Thanksgiving 2011 in LA

I realize this is severely overdue but it was a great time so I want to remember it!  Chris and I hosted his mom, sister and her boyfriend at our house over Thanksgiving 2011.

Jessica and Noah are huge Boise State fans and they happened to be playing San Diego State that weekend

From Thanksgiving 2011 in LA

From Thanksgiving 2011 in LA

Jessica and Noah in Kenneth Hahn Park near our house

From Thanksgiving 2011 in LA

Downtown LA from Kenneth Hahn Park (the largest urban park in America)

From Thanksgiving 2011 in LA

Jumping for joy at Roscoes!

From Thanksgiving 2011 in LA

This was the first opportunity I've had to use our china!

From Thanksgiving 2011 in LA

Southern Thanksgiving--my favorite meal! Cornbread dressing, sweet potato casserole and pintos!

From Thanksgiving 2011 in LA

Really proud of my cornbread (took 3 tries to make it right. Who knew white corn meal was so difficult to find in LA?) From Thanksgiving 2011 in LA

From Thanksgiving 2011 in LA

When I was a child I used to beg my parents to put up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving, but they couldn't always be convinced. Now I'm an adult and can do whatever I want! Ha! Our annual photo by "the chosen tree" at the Delancey Street Foundation Christmas tree lot--a tradition!

From Thanksgiving 2011 in LA

From Thanksgiving 2011 in LA

Day after Thanksgiving dinner at STREET by Susan Feniger

From Thanksgiving 2011 in LA

Sorry for my lack of posts...

I have been so bad at keeping up with my blog.  It is more of a journal for me because I'm not really doing it anymore for people to read (because I know not many people do).  It is also a way for me to "give back" to the blogging/travel community that helps me when I am planning our trips.  I try to be as detailed as possible in my travel blogs because reading other travel blogs has given me some of my best ideas on our trips.  I also seek out "off the beaten path" places that sometimes are not ever listed in a guide book (those are the best!) and the only information you can find on these places is on a personal blog.

I still have to finish my posts about our Patagonia trip from 2010-2011 and also my trip to France in April of 2012.  Before I do that I'm going to catch up with other little trips we've done in the past year and also some posts about our house because that is really what is taking up most of our time (but we do love it)!

Italy Day 8: driving back to Rome through Deruta

Our flight was out of Rome the next day so we drove back the back way--through the famous paper-making town of Fabriano, over the mountains, into Umbria and south to Rome.  We stopped at the Umbrian ceramic town of Deruta to find that everything was really expensive and tourist driven.

There was a beautiful duomo (church) in town.

From 12/27/11 Italy Day 8 driving back to Rome through Deruta

From 12/27/11 Italy Day 8 driving back to Rome through Deruta

For our last night in Rome, we unknowingly booked a bed and breakfast that was owned by the daughter and brother of Marco, owner of Arco dei Tolomei, our host for the 3 days we were in Rome at the beginning of our trip.  

The bed and breakfast is called Relais Teatro Argentina and it was equally as wonderful as the Arco dei Tolomei.

From 12/27/11 Italy Day 8 driving back to Rome through Deruta

I especially liked the windows in our room

From 12/27/11 Italy Day 8 driving back to Rome through Deruta

The Relais Teatro Argentina is located just off the Largo di Torre Argentina, a busy square with ruins of Pompey's theatre and four Republican Roman temples. A photo of the square from our trip to Rome four years before:

From Italy Honeymoon Day 12-Rome-Vatican, Pantheon and Spanish Steps

When we were there four years ago I noticed there were so many stray cats. I recently found out that it is actually a cat sanctuary called Roman Cats.

We had not stopped thinking about the delicious pizza we had at Pizzeria Ai Marmi when we had first arrived in Rome, so we went again!

From 12/27/11 Italy Day 8 driving back to Rome through Deruta

Fried Artichoke is a specialty in Rome and it's very different than anything fried in the US--very light and doesn't seem as unhealthy!

From 12/27/11 Italy Day 8 driving back to Rome through Deruta

Our final stop for the night was for gelato recommended by our b&b. Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the shop but it was delicious.

From 12/27/11 Italy Day 8 driving back to Rome through Deruta

From 12/27/11 Italy Day 8 driving back to Rome through Deruta

Next stop: USA!

 To see all of our photos from day 8 of our Italy 2011 trip click here.

Italy Day 7: the Via Flaminia and Urbino

The ancient Via Flaminia goes through the tiny town of Acqualagna, Italy which is the tartufi (truffle) capital of Italy.  Unfortunately, being the day after Christmas, nothing was open so we could not sample any local truffles.  This is one of the drawbacks of traveling over the holidays/low season.  I still wouldn't trade it for summer heat and hoards of tourists!

Ruins of the original Via Flaminia

From 12/26/11 Italy Day 7: Urbino

This is a 2000 year old tunnel on the Via Flaminia in the Gola del Furlo (Furlo Gorge)

From 12/26/11 Italy Day 7: Urbino

From 12/26/11 Italy Day 7: Urbino

Our next stop was the town of Urbino, a remarkably well-preserved Renaissance city and therefore a UNESCO World Heritage site. The main attraction is the Palazzo Ducale (Ducal Palace) built in the mid-fifteenth century.

From 12/26/11 Italy Day 7: Urbino

From 12/26/11 Italy Day 7: Urbino

The  Galleria Nazionale della Marche is located inside the Palazzo Ducale and houses one of the most important Renaissance art collections in the world.

  

From 12/26/11 Italy Day 7: Urbino

From 12/26/11 Italy Day 7: Urbino

From 12/26/11 Italy Day 7: Urbino

From 12/26/11 Italy Day 7: Urbino

From 12/26/11 Italy Day 7: Urbino

From 12/26/11 Italy Day 7: Urbino

My favorite:

From 12/26/11 Italy Day 7: Urbino

After we left Urbino we drove to the town of Jesi for dinner. The chef who cooked our Christmas Eve dinner owns a restaurant in the town and we wanted to visit him again.

Traditional Italian Christmas decor (very unlike ours in America!)

From 12/26/11 Italy Day 7: Urbino

To see all of our photos from Day 7 of our 2011 Italy trip click here.

Italy Day 6: Christmas Day in Loreto and Sirolo in the Le Marche region

Here is Cozette freezing  in Loreto with a view of the Adriatic in the background

From 12/25/11 Italy Day 6: Loreto and Sirolo

The biggest attraction in this town is the Basilica della Santa Casa, a Marian Shrine and a Catholic place of pilgrimage for many centuries

From 12/25/11 Italy Day 6: Loreto and Sirolo

From 12/25/11 Italy Day 6: Loreto and Sirolo

The back of the Basilica della Santa Casa

From 12/25/11 Italy Day 6: Loreto and Sirolo

Love this

From 12/25/11 Italy Day 6: Loreto and Sirolo

From 12/25/11 Italy Day 6: Loreto and Sirolo

From 12/25/11 Italy Day 6: Loreto and Sirolo

This photo shows grooves in the marble from hundreds of years of people on their knees, moving around the shrine.

From 12/25/11 Italy Day 6: Loreto and Sirolo

Photos were not allowed inside the shrine but there are excellent photos and a good description on one of my favorite sites to find beautiful churches in foreign countries: Sacred Destinations.



 Chris and his mom in Loreto

From 12/25/11 Italy Day 6: Loreto and Sirolo

Making our way back to our Agriturismo we stopped at a tiny beach resort/town called Sirolo, a rocky beach on the Adriatic at the base of Monte Conero

From 12/25/11 Italy Day 6: Loreto and Sirolo

From 12/25/11 Italy Day 6: Loreto and Sirolo

From 12/25/11 Italy Day 6: Loreto and Sirolo

To see all of our photos of Day 6 of our 2011 Italy trip click here.

Italy Day 5-Cingoli and San Severino Marche in the Le Marche region and a traditional Italian Christmas Eve

We got a later start today so we only visited two towns: San Severino Marche and Cingoli.

On our way to San Severino we passed what has become one of our favorite stops on our trips to Europe:  an abbey.  This one was called Abbazia San Claudio al Chienti:

From 12/24/11 Italy Day 5: San Severino Marche, Cingoli and traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner

Another of my favorite finds in Italy and parts of France have been frescoes (apologies for the low quality photo)

From 12/24/11 Italy Day 5: San Severino Marche, Cingoli and traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner

The next town was San Severino Marche. A sleepy little town (maybe it was because of the weather) but very nice.

From 12/24/11 Italy Day 5: San Severino Marche, Cingoli and traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner

From 12/24/11 Italy Day 5: San Severino Marche, Cingoli and traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner

The view from the top of San Severino Marche (a very dreary day)

From 12/24/11 Italy Day 5: San Severino Marche, Cingoli and traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner

We stopped by the Monastero Santa Chira in the town

From 12/24/11 Italy Day 5: San Severino Marche, Cingoli and traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner

We drove up to Cingoli, which is known as the "balcony of Le Marche" because of the panoramic view all the way to the Adriatic from the town. There wasn't a view today because it started to snow as we were making our way up the hill.  I don't have any good photos of the town because of the weather, so this is the best I have to show you

From 12/24/11 Italy Day 5: San Severino Marche, Cingoli and traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner

We headed back to our Agriturismo because we had been graciously invited to participate in the Italian Christmas tradition: Christmas Eve dinner (which is always fish or seafood) with family. It seems that Christmas Eve is the time that Italians celebrate the holiday rather than us Americans on Christmas morning. What happened that night is now one of our favorite memories EVER from any of our trips. About 20 people gathered in the dining room of the Agriturismo and we had a delicious home cooked meal. I did the best acting job of my life pretending to eat all the seafood that was given to me, while Chris was very sneaky in taking the seafood off my plate and into his mouth! The noodles and broth were amazing. Notice I said "broth" and not "sauce". The biggest difference I've seen in "food in Italy" and "Italian food served in America" is the sauce. Americans love to drown pasta in "Arrabita" or "Alfredo" sauce. Here, the pasta is the star of the dish, never served with a sauce but just a light broth.

From 12/24/11 Italy Day 5: San Severino Marche, Cingoli and traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner

From 12/24/11 Italy Day 5: San Severino Marche, Cingoli and traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner

One of my favorite things about Italy (and it seems Europe in general) is that the food is very localized. Our Agriturismo was just 18 miles from the Adriatic Sea, but when I asked about seafood, the locals told me I needed to go to Ancona (which is where the port is). We would never think twice about our food coming from 18 miles away much less across the United States! The fact that we were served this seafood on Christmas Eve showed that it was truly a special dinner and not a regular occurrence. Chris loved the lobster/shrimp looking dish above (it was smaller than lobster, but larger than shrimp). When he asked the chef what the dish was, he was told it was "not a lobster" but also "not shrimp".  (We thought maybe it was Langostino, but that wasn't right either).  The chef kept saying "it's from over there" (pointing to the Adriatic) just like it was a local specialty that you couldn't necessarily find in other parts of the world. For the record, we've never seen it anywhere again!

Our new Italian friends at Christmas Eve dinner

From 12/24/11 Italy Day 5: San Severino Marche, Cingoli and traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner

To see all of our photos from Day 5 of our 2011 Italy trip, click here.