Blondemonium

Suddenly, it matters where my olive oil comes from.  Really!  It matters from whence my olive oil cometh.  What's up with that? So, I'm out of olive oil.  Rather than pay $10 for a couple tablespoons of it at the market, I add it to my Sam's Club list and head out the door.  Now, you've gotta understand that I've never given another thought to the origins of my EVOO (with apologies to Rachael Ray) prior to visiting Italy, where I paid 26 Euros for a ghastly small bottle which makes everything it touches taste like heaven! (When IS that little bottle going to get here?)  In fact, I didn't know it existed until I took on a glorious Italian surname by marriage.  No kidding!  Good ol' vegetable oil was all I'd ever seen in the kitchen before that. Like I said, I'd never given a thought to olive oil origins - I naturally assumed it was from Italy, of course.  Then, on the "oil aisle" of Sam's Club I noticed a sign that said "Califo...

Roma. Colosseum. Ancient ruins. St. Peter's Basilica. Vatican Museum. Walking. Walking. GELATO. Metro rides. Sistene Chapel. Piazzas. Eating. Sleeping. GELATO. Walking. Traffic. Train. Italians arguing. Firenze. Duomo. More Walking. Train to Pisa. Climb the Leaning Tower. Eat. Walking. Bus ride to Lucca.  Rent beat-up bikes. Ride around the Lucca medieval wall. Walking. Train to Florence. Train to Cinque Terre. Very long day. Italian Riviera. Hiking. Walking. Feet in the Mediterranean Sea. GELATO. Long ride home. Climb the stairs to apt. Very tired. Sleeping in. Driver takes us to Tuscan countryside.  Wine tasting. Nonna's lasagne - amazing! Must. Have. Recipe! Villas. Castles. Wealthy Italians. Fiat mini van. Come home to Florence. GELATO.  Hike up the stairs. Packing. Off to Venice.  Vaparetto shuttle boat.  Magical scenery.  Beautiful.  GELATO. I'm so tired - that's it for now!  Will post a couple photos next time....

\well, the first two legs of our journey are complete, and \i find myself sitting in \london \Heathrow airport - in the British Airways lounge to be exact, and I think this may be the only time \i have a few moments to write for awhile.... when we get to Rome, we hit the ground running, so to speak -- as we have only given ourselves a day and half to see the necessary objects before moving on to a little slower pace and five nights in \florence. I just have one question\:  Why is the \ & | key where the shift key is supposed to be on a |British keyboard?  Along with the necessary £ and € keys, in addition to the $ key -- (how very international of them!) it looks like my keyboard at home, and yet |I seem to be typing just one key removed for some words. For illustration purposes, |I'm going to forgo my usual need for typing perfection just this once, as I am sleep-deprived and it's just too much work, for one thing... for another thing - I think it's funny. \...

It's not like this Swedish-American-Heinz57 girl hasn't been in training since marrying The Italian in 1983... but I feel like I'm embarking on the ultimate training exercise:  a real-life trip to Italy!! I really will try to post some updates while we're gone, but seriously, if I can't keep up with my gigantor 27 inch monitor at home, do you think my little Droidy-droid screen is going to suffice in typing all the crazy random information that will be going through my brain while in Italy?  Still, we'll see.... So much planning, preparing, research, etc. etc has been done over the past few weeks - I just hope I can really pull it off and make my family think I'm worthy of an Italian name... no, really!  One of my great hopes is that we will magically run into someone with one of our family heritage names in the little towns of Pisa or Lucca (where we think they are from) and be able to find a distant relative (hopefully one who runs a fabulous restauran...