured out which line to get in Christie got in line and I decided to stand back since people were crowding the area in anticipation of the window opening. Once they started selling tickets people were trying to cut but Christie was dropping elbows on them to keep her spot. When she was second in line the guy in front of her was taking his sweet time so the ticket agent helped Christie while the guy in front got his act together.

We had about 20 minutes until our ferry started boarding so we found a bench (in the shade of course) to sit on. While waiting a lady came around begging for change and went away empty handed and went back to talking to her friends. We are pretty sure she had a ticket for the ferry but was asking for money anyway. Crazy Spanish people. The ferry ride was quite uneventful, which is a good thing, and we got to Capri in one piece (each). We wanted to make sure we could get home so we found the counter to get return tickets and took care of that so we wouldn’t be stranded on a beautiful island with fantastic food because that would have been terrible.

We decided to take a boat tour around the island to take in all of the sights. The boat traveled much slower than I would have liked but it was very pretty. We saw the grotto’s that they had but would couldn’t swim in the famed Blue Grotto because the tide was too high. The skill of the boat driver was very impressive as he was able to navigate the boat into and out of caves without being able to turn around and he never hit the rocks either. When we got back we walked past a girl who apparently lost a major argument with her stomach.

After finishing the tour we rode a cable car up into Capri Town and found a nice little cafe and ordered some lunch. I am still amazed at the quality of food in Italy. We ate at some of the most random places and the food was amazing. After lunch we rode the bus to Anacapri which is a separate town much higher on the island. The bus is made to handle about 20 people but they manage to squeeze, oh, I don’t know and I’m not very good with numbers but, about 86 people in there with all but 6 standing up. This also isn’t a very gentle ride as the road hugs the cliffs and that doesn’t phase the driver one bit. I’m not talking Colorado scary, I’m talking Mt. Kilimanjaro scary. I wanted to take a picture to demonstrate this point but I couldn’t spare a hand because one was holding me up and the other was holding my wallet.

We got to the town and walked around looking for a chair lift that would take us to the very top of the island so we could get a 360 degree view. The book Christie has said to walk down through  the town but that wasn’t right. Maybe we got off at the wrong stop or something but we could see the lift going up and we were walking down. We decided to through caution to the wind and walk in the direction that the chair lift should be located. Low and behold we found the chairlift exactly where logic would say it should be and we got on. The ride up was awesome. Every time I thought the view was amazing I would look back and it was better (see pics below). The chairs actually go over a lot of backyards and I found this little gem.

The top was amazing and the pictures will prove it. I didn’t realize how hazy it could be in the middle of the Mediterranean but the water was an awesome blue and yes, that is my favorite color. We planned on hiking down (well, Christie did at least) but unfortunately (not) we didn’t have enough time. We went to the bus stop and hopped back on the bus of doom to get back to Capri Town. When we saw the line for the ride down in the cable car we decided to try our luck again in the bus.

When we loaded the bus we got about 30 people in there and the bus driver was telling people to move back so more people could get on. I was already in the back and expecting to be packed in like sardines when the guy right in front of me blows up. He starts yelling at the bus driver and has his hand in the air touching all 5 fingers together like a stereotypical Italian would in an argument. Well, this was exactly like I imagined an Italian argument would be. The guy and the bus driver were both yelling at the same time making the same hand gesture and I had to do everything I could to not laugh. The last thing I wanted to do was anger and Italian guy making funny hand gestures; people have died for less than that.

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When we booked our cruise Christie was listing off the places the ship stopped. Malta, Naples, Rome, Florence and Cannes. I had heard of all of them except for Malta so I asked where that was and Christie responded “Huh, I have no idea, part of Sicily maybe?” so we fired up Google and figured out that it is actually it’s own country located south of Sicily.

Anyway, this was our first stop on the cruise but we couldn’t find anything to do on the island before we got there so we decided to just walk around and see what we come across. We slept in a got a late start around 11:30 and we needed to be back by 2:30. After taking 10 steps off the ship and feeling the sweltering heat like it is coming directly out of Dante’s mouth I say “I bet were back within 2 hours.” Before we get 100 yards from the ship my back is soaked with sweat and beads are pouring off my head like when Striker is trying to land the plane in the movie Airplane. We run the cabbie gauntlet and pass the horse carriage “won’t take no for an answer” guy and start walking up the 30 degree hill to get into town.

At this point there is visible sweat on the top of my shorts from the river running down my back but I am fighting through it. We walked past a very beautiful building that turned out to be the foreign ministry building that had plaques from foreign dignitaries thanking Malta for their part in World War II so apparently the island is good for something besides sweat production. We walked down some alleys since they were shaded and made our way back to the main square.

1.5 hours after we left we ship we got back on the ship and 1/3rd of the backside of my shorts was much darker than the rest. That was the last time I wore my khaki shorts on the trip. We then laid out on our balcony and enjoyed the rays with frequent breaks back inside to absorb the air conditioning.

Dear Malta,

You were a pretty place to observe from the comfort of my air conditioned suite. You are made entirely of stone and are almost void of trees and vegetation so I hope you have a good trade deal setup with an agricultural exporter. Due to my normal sweat production and my acclimation to the climate of Boulder I will probably not visit you again. From now on I will no longer say I am hot, I will say I am Malta.

Sincerely,

Luke

P.S. We did not take any pictures in Malta because the camera would have melted.