Italy- Part 3

We arrived at our hotel in Venice on Sunday afternoon. One couple left that afternoon, while the rest of the group was scheduled to leave on Monday. Thomas and I actually stayed until Tuesday so that we could have an extra day of sight seeing on our own before leaving.

After arriving at the hotel on Sunday afternoon, we all freshened up a little, and then headed into Venice for a few hours. I wanted to stay behind and freshen up.. while the rest of the group went ahead and took a bus over into the city. This was the only hotel where I was able to use a REAL hair dryer so I wanted to fully take advantage of that!! Thomas and I attempted to meet up with them later in the night for dinner, but seeing as all of the cobble stoned streets and bridges look the same, we were never able to meet. We walked around for a few and had dinner at a local restaurant before taking the shuttle back to our hotel.
I think the most interesting part of our dinner was being serenaded by Mariah Carey :) It was this little hole in the wall Italian restaurant.. and they were playing Mariah Carey... Naturally :)
We got back to the hotel and met up with everyone else for a drink in the lobby and then we headed to bed.

The next day, Thomas and I had a very interesting adventure planned. We checked out of our hotel and took the shuttle over to Venice, where we would be staying with a couple that had rented a room in their apartment. It was a tiny place, but it was a very interesting and cool experience. We spent most of the day sight seeing and then came back that night to hang out with the couple. She speaks a moderate amount of English.. while he spoke none at all and was actually Cuban. She cooked us a homemade Cabonara and we sat in her tiny kitchen drinking wine and eating a homemade Italian dish.
The interesting part about the wine is that there is a local shop just below their apartment where you can buy the wine by the liter. So you basically take a large container, choose the wine you want, and then fill it up and take it home. It looks like so- and only cost 2-3 euro.

Thomas with Candella, their sweet puppy that they adopted

The tiny Kitchen where she cooked us dinner

Candella's preferred spot (sorry- forgot to turn off the flash)

Our Pizza lunch from earlier in the day

Thomas being silly at the Guggenheim!

We found this couple through a website called AirBNB. If you haven't heard of it, check it out. People rent out rooms or houses all of the world and sometimes it can be much less expensive than your traditional hotel. We probably could not of afforded to stay in the heart of Venice if we would of stayed elsewhere.

The next morning, Marti woke up and cooked us a very nice breakfast before we left to catch our shuttle back to the airport. It was a very rainy day so we were pretty spent by the time we walked to the shuttle and made it to the airport. 

Our travels went very smoothly.. and we even scored a first class upgrade on the second leg of our flight from JFK to ATL. It was incredibly nice. The seats fully reclined and the dinner was delicious. It makes coach look like a joke! But it's extremely expensive to fly first class.. not worth the cost if you ask me. We just hope for an upgrade every now and then :)

We are back home and getting settled back into our day to day activities. I've been doing laundry for 24 hours straight and am slowly trying to get back on East Coast time. 

Hope everyone has a good week and weekend! And if you've actually made it through all 3 post, then Kudos to you! :)

Italy - Part 2

On Thursday morning, we left Padova and headed to Thienne, where the Casadei- Busellato factory is located. We toured it for most of the morning and also saw a few demo's of the machines being run. I didn't have much interest in the assembly of the machines.. but it was interesting to see them run and show their capabilities!

From there, we headed to lunch. The factory has it's own cafeteria so a private room was reserved and we ate on the premises. 

The group.. as well as our tour guide for the day- Claudio

After lunch, we toured another adjacent factory (Stefani) and then we made the long drive to Rimini, which is where we would be staying for 3 days. The drive was very beautiful- lots and lots of beautiful landscape! And the most interesting part to me was that almost everyone had a vineyard in their backyard. Some were large and obviously used commercially.. and others were smaller.. just big enough for the families use.

It took us about 3 hours to get to our hotel in Rimini. Our only hiccup this day was that our GPS kept trying to re-route us through a certain way in town where a road was under construction. I would not of been as stressed had we been in the US. But the driving in Italy is very different! Luckily we went far enough in a different direction that the GPS finally re-routed us.

That night, we drove down to a different hotel for a "welcome dinner" with Thomas' boss and other employees of SCM and Casadei-Busellato. It was very nice and as a gift for all of the wives that had traveled along for the show, they gave us an Italian cookbook (in English of course!). After dinner, we headed back to our hotel, chatted in the lobby for a few and then headed to bed. 

The next day (Friday), the guys would participate in the last day of factory tours.. while some of us went on a guided tour of Rimini and San Marino. The weather was great (for the most part) and we had a really well versed/educated tour guide by the name of Gabriella. She drove us around in her car and showed us many historic sites.. as well as some nice places to shop! 

Views from San Marino

An ancient Torture Chamber 

Another view from the Peak of San Marino

I didn't get many pictures after San Marino because the rain rolled in and we were forced to use umbrella's the rest of the day!

That night was a "dinner on your own" type of night.. so a small group of us walked across the street to a local pizza place for dinner. 

Saturday (the next day) was the first day of the Exhibition (the event that this entire trip was planned around). It is an event where several different manufacturers come and display their machines and show demo's to dealers and customers. Most everyone attended except for myself and two other wives. They went out on their own for the day and I went out for a day of shopping with our friend Anna. She lives near Rimini and had spent some time with us on a trip to the US several months earlier. She took me to an outdoor market that takes place on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. It was very interesting! We had been around the same area the day before and it was so empty. There were so many vendors selling shoes, handbags, clothes, etc. that it was overwhelming! I think we walked around 4 times before I decided on a scarf and a pair of shoes.

After shopping, we went out for a traditional Italian lunch. I cannot remember the name of what I had but it was basically a Quesadilla with prosciutto, ruloca (arugula), and stragiotto (I'm not sure of the spelling.. but it was a local type of cheese). It was very good!

From here, Anna dropped me back at my hotel. She had some errands to run for her upcoming wedding. And I was anxious to rest a little and take a long walk on the beach! Rimini is a coastal town so our hotel was conveniently located right on the beach. 

The show would continue on into the next day. However, we decided to go ahead and travel back to Venice on Sunday morning so that we could enjoy a little time there before our trip came to an end! 

Italy- Part 1

We're finally back! We've had a crazy crazy crazy couple of weeks. My brothers surgery, a wedding in Austin for our friends Paul and Angela, and then straight to Italy! We had a great time but we are so happy to be home.

We flew in from Austin on Sunday, the 15th and went straight back to the airport on Monday, the 16th to fly out for Italy. It was definitely an adventure trying to unpack and re-pack.. but somehow we got it accomplished.

We flew all day Monday (ATL-JFK and then JFK to Venice) and arrived in Venice around 10am on Tuesday morning. I did not sleep a wink on the plane so I was exhausted. Coach seating is incredibly uncomfortable for 9 hours at a time.. as I'm sure you can imagine.
We rented a car as soon as we arrived and left for Padova (Padua). Our first stop was the Auto Grill to get a bite to eat. I guess an Auto Grill could be compared to a gas station/fast food restaurant. Except that Italians don't take food to go.. they actually SIT and EAT and enjoy themselves. And the food is slightly more healthy, as I'm sure you could imagine :) Americans don't set the bar very high there.

We arrived in Padova around 1:00 on Tuesday. I immediately took a quick power nap. I knew I couldn't sleep for long because it's best to just push through. But I just needed a quick snooze! And it worked out well because Thomas had to do a few hours of work after being unavailable for so many hours while flying.

Later in the afternoon, we decided to venture out into Padova for a few. We got our first serving of Gelato and our first glass of wine of the trip! Little did I know there would be many MANY more to come (of both). We also saw downtown Padova, the central "garden", and also Saint Anthony's Cathedral.

Views from our Hotel (Hotel Giotto)

Tiramasu Gelato!

Vino Rosso de la Casa

Later that night (around 9:30.. yes, I said 9:30) we met Thomas' boss Mossimo for dinner across the street. It was the same restaurant that we would be taking dealers to the next night so he wanted to familiarize us and let us try some of the menu items. It was delicious! Prosciutto and Asparagus, Gnocchi, Squid Eggs, Flank Steak and Veggies, Chocolate Cake, and Lemonciello. I could of gone without the squid eggs.. but there was a little bit of a language barrier :) When I said "no fish", somehow the squid eggs got overlooked. I politely declined but Thomas said they were pretty tasty.

The next day, we drove back to the airport to wait for everyone else to arrive. There were 11 of us in all so it took awhile to get everyone organized, in the bus, and headed back to Padova. Once we arrived back in Padova, some people took a nap and some of us ventured back out again to do more sightseeing. 

That night, we took everyone back over to the restaurant where they had organized a buffet of appetizers for us (cod, bruschetta, meatballs, quinoa, and prosciutto and cheese). For dinner, we had Risotto, Pasta with a spicy tomato sauce, Pork with potatoes, and marscapone with strawberries for dessert. And of course red wine and Prosecco. Everyone was exhausted after a day of flying so we all headed back to the hotel and turned in for the night. 

The next day, we would travel to Thienne to tour the Casadei Bussellato factory and head to a different hotel.