Happy Thanksgiving!

We are about to head out to the Vatican city. Just a typical Thanksgiving morning. :) Not sure what the rest of the day will bring.

We had a good day yesterday and walked ALL over the city it felt like. The Colosseum is really neat; we really enjoyed that. We have seen lots of pretty churces, but haven't stopped by the one you mentioned yet, Rori. Maybe tonight we will eat at Hosteria La Carbonara??

Hopefully we will post some pics of Rome when we get to Anne and Craig's tomorrow night.

Happy Thanksgiving! Miss everyone!

Viva Roma!

Hello! We made it to Rome yesterday afternoon. Our hotel is right by the Spanish steps so last night before dinner we saw that and the Trevi Fountain, which was really pretty at night.

This morning we are going to head over to Campo dei Fiori, Piazza Navona and whatever else we might find. And this afternoon we plan on doing the Colosseum and that area. Looking forward to what we might see. Any recommendations?

Okay, Kellen... I know we took a picture of Mona Lisa even though we weren't supposed to, but we fit right in with all of those Chinese tourists at the Louvre. No one was taking photos of David at the Accademia so we couldn't be that guy. :)

Goodbye Florence, hello Rome!

Duomo, check.


People warned us that it was close quarters climbing up in the Duomo, but whoa.
Really pretty views though on the climb up!

David, check. I'm glad we did this - definitely worth it! He was huge and amazing to see in person.

We're taking the train to Rome this afternoon. So, that's all from Florence.

Taylor, look who we met this morning...

Shelley, is it true?

We ate at this great little Florentine restaurant tonight... Acqua Al 2. Wonderful pasta sampler... tasting of 5 local pastas. Or so they say. Per our concierge, "best steak in Florence". Filet smothered in balsamic. And it was... it was good! Just a cute little local place.


And then we left. And the sign said:

Firenze and SAN DIEGO?! Is it true?! This wonderful small Florentine restaurant is in SAN DIEGO??!??? Shelley, please confirm.

One thing that remains true to Firenze... gelato. Yummo desserto.

Rainy day

I think you all jinxed us by talking about the beautiful weather in our pictures from yesterday... it rained all day today! :) We planned on taking the tour I mentioned yesterday, but...

thanks to our new Russian friend, Uhlig or Olig (its a little fuzzy)...
and complimentary Chianti from the waiter....

...departure time seemed just a little too early this morning. : / We'll probably regret not going, but hey, now we have something to look forward to for next time, right??

So we got a bit of a late start today, but our first stop was Santa Croce. More famous dead people! Very pretty church with lots of history... it was built in 1245!

Here is Michelangelo's tomb:

So Rori, I'm confused about the David. The real one is in the Galleria dell'Accademia, is that right? Is there a copy in one of the piazzas or something? I feel like I've read conflicting info?? Who knows! Tomorrow morning we're going to get up early and climb to the top of the Duomo and maybe we'll squeeze in a viewing of David if we can figure out where the real one is.

Well, almost time for happy hour and hopefully another great Italian meal... and we still need our gelato fix for the day too! I started out with coffee and chocolate and Jimmy had 2 random flavors, but of course they were still delicious. Last night we had vanilla and chocolate at dinner... we didn't get to pick those flavors (we're not that boring), but again, delicious!

Hope all is well at home. I'm sure you're all looking forward to the short week with Thanksgiving. :) Talk soon!

Great views of Florence

Breakfast :)

We saw Florence today from Giardino de Biboli and Piazzale Michelangelo - very pretty!

Tomorrow we decided to take the guided tour, which will take us to Siena, San Gimignano and a couple other cities. Thought it was the thing to do per all of your great recommendations - thank you for those!

Tuesday morning before we leave we plan to go inside the Duomo and climb to the top since we didn't get to do that today. Hopefully we can squeeze in a little more shopping too! ;) We leave for Rome on Tuesday afternoon so should have plenty of time.

Well, its almost time for happy hour. Hope everyone is doing well!

Firenze

We made it to Florence this afternoon. Another good hotel experience - free happy hour AND free breakfast... hard to come by in Europa. And lucky for you we have a laptop in our room!

So of course we visited the happy hour tonight before dinner and our concierge recommended Garga, which ended up being a great recommendation. Rori & Kellen, we're going to try Osteria I Brincello (or something like that :)) before we leave. For dinner, we had spicy bruschetta, spaghetti with citrus sauce, veal and the best potatoes ever... we'll make them for you when we get home. And for dessert, pineapple and strawberries... yummy, but still dying for gelato. The restaurant had a great atmosphere... and great house wine. :)

Tomorrow we're going to rome Florence... shop and see museums. Monday I'm trying to talk Jimmy into renting a car to go to Pisa and San G or somewhere, but we'll see. If we don't do that we'll end up on a guided tour of a few cities, wineries, etc., which would be great too. We'll keep you posted.

Until later.

Oh, I forgot to post this pic of our favorite dessert in Paris. Mmmm... we'll have to figure this one out at home. It was delish!

Just a few Zermatt pics

The train ride up to Zermatt

Loved our hotel! This is the secret underground passage you enter through. Very Dr. Evil-esque.
Great view from our room.
Lots of snow!

Snowy in Switzerland

hello from zermatt!

it is snowing like crazy here!

weve been walking around this afternoon checking out zermatt. its a cute town, but not a whole lot to do. we were going to take the gondola up to glacier paradise this afternoon, but its closed since apparently you cant see anything due to all the snow. luckily our hotel is really neat so we just bought swimsuits, which are hard to find in this mountain town, and we're going to head back to take in the "wellness haus". our room is great with a nice view of the matterhorn. its nice to relax... change of pace from paris.

all for now... time is running out at the internet corner. :)

we leave tomorrow morning for florence so hopefully we'll have more updates for you from italy!

Had a great day!

Here we are in Paris today!

Ze breakfie...

Ze Louvre... big paintings!!

Mona Lisa... sorry she's sideways

Pantheon... I'm that tiny little thing to the bottom right (I don't get to say that very often!!)

We saw dead people...

From the Pantheon... what a view Ze bar

What a great day... we'll chat tomorrow from Zermatt.

Last day in Paris

Bonjour from Paris... last time we will get to say that :( since we leave early tomrrow morning for Switzerland.

Since we didn't fill you in much on our day yesterday, here's a quick run down of what we saw...

The Louvre - it was closed yesterday so we are headed back today to check it out. Shelley, from the outside we louvred it! :) Through the windows it looked amazing too.

Notre Dame - such a pretty church! I can't believe the condition its in after so many years. The detail on the buildings is so neat. We lit a candle here.

Pont Neuf - oldest bridge in Paris

I'sle Saint Louis - cute little island near Notre Dame

Champs Elysees - wow... I had no idea what to expect and definitely wasn't expecting that. It's like Michigan Avenue times 10. This is where Benecio del Toro's premiere was... I still think its pretty neat how close I was to him!! Every store you can imagine is in this area. We were off the beaten path a bit and saw all of the designer boutiques... Chanel, Givenchy, Valentino and on and on.

Arc de Triomphe - we had a little history lesson here and learned about the eternal flame that has been burning since ww1.

After all that we had another delicious dinner at a restaurant near our hotel. Taylor, you would've loved my meal... fresh scallops and LOTS of veggies. Dad you would've loved the snails (Shell, I liked your joke :)) and Mom the desserts here are amazing!!

Off to the Louvre...

K&J

Paris - day 2

today...

the louvre... tomorrow we will tour


benecio del toro... yes we were 1 foot from him during the premiere of his new film


kate eating snails
jimmy being jimmy

we really did a lot today just cant describe now... too full and too many drinks. bonsoir.

Oui, Paris!

after our last entry, we got settled in our room and took off for the eifell tower. cant type much on this crazy keyboard, but here are some pics!!

from the 2nd floor of the eifell tower (just 350 steps up of the 700 we climbed... and climbed down)



isnt it amazing?

dinner at le fountaine de mars... yum! had a soft egg for a starter with bacon, shallots, and who knows what else, but it was delish!


we know its blurry, but isnt it beautiful at night? we just took this one a bit ago. crazy, right??

merci for all the comments. we love reading them. keep them coming!

xo

jk

We made it to Paris! I am using a French keyboard...very confusing and different. Waiting on our hotel room. If anyone can understand us there will be more pics I imagine later.

Cheers!

Tour de London

We had a fun time in London today! We saw it all! Big Ben, Parliment, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, Thames River, and on and on and on.

The Queen's Army...

Red phone booths...Mini Vespa coffee vans...

Big Ben at night...

And tonight, dumplings with the Walton's...
Tomorrow morning we're off to Paris!

K & J

We made it!

we made it to london at about 12:00 local time. we've had a great day with anne, craig and evan, who by the way is sooo cute! he is growing up quick - loves my hair and earrings and jimmy's lips! :)

anne picked us up from heathrow and we ventured to oxshot, the village where craig and anne live. this afternoon we went to the bear and had fosters and snacks. :) we came home, jimmy and i took a nap, and then we were off again... this time to a "proper" pub called the victoria house for more drinks. jimmy continued his beer tour with a san miguel. after that, we went across the road for curry - we loved it!

came home, a glass of wine, late night "telley" and good conversation with friends.

until tomorrow...
kate & jimmy