Croatia and back. . . we made it. The first of MANY posts.

This past week has been a truly legendary week. I have not laughed so hard, met such great people, or seen so many beautiful sites in a very long time. There are such an incredible amount of stories to tell that I’m going to have to break them up into separate posts. I’m also still without internet at my apartment so I’m forced to go to a café and post for the hour and a half my battery will last. So let’s begin at the beginning.

Getting to Croatia from Italy is a snap. We got to Fiumincino with plenty of time to knock back a couple of vinos at a wine bar and still hang around the gate. As we were sitting beside the window watching the ground crew load luggage onto our flight, I noticed one of the guys ready to load what looked like packaged tent poles onto the belt in the belly of the plane. While that in and of itself is not interesting, it did get funny when he held all 8 feet of them up to his crotch like it was his big old junk and was stroking it for his buddy in the plane. Liz and I cackled like fools. I swear to god timing is everything. So we board the plane and of course I start taking pictures. When we get into our seats I turn to take a photo of Liz and notice who will be her background. Liz notices my face, turns to look, and starts laughing so hard tears were literally squirting out of her eyes. I’m pretty sure we belly laughed for 45 of the 60 minutes it took us to fly to Dubrovnik. I’m also well aware that we are going to hell for being shallow and mean. No shock there, really.
Our plane

oh the tears of laughter, shameful!

yay, andiamo!

The mountains leaving Italy

The Dalmationa Coast arriving in Dubrovnik

In Croatia, baby!

The son of our sobe owner met us at the gate, holding a sign with our names on it, which of course made us laugh all over again. It probably wasn’t that funny except we were primed to laugh at pretty much everything. Vlaho, the son was awesome. He drove us to the Old Town and then his mother Neves met us and walked us to our apt. It was great, in a 17th century building with AC, charm, and a load of stairs. We dropped our stuff and headed out to wander the Old Town and find dinner. We ate a little place right on the old port; it was delicious. Croatian white wine, risotto with cuttlefish, olives, cheese, and bread.
At the old port for dinner.

Dubrovnik's Cathedral at night

View out of one of our bathroom windows.

Since it was late and we were getting up early to catch the ferry to Korcula in the morning, we headed off for an ice cream and then to bed.

Rooftops of Dubrovnik

Heading out the Pile Gate on the way to the ferry dock!

Off to Croatia. . .

Tomorrow Liz and I are off to Croatia. We fly out at 6pm and land in Dubrovnik at 7:10. After one night there we're taking a ferry to a little island called Korcula for 2 nights, then back to Dubrovnik for 4 more nights. Somewhere in there we have rented a car to drive into Bosnia and Montenegro for one day each. Oh god, wish us luck. And if any of you have friends who can get 2 American girls out of eastern European jails, leave a comment on this here blog. Haaaaa!

Jesus and the Jukebox!

Oh boy! That’s about all I can say of the last 24 hours. Liz arrived at my apartment exactly on time …… a little bit early to be exact. I was getting ready to walk out my front door and meet her at the security gate when I heard and Italian man yell through my bedroom window and then was pretty sure I heard Liz’s laugh. And to my surprise, there she was, suitcase in tow. Her flight was a little early and she ran into the guy who lives in the flat across from mine. She showed him a picture of me, from her phone, and he said “yes, the American girl staying across from me.” I’ve NEVER seen the man in my life, but I guess people know when the Americans have arrived.

So, Liz drops her stuff, changes into shorts, and off we go. Yesterday turned into quite the blur due to all the drinking, but I’ll give the rundown a good go. We walked to Piazza Navona and found Liz’s favorite pizza place from her visit in October. In true form, her favorite pizzeria was closed until dinner with a sign on the door that said “Fuck You.” We’re going there for dinner tonight, by the way. We then proceeded to a little trattoria for fried zucchini blossoms and the first of much vino. Note to all, we started drinking about 2 hours after Liz landed, and we never stopped. The winning picture of perhaps the trip (time will tell) is this one of the make-shift shrine to Jesus and the Jukebox. It’s across from the trattoria we were at and above the door of a home. The altar is made of tin foil, there is a huge plastic jukebox behind the nativity like scene, and sadly Mary has fallen partially through (ie, her feet were dangling from the underside). The piece di resistance were the 2 plastic race cars flanking this nod to the baby Jesus. HILARIOUS!!

Unbelieveable!

From there we wandered over to St. Peter’s Square to gawk at the Vatican/Basilica because we knew our souls would be in need of some help based on how the day was unfolding. After kicking it with Pope Benny-Raz, we made our way back to the Jewish Ghetto and plopped down for some much needed birre. Ok, I knew to order beer, but Liz needed to get fancy and order a Campari Gin Martini; just typing it makes me want to hurl. It was sooooooo nasty it burned the hair off her chest (didn’t know she had that did you? No worries, it’s gone now). With saner beverages in front of us, we put back and enormous amount of beer. Naz came over to join us and then Liz proceeded to kick the table …………. twice. Not since crystallnicht has the Jewish Ghetto seen so much broken glass. Again, HILAROUS!!!
Now thats a picture for all time. Liz and I in front of the Vatican, and lightening did not strike!

The start of the beer extravaganza in the Jewish Ghetto

Now, you would be thinking that this day has got to be coming to close. Wrong answer. We went home, showered, drank some vino, got fancied-up, and headed out for appertivi and dinner in Trastevere. We hooked up with Naz again at Café Artu. Liz brought us all red, white and blue candy necklaces to celebrate a belated July 4. So appropriately jeweled, we sipped Prosecco until our table was ready. I’m not gonna lie, we got shitcanned; it was tragic. Nonetheless, we powered through and ate an amazing dinner of Spaghetti cacao e pepe and arugala salad with asiago and walnuts. At this point, jet lag and hours of drinking took its toll on Liz. She looked at me with her huge doe eyes and begged “PLEASE, can we go home?” so we started the trek home. Somewhere in the middle of Trastevere, I felt an arm link through mine and a sad little voice asks “can we just walk like this for a little while?” I was pretty sure I was going to end up carrying Liz the rest of the way. To try to make the walk more pleasant I bought her a slice of cocomero (watermelon). About 30 seconds later I looked at her and the watermelon was gone. I didn’t inquire into the whereabouts of said watermelon until this morning. Apparently she was “too weak” to carry it and left it on a scooter for someone else to enjoy (she’s nice that like). It was a seriously spectacular first night in Roma with one of my longest standing friends. HILARIOUS!!!

Prosecco!

American girl arrives in Roma

Candy necklaces and Prosecco, what could be better.

I’ve moved apartments now and I’m quite pleased with my pool, mini patio, and garden. Unfortunately, as can happen in Italy, I don’t have internet access even though I was promised it. I think if there are secured wireless networks around, the Italians consider that “having internet”. Now, I’ve got to get ready for dinner at Pizzeria Baffetto and Liz’s favorite enoteca (wine bar) in Piazza Spagna. Hopefully, the pizzeria won’t tell us “Fuck Off”.

Looking straight out my front door.

Standing in my front door and looking to the right at the POOL!

Liz having apperitivo on my piccolo terrace.


View from Gianicolo Hill over Roma

St. Peter's from "the hill"

monument to Garibaldi.

Someone in the Garibaldi clan. Just a cool photo!

Monument and graveyard.

Dammit!!

The new apartment does not have internet connectivity; I'm seriously pissed off. I'm going to try to get to an internet cafe later to update with pictures. All very disappointing, I know. Bare minimum, Liz and I off to Croatia tomorrow for a week. That will be awesome!

Well that didn't take long

Being back has been insanely fun and also very surreal. Its like I never left or time just stopped and waited for me to return. The same beggars and freaks are all over my old piazza. Maurizio the lavender guy is in the same spot every night and even remembered me from last year (or he is doing a great job of faking it, probably more likely), Italian Brad Pitt is still wandering the streets of Trastevere in his hot suits, and Tony the light guy is still awash in his man perfume hanging outside his store working the ladies.

I’ve laid pretty low since I’ve arrived back, that is until last night. Naz got back from Nice so we met up for appertivo, dinner, and then copious wine in Campo de Fiori. She and her friends met a waiter there a couple of weeks ago, so we went to hang out in his café. Four bottles of wine later (only 1 of which we had to pay for, yay for horney Italian men) we were staggering home at about 3am. Needless to say, today has been painful. For whatever reason, we decided to go on a hunt for the perfect Italian leather purse. We pretty much covered the entire city to no avail. I think I sweated out every drop of wine I ingested yesterday; so now I am replenishing it with some tasty Prosecco.

Tomorrow, we might head to Florence for the day. Man its good to have such choices!

Isola di Cinema. An outside cinema set up on Isola Tiberina just across the street from my apartment.

In Campo de Fiori after 4 bottles of wine. Yikes!

Inillio and Naz

Io Sono a Roma!

I made it! The flight was uneventful and on time, my luggage showed up, and Tomasso was waiting for me outside the apartment at exactly the agreed upon time. A good start. Because of a miscommunication between Tomasso and I, I knew I was going to have to spend the first week in a different apartment than the one with the pool. As it turns out, this place is pretty amazing. It’s located just across the river from Trastevere in the Jewish Ghetto ( don't let the word Ghetto fool ya. There is a Maserati and a Lamborghini parked in front of the building!). The flat is in an ancient building that backs the Teatro di Marcello and Portico d’Ottavia, which is being excavated still. I have a 24 hour porter (fancy) and an entryway that pictures do not do justice. It’s close to everything and because the walls are so thick and ceilings so high, it stays pretty cool. Tomasso, the guy who manages the properties is fabulous. He’s about my age, sweet, and very helpful. Because I have to move to the other flat on Sunday, he is coming to get me and my stuff with a car. Nice that I don’t have to take a taxi! The only down side is I don’t have wifi or internet in this flat, so postings will have to be done from either the Irish bar 2 blocks away or from the same café I used last year. A real hardship, haaaaaaaa!

As promised, I’ve already had my first gelati from Della Palma, ate it under the portico of the Pantheon. And now, I’m sipping my first of millions of glasses of vino. Please feel sorry for me; this is a difficult life.


bedroom

the lounge

Hallway to lounge & bedroom

The foyer of my flat (swanky, no?)

bathroom with crazy mirrors & faucets like swans

Portico d’Ottavia – oldest 4 sided porch in Rome

Area Archeoligca del Teatro di Marcello – planned by Caesar and built by Augustus in 13BC.. My building in on right.

The front of my current building

Looking out through the front door

La Dolce Vita - Part II

I'm off to Rome in a few hours. As with last year, the day to day details will be determined along the way, but there a few definites thus far:

Depart 6/30: United Airlines 966 at 6:20
Arrive 7/01: Rome 8:50am
Have first gelato: 8:51am
Have first litre of vino: 8:52am (have to lay down a base of gelato before I start drinking)
Return: August 15 (shit!)

Other than that, Liz (you know my friend from high school) is flying over next Saturday for 2 weeks. We are hanging out in Rome for a couple of days and then flying to Dubrovnik, Croatia. We're spending 2 nights on the island of Korcula, 5 nights in Dubrovnik, and renting a car to venture into Bosnia and Montenegro, then back to Rome for a few more wine soaked days. If we land ourselves in an eastern European jail, it would fabulous if you would all use your political and financial powers to save us. Assuming jail is not in my future, I'm also thinking of heading down to Sicily for a week.

Same girls, same drinking, different part of the world

So that's about it. I hope you all have great summers and feel free to comment on the posts. I check often and its always great to hear from you all, even you Peter. Also, I've got an Italian SIM to use in my cell this year so if you text or call, it will be an international call for you. I'm also using Skype to talk to my family for free; if you use Skype my contact info is posted on the left. I've also got a webcam on my laptop, so I'll take you for a tour of the apartment!

Baci e a presto!!