Practicing my Journo in the Uber

Wishing the Broncos get a new QB? 🤔

Tour Guide Ryan

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.

We made it!

Ate at Squisito Cook next to the Colosseum.

View from the Airbnb

Took the Metro to the Spanish Steps

Walked from the Spanish Steps to the Trevi Fountain

Stopped in a church on the way to the Pantheon

Outside and inside the Pantheon

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

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

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

My selfie game is better than Ryan’s

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

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

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

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

Served with 100 cl beer and .5L red wine

Mastery of the coin toss

Gelato > carbs

Apple pie, caramel, Oreo

Temple of Vesta

Photographer Ryan

Temple of Romulus

Underneath Arch of Titus

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

We’re not on NJ Transit anymore

VIP access 🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♂️

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

All luggage fits in overhead except for our large bag 😒

Business class includes a table and a personal garbage

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

Reading about Florence’s version of Game of Thrones ⚜️

Fun fact: Henry = Enrico

Who’s who 👀

Playing with all of da Vinci’s creations

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

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

Ryan can stay too and do manual labor

Large beer and wine to start 👀

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

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

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

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

Wine (and meat) tour!

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

#harvestseason

Wine cellar

Our tour guide, Tom

Our new friends offered to take a pic

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.

Squad

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!

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

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

Ready to be harvested any day now

So beautiful and delicious 😬

Cheers! 🤵🏻👰🏻🍷🍷

Grapes after de-stemming

Mixing the grapes during fermentation

Room full of barrels

Old school barrels

Italians put their wines in French oak 👀🤔

Ryan admiring the cellar #doabarrelroll ✈️

Honey and cheese served with our wine tasting 😋

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!

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

#views

Grapes that started growing in 1932!

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.

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

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

Window shopped an impressive but expensive metal shop

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

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 🤔

Very crowded

Bruschetta drizzled with balsamic and burrata 😍😋

👀

Very studious

Florentine TBone 👌🏽

Pretty fly for a white guy

Everyone takes the best photos with an iPad 🤦🏻‍♀️

A couple of nuts 🤪

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

Learning about music

Learning selfie

So many heads

Crostini to start

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

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 👃🏼

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

Suitcase fits in the luggage rack 👌🏻

Just outside of the train station

On the water taxi to our apartment

Narrow streets but no cars

Waiting for Gianluca to let us in

There is an espresso machine 😍🤗

St. Mark’s Basilica

St Mark’s Campanile

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

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

Followed by music battles on St. Mark’s Square

Aperol spritz and beer

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

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

Tartufo Classico for dessert

Complimentary homemade limoncello 😳🤪

Action shot of the quartet at Quadri

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

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

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

Standing on the outside balcony

Looking down on the flooding square

Digital clock

Bells on the hour

Views from the top

All of Venice

Gripping for dear life, so windy!

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

Flooding St. Mark’s Square from the top

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

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

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

A long way up

Winds gusting over 100km/hr up here

What to buy?

First pizza in Venice! From Antico Panificio near Rialto.

Walking to dinner at Da Carletto

Beer and wine

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

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

Took the water taxi from Rialto to Ferrovia

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

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 had an itch

Views from the top of Terraza del Pincio

Note: Children unattended will end up in fountains

Ryan’s new ride - no more training wheels!

Vino Rossi and grande birre - regulars at this point

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 🤗

Ryan is pleasant as always playing Pokémon

I am very tired and cranky 😞

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

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 🤷🏻‍♀️

And redeemed our meal voucher for the delayed flight

Finally boarded 🙏🏼🙌🏼

About to land

Global entry life = skip the lines 🙌🏼

Leaving jfk in our Uber

Airport naps

Arrivederci, honeymoon :(