European Excursion

We went on vacation. Not just from the blog, but literally. It was quite an adventure. We left for the airport too late and were unable to check our bags. We threw clothes into our carry-ons and made our way to Salzburg, Austria with literally only what was on our backs. (Our bags were carried on our backs, therefore the saying still counts) Thankfully Marc's parents met us for the Italian portion of the trip and they brought the rest of our gear...such as toothpaste, shampoo and soap. While, it started off rocky, we weren't about to let it get in the way of enjoying our time. Knowing that many of you were just dying to know what we ate...we took pictures when we remembered!

In Salzburg we found an amazing coffee shop that was recommended to us by the bus driver. He was incredibly helpful and even went by the coffee shop to let them know we might be by.

^ Caramel Macchiato- Austrian Style

^Sadly, I don't remember anymore

^Caramel Apple Cheesecake

^That's a vanilla cream sauce. It was divine.

Another night we went to a little restaurant that was just over the bridge. Marc ordered schnitzel:

 ^The schnitzel here in Tampa is better.

I ordered a steak with potatoes and veggies:

^This wasn't too bad actually. The potatoes were great!

The city itself was pretty amazing.

If you've seen the Sound of Music – it was filmed there. In fact! We went on a Sound of Music tour to see the locations they filmed at. They had a lemon-lime type soda available for purchase. We got one for kicks:

We took a train then a bus then a boat to get to Venice. We missed our night train and this was the next fastest method. Venice is literally what you think it is. A cute city with couture fashion and lots of water. The water is clean and it didn't stink, much like I had always been told it would. The people were very friendly.

We had amazing gelato, a smoother, richer ice cream. It was amazing and puts every bit of American ice cream to shame. It was so good...there are no pictures of it.

Florence was fairly unremarkable. The city was pretty. We saw Michelangelo's David – that was remarkable. Did you know Michelangelo petitioned the Vatican to let him make a statue from the marble since it was just sitting around...and they said yes? I guess you can classify that under community service. Florence is known for a T-bone steak. It's sprizted with olive oil and then spices are added to it such as garlic, salt, pepper and lemon juice. It's typically served very rare. Marc tried it, and wasn't overly impressed. It's hard to say if it was the dish or the restaurant. We'll try to recreate it here soon.

^Il Duomo. You can't stand under the dome as a tourist...so this will have to do.

We did however go to Tuscany out of Florence. (cities included Sienna, San Gimignano & Pisa)

^View from the vineyard we had lunch at. The towers in the distance on the left - That's San G.

^It's a tower...it leans...Woo!

It's beautiful and worth seeing. Multiple times.

From Florence we went to Rome. I could have stayed in Rome if it wasn't for the bit of homesick I was feeling. Marc's grandmother met us there, and that was pretty awesome. We were able to dine on some great food from the local deli that would have otherwise been out of reach to us due to the language barrier. There's only so much you can get by on in Italy speaking broken Spanish. The first night we had a picnic in the lobby of our hotel. (Our hotel staff, by the way, were amazing. So amazing – I wrote a review on TripAdvisor)

I had a piece of pizza the first night, Marc had a fresh cut sandwich.

^Plain Pizza!

^Prosciutto with Asiago Cheese

We then saw the most amazing places:

The Colosseum:

Part of the Roman Forum: 

 The Vatican:

  

The Trevi Fountain:

(Look! It's us! Aren't we cute?)

Pompeii:

(The raised blocks were so people could cross the street and not get wet when it flooded. They were the original stepping stones!)

We ate a lot of pasta. It looks exactly the same as it does here in the US...so we didn't take any pictures of it. Some of it was amazing, some was just like home, others were just down right awful. All in all, the trip was fantastic. Italy is definitely a place I would go again. We decided that you can easily spend 2 days in Venice and 2 days in Florence and not miss anything. Devote time to Rome in order to see most of the cultural sights, both secular and religious and above all else: Don't neglect the small towns you may pass or the restaurant that is down some dark, scary, back alley – they're the best!

  

Disney's Food and Wine Festival

Over the weekend we went to Disney's Food and Wine Festival that is held at Epcot each year. We have season passes so it was no big deal to head up there for a few hours. The weather was a bit warm, but otherwise, it was very nice.

For those unfamiliar with the event, each year Epcot sets up multiple booths that feature a different country's food. This is on top of the permanent exhibits that are part of their attractions. They are appetizer size portions that are usually big enough for 2 people to share and still get 2 maybe 3 bites each out of it. They also feature that country's wine and sometimes beer offerings too.

We only stayed for a few hours due to the heat, and sadly being very full (and therefore sleepy!). Plus, little did we know Marc had brought home the plague from work and shared it with me.

Here are the few dishes we did get to try:


Greece


Chicken Souvlaki with Tzatziki
Baklava
Boutari Moschofilero

Morocco

Beef in a Pita Pocket

Casa Beer

USA

Samuel Adams Beers: 

Octoberfest, 

Cherry Wheat, 

15th Anniversary Festival Beer Coastal Wheat Light

Latitude 48 IPA

That's right - only yours truly could go to an international wine festival and get stuck in American drinking Sam Adams. That stuff - however - is delicious.

The chicken from Greece reminded me a bit of a roasted chicken with Tzatziki (a ranch cucumber type sauce). The Tzatziki was really good and very fresh. I'm not a big fan of Bakalva mainly because I don't like the pastry used for it. Marc said it was great though, and I trust him on that one. The Boutari Moschofilero was a white wine that went really well with the chicken. It was a tad on the dry side but otherwise very good.

The beef in a pita pocket was great! Create a spicy meatball, cook to medium doneness, insert it in a pita pocket and top with cabbage/slaw like stuff. Delicious! The slaw (as I shall call it) really offset the spice well. And the meatball was really great. I hope to find out what was put in the meat to re-create this. Casa Beer is the beer from the great film Casablanca. 

The beers from the US were really good. The IPA (India Pale Ale - known for being more bitter than other beers) was great. I loved it and would definitely have it again. The festival beer was nothing too special to brag about but still good. I'm not a fan of the Cherry Wheat - it reminds me of cough syrup. Marc enjoyed it, but after being sick this week he mentioned how much it reminded him of cough syrup too. I don't think he'll be looking for another one anytime soon. 

We hope to feel better this weekend, so we can go again. There are a ton of countries we didn't go to because we were simply too full. Overall it was really enjoyable and Disney had a good system of crowd control to avoid major back ups. We didn't take any pictures as to avoid the massively long lines for people coming into the park with bags.