The Post Where I Finally Tell You All About Italy

The reason it has taken me soooooooooo fantastically long to post about KJ and I's trip to Italy is simply because I've needed like 2 weeks to emotionally recover from the amazingness. That, and I'm lazier than a tortoise on downers.

The Flight
Seattle to Amsterdam is officially the longest ass flight I've ever been on (9 hrs). However, I was amazed at the personal viewing screens for each passenger as well as the on demand movies. Never one to pass up free shit, I managed to watch American Gangster, We Own the Night, AND Enter the Dragon. The other totally amazing thing about the flight was that somewhere over Greenland KJ had me switch seats with her so I could look out the window. I was totally confused why she wanted this since it was the pitch black outside, but then I saw what has to be one of the most stunning things a person can see on this planet. The Aurora Borealis was dancing right off the wing of the plane in these brilliant shades of green. I seriously sat with my nose pressed up against the little plane window for almost 20 minutes. KJ, being from Alaska, didn't mind since she'd seen it plenty, but knew I'd get a kick out of it since I've only told her like eight thousand times that it's on my "Top 10 Things to See/Do Before I Die" list.

Florence
I ate Tortellini in walnut sauce people! WALNUT SAUCE!!! Tell me where in the states you can get something like that?? Florence was amazing. Minus the major and totally unprecedented case of vertigo I got while circling the interior of Il Duomo, our two days there were awesome. Didn't hurt that we found a gelato place within 3 hrs. of arriving that had like 20 different flavors.

Ferrara/Bologna
This is where we got some serious eating done. We even hit up this Greek place that served french fries in their Gyros. We stayed with KJ's younger sister who is studying abroad in Ferrara and then took a day trip into Bologna. KJ was uber excited about this since she had managed to locate Italy's oldest chocolate shop and made it her mission to seek it out.



Being that Bologna is at the heart of Italy's agricultural region, the saying goes that "The best food comes from your mother's kitchen, but the second best food comes from Bologna." After working through the market district and sampling the fresh pasta, I'm in total agreement.

Venice
After three days in Ferrara, we hoped a train to Venice with KJ's sis in tow. We'd arranged to rent a Flat since there would be three of us, but somewhere in the reservation process we must have indicated that we were pygmies...either that or Venetians build some crazy small apartments just to fuck with tourists.




For me, Venice was probably the highlight of the trip simply because it felt the most "Italian." And by that I don't mean smelled like diesel fumes and stagnant poop water (although the case could be made...), but more just in the incredible way the city is constructed with its maze-like passages and seemingly endless canals.






And of course they had gelato there too...


Entire set of Italy photos can be seen here.