Roman holiday

Been a while but I was out of the country.

ST planned a trip to Italy for PJ's birthday.  The husband and I joined them along with Framer Vinny and Lady Bell.  This was the first time I would be in Europe.  The flight over was fine even though I still had my earache and horrendous cold.  I was hacking and blowing my nose most of the flight.  My big fear was my eardrum would burst in a huge bloody mess on whoever was sitting next to me.  That did not happen and the husband was next to me anyhow.  I took tons of those pocket packs of tissues ( think like a dozen), my antibiotics, a huge bag of Halls cough drops and one of those zinc based cold preventative/easers.  Oh and the three vodkas on the rocks with olives (stuffed with bleu cheese- yum!) before the flight helped with my fitful sleep as well.

We landed in Rome and caught a flight to Naples.  Holy crap Naples is a pit from what I saw.  It looks like the Philly slum look sprawled over a larger area.  In  Naples the hotel had a mini-van waiting to drive us to Positano.  The highways on the Amalfi coast are daunting but the driver was quite adept at his job. 

The hotel was frackin' amazing!  Everything on the Amalfi coast is built into the cliffs and is pretty beautiful.  The hotel we got to and we had to take an elevator down to the lobby.  The rooms were beautiful.  The food was great and the company was the best. 

I slowly recuperated from my illness.  One day we took a car to Ravello.  We drove through Amalfi and stopped and walked around a bit.  The it was on to Ravello.  Ravello was amazing and the gardens we walked were great.  We hit the gardens at Villa Cimbrone. 

The last night in Positano we ate dinner in town which was fun.  The next day we drove back to Naples and took the train to Rome.  I gotta say the Europeans really know how to do train travel right.  We were on one of those high speed trains and made it to Rome in just over a hour.

Rome- now that is an amazing city!  It had the same kind of feel that NYC has in my opinion.  I don't know what economic crisis is happening as Rome was bustling all the time and the prices were not cheap.  I assume it is because there are constantly tourists in the city.  We hit all the spots- St. Peter's, the Pantheon, Ara Pacis, the Forums, the Coliseum, the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain.  Thankfully I had just downloaded Instagram for Android before I left and used it to the point one of my friends on FB told me to step away from the Instagram, lol.

The last night were were in Rome the husband and I had dinner with my parents- yeah, really.  They were on a tour of Italy for their 50th wedding anniversary.  They started up north, saw Venice, Florence, Tuscany and ended in Rome the same time we were there.  So we took them out to celebrate.  But even better afterwards the husband and I went out clubbing until a bit after 3:30 AM- clearly I was almost fully healed, lol.

That was really the first time I had been clubbing and I have to say it was a lotta fun.  The place was on the outskirts of Rome.  We got there and there was a huge line.  The husband told me to stick close to him.  He walked up to the front of the line and asked the guy was this the entrance and how long would it be.  The bouncer asked were you from.  New York City.  He let us right in, lol.

It was three floors of music blasting, hot Italians, fog machines, confetti guns going off and an actual show.  The music was great, the eye candy was good and the drag queens were amazing.

The flight back was ok.  I couldn't really sleep as there was a bit of turbulence that had me shaken- pun intended.  I just am not great with flying.  

We got back late Saturday afternoon.  I screwed up scheduling with the ex and I was supposed to have the boys that weekend.  She was surprisingly understanding so I just picked up the boys very early Sunday morning for the day.  We celebrated my oldest son's birthday with cake and he wanted sushi for dinner.  Other than that it was a relatively lazy Sunday.

The past week was ok easing back into work.  The more I hear Spain is not Greece the more I think it is.  The French elections will prove quite interesting as well and have major implications for the rest of the Euro zone. 

This is going to be a bad tick season I can tell.  Yesterday the husband and I took the kids for a great, long trail walk.  The rest of the day we kept finding ticks on them, us, in the truck, in the house.  Thankfully the kids have their tick and flea killers applied so most are dead when we find them.  Still I am thinking I may need to get tested for Lyme's disease this year just to be safe.

Friday was the husband's birthday.  I had forgotten I took it off which was nice as I got to spend the day with him and the kids.  Friday night we went across the road to PJ's house for a birthday dinner.  It was fun but everyone ended up drinking a bit too much.

Saturday the kin-laws came down to celebrate the husband's birthday.  The arrived a bit after 1 PM.  We sat down and had cheese and baguettes and wine.  Then my mother in law and I went and did the grocery shopping for dinner.  I made dinner on the grill with charcoal.  Pork tenderloin with a dry rub and served with fire grilled tomato sauce.  The tomatoes on the grill were a bit tricky but the sauce came out very good. Dessert was the usual gluten-free, chocolate birthday cake.  I did put on candle that re-light though, lol.  the husband was not amused after like the fifth time he had to blow them out- I was called a brat.