Gelato

I treated myself to some pistachio gelato the other day. It made me remember the last time I ate some: Italy.

We had been up to catch a 6:15 AM (!) train from Milan to Florence. Now we had arrived in Milan the night before at 10:30 PM - upon which we walked a half hour to our hotel, walked back to the train station to find food, then walked back. As you can see, this high math leads us to getting in bed at 2 am or so. Yes, we were tired on that train ride. But as soon as we got to Florence, we hit the streets and saw as much as we could.

Now, imagine it is getting later and later as night has fallen. Once again, we have put off food (the theme of our trip: no real meal just treats to save time). On my list of things I wanted to do was get some gelato in Florence. So we wandered around to find the famous and best place in Florence. There was much stopping on dark corners and iPhone-ing to find this place. We finally found it in a quiet part of town - and low and behold it is closed for the season. It re-opened in 2 days. We were leaving the next morning. Figures.

We finally settled down around 9:30/10 pm and found a place to eat dinner - we were proud of ourselves. But wait! We still were gelato-less. So again the search began for a place that was open until midnight. We went back to the busy part of town, now quiet, and saw one little gelato place still open. Nick ordered for us chocolate and pistachio to share while I sat down. Comes to find out, you have to pay more to sit down. So I got up.

We headed back out into the brisk, no, cold air and ate our gelato in a zombie-like stupor as we walked back to our hotel, all in hopes it didn't lock us out for the night.

All that for a little gelato. But guess what. It was delicious.

Le métro

The metro system in Paris is my least favorite underground system I've experienced. The doors are hard to get open (yes, you have to open them yourself), the passage ways are harsh to all senses, and I've seen some crazy things under the city.

But, the system does have artsy entrances, pretty stations and a special typeface. All inspired from Art Nouveau and the lines expanded in between the wars.

Cowboy slots

I will never understand two things: cowboy hats indoors and gambling.

MGM Grand Casino, Las Vegas.

I'm bad at maps

I love iPhones. And friends who can read maps so I don't have to. Although I am fascinated by them.

Florence, Italy.

Monet

Museé D'Orsay, Paris.

Telephone

Pay phones are hard to find everywhere else in the world.

London.

Milano florist

Fresh flowers and Italian man selling them. Love it.

Milan, Italy

Patterns

Outside a church in Milan, Italy.

Modes

I love this picture because it shows the modes of transportation that are popular in Milan: trolley, walking, moped, and small white car.

Happy Easter

See more inspirational messages here.

He lives.

Big day

It was lots of fun at work today.

Sunset silhouette

The two year old nephew is at a hard stage in his little life. He doesn't want to go anywhere, but then once he is there, he doesn't want to leave. Though I do think we all have a bit of that in us no matter our age. Cutie, sweetie boy.

Return

A few years ago, my family was vacationing in Florida and my back got severely sunburned. My sister was kind enough to apply aloe vera to it morning and night. But she would call me "sunburned babers" all the time.

Well folks, sunburned babers has returned. This time on my arms and legs.

Now I'm going to eat some more avocado with lime, pepper and salt.

Four month babers

Loves having a serious face. Loves his giraffe. Loves his fist. Loves having his chubalub legs free.

Cavallini again

city guides

bought myself this notebook since i was just in a few of those places.

wrapping paper

frames from florence :)

flash cards

I never ever get sick of Cavallini & Co. Never ever.

(i know i've blogged about them before - but i love them!)

Liberty of London

I hope you have a chance to check out Liberty of London for Target. Everything from bedding to swimsuits in Liberty floral prints. Kinda fun.

"Wait... I wanna take a picture"

My close friend is an artist and can do a little bit of everything. He didn't mind one bit when I would want to stop and take pictures in Europe, because he would do the same thing.

Paris streets

After a few hours of sleep we awoke to a quiet, foggy Sunday morning in Paris. It's a different city with shops closed and the streets empty.

Notre Dame

Apparently the French celebrate Christmas for a while...

I would not recommend doing the tour of Paris I did this time if you have never been before. Give yourself time to do things like go inside Notre Dame and watch a service. Look at all the art and the stained glass and the confession booths. Climb the narrow stairs to the top to see out over Paris and make friends with the gargoyles. Don't be like me and just stop by again to say hello to the dirty pigeons and massive building and take pictures and wish all the people would get out of the way so you could take a picture of the entire building without people in your picture. Just sayin'...

MGM Grand

This is where WPPI 2010 was held. And thus where we stayed. If you don't get the lion reference (they have real lion's inside as well) then go watch an old MGM movie. Or read here.