H&M Travels

Flashback Friday

2009-08-21T07:02:00.000-07:00

When I was growing up, I had a goat named Rosebud.

As you can see, she was just like any old family pet. Man good memory.

I think one of these days after I start my real job, and my real life, and can eventually get a real house with a real yard... I may just have to get another goat.

(This picture always makes me think of monkeys)

I think Daisy would like that a lot. For those of you who haven't met our newest pet, this is Daisy...

As you can see, she loves the water. This is her and Matt swimming at the pool. She was getting lessons in not attacking people while swimming. I think she passed.

Flashback Friday

2009-07-24T09:10:00.000-07:00

So I decided to participate in Jo's famed "Flashback Friday", even though she hasn't had one in a while! (cough cough)

Whenever we were growing up, my brothers and I loved this one movie. Never quite knew what the name of it was.. we just knew exactly where it was at Movieland. :) So we'd always go into the back corner where all the kid movies were and pick out this movie.

Years later I found myself working at the Educational Media Services department of the Texas A&M University Library. This place is basically a free version of Movieland, ie Blockbuster for all you non-Buna folk. My brothers and I have always remembered this random movie from our childhood... the music, the characters, the basic plot (with some holes due to the fact that we were well... kids). One day while checking out movies, I stumbled upon our movie!!!! It had to have been just one of the happiest days for me. haha. I immediately started texting/calling my brothers to tell them about the find. It was called Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.

(Of course it is only appropriate that she is throwing up a gig 'em sign,
since I did discover the long lost video at A&M. WHOOP!)

Now most of you know that whenever you watch a film as an adult that you loved as a child, it is never as good as you thought. Well this just happens to still be awesome!!! It is anime, which I think is probably why its not too kiddish even though it is a cartoon. What brings me to mention this film today is that I am still working at o' EdMS and this morning Naussica was sitting at our front desk. It just brings back so many happy memories. I actually looked at the synopsis today and saw that Uma Thurman and Patrick Stewart are two of the main voices. How cool is that?!

I think you should all google this movie and watch it. It may be a little strange for those who aren't quite into anime, but still a goodie! I hope you've all enjoyed this, my first blast from the past "Flashback Friday".

Oh and here is a picture just for kicks and giggles, old school.

Sorry for the double post

2009-07-06T18:31:00.000-07:00

But I apparently can't figure out how to share this photo book without it "deleting" when I edit the post. So here is what the previous post is supposed to say...

I am so very excited because I just finished the rough draft of our photo book. For those of you who don't remember, this is the album I've been working on of our wedding pictures. I think this will be it. Look it over and send me any kind of critiques you may have, ie mispelled words, better color schemes, etc.

You can also view it at my shutterfly website thenyerts.shutterfly.com. Enjoy!!!!

Shared photo book from Hillary

2009-07-06T18:30:00.001-07:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

New Site

2009-06-23T14:14:00.000-07:00

So I have been so excited this past week because I have been working on a new website. I have really enjoyed having a way to keep up with all my friends and family, but I've kinda been missing the whole showing off my pictures aspect of it. While we were in Italy, uploading pictures to this blog was just such a nuisance. Plus there are just so many more that we want to show off. So, we created a shutterfly account. Real easy... thenyerts.shutterfly.com

This site has been so amazing. I can post pictures, blogs, a calendar, even polls. One of my favorite parts is that it works as a photo shop. With the pictures that I post onto the site, I can order them to be printed. It also has unlimited storage for pictures - so even though facebook finally upped their album limit, this is even better. Its perfect because in this day and age with digital cameras, I very rarely actually develop anything and my pictures get lost onto cds. What good is that?

I have also started working on a little photo project: a book with our wedding pictures done up all fancy and stuff! I have spent time every day working on this project and it just makes me smile. I cannot wait for it to be done so that I can show it off.

Anywho, I just felt like sharing these little tidbits with you. If anyone happens to still be reading this blog. haha. I hope you all get a chance to check out our new website with all the goods!

Finally home

2009-05-27T14:45:00.000-07:00

Wow what a journey we have been on! So sorry that there has been no news for the past few days. You know that cord that I described in my earlier blog about Pompeii? Well alas, the cord did not work and we did not have internet for our last 2 days in Italy. I went ahead and posted for you to see as if I were writing that day.

We are now safely home. After a full 22 hours of travel, we made it. We woke up at 6 am Tuesday morning (aka 11 pm Monday night - Texas time). We had quite an experience at the Rome airport. We went to check our bags first. Mine was right at 50 lbs (coming I was only at 46). Matt's was at 56. Gooo! What were we to do? We had to step aside to unload Matt's bag. We put a few things in our carry on and then had to throw away a few of our toiletries. But we got his in at a whopping 49 lbs.

Next we went through the security check. Both of our bags were searched. We had to take out dirty clothes and souveniers to show them what we had in our bag. Apparently they saw something that looked dangerous. haha.

We then boarded a bus and shipped over to our terminal. We got to spend this time hanging out with Dolores and Ann and well as John and Jen. The next long hours of our life were spent just sitting and waiting. It was another 2 hours before our flight left for Atlanta. Then it was a grueling 10 hour flight back. We actually landed early! This time around we watched Marley and Me, Last Chance Harvey, and Defiance.

It was so sad when we finally got served dinner. For the past 8 days, we had been dining in style. A 5 course meal at least once a day. Most of those were always for dinner. Proscutto, pasta, veal, dessert, wine, bread, salad, so on and so forth. Tonight it was a turkey and cheese sandwich. Sad day. It was official. Our vacation was over.

By the time we got to Atlanta, we went through customs and got our luggage rechecked. We said goodbye for the last time to Dolores and Ann. We miss those ladies as well as everyone else in our group. Back to the waiting game. Because of all the rain throughout the country, our flight was delayed for an hour. We were both so incredibly exhausted. I was so bad off I could still feel the motion sickness while we were sitting in the airport. I could have sworn that the entire building was moving. Matt just rolled his eyes and laughed at me because of course, it was not.

We made it back to Austin at about 9:15 pm. (Remember that we left at 11 pm the night before??) We stood with his parents waiting for our luggage. No luggage. Apparently even though we could not get on an earlier flight, our luggage could. It had made it there already and was sitting outside some office just waiting for us... I think almost laughing at us because we had to wait to come home.

But... we're here. Home at last. Hopefully sometime soon I will get the chance to post many more pictures. I will try to go back through and insert into different points in the first few blogs as I have in the more recent ones so you can see exactly what we are talking about. Aside from that I will be posting them on facebook. I believe non facebook users still may be able to view the picture albums so I will try to post the link on a new blog.

We are not sure if we will continue to blog. This was mainly set up just to keep track of our journey through Italy. But during the next few weeks will be the time that I edit our older posts with more pictures. Maybe then we will continue to chronicle our everyday lives here in the mainland!

Thank you so much for keeping up with us on this great adventure. (And now I want to bust into Steven Curtis Chapman's song "Great Adventure" for those of you who remember (my) 7th grade Vacation Bible School! lol)

Imperial Rome (Monday)

2009-05-27T13:56:00.000-07:00

Today was finally a late day for us. We were able to sleep in until 8 am, but of course Matt got up to do his workout at 7. We grabbed our breakfast and were so excited because we finally had salt and pepper! Our eggs finally tasted great.

We hopped a bus with our first tour guide Mauro and headed for the coliseum. They drove around all the ruins of the emperors of Roman time. We saw the remains of Nero, Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, and Augusto.

The coliseum is just massive. It once held 50,000 Romans. The coliseum today does not stand as it was during the Roman reign. It is not due to earthquakes or war, but due to the fact that the first Pope wanted to get rid of all the Paganism in Rome so they started to tear down the coliseum and recycled the materials for the Vatican city. This is why Rome is known as the “Eternal City”; they have reused and recycled everything so the city will never die. The parts of the coliseum that are still standing today are there because of the ingenious engineering they had back in those days. The whole place is basically like lego land. They place bronze pins in every brick and stone to add a sturdy core. The bronze is such a great material because it moves with the environment. It absorbs the vibrations of earthquakes.

(Matt putting his finger in the holes where the bronze pins were.
Stolen during economic hard times)

(Hillary as the newly elected Roman Emperor)

The coliseum walls are made from stone, brick, and marble. You can see from the pictures that there are a lot of holes in the walls. This is where the marble was built into the walls, but after Rome collapsed, people took the marble and sold it for money. That is what distinguishes the original walls from the new walls. Marble was such a big commodity then that even the steps and seating were made from marble.

(Marble steps)

(Marble seating)

When we entered, we were able to go through the emperor’s entrance. There were 80 entrances total around the coliseum with 1 dedicated to the emperor. Yeah we got to be royalty today. Whenever we first got there we had quite another experience as well. Mauro was taking us in and got into a fight with one of the ticket people. This is the second day in a row that we have experienced our guides yelling at other people. It got pretty heated and then Mauro walked away to get somebody else to take care of business. After we finally got through the line, Mauro was quick to make sure that nobody spoke Italian. Haha.

(Emperor’s entrance marked by the cross)

The games of the coliseum were such a big deal to the emperor that he actually paid for everything! The food was free, the admission was free, the gladiators were paid, and the animals were bought all by the emperor. Mauro said that in today's time, one event would be 1 billion dollars! CRAZY!

We had a bit of free time so we all went upstairs to the second level of the coliseum. These stairs were quite difficult to climb. They were steep and slanted down toward you. When we got to the top we were able to see down into the arena where they had all the passageways for the animals and the gladiators. It was really neat to see where they released all the animals and then where the gladiators really fought. Mauro said that for a gladiator to be set free he had to be victorious in 20 to the death fights. It may not seem like it would take that long, but they only had fights 2-5 times per year. As a gladiator the first thing you would do is walk into the arena and address the emperor. If you turned your back, it was immediate death. When addressing the emperor each gladiator would hold out their arm (hail Hitler style) and either keep their fingers together or apart. Together means that they will fight to the death, while apart means that they would only fight to the first injury. Experts estimate that during the 500 years of active competitions in the arena, over 600,000 people were killed.

After we left the coliseum a group of 12 (the fun group) stayed by ourselves to taking a walking tour of the palentino and ruins of the ancient emperors. We were able to see casa di augusto. You could still see the marble on the ground that had been broken up and covered by dirt. We even walked through a small museum that had tons of busts and sculptures from this palace. We also saw a wall mural that was put together like a puzzle with only the pieces that they have found through the rubble. We next walked down to see the largest arch in the world. It was really neat.

For our afternoon, we booked the fountain tour around Rome. This was great. Although we were both extremely tired and worn out from all the walking and heat from this morning, the tour gave us something special to do for our last day in Italy. Our guide was John Luigi and he was fabulous and very informative. We visited the famous Trevi Fountain which was only built in the 1700s so is still relatively new.

We also went to St. Peter’s Basilica. This one however, is different from the other basilica we visited while we were at the Vatican. This basilica is where the chains of St. Peter are kept. These are the same chains that he was bound with in captivity both while in Rome and in Jerusalem.

(angel of death)

This is also where the famous “Moses” by Michelangelo is kept.
When designing this statue, Michelangelo put a pretty significant landmark on him. When the Bible was first translated they made a mistake in talking about Moses coming down from the mountain after speaking with God. The text says that he had rays of light beaming from his head (sorry I’m paraphrasing from what the guide told us so this is probably not exact either). But whenever it was translated it said that Moses had horns coming from his head. Well since rays of light are kind of hard to sculpt, Michelangelo decided to keep the horns to signify the history and to make it easier on himself.

We also went by the Pantheon which is named for a place that all the gods were worshipped. This was really neat because they actually have an open hole in the top of the building. And down below they have holes in the floor to drain all the water that comes in during rainy times. To the very left was the door of sunset because the sun actually lands there every night at sunset.

One of the last fountains we saw was in Piazza Navona. This is a very popular square. The fountain was built to represent the four continents (Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas) and each fountain coming from the sculptures represented the largest rivers. America’s river was something that we didn’t really know of and that they said was because when the statues were being built America hadn’t really been explored so they did not know of the biggest rivers yet. Another neat fact or well rumor is that the American statue was built with his hand over his face. It is said its because Barbirini (I think that is the way to say his name) built the statues but did not build the building. He placed the hand over the eyes of America to hide his face for the disgrace of a building that he was looking at. Apparently Barbirini was rude. Haha.

(America)

This marks the point of the great flood in Rome. December 28, 18970 the water rose so high as you can see from this picture!

Even though we were both just pooped and exhausted we have to say that this was a great end to our tour. We had our last dinner tonight at the hotel. Our last 5 course meal and of course, it was quite good. We all downed about 2 bottles of water each (and these are the liter size, not 20 oz size). We actually had an early night for the first time. Well, that was until the fun group went back upstairs to have our one last night together. We recruited another 6 people for tonight: Jason and Laurie, Pat and Lenny, Ronnie and Dave. We stayed out until midnight or so, almost not wanting to leave because that meant the end to “us”. I’ve actually set up a trading system with Pat, Lenny, Ronnie and Dave. I will be sending them each some true Cajun file and they will be sending some true northern maple syrup. Yum yum!!

We board the bus for the airport at 6:45 am. I know what I’ll be doing on the plane! SLEEPING!!

We will see you all very soon!

Run Away... LAVA!! (Sunday)

2009-05-27T07:46:00.000-07:00

This morning was our drive to Pompeii. We started by getting our typical American nutrients in our system and then boarded the bus. It took us about an hour to get from Naples to Pompeii. We were greeted there by our local tour guide Salvio – who by the way happens to be famous! We’ll explain later.

Salvio took us on an hour and a half tour of Pompeii. He was actually an excavator in the city for seven years; so needless to say, he knew what he was talking about. Then toward the end of the tour we found out he was an undercover police officer. The city was amazing. Pompeii is the sight of Mount Vesuvius which blew in early Roman times and destroyed the city. You can still see remains of people and animals that did not make it out of the city alive. Salvio was sure to reenact every person’s story of their life and then how they died and what they were doing when the volcano erupted. About 2/5 of Pompeii has still not be excavated.

Through the city we were able to see bars and brothels, shops and homes. We even saw a full scale bakery with an oven and basins to mix the dough. We then perused through the red light district aka North Gate or 6th Street or even Crocket Street.

One of the fun moments of the day was going through the brothel. Um, yeah… it was pretty hard core. As we were getting ready to go in we lost Salvio but then could still here him through our headsets. The next thing we know he’s yelling at someone asking to see their identification. Apparently the man was a tour guide that was pushing people out of the way so that his group could make it through at one time. Crazy, but back to the brothel.

(The next few sentences may be inappropriate for small children. We will refrain from using pictures. haha)

It was essentially a Kama Sutra. But the funny part came after we made our way through. They used a symbol on the wall to show direction. It was men's "member". WOW! It was carved into the stone wall. In another place, there was a bigger one carved into the stone on the road pointing back toward the brothel. They were real big on showing you were to go. Then in the souvenir shops they were EVERYWHERE. We were told they stood for good luck.

(Ok. Kids are allowed once again!)

You should have seen the marble work that were in some of the homes. One of them had little squares of marble along the floor that caught the reflection of the moon and lighted the house at night. How clever were they.

One of the running jokes with some of the people in our group is how Salvio “knew” exactly what each tiny rock used to be. He set aside about 5 pieces and said this one is marble and was used for mosaics. This one is curved a specific way so that one had to be the neck of a vase. The next was curved but smooth so that one was a bowl used for eating. So Matt and Michael started picking up pieces and making up what they were. I think Michael found Emperor Nero’s lost sole of his shoe and Matt found the tip of a shanking knife. We had a grand o’ time just laughing and making jokes through Pompeii.

Another neat piece of knowledge that Salvio passed down to us is the fact that most people of Pompeii were right handed. Archeologists know this because of the water fountains in the city.

The locals would place their left hand on the top of the fountain and then lean across using the right hand to brace themselves to then drink. There was a place on the right side that was completely worn down whereas the left side wear was very minimal.

(They used the "2 finger" system to measure their bricks)

(hahaha - warning sign for "Don't Fall Over"!)

Words really cannot describe the things we saw today. Here are a few pictures that we hope can do the job. We also took a video of our tour guide that we will have to show you at a later date. The man was crazy, but loads of fun.

(street signs: Pompeii style)

(Used to create steam in the bath house)

(great ancestors of Pompeii - haha)

(baking wells for flour at the town's bakery)

Ok, so Salvio is known world wide. He even has a statue errected in his honor in New York. He is known as Mr. Cornicello. Currently he is working on his Peace in the World tour. You can check him out on facebook at Mister Cornicello.

Dad (Keith)- here is a picture of a fruit slushy bar. These were the typical sizes of the lemons around the south of Italy. I snuck this picture in Pompeii but just imagine bigger and better looking for all those ones in Capri I was telling you about!

Josh- once again, I couldn't help but think of you. This is the souvenir we would have bought you if we had money. hahaha!

After Pompeii we headed back to Rome. Tonight we are staying at the Hotel Victoria. For the first time we actually have free internet, but it is not wireless. So we’re having to borrow a cord from another couple which is why we are blogging late. Sorry! The website for this hotel is www.hotelvictoriaroma.com

Tonight we had the Gala Dinner and Dance. It was fabulous. We got all dressed up and were, by the way, the most dressed up in our group. But we got a huge applause as we got onto the bus (almost last… running late as usual). They drove us out to a beautiful villa fairly close to the futbol arena in Rome.

We can’t remember the name. They passed out little pamphlets at dinner and we forgot ours. But they host weddings and parties here. Good thing we have already gotten married because this would have been our destination wedding location for sure. It was amazing. Jena – I took some pics in case you’re interested. Haha!

(Matt and Allan)

We started with cocktails and socializing.

(John and Jen, Allan and Jen, Matt and Hillary)

We tried caviar, fried zucchini, and even fried mozzarella balls. It was here that I took one bite of the mozzarella and hot liquid squirted across my face. I must have seemed like the biggest country bumkin because I just threw the mozzarella ball down as I yelped in agony. I can still feel the spot where it burned me. We actually ate with another Perillo group. We all agreed that we had a better group than them. They were much older and a bit more snoody than the people in our group. After drinks and lots of pictures we had dinner. White lasagna, pasta, and yummy fish. Desert was some type of soft ice cream with Grand Marnier and orange peel.

(L to R: Laura and Elenor, Raffela, Ronnie and Dave, Pat and Len)

(L to R: Phil and Shirley, Sandy and Lloyd, Michael and Isabella, Cheryl and Gena)

(L to R: Allan and Jen, Alan and Ruby, John and Jen, Delores and Ann, Hillary.
Not pictured: Matt)

After dinner we walked around the inside of the villa. We actually stole a picture of a Murano glass chandelier! Take a peek.

(An original look at the villa before renovations)

Then there was dancing. Matt and I snuck out back so we could have a moment by ourselves and dance while nobody was really looking. We didn’t want to embarrass ourselves, but I have to say… we did pretty good. It was really a very romantic moment. And then we found out people were watching us anyway and thought we were super cute. We also snuck off and took lots of great pictures. The musicians were the best I’ve ever heard. The singer was from Ohio originally and then came to Rome for 2 weeks 9 years ago and never went back. They were very interactive with the crowd and very entertaining. They sang lots of great American hits, “She’s a Lady”, Sinatra, and “New York, New York”. They also threw in a few Italian songs for good measure, “That’s Amore” and something like So long Rome maybe.. not real sure what that was called. It was just overall a great evening.

When we got back to the hotel several of us were not quite ready for bed yet, so we decided to go up to the hotel bar. It was Matt and I, Allan and Jennifer, John and Jen, Michael and Isabella, and Cheryl and Gena. We all had a drink and just sat and talked for another hour. We laughed and joked and told stories. We had such a great time with all of these people. We figured it was finally time to leave whenever the bar tender shut off the lights. We realized Sunday night is probably not the late night.

One more day to go. We’ve decided that the people on this tour are gonna be our vacation buddies forever. We can’t imagine anyone better to spend our time with (except for our families of course). We’re not ready to come home yet.

WOWZERS!!!!!!!!!! (Saturday)

2009-05-23T15:16:00.000-07:00

Today was our island tour of Capri. This was simply the most amazing place we have been to. It will be our new home.

We started off with a 50 minute boat ride to the island (not so much fun for Hillary… or Matt for that matter). Once we arrived we met our local guide Rosanna. We were told she was a typical beautiful Napolitan woman. She was short and squatty with thick black curly hair and leathery skin. Not what we pictured at all. But she was awesome. Very fun and energetic.

First things first for the island of Capri is the Blue Grotto. Yet another boat ride and this time less fun for Hillary. But we were able to see some pretty neat things. The water was several different shades of blue depending on the sun and your view point. It just sparkled in the sun. To get into the Blue Grotto we had to get into a very small row boat – 4 people only. Matt sat in the front and I sat with Jen and Alan (our Canadians) in the back. They immediately told us hand inside at all times because it’s dangerous. We thought, well ok whatever, kinda like hands and feet in on roller coasters or something. Oh no.. they meant it. Once we pulled up to the entrance we were able to see why.

We all had to lay down inside the boat. Could have been romantic, but I was laying in the lap of another man with his wife beside me. Very awkward moment.

But we got into this cave and the boatman grabbed my arm and pulled me up. It was the most spectacular view. Where the sun entered the cave the water was the most beautiful blue. We were in such awe.

He rowed us around the cave explaining the history behind it. Apparently there used to be an emperor that lived on the island and the grotto was his swimming pool. Once we got about half way around the cave he started singing to us. Not too shabby! It was very surreal and such a wonderful moment. As we were leaving he turned to Jen and Alan and said that this is the place for romance and they had to share a kiss. So they did, and then he told us that we should share a kiss. So he allowed me to stand up and lean to the front of the boat to kiss my new husband. Totally romantic! Then it was back to lying down to get back out of the cave. The whole experience could not have been longer than 10 minutes but it was worth all the other crappy boat rides to see it.

We got back to the main island of Capri and took a bus to Ana Capri which is the city at the very top of the island. This bus ride had to have been the scariest ride any of us had ever been on. We had to cram into a mini bus because the roads are so narrow here. We had a few close calls where the drivers of the busses were passing each other and hanging out of the window shaking hands and trying to decide how to pass one another. People were honking, mopeds were flying through the middles, and we on the bus were freaking out about hitting something or someone. But it all worked out.

We made it to the top where we got a demonstration on inlaid (I think that is what it is called but may be wrong). It is basically all the beautiful artwork on wood. They had tables, music boxes, pictures, chairs, jewelry boxes, and china cabinets all done with this amazing technique. And apparently they put so many coats of polyurethane that you can put a lighter to it and not damage the wood (as demonstrated today!). And then you can buff our scratches, oh you know, with rubbing alcohol!

After the demonstration we took a fun little ride to the extreme top of Ana Capri, this time no bus. Instead we took a chair lift which only held one person per chair. So it was a lonely ride up to the top.

We had the most amazing views from this point of the island. I even got winked at by the guy letting us off the lift, right before he hit me in the face with the bar. It was great. Haha. We saw so much vegetation as well. I even got to see an olive tree. YUM!! Dad (Keith) you would absolutely love it here. They have lemon orchards everywhere. One of their hot commodities is lemon cello. It’s kind of like a lemon liqueur but very very strong burst of alcohol. They sale it everywhere! They even had lemon perfume. It is just an ever present scent of lemon. Very nice.

It was finally time for lunch after this. We were all starving and were treated like it too. We had our big 5 course meal for lunch today. Ravioli with ricotta cheese, calamari – the best we have ever tasted, very flavorful chicken, and the best brownie in the world! Ok so it wasn’t really a brownie but that is the best way we can describe it to you. It just melted in your mouth. After brownies everyone had espresso with lemon peel.

Our next journey was a walking tour around the city of Capri (this is in the middle level of the island). We saw beautiful gardens and lots of places to shop.

We even saw another wedding party walking down the street. This one had bagpipes and kilts! Once we finished with our tour we ended our time at Capri in a quite famous way. There is a very popular Italian song that I know everyone has heard the tune of but may not know the words. (We’ll have to sing it for you when we get back) But the lines go and forgive my spelling, Yummo yummo (de da de tada) yummo yummo (de da de tada) feniculi feniculare, feniculi, feniculareeeeee, lalala dada te da te da. Sorry can’t really remember all the words but feniculi means up and funiculare means down. They are talking about the cable car that takes you from the top of the island down to the bottom. Well we got to ride in it. It was kinda hot and cramped, but cool just to have the experience.

Once we got back to Naples we had a short break and then it was time for pizza. Naples is the “best” place for pizza in Italy. So we walked of to Ciro’s gourmet style pizza. Yet another 5 course meal. Who would ever think of having a 5 course meal with pizza!!! It was a grueling task, but we did it. We had the traditional Napoleon pizza – red for tomato, white for mozzarella, and green for basil. It was fantastico! A little soggier than traditional American pizza. For dessert we had some kind of delicious cake with a cream filled center and crazy good berries. A perfect end to a great night. Plus we had a blast at dinner with our Canadians and a new player Cheryl from Philidelphia. She’s one of the younger ones who came with her sister. We were having such a good time that the table across from us kept asking us what we were talking about. And if Roberta Walker is reading this… we had a grand talk about mullets!

Tomorrow we are off to visit Pompeii and then traveling back to Rome. This should only be a 2 – 3 hour bus ride, hopefully.

We can't wait to get back and show you all the rest of the pictures of our trip. Sorry that there are so few here, but there are just so many beauftiful things that we can't decide which to show! We'll have so many pictures when we get home we wont even know what to do with ourselves. Thanks so much for continuing to read about our journey. We love you!

Road Trippin'

2009-05-23T15:06:00.001-07:00

Today was our drive from Florence (North) to Naples (South). We boarded our bus at 8 am and were scheduled to arrive in Napoli at 3 pm. Yes, we know what you are thinking… UGH!! And yes it was ugh! We made our first pit stop at 9:30 at a gas station that already had about 4 other tour busses full of people! They even had another Perillo group there. I almost got in a fight with some old ladies because they kept pushing me in the bathroom line! Grr.

Our next stop was for lunch around noon. We had the most amazing provolone sandwich. It was made with foccassia (spell?) bread, ham (maybe turkey, not real sure), and provolone all melted to perfection. Our final stop at around 2:30 was in a city outside of Naples. Here we received a demonstration on how they make cameos. These are the trinkets carved from shell that typically have a woman’s profile. And of course we had time for shopping. (They give us a whole lot of that.. apparently they want our money or something).

After that it was another 45 minutes to Naples. Once we arrived we took a driving tour around town. They have the most beautiful coast here. We were able to see Mount Vesuvius – a still active volcano that destroyed Pompeii which we will get to see on Sunday. They have the most peculiar beaches here. They are nothing but huge stones, big rocks that people lay out on. They just go find their own rock. We have also seen a lot of people making out here. Several couples think it would be fun just to go find a bench and make out. Hey when in Rome, right? Or Naples either one. We got to see a few castles and one they say every bride and groom in town after their wedding go there to take a picture. We got to see a wedding party and the old grandpa fell down on top of the little kids. It was kinda funny.

After our driving tour we came back to the hotel. This hotel is stinkin’ amazing! By far the best one we’ve been to. It is called the NH Ambassador Hotel and can be found at http://www.nh-hotels.com/nh/en/hotels/italy/naples/nh-ambassador.html?action=search&stype=default&fini=&fout=&nadults1=2&nchilds1=0&services=&maxPrice=&searchLauncher=reservation&stext= (Sorry for the long address, but that should take you directly to our branch)

We had dinner here for the evening, of course another 5 course meal. We started with fried mashed potatoes almost (the Italian version of a tater tot with cheese) and fried rice balls with tomato sauce, peas, and cheese. Next was our vegetable soup or pile o’ rice. The rice block was huge – sausage, egg, ragout sauce, peas, mozzarella. For our main course we had the most amazing fish, dentex. Everyone enjoyed the fish for the evening. Dessert was another story. We had baba. Matt loved his baba. Mine, not so much. It is basically a rum cake. We did not know this until after the first bite. The cake was soaked in rum. So after our failed attempt at dolce (dessert) we decided to go out for gelato. We had a mix between chocolate and vanilla. Very different flavors than we have in America. Then it was off to bed.

Josh, Lucas, and Taylor - this ones for you! Apparently Italy has a Comicon too!! hahahaha

Random Thoughts

2009-05-21T09:43:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to mention a few random things about our trip:

1) 6:30 am is just as bright as 8 am summer time in Texas
2) The 80 degree weather that we are enjoying is apparently July weather – very hot for them
3) Internet sucks here, period. Haha
4) Don’t ever ask an Italian for directions. They give describing words such as “over there” and “around the corner”. Nothing is ever where they say it is. The first night we asked where we could find a converter. They said “Ho Kay, turn right and then turn left. It is called La something or other”. We tried every possible turn right and then turn left combinations we could think of and never found anything!!!! Then a few in our group tried to find the ATM that is supposed to be by our hotel. “It’s at the end of the street”. Neither group ever found it.
5) I am apparently Italian. I was asked yesterday by a man at the Murano glass factory if I was Italian. I said um, well… no. He then asked if I was of some Mediterranean descent. I just kind of shrugged my shoulders. He said I looked more Italian than he did. Haha. On another occasion while we stopped at a gas station, the lady at the check out quickly spoke to me in Italian, telling me the price. I just handed over money and she said something else. I just said “Grazi” and left. I felt very cool that I could pass off as Italian. Lol
6) Gas is apparently the most expensive in Italy. It has ranges from 5 dollars a gallon all the way to $12. CRAZY!!
7) Our tour only consists of 26 people. Most with Perillo are 50. We are very lucky that we are so small.
8) People will do anything for money here. Today we saw women dressed in all white robes with white faces walking around making noises at people and sticking their tongues out. Very weird, but people gave them money.

Florence

2009-05-21T08:46:00.001-07:00

Today has been such a nice, relaxing day. We started off with our American breakfast! Matt had coffee this morning. Not even half of the cup was coffee; the other half was milk and sugar because it is so strong here.

We boarded our Perillo bus at 8:10 this morning and headed over to the Academy of Fine Arts. This is basically the housing place for the works of Michelangelo. When we first got to the area and were walking down the street we were quickly told not to buy anything from the street vendors because it is illegal in Florence. I didn’t really know what to think because yesterday in Venice there were lots of vendors on the street with decent products. Well these people were distinguishable to say the least. They walked right up to you and pulled out all their crappy pictures and random gadgets. They just stood there and displayed everything to you. But then if a police officer or sirens were seen or heard, they picked up faster than anything I have ever seen and ran away. It was hilarious!

While in the Academy of Fine Arts we were able to see the unfinished works of Michelangelo. So sorry, once again… no pictures allowed. There were about 6 unfinished statues. Why were they unfinished you ask? Well we thought the same thing. Basically he was just so cool that two popes just kept commissioning him to do work (ie the Sistine Chapel) so he did not have time to finish his statues. At the end of the gallery stood “David”, 15 feet tall and simply indescribable. We were able to hear the history behind the statue and see all the imperfections and perfections that Michelangelo put into this work of art.

Michelangelo was commissioned to build “David” after the Florentines won their independence back from the French. It was to be something meaningful and sentimental to all. The story that we heard today (which Matt and Alan, our Canadian did not agree with) was that Michelangelo chose David from David and Goliath to be his muse. Such a young boy with confidence and bravery who defeated the giant. He carries in his right hand a stone and in his left, the slingshot. Michelangelo also chose a block of marble that had been rejected. It is theorized why, some say its because he wanted a challenge, others because he could see that David was already in there and just needed to come out, and still others say its because the marble was bruised and battered but could still be something great, just like the Florentines. One thing that was really neat about this statue is that everything is anatomically correct. You could see the veins in the arms and hands and even the muscles in their flexed state. It was amazing to see the detail that was in the sculpture. We also learned that because the marble was not perfect, there were already two big gouges. One was in the area of the right hand and the other was at the legs. When you see the sculpture up close the right hand looks exceptionally large and disproportional. This has also been theorized about. It could stand for the right hand of God, it could be just because he had to due to the gouge there, it could be anything, no one knows.

Next we walked down to the piazza or square. Note that we’re picking up on Italian pretty good… we’re prepping for when we move here. Hahahaha! At the square were the Cathedral, Giotto’s Tower, and Baptistry. The walls were all made of marble. Inside the church was more of the magnificent marble flooring and beautiful stained glass windows. And for once we were actually allowed to take pictures! Haha. The dome above the alter was painted with the life of Christ. Apparently you can walk all the way to the top of Giotto’s tower, over 500 steps and 30 minutes one way. Um, so yeah… we didn’t go up there. The door to the Baptistry was decorated with 10 gold dipped plates (the original gold has been replaced and hidden away). Each plate was a different depiction of the Old Testament.
Next we walked down to some other piazza in front of some kind of castle. Matt and I along with the Canadians weren’t really paying attention at this point. We were having more fun just walking around and taking our own pictures. But in this square was a giant statue/fountain of Neptune along with the other Michelangelo greats, or well copies of them at least.

Once we finished here we were treated to another great opportunity. It would have been even more awesome if we had money. Haha. We went into C.O.I, wholesale gold store. Because we were with Perillo we qualified for 20% off of everything! The entire store was made with 18 k gold, nothing less. The jewelry here was stunning. If we would have had you know, an extra 500 euros lying around I would have totally gotten a bracelet. And Matt would have gotten the 200 euro cross that he liked. Eh- maybe next time.

After this private tour, we got a private tour of a leather shop. Italian leather is apparently the best in the world. Well we finally saw why. Everything was so incredibly soft and just gorgeous. We received 10% off every purchase and free 18 k gold leaf letters pressed into anything purchased. We got our own little show too. They took a few from our group and outfitted them with some jackets and coats. We had a ball with our fashion show and I saw the cutest jacket… it was of course 870 euros so that stayed in the store. Hahaha! But they had everything from bags, jackets, belts, to wallets, key chain holders, shoes, and even golf ball/tee holders. This was a very very neat store. And we did come away with a few items so we’ll be sure to show them off when we get home. (Plus I got to use my new initials for the first time!!!)

After the leather store, Matt and I have had the rest of the afternoon off. This has given us time to blog for today and even post pictures on yesterdays blog. Y’all can finally see what we’re up to! Tonight we will have dinner at the hotel. (Hopefully not too many courses) Then we are thinking we will check out the nightlife and head down to the square.

Tomorrow we board the bus to Napoli or Naples. It will be a very long drive so we may not post tomorrow as driving is all we will be doing. Maybe we’ll just take that time to put more pictures up. We’ll see.

Love you all!

Matt and Hillary

Josh and Megan - we totally had a couple of pirate moments today and thought of you. Hope you enjoy these pirate boots and jacket! (Sorry that the jacket is sideways)

Cities of love… water… and glass

2009-05-20T14:19:00.000-07:00

Today was our grand excursion to Venice. It started off as our typical morning here. We were greeted with a wake up call at 6:30 am and then off to our American buffet style breakfast. (We actually had milk today!!) We met our group at 8:10 am and then headed over to the train station. We boarded our Venice bound train scheduled to depart at 8:36 am. And then we sat. And then we slept. And then we stared at the landscape. For 3 hours we did these things! Haha. It was a very long trip in which Matt got lots of pictures. We sat with the mom and her son and had a fun time talking.

Once we got to Venice, we boarded a water taxi that took us to our restaurant; yet another 5 course meal. Geeeze, we are eating a lot over here. Each meal is practically more than Matt and I eat on an average daily basis. We had proma ham, tomato and eggplant pasta, veal scallopini with salad, and gelato for dessert. We both agree that it had to have been the most tart lemon flavor we have ever tasted. But, everything was delicious.

Today for lunch we sat with two older couples. The wives were sisters and both husbands were teachers. One in physics/chemistry and the other in British/Shakespearean lit. We had a grand time talking about Texas weather, paramedics, sports, military, and even lyme disease. Apparently in Connecticut, everybody gets lyme disease. After lunch when the women went to the bathroom, Matt and Lloyd had a big chat about Shakespearean plays. They bonded.

After lunch we met Cristina for our tour of Venice. Venice is one of the most expensive places to live in Italy. An apartment rents for 5,000 euro per square meter per month! Can you even imagine? (Just a side note, 1 dollar = 1.4 euro – or at least that is what we exchanged for before we left). Most people live outside the city in Venecia Mess – something. Haha. Can’t exactly remember what it is called. But it is basically the slums; nothing but apartments. This is where all the grocery stores are, the malls, etc. Prices here are 30% lower than they are on the main island. By the way, did you know Venice is just a bunch of small islands connected by bridges? About 117 to be exact. The Grand Canal is just the water running in between the 2 biggest islands.

Cristina took us to St. Mark’s Square. In the square, a cup of coffee costs 13 euro and a beer 18! Needless to say, we did not dine here. The cost of the item is due to the fact that it is such a high profile location. You are not paying for coffee, you are playing for the right to sit in the square. At the end of the square was St. Mark’s Basilica. Once again we were not allowed to take pictures inside. All of the art work was done in mosaic tiles. Mom (Karen) you would have loved it! The floors were all done in marble tile and were very uneven due to the shifting in Venice. Here is the burial place for St. Mark. The ceiling had 4 domes, each representing the life of Christ. The front of the church faces the east. This is for the beginning, the start of life and so the dome represented the beginning of Christ. The end of the church faced the west. This is for the end of time, and therefore death.

After the Basilica we walked out into the courtyard. We watched the bell tower and two big statues strike the bell. These statues have been ringing the bell for 500 years. Every hour on the hour. We also walked past the Bridge of Sighs. This was basically “the green mile”. Prisoners would be walked from the square to the prison over this bridge and then back over to be executed. On the building there were 2 pink columns in the midst of white ones. These columns are where the execution vote would take place. To this day no Venetian will walk under those columns.

After our tour with Cristina we had our romantic gondola ride. Because we were on our honeymoon we had the amazing opportunity to ride with musicians. We shared our ride with the young Canadian couple. The streets of water were just beautiful: the homes, the bridges, the walls even. The water did smell a bit, but it was quite easy to get used to. Our gondolier was great as well. He pointed out things like city hall, the courthouse, the homes of Marco Polo and even Mozart. This was such a relaxing and perfect afternoon ride. Matt apparently dressed for the occasion as he matched all the gondoliers perfectly!

Next we boarded our private limousine boats to the island of Murano. This place is famous for their glass blowing. We had a private tour of the factory and watched them make a vase from start to finish. It had to have been the coolest thing ever. And took the guy probably 5 minutes to make a beautiful vase. All of the glass blowers are family. This tradition has been passed down from generation to generation. It takes years of expertise to make even the simplest of glass works. To make more elaborate items, they work in teams of 3-4 people. Each brings their own unique expertise and secrets passed down from generations. Once finished with the demonstration, we were allowed to go into the shop. So sorry, once again, no pictures allowed. And once again Mom (Karen) this is something you would have loved. They are famous for their glass chandeliers, and we could definitely see why. They were so exquisite. We had the unique opportunity to get 50% off of the bigger items. Well these bigger items were all in the 10,000 plus range. Soooooo, no chandelier for us. However, they did agree that once we get money they would cut us a deal. Hahaha.

We left Murano and went back to the train station. On the way I did get a bit sea sick. Whats life in Venice, surrounded by water, without me getting sea sick? But we had a quick bite to eat at the station and then back on the train for another 3 long hours. This time we both slept most of the way.

Another amazing day down, several more to go. We can’t even begin to describe how wonderful everything is here. Pictures will do no justice to this place.

Oh one funny thing is that we have quite fondly become known as “Texas”, and just that. They just call us both Texas. Haha. One couple even told us yesterday that they knew they were with the right group because they could pick us out with our matching maroon shirts. They were worried today because we didn’t have distinguishing colors. Lol. But Matt had stripes on so it was a bit easier.. until we saw all the gondoliers of course.

Pictures

2009-05-19T15:18:00.000-07:00

So apparently the hotel did not actually activate the wireless internet in our room. We are mooching off of other rooms. Unfortunately because of that, we cannot keep the internet long enough to post pictures. Our plan is to take the computer downstairs to the lobby in the morning and post lots of pics. Sorry that there are no visual aids yet. :( Hopefully soon!

We met the Pope!!!

2009-05-19T14:51:00.000-07:00

eh- jk. No pope around today. But we did have a fascinating tour of the Vatican City.

First things first however, the weather is beautiful. A tad on the warm side, but sunny and breezy. So no umbrella needed Mike or jackets/warm clothes.

Our wakeup call was set for 7 am. I of course slept until 7 am, whereas Matt had to get his morning workout in at 5. ugh! So we started our morning off with a nice American style buffet breakfast. Really it wasn't our style of American because there was no milk. :( haha. Matt enjoyed a nice orange/carrot/some kind of juice drink. But after a nice breakfast and a very rushed post, as you read earlier, we were off to the Vatican. We met our tour guide Mauro and he got us right into the doors. (Apparently when you go without a tour group it could take hours to get in).

Anywho, so we began our journey today at the Musei Vaticani. It was basically three big hallways of all kinds of art. They were all amazing. Everything from the floors to the ceilings was elaborately decorated.

The first hallway was sculptures. They had humongo sculptures and then tiny ones. They had them on the ceiling and built into the walls. They had the "goddess" of fertility and even the last supper.

The second hallway was tapestries. On the left side of the room they had laid out the life of Christ. The right side of the room we weren't really quite sure. Mauro said that those were the ugly ones and not important enough for us to spend time on. haha! The workmanship in these tapestries was spectacular. There was even one that when you walked passed it the angle of the table seemed to move with you. It was really neat.

The third hallway was a tribute to the Sistine Chapel. Unfortunately for you, no photography at all is allowed inside the chapel. They do not even let you talk. We were shushed a few times by the guards. They just kept yelling at people to be quite. So before we went into the chapel, Mauro showed us pictures and the paintings we would see inside and gave us the history behind them all. All of the great painters of that time have some hand in that place. Michelangelo was of course the main dude. He painted the entire ceiling. Down the center are 9 pictures representing the main stories of Genesis. Then on either side was the bloodline of Christ. On the left side wall was the Old Testament, and the right, the New. The far back wall was the Revelation. Michelangelo not only painted the ceiling, but also painted the Revelation. Apparently as he was working, there was a cardinal that did not like him and gave him a very hard time. Well instead of making a big scene with the man, he painted him as the gatekeeper to hell. Hahaha! How’s that for getting back at someone. He also signed his paintings by putting a self portrait in the two areas. On the ceiling he had an entire body portrait and on the back wall he painted his face into a small area. The paintings in this room were indescribable. We were very lucky in that this area was cleaned and restored to the true colors of Michelangelo’s time. We were able to see the paintings as they truly were meant to be seen. What was cool is that the people who restored the paintings left small areas uncleaned. It was crazy to see the difference between the dirty part and the clean.

After the chapel we walked into St. Peter’s Basilica. This place seats over 70,000 people and currently holds 110 tombs on ground level alone. AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING!! The mass is held at the most beautiful alter. This alter is also the burial place of St. Peter and had the most beautiful artwork built up around it. We were also able to see the special door of blessings. This door is only opened every 25 years and remains open for the entire year. All the pass through it receive a blessing. The next opening will be 2025. In the door is a small black box in which the Pope places specific items of meaning. They remain inside until the doors are opened and new items are placed inside. Currently the three items inside are Vatican coins, a gold piece with the symbols alpha and omega, and one other item. I can’t exactly remember and apparently Matt wasn’t paying attention. The point is it was neat. Haha.

Outside the basilica we were able to see the square the Pope comes and blesses people every Wednesday. Yeah, we just missed. No blessings for us. L However, we did get to see the Swiss Guards and they court jester type outfits. Wow! Apparently designed by Michelangelo. We also got to see the Pope’s apartment. His room is the top right corner.

After having a quick bite to eat we boarded our bus and headed to Florence. And close to 4 hours later we were finally there.

*Can I just take a moment here to describe the traffic in Italy? It is CRAZY! I am honestly surprised that we have not witnessed any accidents. People drive all over the place. It’s like there are no traffic laws. The mopeds are weaving in and out like nobody’s business, the cars drive on sidewalks to get around other people, everybody cuts everybody else off…. Insane. I think I would fear for my life if I was not in a giant bus. Plus I don’t think they have ever heard of parking tickets here. You can park literally in the middle of the street. *

Ok back to Florence. We had to stop before we got into the city to buy a bus voucher; 400 euro in order for our bus to drive us around the city. How’s that for crazy. But Florence is absolutely beautiful. We are in the region of Tuscany and it is just as you would imagine. Beautiful trees, hillsides, rivers, and homes. This is the place to be. We stopped at an overlook to get one big group picture. We could see homes, churches, the river, and beautiful scenery. This was such a great place to be, very peaceful.

After that we came back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We are currently staying at the Hotel Rivoli (aka Best Western of Florence). And just for you Kristi, the website is http://www.hotelrivoli.it/. Our room is awesome!!! We have stairs leading from the front door to the bedroom and then stairs leading up to our balcony and bathroom. We think we got the honeymoon suite from talking with others in our group that didn’t get such cool rooms.

Dinner was at a very nice restaurant around the corner… another 5 course meal but this time with smaller portions. Pasta is served with every meal, along with some type of ham/roast beef appetizer, salad, meat, and dessert. And of course, lots of wine with every meal as well. We had such a great time at dinner tonight. We ate with the mom and son and then one of our young couple friends (psychiatrist and computer programmer). We stayed until 10 pm even after all the others from our group had left.

We are having such a great time. Tomorrow will be a very exciting day, but a long travel day as well. We will be taking a 3 hour train ride to Venice. So that means we are logging off for tonight. We love you all. Thank you so much for keeping up with us while we are celebrating our marriage in style.

We're HERE!!!

2009-05-18T23:35:00.001-07:00

So sorry that this update is a little late. Needless to say, we've had some issues. Haha. Currently we have only 15 minutes to blog. We spent our first 5 euro on internet time!

So far our favorite saying has been... "Working for the government is like Texas weather... give it 5 minutes and it will change". This came from one of the airport workers while we were going through the security check point in Austin. Apparently you now have to put shoes directly on conveyor belt and not in the bins. And they are very strict about this.... "READ THE SIGN SIR" from the meanest lady ever to the poor guy in front of us.

Our flights went well. We were a bit delayed because of bad weather in Atlanta but it was all good. We had a plane that sat almost 300. WOWZERS! We got to watch Taken. It was quite a good show. Then Matt successfully won um, Caveman? game. haha. All 25 levels. We each probably only got about 1 1/2 of sleep. It sucked. However, when we finally got to the hotel I think we napped for about 4 hours. So we didn't really go exploring the city yesterday afternoon.
After we woke up from our nap we tried to log onto the computer. Well after blowing our first circuit because we did not have a converter for our adapter, we decided to put that on hold. We met our group at 6:30 for welcome drinks. Mary, you would have loved because it was mimosas. We met our first young couple. And when we say young, they were already practicing medicine with 2 kids. haha. So yes, we are the babies. But they are totally awesome, from Canada. We then took off for dinner around the corner. Lovely time!

We had a 5 course meal (way too much food) and entertainment the entire time. The main singer is actually from the opera house in Rome. She was great. Que Sa Ra Sa Ra (spell?), Thats Amore, and other greats were sang. We loved the little old man playing the accordian.

He had the best facial expressions and little jokes. Dinner is where we met our other young couple. A practicing psychiatrist so yeah.. still babies. But there is a mom and her son on the trip as well. He just graduated from college so they are out celebrating.

After dinner we decided to walk down to the Spanish Steps. On our way we stopped to take pictures of some fountains and got bombarded by a man selling roses. Wow, after last night, I dont know that I will ever want roses again. Haha. We were confronted by probably about 7 people trying to give us flowers.

But I have learned to say no aggressively. lol! The Spanish Steps reminded us both of Northgate in College Station. The streets were closed down and all the young people were just hanging out there.
Anywho, our time is almost up. We are currently leaving the Hotel Cicerone (chi-chi-ronee) for the Vatican and will be headed to Florence after.

Update as soon as we can. Love you all!

Our bags are packed...

2009-05-14T14:52:00.000-07:00

We're ready to go!!

We are now at T minus 3 days until our Italian vacation. Matt and I are thrilled to get this once in a lifetime opportunity to visit such an amazing place. We are spending 10 days abroad for our honeymoon.

Since we will be gone for such an extended trip, we've decided to chronicle our journeys through this blog. This way we wont have quite so many stories to tell when we come home and everyone back in the states will get a first hand account of our experiences.

Feel free to leave us lots of comments about everything! We'll try to put up as many pictures as possible. We're kinda new at this whole blogspot thing, so take it easy on us!

You can view our itenary at http://www.perillotours.com/italy/tours-of-italy/vesuvius-tour/index.html