‘Vacations & Holidays’ Category

The Great Italian Adventure: Photographic Proof

Posted on June 12th, 2012 by Tonia 3 Comments

Here it is: The cold, hard evidence that Italy is pretty awesome.

{I apologize if these photos load slowly. Many of them have a lot of detail, and I couldn’t make them the optimum size for web without losing a ton of quality, so they’re larger than usual.}

My mom, my brother’s girlfriend Sammi, Mike and me: Waiting excitedly at the airport in Chicago for our flight to Rome.

Our teeny little Fiat {thanks, Mike, for getting us around safely…those Italian drivers be crayzay!}

On our way to the villa we rented in Montepulciano, we were treated to the most incredible Tuscan landscape on either side of the road.

We stopped off at the vineyard that my brother had been WWOOFing at for two months to pick him up. It was a 1,000 year old castle, nestled into a remote valley. Pre-tty awesome.

…But turns out that even castle-dwellers miss their girlfriends. It was pretty fun for them to be reunited.

Danny showed us around the castle and the grounds. It was incredible.

Danny spent much of his time at the vineyard in this enormous wine cellar, bottling and corking wine.

The olive grove, just up the hill from the castle, is where Danny would go to relax or read.

It was hard to leave. The owners of this place treated Danny so well. He cooked and ate every meal with them and they became very close in just two months.

That night, we made it to our villa after over 24 hours of travel, all together in one piece, and we immediately went to bed. The next morning we had a traditional European breakfast and started to plan our first full day in Italy!

To be continued…

Home Again Home Again

Posted on June 4th, 2012 by Tonia 3 Comments

We were welcomed home from Italy by grass that needed to be cut, a pig, cat, two turkeys and 12 chickens who are much bigger than when we left {my turklets are HUGE! All growed up….*sniffle*}, and gray dazzling Lake Superior.

Day one back at home we headed straight to the beach with the dogs. This was Jack’s first time swimming, and he was slightly awkward about it, but the instincts of his breed kicked in and he had a raging good time.

We ran into friends and their dog and we decided that the party should continue back at our house. We grilled out, made fresh strawberry and lime margaritas in the blender and sat on the back porch soaking in the late evening air.

An unexpected phenomenon of travel is that you gain a renewed sense of awe and appreciation for your own home upon returning to it. I love this feeling. I love seeing this place through fresh eyes.

Italy was, as you will see in the photos we took {although, photographs truly don’t capture the real magic of the place- you have to see it with your own eyes}, unbelievably beautiful. I was constantly ooh-ing and aah-ing over everything…the food, the view, the architecture…But a funny thing happened toward the end of the trip: I desperately wanted Home.

And a cold beer. Turns out- much to the consternation of my family- that I’m not a great wine lover like the rest of them. Even after all that delicious food we had the enormous pleasure of eating in Italy, Mike and I stopped at Angry Minnow Brewing Co. on our way north from the Minneapolis airport and downed a pulled-pork sandwich and a few beers like two people who’d been stranded in a desert for weeks.

As much as I like to go around boasting that “I’m 50% Italian, you know…” I guess I’m really very much American afterall.

But I’ll save the rest of my discoveries and stories for the post about Italy. For now, all I really wanted to say is that I love being home and am grateful for everything we have going on here. Traveling is lovely, but being where you belong- the place that hugs you up and tells you with every last thing about itself that you’re meant to be here- is even lovelier.

See You Soon!

Posted on May 19th, 2012 by Tonia 1 Comment

Bye-bye, Home Sweet Home. We’ll see you in 12 days.

Super big THANK-YOU! to our friend Seth who is house-sitting for us, and to our ever-awesome neighbors Bob and Sarah for acting as back-up. Thanks for keeping all our critters alive and our garden watered! It’s so nice to be able to go gallivanting off and know that everything is safe and sound.

Here’s to an awesome adventure!

The Great Italian Adventure: Packing

Posted on May 15th, 2012 by Tonia 9 Comments

Drum roll please…..Mike and I are going to Italy with my family NEXT WEEK {happy dance}!!

We’re more than a little excited. This will be our first big trip since our honeymoon, and Mike’s first time to Europe. We have a bad itch to travel, and it can only be scratched by the Duomo, excellent gelato, and the Tuscan sun.

My little brother is currently over there WWOOFing at a gorgeous wine vineyard. We’ll be meeting up with him and staying in Central Italy for 12 days all together. His fantastic girlfriend is coming with as well. It’s going to be epic!

One thing stands between us and adventure: packing. One doesn’t simply “pack” for “Italy”. It’s an all-week affair consisting of frequent mind-changing and last-minute panicked online-shopping. Right now our bedroom looks like an evil Laundry Monster rampaged through it.

Perhaps I should forgo packing all together and buy everything IN ITALY? Sounds like a plan.