Italy in October!!

We're so lucky that Ben has almost-family in Italy.
It gives us a great excuse to vacation there as often as possible, and we can usually stay for free right outside of Venice!

This time we were lucky enough to stay in a cute B&B for Padova (Padua) for 4 days, and head into Venice and some of the countryside for day trips.

Then off to Florence for 3 days, where we stayed in an awesome hotel and also took the time to travel to some of the smaller cities (Sienna, San Gimignano) nearby.

Add in one day in Milan, and you have a pretty awesome trip.
The only downside?
Coming back and being unable to fit in to all of your clothing comfortably due to massive amounts of pasta, cheese, wine..,and more pasta.

Pictures to come tomorrow!

1 year pre-wedding anniversary celebration

B and I decided to spend Sept 4 (our wedding date NEXT year!) celebrating our future anniversary date. We spent the day calling it the P.W. celebration, but when we told some other people the story they told it should be called our "reversesary" so we are henceforth calling it by that name.

Anyway, we thought it might be fun to check out the new Italian-style market/restaurant/food hall: Eataly.

Despite the super punny name, it's a neat concept: it's like a market, travel agency, food hall, and Italian culture center all rolled into one.

We didn't realize that were were going just a few days after it opened, and on a day when Mario Batali (one of the Eataly creators) would be showing up to shmooze and take pictures. So we had to wait in line just go get in to the actual complex!


We wandered around for a bit despite the massive crowds, and then started to eat our way through the food stalls! We didn't end up sitting down at any of the 7 or 8 (?) restaurants scattered throughout the building, but we did try plenty of other things--including some delicious cheese and a lovely glass of prosecco!

I think B's favorite might have been the pear and vanilla gelato, although I don't know if he was more or less to excited to try it after Chef Batali hopped behind the counter to grab himself a few scoops. Although the people around us were certainly excited!


Not too bad for a bit of Italy in NY! Although, we'll have the chance to compare the real thing as we head of to visit B's Italian "mom" in a few weeks!