Bologna

Homemade Tortellini

Posted September 29, 2013  /   By Adam and Amanda  /  0 Comments

The city of Bologna has three different nicknames that, when taken together, do a lot to summarize the appeal of the city.  La Dotta (the learned one) refers to the home of the oldest university in the world.  The university is still in use and is one of the biggest in Italy.   La Grassa …

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Venice

Venice Reflection

Posted September 9, 2013  /   By Adam and Amanda  /  0 Comments

Venice is basically the Disneyland of Italy.  It’s overpriced, overcrowded and full of tourists and souvenir shops, but there is still something undeniably appealing about it.  We were told by a few different workers that there were almost no Venetians living in Venice.  All of the tourists have driven the prices so high that locals …

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Milan

Duomo Roof Details

Posted July 29, 2013  /   By Adam and Amanda  /  0 Comments

We didn’t have high hopes for Milan.  It was basically just a convenient place to stopover on our way from Alba to Venice.  I had heard stories from other travelers about it being a big, expensive, soulless city.  As it turned out though, we actually really enjoyed our brief stay there.  The city is surrounded …

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Alba

Basket of White Truffles

Posted July 25, 2013  /   By Adam and Amanda  /  0 Comments

The little town of Alba, nestled in the hills of the the Piedmont region of Italy, is probably most well known for its annual White Truffle Fair.  Several years ago, on a trip to visit my parents, we had heard about this festival from Marco, the famed restauranteur and co-owner of the Palm Springs institution …

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Carcassonne

Carcassonne HDR

Posted July 22, 2013  /   By Adam and Amanda  /  2 Comments

Carcassone Castle is probably most famous (in the US) for being the subject of a board game.  When I found out that it was a real place AND it was on our route, I knew we had to make a stop there.  We arrived in town late at night but we could see the castle …

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Bordeaux

Man Walking by Chateaux

Posted July 15, 2013  /   By Adam and Amanda  /  0 Comments

We had such a wonderful time in Spain and we were sad to say goodbye to our friends and move on to the next stop.  Our goal was to get to Italy, but we weren’t exactly sure how to do it.  Flights were exorbitant, there were no direct trains, and driving a rental car across …

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La Rioja

Ysios

Posted January 22, 2013  /   By Adam and Amanda  /  1 Comment

For my 30th birthday, we planned to rent a car and explore the La Rioja wine region of Spain.  On our way there, we made a stop at a restaurant that I had been at the top of my “someday-if-I’m-lucky” list for years.  Asador Etxebarri, a small country house that is in the middle of …

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Basque Country

Aixerrota Windmill

Posted January 21, 2013  /   By Adam and Amanda  /  0 Comments

While we were planning our trip, we both agreed that we wanted to spend part of the trip actually living somewhere instead of hopping to a new city every few days.  We wanted to meet locals, practice a language, make friends, and really get a good feel for a culture.  For the previous six months …

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Sevilla

Sevilla Alcazar

Posted January 8, 2013  /   By Adam and Amanda  /  0 Comments

I had visited Sevilla in 2007 when my good friend Connor was living there.  We had such a good time watching Flamenco, exploring the winding streets and doing la marchas (literally “marches”.  Basically a pub crawl from tapas place to tapas place, where you try the speciality at each place) that Sevilla quickly became my …

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Toledo

Closeup of Statues at Toledo Cathedral

Posted January 7, 2013  /   By Adam and Amanda  /  0 Comments

The city of Toledo is located about an hour from Madrid by train.  It was once the capital of the Spanish Empire and it had a reputation for having the best sword makers in the world.  The city has a history going back at least to the Roman times.  I had been to the old …

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