Sipping Espresso

The video says it all...

I had originally come up with an inventive and funny way to start this post.  I was going to draw a parallel between myself and Joey Tribbiani from "Friends", as we both share an intense love of sandwiches.  I scoured the internet for a clip I can so vividly remember, but could not find.  When quizzed about his favorite food (which many people assume is pizza), we learn that his favorite food is in fact, sandwiches ! This was the closest I could find... it's not exactly on target and the video quality is terrible - but it still made me laugh out loud and I thought could work well enough. For those of you that weren't fans of the show, "Friends" (all 3 of you) - Joey Tribbiani is a fun-loving, womanizing, "foodie" who craves [among other things] sandwiches.  Perhaps this love of meat and cheese folded between two pieces of bread comes from his Italian heritage, because as I'm learning - Italians have perfected the art of the sandwich (he...

What a wonderful tradition happy hour is!  A time when friends can gather and join in a few post-work drinks and perhaps a little nibble to eat.  We've always known happy hour to be a 5:00pm - 7:00pm (ish) time to partake in a few cocktails at a discounted price. Caffè Mazzini - Our favorite Happy Hour in Como We were pleased to find that the tradition of "happy hour" also exists in Italy and it's even called the same thing (just imagine saying it with a funny little accept... drop the sound the "h" makes).  However, it's a bit different here. Instead of discounted drinks and food, you usually pay the same price for the drinks (which always tends to be low anyways... between $4 - $6) but get a big bonus.  ALL YOU CAN EAT heavy hors du louvres - Italian style!!!  Imagine a bar full of pasta, pizza and other wonderful treats.  If you're not to embarrassed to fill a plate - you can easily have enough for dinner. Since eating and drinking are tw...

Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday there is a market on the north side of Como.  It exists just outside the old fort wall that surrounds the original city.  There is a collection of over a hundred vendors, most which arrive in their vans and vend from open doors. Vans - vending on the other side We strolled through and decided there was nothing we needed before moving on to a late afternoon snack (more on that in a subsequent post).  Below you'll see a collection of the random items you can purchase if you so choose. The Market Some "fine" jewelry Snacks Books Shoes Anything you can imagine And of course... even the dogs show up in high fashion Now you see why we didn't need anything.  But of course, it was still fun to walk around!

OK - we realize it's nearly February and people are more inclined to think about Valentine's Day than Christmas... but it's still cold and snowy and hey - who couldn't use a little holiday cheer any time of year.  So, if you'll forgive us for posting about Christmas at the end of January - than you'll certainly excuse the fact that these pictures were taken last year! Christmas is such a special time in Italy - we didn't want to miss a posting about this wonderful event and some of the local traditions.  When we arrived  on January 4th - all the lights and decorations were still present, but we didn't have an opportunity to photograph anything.  Therefore, we had to use some from last year's library. Lake Como's Duomo - lit up at night Starting in early December, you'll find lights and decorations sprinkled throughout each Piazza and cobblestone street you encounter.  In front of every church you'll see a "presepio", a n...

Whoever said the "easy-going" Italy lifestyle is "easy" was pazzo (crazy).  Take for example our experience in obtaining cell phones. We thought it would have been simple.  We both have unlocked iPhones that only required a TIM card (the same as a SIM card in the US - you just have to slide it in... batta-bing, batta-boom).  We had been briefed that there are no cell phone plans; you simply pre-pay for the week, month or year.  We had decided to get plans with voice, data and text - just enough to help us find each other if separated and maybe find a good trattoria  (restaurant) if we were in a new city. So one nice day (maybe 3 days into our trip), we decided to walk across the street to the local TIM store.  The woman did not speak any English and we didn't feel comfortable picking a plan blindly.  So we did what we always do... we asked Jen's uncle Franco (who lives upstairs) for his help. His reaction surprised us a bit - he told us we...

I think this will be a recurring theme... most differences are charming, some can be frustrating and all of them can be humorous when looked at in the right light. A perfect example of some of these differences that "welcomed" us to our new life in Italy was our own house key *  There are normal keys right next to it so that you can get a proper scale. Didn't know we were living in a bank vault! *And when we say "our house", we really mean Dominic and Diane's beautiful home that they have so graciously allowed us to live in for the next year.  We'll do a separate post with pictures of the place as well.

We knew the deadline was coming for months... January 3rd was staring us in the face for a long time.  January 3rd rustled up feelings of excitement (me and Jen), nervousness (Jen...ok, me a little) and stress (mainly me). It got here before we were ready.  We still had a list a mile long on January 2nd and I don't think either of us were as prepared as we thought to say goodbye to our friends and family.  Jen's girlfriends threw an incredible send-off hosted at Mike and Aubrey Ciatto's home. Aubrey and Mike's beautiful home - nice touch with the flag And then... all of a sudden, we woke up on January 3rd.  We hugged our first set of goodbye's to my parents, Julia's "Pop-Pop and Grandma" in Darnestown, and got a little misty when my usually stoic parents both shed a couple tears. Next, we started our entourage-like caravan with Jen's family and our massive amounts of luggage to Dulles International.  Dom had the foresight to make a move th...