Isn't it Rome-mantic?

Yeah, so I was in Rome for Valentine's Day. Most romantic place on earth right? Well in grand Mel Heth fashion, I came down with a stomach issue that evening (I'm blaming the yogurt and berry gelato I ate before dinner) that forced me to make Mr. W put on his headphones with very loud music while I spent some time in the bathroom. Totally exactly how I thought my über romantic V-Day would go down in sexy, beautiful Rome.

The picture above is Trevi Fountain which was completely incredible. I felt like a very bad, stupid American when I caught myself thinking "Huh, it looks like something you'd see in Vegas."


This was the very cute courtyard outside the apartment where we stayed. We actually found a postcard (with kittens in the picture...smooshy!) with this very courtyard in it. I guess it's kinda famous. It was very charming and in a great location—just minutes from the Pantheon.



Oh hi. That's me. Hanging out. At the freaking Coliseum. Where gladiators used to fight lions and stuff. Thousands of years ago. No big.



Here's part of the Forum, which was extremely impressive. Aquaducts and drainage systems? Seriously. Crazy smart Romans.

I'm still not quite ready to be a fully-functioning blogger and member of society. Hopefully I'll be ready to join the masses again in the next couple of weeks.

Ciao from Italia

Internet, glorious Internet. We’ve been several days without wi-fi, so I have been feeling a bit cut off from the world. But oh the time we’re having! Much to my surprise, I loved Venice. I sort of expected it to be run down and gross, but it was charming and magical. I couldn’t stop singing Phantom of the Opera “Masquerade” in my head because of the Carnivale masks everywhere. Even the insane flooding the day we left didn’t get me down. Mr. W and I simply wrapped our feet in trash bags and slopped through the streets like everyone else.


From Venice, we took a train to Florence to our little apartment 5 floors up. Florence took some time to grow on me. I think I had an image of a small city in Tuscany in my head, which Firenze is not. It’s a bustling city complete with crowds and graffiti, but also draped in all the beauty of Renaissance Italy.


The duomo and the cathedrals and museums are just gorgeous. And I found it endlessly entertaining that we were walking among “high rises” that were built 500 years ago. Highlights from our stay there included a 1.6 kg steak—no idea how many pounds that equates to, but it took us two nights to eat it. All the food there was delicious, gelato included. I also loved the Santa Croche church where Michaelangelo and Da Vinci are buried.

But by far the most incredible part of the trip there was seeing the statue of David. It literally took my breath away. I had no idea how huge it was, or how magnificently crafted it stands. It was such a sight. I wanted to eat it.


We also took a day trip to Pisa, which despite the major pain in the ass of trying to get out of Florence via car, turned out to be a great little expedition. Pisa was beautiful…and we had the best dessert ever after lunch.

I am sooo loving the wine and cheese and chocolate here. Thank goodness for all the stairs and long walks to balance it all out.

Athens Gets a Bad Wrap

Okay so I don't actually have any pictures of Athens uploaded yet. I even had to steal the pictures here from Mr. W's file because I haven't saved mine onto his laptop. So the picture above was taken on Naxos—which we loved. We rented a scooter and drove all over the island Monday. Above you can see a marble quarry in the mountains there. The mountainous area was beautiful—green, rolling hills and olive trees.


Here's Apollo's Sanctuary, also on Naxos. Now that I'm in Athens, sitting in the rooftop bar, looking over Zeus's Temple to be exact, I'm even more aware how amazing it is that all of these ruins are still intact. Here in Athens, you walk around the city and randomly interspersed with concrete and modern architecture are the remnants of things from like 12th century B.C. Unbelievable.

Here's me looking like a dork along the southwest shore of Naxos. The water was exactly what I'd expect of Greece—crystal clear and stunningly blue. Although Athens doesn't have the same tropical charm of the islands, it's still a pretty cool city. Parts of it remind me of Paris, other parts New York. And the Acropolis looks incredible all lit up tonight. So far, Mr. W and I are really enjoying it. But we leave tomorrow afternoon for Venice.


Here's a shot from sunset on Santorini. That island was definitely my favorite. Last night we were in Paros, which is probably fine during the summer, but it was so dead we had to eat Cliff bars for dinner and spend the night in our room reading. I think tonight is making up for it. Although we're exhausted from our 4-hour ferry ride here and will likely be turning early.

Sadly, the ferry ride was quite rough and we spent much of the trip staring blankly at the horizon trying to keep our equilibriums intact. Mr. W made it almost the whole way here...until he offered to go get some Dramamine for me from reception. Walking to the back of the boat was too much and when he came back, he tossed his cookies into a to-go bag. My poor, sweet boy. We're both still a little wobbly from our the rough seas, but he's feeling much better.

Looking forward to hiking up to the Acropolis tomorrow. Kali spera.

Box up My Stuff and Ship it Here, Please

The only way I can think to properly describe the aesthetic here on Santorini is by calling it Shut Up Beautiful. Seriously, it is so incredibly pretty, I just want to keep saying Shut Up! The picture above was taken today in Pyrgos. Mr. W and I have been looking for the famous blue-domed church, but there are so many of them, it's hard to tell which one might be THE one.


The crazy cat lady in me is getting indulged to the nth degree. There are cats and dogs roaming everywhere you go. I've seen about 5 different ones in our hotel. This little guy greeted us when we arrived, and stayed out on our balcony for quite awhile. Pretty nice view of the caldera, huh?



Here's the view from the hotel right below ours. It is truly stunning. It seems like no matter where you are on the island, there is something incredible to see. The ocean. The rolling green hillsides. The architecture. It's everything I would've dreamed of. But everyone speaks English, which I never would've imagined.


I loved that when we first arrived, there was a train of donkeys coming up the path to our hotel. They were all decked out with fancy harnesses and bells. I'm sure to impress the tourists. It worked, I was impressed. More impressive, however, is how gorgeous the weather has been since we arrived. Whoever said visiting the Greek Isles in the middle of winter was a bad idea was sorely mistaken.

Adio

I’m too lazy to look up how to say goodbye in Italian, so I just cheated and had Mr. W tell me how to say it in Greek. Yes readers, I am bidding you adieu because I’m leaving for the Mediterranean tomorrow.

We’ll start out at 4 a.m. to make our 6:30 flight to New York. Then we’ll catch another flight to Athens, and yet another to Santorini. By this time, we will probably be muttering gibberish and bumping into walls. We’ll have two nights in Santorini then hop a ferry to Naxos.

I’ve heard mixed reviews of Naxos. My Lonely Planet book described it as the most fertile and lush of the Greek Isles, but a friend at work said it was an ugly port-town-filled island. If it’s ugly, I’ll just have to stare into Mr. W’s eyes the whole time. Or bury my face in Angels and Demons, which is quite good so far.

From Naxos, we’ll head to Paros via ferry. And after a night there, we’ll go back to Athens. I’m already preparing myself for a letdown in that city. Everyone says it’s dirty and not that cool and there’s construction around the Acropolis. But it’s Mr. W’s homeland (sort of) and I think our hotel is pretty nice.

We’ll catch a flight the following day and head to Venice, where it could be down to 37°. I’m prepared to freeze there, but also extremely excited to visit—especially after watching Giada DeLaurentiis go there on the Food Network. We will definitely be hitting Harry’s Bar, where Hemingway used to hang out.

Next we’ll take a train to Florence, where I suspect we will stuff ourselves on pasta and gelato and art and romance. I’m hoping my adoration for Mr. W grows more than my waistline on this trip.

We may try to take a trip out to Pisa for a quick glimpse of the tower, then we’ll travel to Arezzo, which is sort of nestled in the heart of Tuscany. I’m hoping for some nice sweeping hillside landscapes and some good wine there.

From Arezzo, we’ll catch another train to our final destination: Rome. I read Eat, Pray, Love last year and almost licked the pages when she wrote about Rome. Everything about the city just sounds decadent. It will be perfect that our last day of the trip—Valentine’s Day—will take place in Rome. I’m sure I’ll be ruined forever after that.

I’m going to try to post pictures and write a bit if I can. Mr. W is taking his laptop, so I should have blog access. But I won’t likely read anything you all are writing. I’ll check in on all of you when I return on the 15th.

So long!

Work Gripes

I'm hungover and cranky today. Had a little too much wine last night and not quite enough water, so not only am I dehydrated, my sleep was riddled with all sorts of funky drunky dreams. I turned my Prius into a succulent at one point; I couldn't find where to take a test in my high school and I didn't have a #2 pencil or a Scan-tron. So I'm tired from thinking too much all night and although I leave for vacation in 4 days, I just want to complain about some things that have been building up lately.

Guys with ponytails. I don't know what it is about this recently, but it makes my skin crawl. I want nothing more than to sneak up behind them with a big pair of scissors and emancipate them from Dungeons and Dragons world and thrust them into the 21st century. My work is crawling with these guys.

People who don't flush. Okay seriously, this should not ever, ever be an issue unless there is a problem with the plumbing. Even if you're missing both of your arms, you could at least kick the handle with your foot. But see, I know you have arms because you leave evidence behind of your ability to wipe. Bathroom bastard.

Morning chitchat. Call me whatever mean name you want, but I don't really even like to say good morning to anyone until I've had some time to get settled at my desk and wake up a bit. This usually means I'd prefer radio silence until about 1 p.m.

The arsehats who open the blinds in the conference room by my cube. People, I know the view of the traintracks and Fry's is nice, but when you open the blinds in there, it sends a stream of blinding sunlight across my desk—right in the middle of my laptop screen. You are the reason I can no longer read street signs when driving at night.

To go boxes in the cafeteria. If I say "it's for here" that means I want a plate. Not everyone enjoys unnecesarily filling landfills with plastic containers.

Okay, I'm done. I promise my next post will be all happy happy joy joy about Italy and Greece. In the meantime, why don't you tell me what's bugging you?

Relief, Part II

As if the bouncy, bubbling, ecstatic feelings I was overflowing with yesterday weren't enough, today I found out that Mr. Wonderful is coming home on Saturday. We thought he might not get let go until Monday, so this is a huge treat.

Now that I know when he's returning, the last two and a half weeks don't seem nearly as torturous as they were. Yesterday, I would've told you it felt like he'd been gone six weeks. But today? Merely ten days, maybe eleven.

In the time that he's been gone, I've learned how to use Skype. I've learned that sometimes being in other people's company just makes you miss the company of the person who's away even more. I've relearned that I can get a lot of chores and hobby work done on the weekends when no one else is around. I've learned that I would probably be a crazier lady sans-cats than I am with cats. I've learned that I can cook chicken on the bone. I've learned how to use my new DVR. I've learned that sometimes it feels good to sleep on the other side of the bed. And I've learned that the year I had sketched out in my head will probably be nothing like the one that actually takes place in '09.

I have no idea what to expect over the next few months and that terrifies and excites me all in the same. What I do know is that I will be traveling to Greece and Italy in 9 days. I will likely be taking a trip to London—possibly with a visit to the wine country of France—in April. I may be meeting Mr. W in Florida in June. And in July, I will hopefully be taking a huge leap and going to live with him in London.

I can't even fully comprehend that last part yet. Living abroad. Living with Mr. W. Getting to travel around Europe on the weekends. It's just too good. So good that I can't indulge the thoughts too much because you never know what will happen tomorrow...