Our last night in San Lucia before moving to our temporary apartment.

Just about every night we switched off between having dinner at Antonio & Antonio, or at Gusto & Gusto, 2 of our favorite restaurants within easy walking distance from our hotel. On our last night, which also happened to be "La Festa di San Giuseppe", the Italian equivalent of Father's Day, we decided on Antonio & Antonio for dinner. We sat in Mauricio's section, one of our favorite waiters there, and broke the news to him that we were moving to Posillipo, so would no longer be seeing him every other night. He said, "just don't forget about your friend Mauricio!", which of course, we won't, and we promised to come and visit him soon. The waiters have pretty much seen Evan grow up over the past few months, and they have also all become my informal Italian teachers, so even though we are only moving a few miles away, it was still kind of sad to say bye to them, and know we won't see them every day. After dinner at Antonio & Antonio, we stopped in to see the guys at Gusto & Gusto to tell them that we are moving too, since I went there for lunch almost daily, and didn't want them to wonder what happened to me if I just stopped showing up. After saying bye to them, we promised to stop by as soon as we get settled in our new place, since they too, have become not only our favorite waiters, but friends along the way.

**Pictures: Nightly walk for dinner from the hotel; Enjoying my Parmigiana de Melanzane and Spaghetti con pomodoro (These are 2 seperate dishes, but I eat it "sicilian style" and put my Eggplant parmigian on top of my spaghetti. Bellissimo!Josh enjoying his Zeppola, the traditional dessert served on "Father's Day" and a picture of Josh and Mauricio.

Movin' on...

We got word today that we can officially move into a temporary apartment tomorrow. Wow! We are still looking forward to being in a permanent place, but we are definitely excited to know that our days of hotel living are finally coming to a close. I will definitely miss some of the staff here at the hotel who have become my Italian teachers (by default) & friends (by design), but I've already started collecting their phone numbers and email addresses so that we can stay in touch, and once we get into our permanent place, I've already promised to have them over for an American style dinner party.

The place we are moving to is in Posillipo, the neighborhood we hope to find our permanent apartment in. It is a very tranquil (relative term) part of the city, and I'm looking forward to having more peaceful walks with Evan around the neighborhood there. I've also been to this apartment several times as our friends just moved out of there, so it's nice to have some familiarity with it.

*Attached are pictures of Evan's first "house" in Italy.

I found my oasis!

Evan and I took a "field trip" to the Botanical Gardens, thanks to my friend Stephanie making the plan for us. The Botanical Gardens date back to the 1600s, and this huge park offers an amazing respite from the chaotic streets of Naples. The gardens are owned by the University of Naples and are the most important Botanical Gardens in Italy, with plant and tree varieties from all over the world.

To start our field trip, Evan and I walked to Piazza Amadeo, about 15 minutes from the hotel, to catch the metro/subway to Piazza Cavour, a quick two stops away. Stephanie thought that there was an elevator in the metro station, but unfortunately she was mistaken. Thankfully I'm not afraid to ask for help, and I found some nice folks willing to offer me a hand carrying the stroller up and down numerous flights of stairs to get up and over one set of tracks to the next set that would take us to Piazza Cavour. We also had to maneuver up 3 stairs to get onto the train itself, so again, I was thankful for some helping hands. The metro is old, definitely not sleek, but for a mere 1.10 euro, it's an efficient way to get from point A to B.

We arrived at Piazza Cavour where Stephanie was waiting for us. It was fun to see another one of Napoli's neighborhoods. Stephanie lives in this area, which she refers to as 'the hood', but I actually liked the buzz and energy of this area, and felt quite safe. Her husband runs a liquor and wine business so we stopped by his shop first, since her mother-in-law wanted to see Evan. We popped in the store, accepted an offer for some espresso, enjoyed our cafe, let Evan be loved on for a bit, and then we headed out towards the Botanical Gardens. Antonio, Stephanie's husband, had recommended that we stop in at a local Salumeria to get sandwiches for our picnic in the gardens, and he loaded us up w/ cokes and gatorade before we left his shop.

We found what we thought was the recommended Salumeria (it wasn't the right one, but the sandwiches were still great), bought our 3 euro sandwiches--parmesan and salami for me, and proscuitto cotto (ham) and swiss for Stephanie, and we were on our way. Appointments are required to get into the Botanical Gardens. Stephanie had called ahead, so at that gate, we just checked in, and then began exploring the gardens. We walked through the California palm trees, to the desert section--tons of cacti, around by the rainforest section...brimming with waterfalls and ferns, up to the fruit tree section, with Sorrento lemons the size of grapefruits, past the greenhouses where congested pregnant women and infants are allowed to sit to take advantage of all the clean oxygen, to our picnic spot..a nice little grassy area by a goldfish pond. We enjoyed our massive sandwiches while Evan enjoyed the sun, the breeze, the greenery the grass and the sound of the birds--all which he doesn't get to experience too often in Naples. It was such a peaceful place, and we had a ball. Stephanie goes every few months, and so we look forward to joining her again sometime soon. Such a great hidden treasure and certainly worth the visit!

What do you mean Barney wasn't invited!??

I may have mentioned in a previous post that purple is THE color in Napoli. As you walk down the street, everyone is adorned in purple--purple pants, purple boots, purple hats, purple scarfs, purple puffy coats, purple purple purple! All of the stores' display windows are merchandised with purple, and you just might feel a bit out of it if purple is not included in your wardrobe. So, in honor of this purple phenomenon that has taken over Napoli, our friends, Perry and Jordan, threw a purple party. It was a blast, and so fun to hang out with good friends in all of our purple fabulous-ness! We hear that the color tourquoise will be the next "in" thing to hit these streets, so start shopping now if you want to be considered a fashion trend-setter:)

Check out the purple party pictures at : http://www.perrygill.com/PurpleParty.aspx

One of Naples "Top 10" sites

On Saturday we took a leisurely one hour drive to Paestum, the site of 7th century BC Greek Poseidonia. From our guide book, we learned "Paestum enjoyed 1000 years of prosperity, first as Greek Poseidonia, then under the Lucanians, then the Romans. The crumbling of the Roman Empire led to the gradual abandonment of the city, and with that, the degradation of the fields, which turned into malaria-ridden swamps. No one dared come near the spot until the 18th century, when Charles III was having a road built, trees cleared etc..and out of this clearing, there they were--three intact Greek temples." Much more was discovered in teh 20th century, and for only 4 euro you can walk amongst the remains of the temples, ampitheatres, and city walls, and also view many of the artifacts, pottery and sculpture that were unburied which are showcased in the Paestum museum.

We had a great time exploring all of the ruins, and after an exhausting (not so much, but good excuse) hike around the grounds, I suggested we boost up our energy with a much needed gelato. So, we relaxed with 2 scoops of gelato at the touristy gelato stand outside of the ruins, and headed home, wondering what our next day trip will be:)

(Pictures of Paestum and my gelato. I love how they put whipped cream and a cookie on top of each cone--why not go all out is my motto:)

Weekend of winetasting

On Saturday, we loaded up the car and took off to Avelino, a town situated about 45minutes south of Naples, but allows you to feel like you are a world away. My friend Brandy and I had talked for a while about planning a day trip to Mastroberardino Winery, the winery that her boyfriend, Dario, works at, and we finally did it.

Brandy is a writer for an American wine website, having given up her "safe" corporate job as an Accountant, to move to Italy to pursue her passion for wine about a year ago. It was at a wine expo in Verona (close to Venice), where she met Dario, who is the CEO of Sales for Mastroberardino, the oldest wine exporter in Southern Italy. Given both Brandy and Dario's passion and knowledge for wine, we couldn't think of better 'hosts' for our winetasting weekend.

Dario and Brandy met us at our hotel on Saturday morning so that we could follow them to the winery. Wineries aren't normally open on the weekends in this area, so we had the whole winery to ourselves, as Dario led us on an amazing tour--sharing with us all of the amazing history of Mastroberardino. The archeological committee of Pompei actually approached Mastroberardino to 'recreate' the ancient winemaking process that was used in Pompei and by making a mold of the underground root system, they were able to figure out what kinds of grapes used to be grown in Pompei, and replant them, and today, if you walk through Pompei, you will see the vineyard that Mastroberardino is now responsible for--very cool!

Our tour of the winery ended in the tasting room, where Dario had 4 wines selected for us to taste. It was amazing to have Dario walk us through the flavors and uniqueness of each wine, plus be able to talk to us about the specific grapes etc. Brandy also had a lot of information about each wine that she has learned, not only from dating Dario, but through her own research and discovery of the Mastroberardino wines about 10 years ago. Mastroberardino owns all of their vineyards, with some of the grapes growing down by Vesuvius, in volcanic soil, giving it a really unique and wonderful taste.

After our amazing wine tasting and tour, we drove 1/2 hour to the Radici Resort (www.ridiciresort.com)(also owned by the winery), where we all had lunch together at the Mirabella restaurant in the main resort. It was incredible. We had the entire restaurant to ourselves, and Dario had the chef prepare a tasting menu for us, so we got to taste a bunch of small sized portions of the most amazing dishes. I wish I knew what each dish was called, but to describe a few we had : fish bites in a very light coating, mushroom surrounded in a zucchini and bean puree, artichoke ravioli, a beef that was prepared perfectly and was so tender it melted in our mouths, biscotti, warm vanilla cake 'cups' filled with custard etc. Each course was served with wine and the whole 'event' was just out of this world. We definitely felt like VIPs!

After lunch, we checked into our room, a great room overlooking the vineyards. It was so serene, and we couldn't believe we were so close to Naples. It really felt like we were in another country!

For breakfast, when we walked down to the breakfast area, we noticed that one of the tables was all set w/ linens, fresh pineapple juice, sfeggliatellis ( a popular pastry in Napoli that looks like a croissant but is made w/ ricotta cheese and orange--so good!), cereal, toast w/ marmalades and nutella, creatively carved 1/2 pineapples and other whole fruits--pears and apples, and espressos. To our surprise, they had set it up for us...that was our 'included breakfast'! Again, we felt like we were getting the royal treatment, and we couldn't have asked for a better, more fun and relaxing weekend! Thanks Dario & Brandy..it was the best!!

Just when I was getting good at Italian....

We went to Paris last weekend, and had a blast! My years of Jr. High and High school French classes were locked away in the caverns of my brain, and unfortunately, only a few words were ever able to make their way out of those dark recesses! Also having been diligent in my Italian "home schooling" made it even more difficult to remember any French vocabulary without getting confused w/ the Italian words. BUT, we did know the basics, and survived w/ the use of plenty of "merci beaucoups", "S'il vous plaits" and "Pain au chocolat"..the 3rd phrase, in my opinion, being the most important!

We arrived in Paris on Thursday night, flying in to Orly airport, hopping on the "Air France" shuttle to Arc de Triumphe, and then walking our way to our hotel, Le Meridien Etoile, about a 10 minute walk from the Arc de Triumphe. We had packed reasonably lightly, so were able to bungee cord our back pack to the stroller which I pushed, while Josh wheeled our two roller bags.

We got to our hotel, checked in, and headed straight out for dinner at a nearby restaurant we had passed while walking to our hotel. We both started out with a big bowl of Onion Soup, and then I had a salad with toasted goat cheese on it--delicious, and Josh had some steak tar tar with french fries. And, since it was our first night in Paris afterall, we couldn't leave without trying some of the desserts too, so we indulged in chocolate mousse and creme brulee--both of which were fabulously delicious (wait..is that how the leprechaun describes Lucky Charms? ...oh no, that's magically delicious!). Well, these desserts were magically delicious too, and we scraped the glass bowls of each before asking for the check.

On Friday, we got out the door around 10am, to walk back up to the Arc de Triumphe to catch a hop on/hop off tour bus that had been recommended. On the way there, we passed by a Patisserie that had an amazing aroma wafting out the door that we just couldn't ignore, so we stopped in and I ordered our "Chocolate Croissants"... Josh soon corrected me with the appropriate "Pain au Chocolat" term that I was supposed to use. Ahhh..Americani...we always stand out! I asked if they could heat them up, but they don't tend to do that in Paris, and the hostess informed us that they were just out of the oven about 15 minutes prior, and boy were they good! So fresh with the perfect balance of buttery flakiness, and perfect tunnels of chocolate buried within. Yum! We washed them down with cappuccino and espresso, and were on our way to the bus...our bellies and tastebuds fully satisfied!

The bus arrived, and we almost couldn't get our enormous BOB stroller on board. The stroller is great, but it is very big for most places in Italy, and now in Paris, we were finding out. We had to lift it up over the hand railings to get on the bus, but once on board, we were able to collapse it, and take Evan, in the carseat to the top deck of the double decker, and sit outside to take in the sites. The tour was an audio tour with headsets, so we listened to the facts of each site as we passed, and in between, they pumped out French music to listen to as we cruised the Parisian streets. It was a bit chilly on the top deck, but bearable, at least until the rain started just after the Eiffel Tower. We climbed back inside the bus, where almost every seat was "obstructed view", and took it to The Louvre, where we decided to hop off, get lunch, and explore the museam. We found a great little cafe for lunch and we both had some incredible Onion Soup, topped with toasted baggette pieces and lots of melted gruyere cheese, and then each had Croque Monsier sandwiches--bread broiled with jambon (ham) and gruyere--kind of like a grilled ham and cheese, but a whole lot better!

After lunch, we headed to The Louvre, and spent the day exploring it's various wings, of course, starting out at the Mona Lisa, which never ceases to impress! We toured the Italian art section, Spanish art, various sculpture exhibits, and an exhibit on the History of the Louvre. The museam is huge, and you could easily spend a few days there, but we limited ourselves to the afternoon for Evan's sake.

Saturday the weather cooperated, and we spent the day strolling the streets. We pretty much followed the bus route from our hop on/hop off bus, so that at any point, we could jump on if we needed to. The time just flew by because during the walk there was just so much to take in, not only from the obvious 'sites', but just the streets in general, with the gorgeous architecture that is everywhere to be seen. The wide sidewalks, and tree lined streets, make it a perfect city to walk in, or for joggers, running up and down The Seine as part of your jogging route would be quite a treat.

We walked under the Arc de Triumphe, to the Eifel Tower, then through the neighborhood of St. Germain to Notre Dame. Notre Dame cathedral is incredible, with the main cathedral down the center, with numerous chapels along the perimeter, that you could go in to for some individual prayers or to light a candle. We tried to join a tour inside the cathedral, but the tourguide's voice was so soft, it was too hard to hear her. Instead, we opted for a loop around the outside of the cathedral to take in the exterior architecture, and while doing so, enjoyed some cups of hot spiced wine that one of the local street vendors was selling and it was the perfect beverage to hold us over until our next meal:) Which, every day, we had Onion Soup for lunch and dinner..plus a main course, but that soup is to die for!

Storm Xynthia, the most violent storm to hit France since 1999, hit on Saturday with gale force winds up to 100 MPH and torrential downpours. Paris wasn't in the heart of the storm, but on Sunday, Xynthia was showing herself, and the day was mainly stormy, so we opted to take the boat tour (if they would be running)so we could ride the boat along the Seine. We had to catch the boat somewhere off of the Champs d'Elysee. We left the hotel, Josh carrying Evan in the Bjorn, and I was pushing the stroller so we'd have it just in case. The rains were coming down super heavy, so we dashed into a cafe to get our Pain au Chocolats and our cafes. Not sure why we got them 'to go' but we did, and headed back on our walking route. By the time we got up to the open area by the Arc de Triumphe, the winds were really gusting, and at one point Josh looked to see me being dragged through the square by the BOB, which a gust of wind had pretty much caused to whip onto it's side, and because the wind guard was on it, it was being inflated like a kite, and dragging me along as if I was kite surfing. I was only holding the stroller with one hand...God forbid I spill my cappuccino, so Josh said it looked like I was riding a horse (a lot of you know my horseback riding stories too, so you know, it wasn't a pretty sight!). Anyways, once I got the BOB under control, it was a hilarious to think about how ridiculous I probably looked, and I'm sure some onlookers got a good chuckle, at least once they realized that I didn't have the baby inside!

We arrived at The Seine, and hopped on the boats, which were still running despite teh waves and white caps in the river. The ride was surprisingly smooth, and a great, dry, way to see the city. We got out at one of the famous gardens and walked from there, along the river, back to Notre Dame for some more spiced wine and another peak at this amazing cathedral. From there, we did some more strolling, since the winds had died down, and because it is such a beautiful city to walk on foot. We went into the opera house, through Place de la Concorde, and back up Champs d'Elysee and home. Overall, a great, fun day, and again, walking, even in the rain, really makes you feel like you are experiencing the city. We had also eaten not one but two Pain au Chocolats that morning, so a little extra exercise was good. We felt that having braved the storm, in the morning, that when we passed the 2nd Patisserie, just after finishing our first Pain au Chocolat that we deserved a second round. I of course had Josh check my face to make sure I didn't have any tell-tale chocolate or pastry flakes on my lips before I ordered at the 2nd patisserie, since I didn't want to look like a piggy, and after getting the all clear, I sauntered up and ordered round two...just as delicious as the first round, and so good, that on Monday, the day we left, I ordered back ups for the airport, so we had our double dose two days in a row, with no regrets:) Got to love Paris!