#KindnessCounts

We got in the cab yesterday morning at nine AM.  We said goodbye to our wonderful Rome hotel, took pictures of bunny leaving, and left. And as our car passed out of the city walls, while our Italian driver was chattering away in Italian on a million phone calls, while the Italian music thumped in the speakers behind our heads, Chris and I held hands over luggage that sat between us, I stared out of the window, sunglasses over my eyes, and cried. Goodbye Italy.  Goodbye to the land of: NO judgments on clothing choices Small bites Amazing coffee that I don't need milk for and never use artificial sweetners for Spending two hours over cannoli and espresso Red poppies  Clean air Sexy smoking Not thinking about weight and appearance  Curvy sexy boisterous women Attractive quietly confident men Vespas Fearing for my life and other people's lives in traffic Walking into heavy traffic knowing/trusting everyone will stop  Breathtaking sights Historic...

Favorites from Italy: FAVORITE DAY: Chris & Adrienne: Riding/Driving Vespas in Chianti day. So much fun fearing for our lives, I learned bad words from my driver/tourguide Steve and tried to speak Italian with Andrea, Chris and I were introduced to scachatta bread and were forever changed, drank fantastic wine, saw amazing and breathtaking views, and just had a blast of a freaking day. FAVORITE OUTDOOR ADVENTURE: Chris: Vespa Day too! Adrienne: 1) Hiking Cinque Terre (and crying when I got to the top to see the view) 2) Climbing Mt Vesuvius (and having the best sense of pride and accomplishment--unreal) FAVORITE WINE: Chris: Nobile Montepulciano Adrienne: Valpolicella FAVORITE DISCOVERED FOOD OR DRINK: Chris: Aqua Frissante, Scachatta bread, and Cintasinese pork Adrienne: Aqua Frissante, Valpolicella wine, anchovies, octopus (that's NOT fried) and organic olive oil FAVORITE WALKS: Adrienne & Chris: VENICE, at night after concerts, evening gelato and in San ...

It's coming to a close. Today is our last day in Rome.  In Italy. Today is the last day. Out to play and trying not to think about it too much. Ciao bella. Love love, Adrienne PS:  I am still considering keeping this blog for my own enjoyment after the trip is over...I am one of those people that those kind of things happen to...Yes friends?  No?  I'm not sure I want to write for something that people don't read but I do love to write so let me know what you think.  :)

Art teaches nothing, except the significance of life. 　 -Henry Miller 　 I sit on the balcony of our junior suite here in Rome with a glass of wine in one hand and my journal open on my lap to refer to as I have started the familiar and now comforting click clacking on my laptop to blog to you all. Do you know what I've done in the last two days (yes, for the first time, I'm going to combine two days into one blog posting)? 　 I sit here in 2011, hundreds of years, more than a few centries after these artists, these protijays , were alive creating their works and masterpieces. I am sitting here and yet in the last two days, I have seen their works. I have sometimes even touched their works. I have been moved to tears by their works. 　 In the last two days, I've seen the Colosseum, the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican Museum, Michelangleo's Pieta , St. Peters Square and Basilica, and the Borghese Palace complete with works of Caravaggio, Bernini, and Raphel. 　 And I a...

POST IS FOR TUESDAY MAY 24! Today is a day I get to sleep in. Ahhhh. However, now my body has woken itself up at the crack of dawn due to the fact that we've been getting up at 8 AM almost everyday. Damn. Oh well. We go downstairs to enjoy a lovely breakfast after which, while Chris went to find a laudromat (Um, because to do it in the hotel costs a 1 Euro .50 for each drawer to be done by the maid...and they can only be washed by the maid ...), I decided to sun on the roof. Yes, on our beautiful balcony. And read The Chamber . Yeaaahhhhhh...I love New York but I'm not ready to go back... After a lovely hour of tanning/trying to get rid of the sports bra tan line that's on my back from Cinque Terre, Chris and I went to have lunch. First, however, a massage. I should tell my blog readers that I've been, for probably over five weeks now, been having serious pain in my left shoulder. Sometimes my shoulder is fine, but other times the pain hits me to the poin...

Believe it or not, this post is for today, Monday May 23rd! Can you believe it? I'm actually getting somewhat caught up. Uncanny! So imagine this: A junior suite. A full living room. Two full closets with hangers. A balcony the size of my living room in NYC. A king size bed. A huge bathroom with a sink that's bigger than my kitchen sink at home. A bathtub. And complimentary fruits, teas, coffees, and cookies. So we got to Rome a day early because, well, we wanted to. Due to this fact, the very nice hotel that we are staying at, La Residenza, (next to the Spanish steps!) offered to put us in the above mentioned junior suite for the same price as the small room we got for the rest of the stay. Now, when we were showed our princess hotel room for the night, I went around, like I sometimes do, exploring and discovering the place bouncing and squealing at each new room. Chris warned me, however, not to unpack or get comfortable because tomorrow night, in fact, we would have t...

POST FOR SUNDAY MAY 22! Today is Pompeii! Hurray! Chris and I get up early yet again and talk to our wonderful hotel conceirge, Dino. I mean, I consider myself a hard worker but this man is here 24/7. There hasn't been a day when we haven't seen Dino behind the desk, waiting tables, bringing cars back and forth, or anything else the hotel requires. We learn that his family owns the business but in his own words, "I'm the best." Whatever makes you happy. :) Anyway, we get on the shuttle to get on the train (yet again, word of advice--give yourself least amount of transporation as possible when traveling overseas and especially here in Italy--it'll save you stress and worry!) to go to Pompeii. And in a word, Pompeii is astounding. We rented the audio guides (which are just as good, if not better than the human tour guides that you can hire when you get there. As we were walking around, I would listen to the tour guides and they would all say different...

THIS POST IS FOR SATURDAY MAY 21, 2011! So I started to realize that I only have one week left in Italy as of today (Saturday). ONE WEEK. It's not enough! I also realize that my cell phone is not charged and figured that before crazy Rome, I should charge it so it'll be ready when I'm back in the states. Funny story though-when I picked up my cell phone-it felt like this foreign object in my hand. I mean, I talk on this, right? I used it everyday and treated it like my child in New York, right? And now, as it lays in my hands, I barely recognize it or feel like I'd know what to do it with it now that I haven't used a phone at all except once to call Matthew, now that was days ago. (Now I know what it must have felt like for everyone who had never seen one before when they came out!) Two and a half weeks to not use a cell phone may sound horrible to my friends out there in the states, but my God. Not having to be somewhere on a minute or even have to call a mi...

Just so you know, when you are driving a car in Italy, these are your options and your outcomes with each possibility: #1: Drive with a GPS. Long story short, you're screwed. #2: Drive without a GPS. Long story short, you're screwed. #3: Just screw it and leave the driving to someone else. You guessed it, you could very well be screwed. Chris and I went for option number one and guess what happened? We were screwed. Big surprise. As for option #2, when driving without a GPS, let's be real: atlases are not fun to read for ANYONE. Much less in Italian words, with squiggly lines darting all over the flipping pages. Not to mention , you can never really guesstimate when you will arrive somewhere because, there are no guesstimations in Italy. It's worse than knowing what time you will get somewhere in NYC. One squiggle could get you somewhere in twenty minutes while the other squiggle requires at least an hour to conquer. As for option #3, leaving the drivin...

There is no shame in Italy about being naked. A hard concept for me to take a grasp here, much less America. As a girl who's weight unfortnately easily flucuates, who (like other dancers) grew up looking and comparing herself in a mirror and therefore, constantly doing so in her day to day life, I've gotten to a pretty good spot in the last few years of loving myself and liking my body. But, like before I went on this trip, I worried because I was unable to really work out or even audition due to my foot injury. So, in my eyes, there was no getting skinny before my Italy trip and I knew I'd be eating a whole hell of a lot over here. Which I have done, you needn't worry. And when I got in my new red bikini for the hot baths yesterday, I looked around and I noticed all of these women with no shame or the slighest thought about their bodies, bikinis, or anything falling out for that matter. Brilliant. I mean, not because I was smaller than most around the pool, ...

BLOG FOR WEDNESDAY MAY 18th! Note to self: When you are lost in the countryside of Italy in a stick shift tiny toy car, the cops will find you. Let me explain. Yesterday, Chris and I awoke in our hotel in Siena hotel. We got up, had breakfast, I played with the hotel cat in the sunshine outside the dining room, and then we got on the road. Now, I don't think I even touched the subject in the last post that our GPS was not really working. Well, I take that back. It was working but it wouldn't charge in the cigarette lighter. So, Chris and I didn't turn it on yesterday until we reached Siena to find our hotel. Which is what caused all of the profanity and anger towards the female smoker voice that is inside that damn machine. Anyway, now it was dead and Europe Auto told us there was an office here in Siena that we could go to to figure out the problem with the cigarette lighter. Translation: Without a GPS and with a map and Italian directions (which in Italian, e...

PREFACE: This entry is comical and fun but just know that there is some profanity in it. From Tuesday, May 17th. Love! I don't know if any of you know about these amazing invention but it's an Italian bread and it's known as Scachotta (sp?)... And it's amazing. Did I say it was amazing? Because by amazing, I mean, freaking incredible. Salty and crunchy with just enough olive oil mixed in, it can only be found in Tuscany. So, after Chris and I rented a car and drove out of Florence this morning... Wait. Before bread talk, I must talk about driving. Forgive me, but I just enjoyed a midnight snack of this splendiferous bread and a travel size Nutella. So, we rented a car to drive OUT of Florence. And you know what you have to do to drive out of Florence? Drive IN Florence. Holy. Shit. I love that in their day to day lives, business and pleasure, Italians are not ones for efficency. Although it was a little harder for me to adhere to this way of life when w...

This morning, Chris and I get up early. We have many plans today because we know today it's our last full day in Venice and although I'm beyond excited for the rest of the trip, Chris and I could both easily spend a month in Venice. The way the city moves, the people converse-it's so special to me. Nothing like anywhere else. We see Fabio's jolly face when we come out of our room this morning and we tell him immediately how sad we are that we are leaving. "You sad? But why? Going home...it's nice. And you can always come back." He's right. We sure can come back. DONE. Anyway, while I type today , Chris and I savor another breakfast. Granola with fresh strawberries, coffee Americano (with very little milk and pure sugar-no Splenda! I may just return drinking coffee black...) and a croissant that I didn't realize until I bit into it, has a fresh apple and sugary juice interior that seeps out of the corners and its so rich and abundant, I catch the r...