The rest of the Italy trip...

I was determined to finish the Italy blog last month, but I got lazy and I was working a lot trying to catch up on all the stuff I missed while I was gone. Then I got the Vertigo and believe me, trying to focus on the LCD was a disaster. But what hasn't changed is how much fun we had and I still want to share it with all y'all. So keep checking back...

Vertigo Sucks

Even though I am a big U2 fan and I enjoyed the Hitchcock movie, I think Vertigo sucks. Seriously. Let me explain. So, all is well right before New Year's -- I finish most of my major projects at work. I had a runny nose during the week, but I thought, yeah ok, it's just a runny nose. WRONG. I wake up on 12/31 and the room is spinning. I get out of bed and I can't even make it to the bathroom. I prayed to the porcelain god a little bit before they took me to the hospital. I can't remember what I got next -- valium followed by other stuff. Woo hoo! Fast forward 15 days later -- I am finally feeling like I am somewhat normal again. I spent 10 days in bed, and the last week learning how to walk again. Weak! I wonder if I remember how to drive. Doctor said I have labryinthitis:

Labyrinthitis is an inflammation of the inner ear canals. The labyrinth is made up of 3 semicircular canals located deep inside the inner ear that help control your balance. Inflammation of these canals, or labyrinthitis, can occur as a result of a viral or, more rarely, bacterial infection.

So I don't recommend you go out and get this.

Screw Notre Dame

Notre Dame can bite me. This is why the BCS and the college football administration suck ass. Last year, Cal was ranked #4 and beat a good -- not great, but good -- Southern Mississippi game and they DROPPED in the poll. Their only loss was to #1 USC. This year, Notre Dame loses 2 games (incl. #1 USC) and they barely beat a sad, PATHETIC Stanford team and this gets them an automatic bid into the BCS. Whatever. Bah. Go Las Vegas Bowl.

Vatican City (11/25)

Today we got up early and visited the Vatican. We decided to do a tour with Context Rome -- a local tour company that employs only scholars to give their visits. We highly recommend them if you are traveling to Rome, Florence, Naples or Paris. Our guide's name was Christopher Longhurst -- who was currently studying for his doctorate in post modern art and the Vatican (yes, he explained to us that it was an oxymoron). Christopher's knowledge made the tour quite memorable. This was definitely the way to go (I did a similar tour with my Mom in '01) -- Shannyn enjoyed the history and the spectacle. Her favorite part of the Vatican was the Michaelangelo's Sistine Chapel (the frescoes blew her away) and St. Peter's Basilica (she still can't believe that all the artwork in there was mosiac -- it looks like oil!). Mine is the Sistine Chapel -- still amazes me and I've seen it 3 times now. I can't believe one man did that entire thing. The tour took about 5 hours so after a quick bagno stop, we trekked out to find some -- yeah you guessed it -- food. Rick recommended a nice trattoria nearby so we hoofed it over to Antonio's Hostaria dei Bastioni. We each had some mineral water -- I prefer the frizzante (bubbles) and Shannyn likes the naturale so we each got a liter. We ordered some prosciutto and melon to share. For primi, Shannyn went with Spaghetti Amatriciana and gave it a "6" (yeah Shannyn decided she wants to rate her primi too). I got another risotto dish -- this one was good -- a solid 6. For secondi, Shannyn got the Pollo alla Romana (simmered in a tomato-based sauce with roasted potatoes) and I got veal with mushrooms. We also split some patate fritta and spinaci con garlic. This meal hit the spot -- especially after our long morning. By the time we left the restaurant, it was getting dark and it started to pour. I swear that the same dudes asking me if I wanted an umbrella at the Trevi fountain followed me to the Vatican. I lost track of how many times they asked me if I wanted an umbrella. I almost felt like buying one and holding it folded up so they would know not to ask me anymore. We caught a cab back to the hotel because it was coming down pretty good and we were pretty tired. Shannyn took a nap and I just relaxed and read a book. That storm turned ugly -- thunder and lightning with huge downpours for a few hours. I'm glad we just stayed in and didn't try to go out in that mess. We decided to go to the Garden Restaurant at the Cavailieri so we headed downstairs for a late dinner. Shannyn had traditional roman minestrone and spaghetti with venus clams. I went with a prix fixe special of sicilian cooking that they were featuring at the hotel. My choices were the king prawns in puff pastry with fried aubergines, tuna fish medallions in salmoriglio sauce with vegetable caponata and a dessert with sweet stuff that I ended up giving to Shannyn to eat. It wasn't chocolate! Shannyn decided to help me with my tuna medallions since they were more like bricks. Another awesome day in Rome finished -- we both went back to our room to contemplate our day!

Buono Thanksgiving! (11/24)

Well it's Thanksgiving and we decided to do the grand feast Italian style. We dined at La Pergola, a Michelin two star restaurant on top of our hotel. If you saw our view from our room, imagine it 10 stories higher -- fantastico! Our table was right next to the window so we had a perfect view of the city. Our feast began with a menu for the food, vino and acqua! That's right -- a menu for some 40 different kinds of mineral water from all over the country. That's pretty much when we knew that we were in for a culinary ride of our life. We chose Acqua di Nepi -- mostly because Nepa is the Etruscan word for water and Shannyn admires the Etruscan civilization. It was pretty good water! We also chose a merlot wine from the local area -- a fine choice for our dinner. On to the food! The meal started with a "treat" -- a sample of 5 different forms of funghi (mushrooms). Each were bite sized but loaded with taste. That's what made this meal so amazing -- the tastes were off the chart. Next, we each had our appetizer. Shannyn chose the Variation of duck liver on grape consommé and I chose Emincé of lobster with orange sauce and basil. I can't describe the greatness of our food from this meal, so just accept that all the food we had was wonderful. A "10" if you will. Our primi came next and Shannyn had Potato and Taleggio cheese disks in pumpkin mousse with white truffle from Alba and I chose the Tomato and rucola risotto with tartare of tuna and pecorino (a "10" on the risotto scale -- I mean, cmon, tuna tartare and risotto? Not fair for the others). Shannyn wasn't as impressed with her primi as she thought it was like gourmet macaroni and cheese. But she was far from complaining! Next on the plate was the Fillet of beef in vanilla and cinnamon sauce on purée of topinambur for Shannyn and Variation of lamb for myself. Shannyn is all about beef and it hit the mark -- perfectly cooked and just the right amount to hit the spot. Mine was very interesting -- a ground lamb rolled in a pastry, lamb cooked in a tomato-based sauce, a roasted lamb dish and a baked lamb piece with a mushroom paste on the top (I believe). We were very happy campers. And of course, we had to have dolci for this meal. Shannyn had to try the Italian souffle so she ordered the caffe souffle with mocha gelato as pictured below. Mmmmm! I chose the "Grand Dessert" that included 8 different desserts -- among them gelato, souffle, chocolate, mousse -- etc. They also gave us a tray of small candies to sample as we were waiting for the dessert. A oustanding way to finish our meal. By the end of the meal, we were both falling asleep -- victims of food coma. Fortunately, our room was just a quick elevator ride down and by the time our heads hit the bed, we were out. A wonderful day!

Bummin it (11/24)

So we decided we had to spend one day at the Cavalieri taking advantage of their massive spa. So today we got some pampering done. Shannyn had an auyervetic massage (on a futon instead of a table) and a manicure. I got an anti-stress massage and a pedicure. I felt bad that Shannyn didn't get a pedicure (they didn't have any availability), so I set her up for a facial and pedciure for tomorrow. Yay for her!

Not so SmartCar (11/23)

How in the hell are you supposed to fit in this thing? What the hell were they thinking? Oh yeah, I'm Big and Tall. Whatever.

3 Coins in a Fountain (11/23)

Day 2 and we decided to venture around the city. Our first stop was the Trevi Fountain. Beautiful Baroque sculptures. I had to throw a coin in to ensure I'd come back (just like I did the last time I was here with my Mom in 2001). My only observation was the ridiculous stuff the street people are selling. Electronic bubble blowers, rubber stretchy balls...just stupid if anyone ever buys it. And they don't understand "No" until I make it look like I want to hit them. The next stop was the Pantheon. That was mega-impressive. Shannyn really enjoyed the Pantheon -- in her words: "Mind Blowing. This is so huge and how did they do this back then? We have computers nowadays, so how did they do this with no tools at all? It's so beautiful! It's brilliant!" We also stopped into the McDonald's -- only to use their toilet. We hit a couple of book stores too. Mostly, we just walked a lot. Walking a lot can make you hungry so we had to talk to Mr. Steves again and he led us to Ostaria da Mario. Word! We started with the antipasti misti and for primi Shannyn had spaghetti al pomodoro and I had spaghetti amatriciana (no risotto). Our secondi: Shannyn had pollo romana con patate and I had salsicci con broccoleti. No dolci for us -- but our bellies were full and we scored that one high on the food scale. More walking around -- just enjoying various parts of the city including Piazza Navona and Piazza Venezia brought us to a point where we wanted to kick back and relax. We caught a taxi back to the hotel. We did room service this night and I won't even describe it -- not very good. I had risotto (a "3" -- didn't even finish it).

Rick Steves scores big (11/22)

Shannyn and I give a big shout-out to our friends Chris and Sherri for the Rick Steves Italy book. We decided to head to the Spanish Steps for an evening stroll around town. We were hungry and wanted to sample our first Italian meal of the trip and we looked to our trusty friend Rick for a tip. One of his suggestions nearby is Ristorante il Gabriello. It's in a basement in a small alley near all of the designer shops. The food was amazing! Shannyn and I started out with an appetizer of antipasti misti and prosciutto e melon. Everything is very fresh -- the melon tasted like it was just picked that day. There were grilled eggplant, bell peppers, some meats and mushrooms on the antipasti plate. For primi piatti, Shannyn got spaghetti con vongole and I got risotto con gambieri e zuchini. I tried hard to steal some of Shannyn's pasta -- that had to be one of the best tasting dishes ever -- they somehow infused this amazing garlic flavor into the olive oil-based sauce. It has inspired me to try to re-create this at home. My risotto was great too -- I am trying it at a lot of different restaurants because I love risotto so much. So, on my unofficial risotto scale, Gabriello scores an 8. Pretty damn good. On to secondi: Shannyn ordered the beef cooked with a brunello vino sauce. She didn't want to share it with me, but I got a piece anyway. It was very, very good and she claimed it was one of the best steaks she's ever had. I countered with an angus steak marinated in balsalmic vinegar. I didn't want to share it with Shannyn either! Oh and we had a few glasses of vino della casa rosso as well -- so we ended drunk, full and happy. But can you ever finish a fine meal without dolci? No! So Shannyn got the torte di cioccoloto and I decided to be good and I got a fruit plate. On the fruit plate, I discovered a new favorite -- the clementine. I've been addicted to these things since I've been here -- I eat about 4-8 per day.

On the top of Monte Mario... (11/22)

...lies the Rome Cavalieri Hilton. This hotel is some serious stuff -- definitely the most expensive hotel I've ever stayed in. It's one of those hotels that everyone stops and says "Buon Giornio" and you wonder if you're supposed to tip them. We told the hotel it was our "Viaggio di Nozze" (Honeymoon) and they gave us some serious hookups. King bed (not common in Europe) and a view of Rome that will, in the immortal words of Jack Black: "Knock your f'ing socks off!" You may not be able to see it in this picture, but the white blob just to the left of the tree in the middle is the Vittorio Emmanule monument in Piazza Venezia. St. Peter's is just to the right of this picture too -- pretty amazing view. We spent about an hour just sitting on our balcony admiring the view and then took a nap before we ventured into the Eternal City!

All roads lead to Rome (11/22)

So our journey continued as soon as we were able to get off the plane and breathe some air that was not laced with Old Spice. Nothing short of a miracle, our bags were the first two bags on the luggage carousel. We exited the airport and met up with our driver who escorted us to his car waiting outside. It was a little cold and drizzling -- but we were expecting that. Soon, we were on our way to Monte Mario and our hotel. The drive was pretty uneventful, but took almost an hour with all of the traffic. As soon as we pulled up to hotel, we knew this was no shabby hotel.

Flying the Friendly Skies (11/21)

I think I am spoiled now -- forever marred by our experience flying to Rome. Thanks to my old job of flying all over the US every week, I had accumulated a ton of miles on United. My thoughts back then (as I drove to the airport at 5am in 10 degree weather) were to the day I could cash out and have us take our honeymoon to Europe in First Class. That day finally arrived and what can I say -- it was more than we both expected. Our first leg was on a Boeing 777-200 United aircraft from SFO to ORD. I had walked past the United First Suite before, but never had a chance to sit there since it was always two upgrades too many to make it happen. It was nice and the service was good, but it wasn't quite what I thought it would be. Shannyn and I think that's because it was a domestic breakfast flight. No tapes for the PVR, but the rotating lumbar massage was nice to break up for the "Must Love Dogs" and some stupid Hilary Duff movie playing back-to-back. Breakfast was what you would expect on a domestic business class seat -- mushroom omelette with fruit cup, croissant, and plenty of orange juice. On a scale of 1-10, we rated it a solid 6. The definite highlight was our next leg from ORD to FRA on Lufthansa. We boarded our Boeing 747-400 as soon as we landed in Chicago and that's when the excellent service began. Our seats were awesome! There were only 2 other people in First Class besides ourselves, so the attention to detail was excellent. We started with a pre-flight glass of champagne and macadamia nuts. After we were airborne, we selected our PVR movies and started with our appetizer from the cart -- among the choices were caviar, beef carpaccio and some various salads. Shannyn and I both got the carpaccio on a cheese cracker and some grilled vegetables. Next came our mixed greens salad with cucumber mint dressing. Our entrees came out and Shannyn had Red Snapper and I had medallions of venison with asparagus and potatoes. For dessert (and we did have dessert), we had apple strudel and bread pudding. We each had some wine and finished our meals with an espresso. Excellent! Since we had been a bit sleep deprived, we reclined our seats into beds and slept for about 4 hours and woke up to a wonderful breakfast. Shannyn stuck with the yoghurt and fruit plate with fresh baked goods while I had another omelette (way better than the United one) and fruit. The wonderful Lufthansa staff packed a bottle of champagne for us to take to our hotel in honor of our honeymoon. The final kicker was the flight attendants didn't allow the business or economy sections of the plane to disembark until we did -- we were the first ones off of the plane. We felt like royalty! After a brief (30 seconds) pass through customs, we made our way to the next flight on Lufthansa to Rome. This time, we boarded a Airbus A321 aircraft with only business and economy class. The seats were a pain -- I couldn't imagine that seats would be smaller than the US but they are -- even in business class. The flight was only 1.5 hours and the highlight of this portion was the dude in front of us. We think he was nervous because he put on cologne 5 times -- rubbed it on his head, his face -- everywhere. The smell was insane. Finally, through the cloud cover, we saw the green rolling hills of Lazio and Fiumicino airport! We landed around 9:15 local time among some rain clouds and cold weather. No matter, we had finally arrived in Italy!

We're leaving on a jet plane...

So it's now 4am and we're ready to go. We were done much earlier but for the sake of getting on the Italy time zone, we're staying up late. Then we can sleep on the plane later today. We're finally here! Stay tuned for some updates while we're on the road.

Italy here we come!

Go Bears!

108th Big Game So, the Big Game was a rousing success. Go Bears! I am very happy that Stanford students have attended school there with no Axe. Makes up a little bit for us losing it 7 years in a row. Now on to the Bowl Game...

Big Game Week

So things are not so great in Cal-land right now. We've lost 4 out of the last 5 games, our QB has bad confidence and head problems (although it seems he has the physical tools to get it done) and we are facing a Stanford team that has shown quite a bit of gusto since losing to UC Davis (bwaahahaha!). Yeah, it's likely that we will have a let down and lose the Big Game *cough - 1996 - cough* but we must remember that Jeff Tedford has brought us to a new level of perspective. We've been doing pretty damn well the past few seasons, and I still think that our future is bright. In fact, if we win on Saturday, it will be the first time that Cal has won 4 straight Big Games since Andy Smith did it in the 30's. Wowsa! I'm an eternal optimist so I'm going to be leaning toward a Cal victory. It's about time some mojo flows on our side. So for all you pessimistic Cal fans out there, if any of your Stanfurd co-workers give you any crap....just tell them:

WE'VE GOT THE AXE!

The Blog Lives!

Yes, the blog is back. Well I think you can argue that it never was really here in the first place, but I digress. I've decided to bring the blog back to life to chronicle our trip to Italy. We've been furiously preparing for it -- rainproof gear, guide books up the ying yang, reservations, etc. I feel like I am getting burned out and I'm not even on the trip yet! Ah, I'll feel good about it as soon as the plane takes off. I'm actually taking my laptop with me because most of our hotels have high speed internet access and we're going to use Skype and the Linksys CIT200 to call home. Plus I like to check my email for spam. I'll add more in a bit to tell you more about our trip, but for now, thanks for listening!

Is God trying to tell me something?

So I am trying to lose some pounds and I haven't been to the gym in 2 years. Anyhoot, there's a 24 Hour Fitness across the street from my office and I planned on checking it out today to see how much money they can take away from me.

Guess what I saw as I am walking across the street? Blackout! Stupid 24 hour gym is closed because the power is out. The second floor is supposed to lit up like a Christmas tree. Maybe Horatio Sans and I are on to something...

Another reason why I am embarassed by our government

So, the tsunami in Asia is a pretty devastating thing to comprehend. A lot of people in trouble there. Everyone knows that the US only ponied up $35 million at first for relief aid and later changed it to $350 million after they were criticized. The kicker is that we are spending over $110 million per DAY in Iraq. That means that Bush initially coughed up the equivalent of 3 hours of war funding to help 5 million homeless people in Asia! And now it's only 3 days worth.
What a piece of shit we are!
Donate to the Red Cross for the Tsunami victims here.

Benvenuto al sig. Timrott di Blogger

This is the introductory post of my new blog. Yay. Make yourself at home, take off your shoes at the front door and stay out of my fridge. Yes, that means you.