san gimignano, volterra, monteriggianni, and sienna

We rented a car and took a day trip to the four different towns.  

Oh, the views...

And the food...

If, by chance, someone wonders why I am constantly taking photos of my food it is because it makes me happy.  That pile of pasta on the top left, they call it poci.  I look at that picture and it brings back some delicious food memories.  Aside from people memories, food memories are my favorite. I look at that picture and remember the simple sauce with the house made pasta with the crunch of the bread crumbs and I love it.  It affects how I cook, too.  I remember the creativity of the chefs and pretend like I can do that, too.  San gimignano was good to me.  And if I ever go back, I will go to Locando di Sant Agostino and order poci.

I don't have the photo, but this trip is the place that I had the most simple, tasty pizza I have ever had.  Great crust and sauce.  That's it.  The sauce was slightly spicy and the texture was chewy.  

The bottom row of food was in Sienna at a place called Trattoria La Torro.  It is the kind of place where the big burly guy walks up and tells you what you want to eat.  He delivers and it is amazing.  

I'll admit.  I slept most of the car rides between the towns sleeping.  I am not a good road trip companion.  I wake up all panicky, thinking we are going to crash.  And then I fall asleep again.  

Seeing all of this stuff in one day may have been a little overwhelming.  But looking back at these photos, I get to relive all of the beautiful sights.   

And how about some awesome graffiti...

Next up:  Venice

three days in florence

 Narrowing down a bajillion pictures of a huge beautiful place is a lot of work.  

Florence is full of beautiful famous places.  Just beautiful.  

I started of our Florence stay hoping to get all lovely and plugging in my flat iron.  It sparked and then the room went dark.  Whoopsies.  The room recovered.  Karl found a switch and flipped it.  My flat iron did not.  Ok, ok, I secretly have wanted a new one.  But I never would have had to the guts to blow out a room and make a big old spark just to get one. 

On with the real stuff.  Rickie (I have already professed our love for Rick Steves) can do a much better job at describing all of these amazing sights.  Actually probably anyone can do a better job that me.  So, I won't attempt.  I will just share a few (or a bunch, who am I trying to kid?) of my favorites... 

So many details, so many stories, so much history behind all of these this...

And to think that this was all built before all the the fancy machines that we have these days...

We took a bike tour.  Just us two, a girl that knew a lot about the city, some bikes, and some cool little speaker thing that she used that went into our earphones so we could hear her while we peddled around the city.  In such a busy city I never would have biked without her (even with her help, I got honked at twice and let's just say it wasn't because they thought my 5 month pregnant body was hot).  Biking was a great way to see so many neat things in a short time.  

Seems like everyone was so much more fashionable.  Even down to their police.  Check out their get up.  They put our "every police woman should have a front butt" police uniforms to shame, now don't they?

We saw some really famous stuff.  Karl got some illegal photos with his sneaky Blackberry skills.  Look who we saw!  Kelly Ripa and her whole family.  I was so excited, and you could tell who was American because they were equally excited. 

The real David used to stand here but he couldn't put up with all the elements and risks that go with standing outside so they moved him indoors and this one is a fake.

I don't mean to brag or anything but I have some serious napping skills.  Italy was no exception.  Right here on this plaza we napped for a couple of hours.  

L'Accedemia was huge.  Karl soaked it all in.  He has museum skills.  I used my napping skills while he his museum skills.  He used his Blackberry skills to catch me using my napping skills.  (And I really really really apologize to art lovers who would never even think of doing such a thing.  But if it makes you feel any better, a nap may for me what beautiful art may do for you.  Maybe?).  

Coming from the land where big box stores are (sadly) dominating more and more, I just love looking in the little shops and seeing all of the care and personal touches that go into the products.  I think it is beautiful.

Me, 5 months pregnant in Italy.  I am so glad to have these with this baby.  I have a total of about 2 pictures of me when I was carrying my other two kids and that makes me a little sad.  But, hey, look at us learning from our mistakes!  I 

I used my patience skills and waited to talk about the food.  

This was Trattoria Mario.  Recommended by both Karl's brother (our Italy pro) and Rickie, it was so fun.  The ravioli was okay but let's talk about the Bistecca alla Florentine.  You pay for it by the Kilo.  Yes, the Kilo.  That steak was HUGE.  The photos don't do the massiveness any justice.  The guy brings in these hunks of meat.  The other guy hacks off a big old slab.  They weigh it, show it to you, and then grill it up.  We should have named it.  It was huge.  And even better?  It was delicious.  No fancy sauces.  Just delicious meat.  And nerdy me enjoyed it even more knowing it didn't come from a gross giant mcfactory farm.  The place was so crowded that they sat you where ever they had seats.  At one point this couple from Japan sat across from us.  We told them to order the steak.  It was so funny how shocked they were.  

Osteria del Cinghiale Bianco

My brother told us to go here for their truffle pasta.  Little Utah me hasn't had much experience with truffles.  I loved this dish.  The texture, the flavor, the simplicity.  We had some bruschetta, some caprese salad, and some pasta with boar sauce.  Maybe the thing that I will remember most is our seats.  They sat us up in this tiny nook up some tiny stair at a tiny table.  A little loft-ette.  I will also remember how Karl left his wallet and the waiter snagged us on our way out and gave it to him.  I just love nice people.

My favorite way to experience other countries is through a cooking class.  

This one started with a walk through a market.  He told us all the ins and outs of buying fish, meat, vegetables, fruits, cheeses, pasta, etc.  I loved it.  The emphasis was on quality.  Eating in season, choosing fresh stuff, not wasting... I was in food nerd heaven.  

We then walked to a cooking school that so cool.  It had all these modern amenities in this old stone building.   We didn't make anything fancy, some down home, family cooking.  I learned so much.  

Tips that stood out:

Rub the bruschetta with garlic, then with the tomato pulp

Take the center line thing out of the garlic, that is part that smells

Toss the pasta with the sauce over and over to bring out the starch, bind the flavors and make it richer

Roll the basil leaves really tight, then chop to chiffinade

If Karl ever tells you that he doesn't know how to cook (because he just doesn't want to), don't believe him.  He has cooking skills.

Gelato.  Sometimes twice a day.  So fun to sample.  Even more fun to choose the flavors.

And just because we were in the land of lovely food, doesn't mean all the food was great.  Some of it was just okay.  Oh, and some not even okay.  Like, when we decided that we were hungry at 11 pm and Karl went out to find food.  He came back with a pizza a and gyro.  The fact that they were from the same place was kind of a sign.  We still laugh at how gross it was.  

After our time in Florence and the going to other cities.  We decided the food was, in general, better outside the big city.  

Next up:  San Gimignano, Volterra, Monteriggianni, and Sienna

summer joy: captured

I found this picture on my camera.  Karl took it. 
Every time I see it.  
Or even think about it, it makes me happy.  
So many things about Eva to love. 
 So many things about summer to love (already half way over and I can't believe it.  So sad about that).

pisa

I can't believe it has been almost a month.  Maybe it is because I finally finished unpacking.  

There is so much I want to remember that I have been avoiding a post.  I am a wimp that way.

This was my first time in Italy.  I had no idea what to expect.  Once upon a time I was young and had no fear of going to weird places and sleeping in gross hostels (or on beaches or park benches or wherever).  But now I am pregnant, and old, and well, a wimp.  Karl had been a couple times before so, with the help of his Italy pro brother, he planned the adventure.

On the flight to NY, they didn't feed us.  By the time we got to NY, we were starving.  Well, we thought we were.  So much that we spent $60 on lame food.  We kept laughing.  We obviously bought too much.  Every time we felt like we were buying an expensive meal in Italy, we would say, "Hey, it's cheaper than the JFK airport."

You know how you hear about something for as long as you can remember and then when you finally see it, it seems kind of weird?  That was the was it was for me and the Leaning Tower.  We hiked to the top.  At least for me it was a hike.  Here is Karl in front of the o so famous building.  I wanted him to pose where it looks like he is pushing the building up.  Along with the 50 other people doing it.  He grudgingly did so.  Getting him to pose it one thing.  Posting it is another.  Here is me and baby #3 at the top.

Things I learned the first day:

-I love Rick Steves.  His book had all sorts of good information that seriously helped the trip. Above is one of the sights we definitely would have missed had it not been for good ol' Rickie.

-I love to eat gelato in Italy.  Crema de Grom at a chain place called Grom was my favorite.  I ate it like 5 times (If you know me, you know I'm not kidding).  Here is a shadowy picture of Karl showing my favorite.

-I love to eat delicious food.  When it comes to sight seeing, my energy level is seriously limited.  But when it comes to finding a great place to eat, suddenly I am willing to walk miles.  

little gym memories

I actually paid money to watch Samuel run around and jump off things and hide under things and not listen to someone else besides me.  

Since they have a rule that parents shouldn't interfere I watched behind the big window while I felt my blood pressure rise.

Since Samuel was well aware of the rule, that meant that he could pick his nose as he pleased, make faces at me as he pleased, but most of all, enjoy himself because his mom wasn't there to tell him, "no."

Samuel hiding while the kids are getting instructions on what to do next.

The instructor telling him to use his hands on his backward rolls (though he never did) and some kid in apparent agony.  

That medal.  Samuel loves that medal.  Not because it means that he accomplished something but because he just really loves that medal.  

Here's the thing that baffles me.  I will probably pay to go through all of this again.  

the great salt lake

The Great Salt Lake...

I have never been out to Antelope Island.  If I had, I would have known how far it was, or cold, or that the brine flies were bad.  

On the positive note, we made some great memories and got some pictures to remember it by.

Eva is so lucky to have so many cousins that she loves to play with.

This picture of the brothers with the binoculars cracked us up.

The kids enjoying nature.

Eva and Katie in the sheep pen.

I think the kids' favorite part was the horse stable.

One of the park guys asked the horse guy to let our kids get on the horse for a picture.  Nice, huh?

The horse guy was so nice and obliging.  

This horse was less fun to sit on.  You can tell by the look on Eva's face.

My dad loves outings like this. 

Uh, I guess I didn't get this gene. 

Do you remember those posters from the book order or on the ceiling of the dentist office of the kitten hanging from a branch that had the caption, "just hangin' around?"  I do.

I can't remember how many times we said, "Where is Samuel?" or "Where is Eva?"  They were having a blast exploring the place.  

The Great Salt Lake excursion... posted.