Practicing my Journo in the Uber

Tour Guide Ryan

Wishing the Broncos get a new QB? 🤔

My goal is to try every flavor of gelato before we leave 😬

When you order a glass of house wine and they bring you a .5 L carafe 😳🤪

730am - land in Rome. No sleep on the plane. Today should be interesting.

815am - driving in Rome seems crazy. Not recommended.

Ate at Squisito Cook next to the Colosseum.

We made it!

Outside and inside the Pantheon

Took the Metro to the Spanish Steps

Dinner at Da Tonino (came highly recommended and did not disappoint) and then walked back to the Airbnb.

Stopped in a church on the way to the Pantheon

Walked to Piazza Navona and had drinks and prosciutto/mozzarella at 4 Fiumi

View from the Airbnb

Walked from the Spanish Steps to the Trevi Fountain

3+ hour tour of The Vatican with our guide Luigi (When In Rome Tours). He was amazing and knew everything about every aspect of the Vatican.

Tour went late so we got a quick bite at Pizzeria Amalfi near the Vatican. Wood fire oven pizza was delicious and we had too much of it.

Our amazing tour guide Luigi jumped the barrier to spin the sphere within a sphere for maximum effect!

Dinner at I Clementini near the Colosseum. The veal was really good; Jess was more excited for the gelato we (she) got afterwards from Flor Gelato.

3 flavors - tiramisu, grandmother’s cream, and pistachio 😍

Did our own walking tour of some local churches and put our hands in the Mouth of Truth (like Audrey Hepburn did in Roman Holiday).

Got a quick bite at Naumachia

Toured the Colosseum. Are you not entertained?

Toured the Forum and Palatine Hill

Thankful my name is Jessica

Ryan among the Plebians

Ryan wanted to go home 90 seconds before this...

My selfie game is better than Ryan’s

And then wanted me to take another sweaty selfie 💁🏻‍♀️

Ryan needs a beer this big to put up with me 👀😳

Served with 100 cl beer and .5L red wine

Ryan ordered a veal steak with bruschetta prosciutto (not pictured) and I had buccatini amatriciana 👌🏻

Mastery of the coin toss

Gelato > carbs

Apple pie, caramel, Oreo

Temple of Vesta

Photographer Ryan

Underneath Arch of Titus

Temple of Romulus

Leaving Rome. Jess can’t believe she’s not in Penn Station.

We’re not on NJ Transit anymore

The train is here well in advance and no one is running 😱🙌🏼

VIP access 🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♂️

Business class includes a table and a personal garbage

All luggage fits in overhead except for our large bag 😒

At the station, this screen also included other trains arriving/departing and what tracks they’re on for transfers...NJ Transit/Amtrak take note! 💪🏻

And snacks with a refreshing towel!! 😍 I will ride this train all day/am a battered NJ transit woman 😞

View from the porch of our apartment 😍

And the full Duomo from ground level ⛪️

Quite the hot spot!

Caprese and calabrese pizzas

You sign and put your order ticket into the table like true tourists 😬

Closed today so we’ll be back

Fun fact: Henry = Enrico

Who’s who 👀

Reading about Florence’s version of Game of Thrones ⚜️

Playing with all of da Vinci’s creations

Think they could bring da Vinci back to redesign the urinal in the museum.

Ryan can stay too and do manual labor

Typo in the English translation 🤦🏻‍♀️ maybe I can stay and find work here? 🤓

Fagottini di pere alla crema di taleggio aka pear ravioli that will change your life 😍😋

Large beer and wine to start 👀

My first bruschetta of the trip so now I’m a real American tourist

No day in Italy is complete without gelato, line out the door for Grom just outside the duomo

3 flavors: salted caramel, torroncino (nougat), and gianduia (Nutella) 😋

Over 17,000 steps today #treatyoself

Walked by Italian dark-haired ed sheeran... the real guy is in America about to play at met life but I’m too busy exploring Italy

Our new friends offered to take a pic

Wine (and meat) tour!

Wine cellar

Started off at Corzano e Paterno and tried 4 bottles of wine and someone’s first grape 👀

Our tour guide, Tom

#harvestseason

Squad

The former owner, Jackie (who still runs it for the person she sold it to), gave us the tour and went over a lot about wine. Jess may want to be her best friend.

Made from vines planted in 1932.

Tom hit a rock wall on the tight uphill turn out of the winery and wasn’t thrilled about it. He was a great guide though!

Room full of barrels

Grapes after de-stemming

Italians put their wines in French oak 👀🤔

Started off the morning early with some coffee, biscotti, and light reading about wine country

Honey and cheese served with our wine tasting 😋

Check out the size of those organic grapes! Ryan even ate one and that was before any wine! 😱

Mixing the grapes during fermentation

Old school barrels

Ready to be harvested any day now

Ryan admiring the cellar #doabarrelroll ✈️

So beautiful and delicious 😬

Cheers! 🤵🏻👰🏻🍷🍷

Luckily no vegetarians were on our tour

Meat on meat on meat 🐮🐮🐮 I’m not a big beef person but it was all so good!

Grapes that started growing in 1932!

#views

My new bff Jackie 👯‍♀️ #squadgoals

She was so informative and hilarious 😂🍷

She inherited the winery from her father and sold it to some rich Australian who lets her keep running it #livingthedream

After eating meat before, naturally I thought it was a good idea to get a pizza with ham, pepperoni, sausage, and hot dog.

Had to walk it off past the Ponte Vecchio

Ryan’s new friend

The tour wouldn’t be complete without an afternoon gelato - cheesecake, torta di riso (rice cake), and cremino.

I think I have to switch to baked goods or go back to the old reliable flavors.

And got ourselves some fine leather swag 🤑👜 happy 1 week anniversary! #treatyoself

After eating meat all day, Ryan loaded back up with more meats on his pizza

Window shopped an impressive but expensive metal shop

I had to have parpadelle with wild boar ragu🐗 (hopefully not Ryan’s new friend from Greve)

Lunch at the Mercato Centrale after the Basilica di San Lorenzo

Cafe americano and a cannoli (take away as they say 🤦🏻‍♀️)

So this is why Father Bob wouldn’t let us throw rice 🤔

Bruschetta drizzled with balsamic and burrata 😍😋

Very crowded

👀

Very studious

Florentine TBone 👌🏽

A couple of nuts 🤪

Everyone takes the best photos with an iPad 🤦🏻‍♀️

Learning selfie

Pretty fly for a white guy

So many heads

Thought I’d break the glass and play everyone a tune

Learning about music

Bistecca “alla fiorentina” and pici cacio e Pepe - so good!

Crostini to start

So full!

Wanted to go back to Grom but it wouldn’t be fun looking at the same cup twice - cappuccino, nougatine, and marscapone with honey & walnuts

Post-wine tour, Ryan is a Chianti snob 👃🏼

Suitcase fits in the luggage rack 👌🏻

Bit of a penn station vibe and our train is delayed 👀

On the water taxi to our apartment

There is an espresso machine 😍🤗

Just outside of the train station

Waiting for Gianluca to let us in

Narrow streets but no cars

Leaning Tower of Venice? (You can’t tell from the picture, but there is a definite lean going on)

Just scoping out the square. Tomorrow we go into the basilica and tower.

St. Mark’s Basilica

St Mark’s Campanile

Followed by music battles on St. Mark’s Square

Their neighbors at Cafe Lavena took over and were equally fantastic!

Complimentary homemade limoncello 😳🤪

Tartufo Classico for dessert

Ryan’s meats on meats on meats...I ate the cheese and olives 😬

Action shot of the quartet at Quadri

Spaghetti vongole - we’re on an island now 🏝🐚

Aperol spritz and beer

Our host provided biscuits and an espresso machine! 😍☕️ Ryan opted for Coca Cola 👀

Looking down on the flooding square

Lit a candle 🙏🏼 No photos allowed inside but I snuck this one in as proof 👀😬

Standing on the outside balcony

Digital clock

Bells on the hour

Flooding St. Mark’s Square from the top

Views from the top

Gripping for dear life, so windy!

Scared the phone will blow away but opted for a quick photoshoot

All of Venice

Waiting for the elevator to get out of the wind tunnel and back to safety 🙏🏼

A long way up

Winds gusting over 100km/hr up here

Broke the rules to get a photo inside St. Mark’s

On the 2nd story ledge outside of St. Mark’s

First pizza in Venice! From Antico Panificio near Rialto.

What to buy?

2 seafood spaghettis, they were out of my first choice crab linguine 😒 but yummy nonetheless!

Beer and wine

Walking to dinner at Da Carletto

1 DELICIOUS tiramisu 😍😋...waiter always brings 2 spoons but I still can’t get Ryan to bite 😢

Waiting for our train to post while talking to our new friends from New Zealand

Took the water taxi from Rialto to Ferrovia

Debating getting off in Florence to avoid going back to Rome and flying home 😬

Sweet train snacks 😋

Picked a winner

Cleaned our plates for our final meal in Italy at That’s Amore

Final step counts for the trip before we fly home tomorrow:

Ryan

9/17 - 17,657

9/18 - 17,602

9/19 - 24,687

9/20 - 15,977

9/21 - 13,167

9/22 - 19,908

9/23 - 17,745

9/24 - 19,023

9/25 - 17,799

Total - 163,565

Jess

9/17 - 19,922

9/18 - 18,844

9/19 - 25,461

9/20 - 17,237

9/21 - 12,804

9/22 - 19,177

9/23 - 18,040

9/24 - 19,509

9/25 - 18,220

Total - 169,214

Piazza del Popolo

Ryan’s new ride - no more training wheels!

Ryan had an itch

Note: Children unattended will end up in fountains

Views from the top of Terraza del Pincio

Ryan tried the spaghetti amatriciana and I had the fettuccine with ragu meat sauce - both were very good!!

I haven’t had gelato since we were in Florence and was starting to twitch...not sure what I’ll do when we fly home tomorrow 😳😱

2nd trip to Venchi - crema de Venchi, cuor di cacao, and gianduia...also picked up a few treats to take home 🤗

Vino Rossi and grande birre - regulars at this point

I am very tired and cranky 😞

Ryan is pleasant as always playing Pokémon

Missing our neighbors to the north! They use regular bacon and not Canadian bacon 😩 So many signs that we should’ve never left the hotel or Venice 🤷🏻‍♀️

Getting back to our roots at the Golden Arches, it is the most popular spot 💪🏻 YEAH AMERICA 🇺🇸

And redeemed our meal voucher for the delayed flight

Finally boarded 🙏🏼🙌🏼

Leaving jfk in our Uber

About to land

Global entry life = skip the lines 🙌🏼

Airport naps

Arrivederci, honeymoon :(