I didn’t think I was going to write one of these, but then I finally looked back to see what I wrote last year, and thought I’d do it again. I kind of like having a little summary all in one place. Here’s 2010 if you’re interested.
This year Taylor and I :
Moved into a new apartment, and survived. Celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary.
Visited
New Orleans (March)
New York (May)
And I:
Completed a 2nd Warrior Dash, without barfing
Celebrated
New Year’s Day in New York City
My 30th birthday
Cooked – Not as much as I would have liked. Learned how to cook risotto.
Visited
Italy (July)
Austin (October)
Read
Room
Harry Potter Series
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow
Started but couldn’t finish
The Pioneer Woman, Black Heels to Tractor Wheels
Chelsea Handler, Chelsea, Chelsea Bang Bang
Watched
True Blood (Seasons 3)
Lots of How I Met Your Mother & Big Bang Theory
Tosh.0
The New Girl
Lots of Intervention, Addicted and Obsessed
Listened to/Discovered Music – Again, not all new stuff, but I love all the same.
Matt & Kim – Cameras
Eric Hutchinson – Sounds Like This
Freelance Whales – Weathervanes
Discovery – Discovery LP
Ke$ha – Animal
Grouplove – Never Trust a Happy Song
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros – Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
O.A.R. – King
And talking about 2011 wouldn’t be complete with a special new category.
Developed Friendships
I became closer to friends I already had while planning our trip and traveling to Italy together.
I also met new friends at the Blathering. Some of them I think will be friends for a very long time.
When last we left off, we’d just spent our day in a wonderful state of relaxation. Followed by an equally relaxing and delicious dinner. So we thought we’d continue with that theme. Here’s a little visual “taste” of our delicious dinner.
Due to some pre-dinner wine, then being required to try both the red and white house wine at dinner (so we could decide which bottle to buy and bring home with us…of course!) we were already having a great evening. I’m not exactly sure how the timeline went after dinner, but I’ll try my very best.
We wandered back into the town square after dinner, with no particular destination in mind. As we wandered, we stumbled upon a bar/restaurant with outdoor karaoke. So we stopped to watch.
We had so much fun singing trying to sing along to some Italian songs we didn’t know and some English songs we did, we decided to have a seat.
We got hooked with this song Sara Perche Ti Amo by Ricchi E Poveri. Sorry I couldn’t find a better video for you.
Some of us decided it was time for limoncello and some of us decided on gelato. Really there’s no bad time for either in Italy.
But having a seat turned out to be a bad idea. The karaoke MC spotted us right away and decided we needed to sing a song. So after a little prodding, the four of us got on stage. We needed to sing a song we all kind of knew, and that the Italians would probably know too. We suggested all kinds of things. Spice Girls. Michael Jackson. They didn’t have any of it. But then they found a song for us.
Spoiler Alert. This does not turn out well.
What did they pick you ask? A Whitney Houston song. We were thankful it wasn’t I Will Always Love You. But what they picked was almost worse.
I Believe The Children Are Our Future.
Did you know that song is 800 minutes long? Well it’s not, but that’s about how long it feels when you are on stage howling it out at the top of your lungs, slightly drunk from dinner. And none of us can really sing so it was reminiscent of the song that never ends.
We settled our bill as soon as we hopped off stage, and high tailed it out of there. Embarrassing as it was, I’d say it was one of the most fun memories I have from our trip.
We wanted to try the famous Calabrian granita place Cherrye told us about, Bar la Torre. (Seriously, it is so awesome to have a local friend/travel advice giver.) What we didn’t realize is that we’d actually stopped there the night before for Linsi to get some gelato. But this night was all about the granita (sort of like shaved ice and made completely with fresh fruit.) I got some berry flavored granita.
We even met the owners of the place and the inventor of the granita!
After getting our granitas, we decided that we should play on the playground. This shot of me was taken only moments right before I realized the spring on that thing was super loose and I fell on the ground. I didn’t spill a drop though!
Jane stayed on though.
Then right after that, a guy recognized us from karaoke and offered to give us a free ride at the carnival that was just on the other side of the park. So we couldn’t say no. I can’t quickly find the picture of myself in the carnival ride, but I here’s a picture of Daniella and a short video I took. It was so awesome!
After that, we were pretty much done for the night, and we had to get up a little early in the morning to catch the train to meet up with Cherrye and Peppe. And to go to our cooking demonstration! But that didn’t stop us from finishing the rest of the wine when we got back to the hotel. So we didn’t have to carry it with us, of course.
My best friend gave me a really great gift for Christmas this year and I thought doing something similar would be a really nice and thoughtful gift.
She typed up her family’s secret spaghetti sauce recipe and included some of the ingredients in a box. We’ve known each other since our freshman year of college, and I am so honored that her family allowed her to share the recipe with me.
She also printed out some pictures from our Italy trip and put them in photo coasters and also threw in a colosseum ornament.
Since I have been lucky enough to go on several trips with friends and family, I am definitely going to keep this idea in my back pocket.
Ok ya’ll. I know I’m taking forever at writing about my Italy trip. I’ve been busy, but also somehow I think that once I quit writing about it, I won’t think about it as much. Dumb I know. But, I’ve got plenty more to share. Rome and Florence were great, but the next two stops on our trip were really the best.
Scalea was my favorite place. I think the other girls would agree, but I won’t speak for them. We had so many fun times there on our trip. It’s a small coastal town on the western coast of Italy, south of Naples and even more south than Amalfi. (Google it for a map.) We picked it, because we wanted to do something less touristy but beachy, and my wonderful friend Cherrye recommended it to us.
And what’s not to love about this?!
Honestly, Scalea was awesome. We were only slightly pissy at each other when we first got there because a local pointed us in the wrong direction of our hotel, so we walked for almost an hour longer than necessary, in 100 degree heat, just to get to our hotel. Waahh! I know. Once we got to our hotel though, it was bliss for the next two days.
I’ve never taken a beach vacation, but this place made me want to book one immediately.
On our sightseeing day, a guy opened the gate to Talao Tower just for us.
The views from the top of the tower are just awesome.
And lets revisit that first photo…
Um. Yeah!
Our first night there, we killed time until the recommended local restaurant opened. We even waited (creepster style, right across the street, where they could see us) until way after 8PM because the hostess wouldn’t let us in. We killed A LOT of time. What can we say. We Americans aren’t used to eating that late.
We got hollered at by some Italian boys cruising the main drag, and told them we’d meet up with them later. NOT!
Before going into dinner I caught a spectacular sunset shot.
Finally, at dinner, we ate for what seemed to be hours. I had a steak.
And I even tried clams for the first time. (We were right across the street from the ocean!) This is Linsi’s Frutta di Mare plate. I wish I could tell you what everything was.
We tried cake made from the locally grown Cedro fruit.
And after several liters of wine, and complimentary limoncello, I played banker and paid our bill.
Then, we joined the locals for a little passeggiata (stroll through town) before calling it a night.
