July 17, 2025 • 43 mins
Two friends, two carry-ons, and one unforgettable Italian adventure! Amy and Stacey take us along on their summer journey through Florence, Venice, and beyond, sharing candid insights that will inspire even hesitant travelers to pack their bags.
Their contrasting travel styles create the perfect balance – Stacey embraces the "we've never been there so how do we know it's not great?" philosophy while Amy researches options meticulously. This partnership leads them to unique accommodations including an art-filled Florentine apartment where royal family portraits hang in bathrooms and an unexpected boxing match unfolds outside their window.
The duo navigates Italy's efficient train system between cities, discovering the charm of Murano island with its legendary glass blowing traditions and comically tiny showers where "if you drop the soap, you have to turn everything off and open the door to retrieve it." They explore Florence's historic wine doors from a vintage VW van, tour Chianti vineyards with fascinating backstories, and battle 99-degree heat that transforms museum visits into endurance challenges.
What makes this episode particularly valuable is their practical wisdom for everyday travelers. They debunk common fears about language barriers, demonstrate how to pack efficiently for extended international trips, and show that meaningful travel doesn't require expertise – just willingness to embrace new experiences. Their genuine enthusiasm for discovery comes through in every story, from hunting perfect Murano glass souvenirs to sipping Negronis (despite finding them "awful") and shipping home Italian wines.
Have you been putting off international travel? Listen as these friends prove that with minimal planning, reasonable budgets, and open minds, unforgettable adventures await. Where will your next journey take you?
Amy, Kitty & Stacey
P.S. Isn't our intro music great?! Yah, we think so too. Thank you, Ivy States for "I Got That Wow".
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
All right, look I got that.
Wow, who wants some heads upright now?
We got that.
Turn it up loud.
I know you're wondering how.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I got that.
Wow, here I go.
Here I go, coming.
I can't ever stop.
I'm a tour de force running.
Get me to the top.
I don't need an invitation.
I'm about to start acelebration.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Good evening.
Good evening, get me to the top.
I don't need an invitation.
I'm about to start acelebration.
Good evening, good evening,welcome.
Welcome to a new episode ofthree cocktails in.
We are all present andaccounted for everyone back in
the same country yes yes,buongiorno, buongiorno, buona
(00:53):
sera at this time of night.
How sad was it waking up onthat first morning and not being
in italy.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Yeah, yeah, um I don't know, waking up in my own
bed in an icy, cold bedroomwasn't so bad.
Yes, it was hot.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
It was hot, okay, well, so here we are.
We're back.
Amy and stacy had a funadventure.
They went to italy over thefourth of july.
So we're just gonna kind ofthis is our first time being
able to be back together again,so we're going to chat a little
bit about the travels, yes, andhopefully it inspires other
(01:31):
people to take the trip.
Speaker 5 (01:34):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Right, definitely Take the trip.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Yep, okay, stacey just has the best attitude about
these trips in relation towhere to stay, where to go, what
to do, what to eat.
She's like we've never beenthere.
We don't know any different.
How do we know if it's good orbad?
We don't have anything tocompare it to.
So if it looks good, let's justgo do it, which is a great
(02:03):
juxtaposition to my overthinking, overanalyzing, trying to pick
just the right thing.
Speaker 5 (02:10):
The right, thing, yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
So, how do?
Speaker 5 (02:18):
you bring those two things together.
Well, I've tried doing thesearches and throwing out ideas
and then Amy ends up going anddoing her own research and
picking things anyway.
So I just let it happen andthen she'll get down to
something and I'll say, okay,I'll go book it, and as long as
(02:39):
she doesn't like freak out, thenthat's the thing to book.
Sometimes she'll go, oh, but ittook it took two trips to
figure this out because I didn'tdo very good with the last year
because she would change hermind and say, oh, no, let's not
go do that and I wouldn't pushto book something right away.
So then we spent another weektrying to figure out something
(02:59):
and another week and now it'sjust okay.
Yeah, that looks good, I agree,you agree.
Yep, I'll book it.
Just okay.
Yeah, that looks good, I agree,you agree, yep, I'll book it.
Yeah, so that's kind of how wedo that.
There's a lot of people that youknow like even watching reels
to try to figure out what wewanted to do.
A lot of it was centered aroundlike where you should eat.
You know, get a reservationhere.
(03:19):
We do none of that, because howyou know?
How do we know where we'regoing to be and what we're going
to be hungry for and if we'regoing to want to eat at nine or
six or two, or you know what Imean.
So we never we don't ever makea reservation for, yeah, dinner,
because we don't know whatwe're going to be in the mood
(03:41):
for yeah and a lot of times, notbecause we're in bed early.
honestly, after walking all day,we're pooped, so um.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
So I would just like to clarify that when Stacey says
she does the research and thenI go do research, yeah, we're
both researching the same thing,so it's not like I don't want
to do what she wants to do.
Yeah, we talk about what it iswe want to do, right?
Speaker 5 (04:11):
That's true, because we made a plan when do we want
to fly into?
What do we want to see?
Where do we want to go afterthat?
It's a matter of detailingwhere we're staying that's
usually the thing or whatexcursions we want to do, what
extra things we want to do.
That's the research part wealready know basically what
we're going to do.
(04:32):
It's just what we're going tobook ahead of time.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Yeah, yeah, yep um, so when we talk about where we
want to stay, I think now, aftertwo trips Stace, I don't know
what you think I like to staynot in the commercial center.
(04:56):
I like to stay a little bit,not necessarily farther out, but
I like to stay where it's alittle bit more local, maybe a
little bit more arty, um, whereI just I don't want to be in
city center, where it's massivehotels and 2,000 people per
(05:16):
square inch.
That's not so.
So this time we did airbnbs InParis, we did hotels, yep, and I
think that we got on that wholeair because price-wise it was
going to be the same maybe ashotels and we came across a
(05:42):
couple really funky ones, so Iliked the first one.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
We both did agree.
Yeah, so yeah, yeah, the one inFlorence is very so yeah, I
should.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
I took a lot of videos of it I should post.
I'll post them.
You know around where this iswhen we're dropping.
Um, it was located close to theschool of art and design, I
think.
So, first of all, artists livethere.
Um, it's not one single inch ofthat entire place.
(06:16):
That was a natural paint color,a wall color, um, or you know,
even the brick kind of flooringwas painted.
I had next to my bed probably anine foot by five foot gold
framed mirror.
(06:36):
It was enormous.
It was just this.
It was an art gallery.
There was paintings everywhere.
I just thought it was reallyinteresting.
I mean, when are you going toget to stay in a place like that
, right?
So yes, there was art.
I thought that was kind of cool.
Speaker 5 (06:54):
Stacked on top of stacked.
My entire room was basically ina yellow gold, painted yellow
gold and then a what do I wantto say?
Kind of jungle theme somewhat,and then there was a big
painting of a what do you callthat Like what you would have
(07:17):
seen in the Coliseum, like abullfight type scene.
It was just very.
The whole thing was veryeclectic.
There was very different stylesof art throughout the whole
place as well.
So yeah, it was interesting.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Yeah so when you um went to the bathroom, what you
were looking at was like thisfour by four painting of um the
queen and prince william holdingum the oldest, uh, george no, I
(07:56):
know, and then it was.
Speaker 5 (07:58):
No, it was four of them.
It was Charles, yes, standingbehind.
William as older.
Is that what his name is?
What was the queen's husband?
It's the queen's husband andthe daughter.
No, I didn't think.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
Oh yeah, I thought, oh, that's interesting.
I thought I thought it was thefour generations, I thought it
was Charles William and OkayWell, anyway, four generations.
I thought it was CharlesWilliam and Okay well anyway,
weird thing to have in thebathroom.
Speaker 5 (08:26):
It was weird, yeah, yeah, it was weird, whatever.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Also very weird Talk about eclectic area.
We came home one night and aswe're walking over to the piazza
because there's this big piazzaright outside we start to see
this gathering of people andthere were a lot of people and
there were lights set up andwe're like is there a concert?
It was a boxing match, a liveboxing ring, and it was the guy
(08:58):
in blue versus the guy in redand the dude with the bow tie
doing the whole thing.
So we went up into our room andopened up the bedroom windows
and leaned out and watched aboxing match.
Who would have figured, yeah,like they didn't mention this in
the strange thing, but yeah, sothat's fun yeah, it was an
(09:19):
interesting area, very old, oldarea of Florence, I would say.
Speaker 5 (09:24):
You know the building very old, they were doing some
construction next door.
You know, just very interestingold area.
The streets are tiny and slimand you can only get one car
down, most of them, or a Vespa,and they drive a ton of those
around.
So, yeah, interesting area forsure.
One car down, most of them, ora vespa, and they drive a ton of
(09:45):
those around.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
And so, yeah, interesting area for sure, yep
so um so our first night staystell them about our adventure
the first night.
Oh, should we mention it tooklike almost 14 hours to get
there?
Yeah, from here it was a longass day.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
It was a long, long day, Because we flew into
Amsterdam, Minneapolis toAmsterdam and then Amsterdam to
Venice and then took a cab, orto Florence, I'm sorry, into
Florence, took a cab.
Finally got to our our you knowplace at noon the next day.
(10:27):
So, yeah, that was a lot.
So, yeah, yeah, our firstexcursion that night was an
Airbnb, and I think we talkedabout this last year when we
went to Paris.
That Airbnb Also hasexperiences.
So if you're going to a bigcity any big city you should
look at the Airbnb experiencesas well, because they're pretty
(10:52):
local.
I think it's less of a.
You know, you're booking a tourthat everybody can see and do.
So, yeah, our first night we,despite the, the rain it rained
really hard as we were trying toget to our meeting spot, we
took a vw van, an old one likefrom what did he say?
(11:14):
What year do you say?
it was 64 from brazil yeah, howthe heck they got it I, I have
no idea With three Italian guys.
Everybody but Amy and Icanceled, so it was just the
five of us and we went around tothese wine doors.
(11:35):
So Italy, or Florencespecifically, has these wine
doors based on historical.
Has these wine doors based onhistorical?
There was some law at one pointwhere you could only sell wine
if it was out of your winery.
So, you know, there would be abuilding where they're you know,
(11:55):
bringing wine in or storing thebarrels or whatever, and they
would have these little tinyabout this big you know doors
and you'd knock on the door andyou'd open it and they would
have these little tiny aboutthis big you know doors and
you'd knock on the door andyou'd open it and they'd serve
you a glass of wine out the door, because that's how they could
sell it from within what theyalready owned.
So kind of funny.
(12:15):
So now it's just a fun thing togo do.
So yeah, we went around to winedoors of Florence.
Yeah, that was fun.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
But it was pouring.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
It was literally pouring.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Yeah, and the guys were like, oh, it's.
And we kind of were like, whereelse, where is everybody?
And they're like it's just youtwo.
Everybody else canceled and welooked at each other like we
didn't even know that was anoption, I know.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
Which is our kind of thing anyway, because we don't
want it to be crowded and be inthere.
So we had a blast on that one.
That was fun.
Yeah, it was really fun.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
So that was good.
The other couple of things thatwe did in Florence we went to
two museums and they were a bust.
We went to two museums and theywere a bust.
So it honestly was 99 degrees,99 to 100 degrees.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
Very humid.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Imagine going to Florida over 4th of July.
I think, as we were jokinglatitudinally.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
We were too far south .
Speaker 4 (13:24):
We were far south, that we we were not aware of.
Um, so, but their idea of airconditioning is to, like, have
it be about 10 degrees coolerthan whatever it is outside.
Yeah, and it's still 85 degrees, so it's kind of miserable.
Um, so those old old museumshave absolutely no air
(13:46):
conditioning.
And it, yeah, it was um.
Yeah, we got better, but thefirst one was better.
Speaker 5 (13:55):
If we'd have seen the first one second, it'd have
been a little better.
Do you have your book?
Do you have your book?
Did you get your book?
Speaker 4 (14:03):
My, I Didn't you buy a book From Venice?
Speaker 5 (14:09):
Oh, that was from the Peggy Guggenheim, so that's a
third museum we did in Venice.
Yeah, we didn't see much,honestly, and we didn't some
statues I mean the first one hadstatue after statue after
statue, it was more like thatdown a giant hall, but there
still was some, you know,paintings and that kind of thing
(14:32):
, but yeah, it was so hot so wekind of had it at that point.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
We took the train and went to Cinque Terre and again
I did apologize to Stacey, I wasso exhausted by the heat.
It was hot, it was like statefair that many people in a a
walking path that was maybe 40feet wide.
(15:04):
And the thing I was most bummedabout, because they were really
beautiful bays and very prettyand gorgeous water, but every
and we went to what?
Four of the different towns,three or four of the different
towns, I think three yeah.
They all had two dozen of thesame tchotchke shop shops that
(15:27):
were just selling crap, and forsome reason I did not think
that's what we were going to see.
Yeah, so we spent a lot of timethat day riding on the tram and
the train going back and forth,back and forth not so much,
because it was three, threeseparate train rides there and
(15:47):
then three back, and we missedthe one.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
So we just hopped on one and came home on the wrong
train.
It wasn't the wrong train, itwent to the right destination.
We just missed the one that wepaid for so it's interesting.
I think the same thing in France, like you have to have a ticket
.
Nobody's checking your ticketas you get on, but there's a
(16:10):
possibility they can comethrough and then look at your
ticket.
You have to have the rightticket, thank goodness, and we
didn't.
We did not.
We got back with no fine, yeahit wasn't even close, it wasn't
like the scene.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
We we went from the the speed train to a regional
line and just got on it and goton.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
We get back, it's going to work.
We broke the law?
Yeah, we did.
We didn't go to jail and itwasn't our fault, because our
train, coming in, was got hungup, not, you know what, I mean,
it got slowed down for somereason.
We sat for a long time and thenmissed our connecting train.
(16:54):
So, yeah, we've learned, Ithink now between Paris and
Italy, that how to deal with themetro and the terrain system.
It's interesting.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
Yep, the key is always know the end.
The end that you're going inthe right direction.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
Doesn't matter what stop you're on, but just make
sure that the last stop on thatline is the direction you want
to go, when you go thatdirection and then get off at
your stop and again, I'm surepeople that live in New York
know this stupid fact or a bigcity, you know, or if they're
riding the bus, I think peoplemaybe know that we just don't
(17:36):
because we never.
We just never do it, yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
Yeah, did you, kitty.
You took trains when you werein Italy, right, yep, Did you?
Speaker 3 (17:49):
was that your primary mode of transportation?
Yep, it was our only, only modeI really like riding the train.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
I really enjoy it it's.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
I mean, it's a, it's an incredibly efficient system
and it really is easy to getanywhere.
And it's just easy to getanywhere.
And it's just, it's sodifferent there than it is here.
I hear you, you have to.
You it's many, many hours toget somewhere where you're truly
(18:22):
seeing something different.
And it's not, it's not there.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
So yeah, yeah, it's super comfortable, you can read
a book.
You can take a little nap youknow, see, see, a whole bunch of
the countryside yeah.
Everybody's doing their ownthing and you do not have to
speak the language to do it.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
Yeah, If that's not to get on.
Yeah, if that's some honestly,if that's someone's hang up
about going anywhere in europe,they you know and and to.
We should do better honestly.
But every it seems like almosteverybody in europe speaks
whatever language they speak,plus english and maybe another
(19:02):
one.
You know what I mean.
So we rarely found people thatwe couldn't communicate with.
Yeah, rarely.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
So I I found so thinking about our trip in its
entirety, the the component thatwas most stressful for me was,
even though the trains were easy, it was getting the train to
the next place, and then wetended to, I preferred the
(19:35):
Airbnbs that we picked.
We picked around the trainstation, wherever we were going,
so that way we can pull in andwithin a very short distance we
could walk to our Airbnb.
Um and so, but one of thethings that I would do
differently I would do hotels.
I wouldn't do I, so I would gostraight to the country and I
(20:01):
would do little hotels.
Um, did you guys go to a hotelroom?
Yeah, why?
Over what did you do?
I would do little hotels, didyou guys go to Rome.
Yeah, why?
Over?
What did you do?
I just so, I mean, I felt likeso we went to Rome, we went to
Florence and I felt like I don'treally feel like I need to do
that again.
(20:21):
Have the city experience of it.
We're not museums and stufflike that.
That is not what we do.
So, now that I feel like we'vedone that, the next time we'd
fly into I don't know either one, rome or Florence, and we would
(20:41):
go straight to the country, tothe smaller well, and venice
isn't really I.
I loved venice.
Venice was number one for me.
Yeah, I would go to venice andI would stay in a hotel, um, to
just have that, to have that,that um, because I I did feel
(21:04):
that there was a barrier withlanguage.
I didn't feel that people wereall that friendly.
So, like when we did, meet withlanguage.
I did not find people to beoverly accommodating at all.
I think Bill would say the samething.
Speaker 5 (21:19):
Yeah, I don't think we had that issue.
You know what you're saying istrue because, again, we liked
our Cinque Terre day.
Our other, you know, excursionaway from Florence was our day
that we took a van tour to threewineries and that was a lot of
(21:43):
fun.
Again, there was only six of us, um, that went, it wasn't
crowded, you know, we had allthe time to talk to the people
that were giving us the winepresentation and whatever.
So that was nice and we saw alot of pretty countryside and
you know different things out ofthe city as well, so that
(22:04):
you're right, that was certainlya highlight instead of walking
around, and yeah, in the cityyeah yep we.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
We also had the horrendous weather.
I think it was a hundredhorrendous heat, I think it was
a hundred degrees when we werein rome and we were doing our
walking tour of the city, ohyeah see, that's why we were.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
We were in Rome and we were doing our walking tour
of the city.
Oh yeah, see that's why we were.
We were thankful because thesame night we saw, or that we
went on the um wine door tour,we saw people walking to do it
and it's like, oh my gosh, thathad been so bad to try to walk
it all through that.
So we were happy.
We took a fun little van allthrough that.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
So we were happy.
We took a fun little van.
So, um, when we got to venice,we actually stayed on the island
of morano, which wasrecommended to me by um.
A mutual friend of ours saidyou know that it's adorable,
cute little buildings and prettycolors and slower pace, and I
loved it.
I thought that was fantastic.
It was so easy to get over tothe eye, you know, to get to
(23:15):
Venice proper.
But we went to the same littlecorner spot when we got there
and had a sandwich and a drinkand pretty much at least once a
day stopped there for somethingand talked to them, and so that
was really, really fun.
(23:39):
I learned something new.
I was all excited about MuranoGlass, murano glass, murano
glass, murano glass, and Ithought it was a specific Murano
brand name glass factory.
What I learned was they allthere are so many different
glass blowers there.
The region, all the glass inthat region, is called Murano
(24:03):
glass.
Yeah, so, um, we went and saw aglass blowing demonstration.
That was really cool.
Um, probably only lasted like20 minutes, which was perfect,
perfect.
We wouldn't have needed more.
Yeah, nope, we didn't need anymore.
We had fun shopping for that.
I bought some stuff that, um,it's getting mailed, I decided,
(24:24):
yep, ship it to me.
I'm not not worrying aboutcarrying that around.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
Yeah, that was really fun, I can show off mine.
So Amy bought some biggerthings to have shipped.
I bought little tiny things, soI got a little Murano glass
atomizer.
Isn't that cute?
I's adorable, it's so pretty, Iknow.
And then my necklace is fromMurano.
(24:50):
I don't know if it'll show upvery much, but there's a lot of
little cuts of different coloredglass all melted together.
So that was my excitingpurchases on Murano.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
These are the bracelets Got a vase.
Speaker 5 (25:09):
It's pretty.
What do you have In?
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Venice.
Is that what you?
Speaker 5 (25:11):
bought in Venice.
Oh, we were looking at those.
Yeah, yep, very cute.
Yes, very cute.
I'm excited to get my vase.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
I got a vase, probably about a nine inch vase.
That's was so like in the beadsand those.
And then, stacy's, they havethe real small little beads that
were cut the this, the.
The shop worked with aprofessional glass blower and
(25:46):
they use bigger pieces that theycut, so in the glass you're
getting almost like, not as bigas a Kiwi, but you're getting
like if you were to cut a biggreen grape in half.
That's how big the beads of itwere.
So I'm, I don't know.
I'm just, we looked at so manyshops, so many know I'm.
(26:07):
We looked at so many shops, somany shops, so many shops, so
many shops, and I saw thissomething in the window.
I'm like, oh, let's go in hereand then, as everybody now knows
, I overthink it.
Speaker 5 (26:17):
I stand there and overthink it for way you changed
her line yes you changed yourmind 50 times, I think yep, and
then I finally got it.
I think I shopped four or fiveother stores in the time but
then I went back to what drew mein.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
To begin with I'm like nope, I'm gonna get the one
that I saw that I liked so much, that made me come in.
Speaker 5 (26:42):
So right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
If I had it to do over again, Ithink I would want to stay in
venice or morano longer and lessin florence.
And then we were kind offlipped.
We had just a couple a day.
We had one day in florence andwhat would we call it?
(27:02):
A day and a half in Murano.
I would guess by the time wehad to get up and leave, yeah,
so, yeah, yeah, that area was alot nicer.
The Airbnb we stayed in Muranowas, I don't, know, Very modern
yeah very modern, newly updated.
(27:24):
So it was a total differencefrom where we stayed in Florence
.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
It was very nice and new Now the one thing that the
cruddy old place not cruddy, butthe kind of decrepit old place
had over.
The brand new one was theshower size, so in the showers
in Murano.
So we each had our own bedroomand our own bathroom.
(27:50):
It was one of thosethree-quarter semi-circle ones,
the plastic one that's like abank tube.
I don't think three-quarter.
Speaker 5 (27:59):
I think one-quarter.
I think it was one-quarter Imean nine-four.
Yes, so a quarter of us.
Somebody said I mean, yes, wepulled the shower door apart and
it got to about this far andyou shimmied side.
Oh, I'm not kidding, youcouldn't.
(28:20):
Even.
You could, kitty, I don't thinkyou could have walked straight
in it oh so's the first thing.
So then and it's so skinny thatI was continually, if I turn
around, I would back into thefaucet and turn it off.
Turn it around, turn around,turn it back on.
Let me continually.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
It was that, it was that yes, yes, I did the same
thing and and I actually droppedthe bar of soap I was using
once and I'm like I'm gonna haveto turn this on, open the door
to get the soap, because I can'tthere's not enough space.
So that was kind of funny.
So one of my moments, you know,besides sleeping in an
(28:59):
air-conditioned hard bed bedroom, I was super excited to take a
shower and wash my hair.
I felt like I had so much youknow stuff in the hair.
It was like oh yeah, so thatwas fun.
Speaker 5 (29:15):
It was fun, it was nice.
Yeah, we bought it.
We bought a ton of stuff.
Well, I did spend a lot ofmoney, but you only go right,
right, that's what vacations arefor.
I bought.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
I'll do a little show and tell so you know.
Last time when I went to paris,I bought this um I don't know
if you can see it, this diorring and this time I bought um
from the artisan that who waswho was making it.
It's an 18-carat gold all theway through.
That he used like a chiselthing.
(29:50):
Where am I at here?
A diamond chisel?
A diamond chisel and make allthese little recessed things so
it looks like there's diamondsand sparkles in it, but it's
actually just stents in it.
Yeah, yep, yeah, this is thefunniest.
So before I bought that, Ibought this silver ring, this
(30:13):
multi.
Before I flip you off, thismulti, there are four rings here
, okay, and um, we were sofreaking hot and sweaty that day
that I had to keep tryingdifferent ones on, and this one
fit perfect.
And now, look at it, fallsright off, and it falls off all
(30:38):
my fingers and the guy's like,well, you know, just put it on
your other hand, because yourright hand will be bigger Yep,
the finger coming up, andbecause it's four bands, I don't
know that there's any way thatI'm going to be able to make it
smaller.
So this might just have to bemy, my July, august ring, and I
(30:59):
can't get it to wear it anyother time of the year.
So, but that was kind of fun.
Oh, the one, the one museum wewent to that I loved was the.
There was a Peggy Guggenheimcollection in Venice and so
evidently Peggy Guggenheim livedin Venice in this gorgeous,
(31:21):
very mid-century, modern, veryVenice kind of low to the ground
glass house.
That was pretty fabulous andshe was a huge art collector and
she had all these differentartists come live and stay with
her, so we got to see originalPablo Picassos and Jackson
Pollocks and a whole bunch ofdifferent art.
(31:43):
It wasn't very big big, whichwas perfect.
It was in a really nice housewith air conditioning, also
perfect.
Um, I really liked that.
Did you see?
You got a book in there too, sowe got a.
Speaker 5 (31:56):
Yes, we got a book on one of the artists.
She was yeah, what do you callit?
Um had a patron of a large well, and she had a.
There was a large collection ofher.
Speaker 4 (32:09):
Yeah, so I think a lot of these people came and
lived with her for various timesand um, so that was pretty cool
, so I loved.
You know that was probably anhour, hour and a half.
It's not like it took us a longtime to get through.
Um, I always like to pick upart books.
I think they're fun, goodmemories, and I just like the
(32:29):
stories as much as I like,especially when they're stories
about how this artist stayedwith her right, right.
Speaker 5 (32:36):
So the artist friends yeah, you, I, I didn't know her
name um, her last name was desilva, I believe, but she was
the wife of Cezanne.
So if anybody is much of anartist, that was the deal.
So look what showed up today.
You got the wine I did.
It just came today.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
Yes, numb.
Speaker 5 (32:58):
Yes, and I can't remember Amy got one, I got two
and I got my husband threebottles, so we got six.
Which was yours, the cab or theother red?
Speaker 4 (33:09):
No, we got the cab for Barney Mine's the other one,
because there should be threecabs?
Speaker 5 (33:16):
No, there's two.
I got two of each.
Oh okay, so this was the secondwinery we went to is where I
ended up buying wine from.
This was the second winery wewent to is where I ended up
buying wine from, and the winelabels the son of the owners had
just graduated from the RhodeIsland, yeah.
(33:38):
And he was the one.
He's the artist that drawspictures on the label.
It was a cool story.
This LaPia gosh how do weexplain her?
Um, you know, early descendantof that exact spot in italy?
Um, in the chianti region?
(33:59):
Yeah, the chianti region?
Yeah, yep so they're.
Speaker 4 (34:03):
They're hopefully going to be writing a book,
because it's a really good story.
The the very quick version isit's an american man who met an
italian woman when they bothworked for general electric.
Um, they fell in love andthey've been married and living
there for 17 years.
They buy this dilapidated,run-down farmhouse across from
(34:29):
across the street, from thevilla, so it's the secondary
house, turns out, that house wasused by the german headquarters
during world war ii and then,as they start to bring it back,
they discover that there waslike this massive park Park.
It was built, and the wholetime that he's talking about it.
(34:50):
Also, we're standing outsidewhere it's unbelievably hot and
telling us all about this, andwe're looking around and I'm so
into the story, but all I keepthinking is ka-ching, ka-ching,
yeah.
I mean oh my God, everythingthey did, but she.
She cooked us lunch, so the sixof us had just this.
(35:13):
That might've been my favoritemeal of the whole trip.
Speaker 5 (35:17):
Oh, I think so, yeah, yeah.
It was several courses andcharcuterie and a couple of
different salad.
Speaker 4 (35:24):
I'd call them type things yeah, very good, really
good, really fresh and good food, homemade bread and yeah, yeah,
very good had no idea, that wasa fun winery go ahead.
Had no idea that so manywineries also produced olive oil
.
Yeah, they all have olive trees, yeah.
(35:45):
So I brought home olive and ginbecause that place made their
own gin from all the juniperthat was around there, so I'm
kind of excited to crack one ofthose open.
Yeah, who knew you could go toVenice and Florence and drink
gin, which is what I did.
It was kind of too hot for wineit was yeah, we drink more
(36:08):
drinks.
Speaker 5 (36:09):
Um yeah, not a fan of the negroni.
I had to do it because I do.
Oh my gosh, it's awful.
I also thought the apparelspritz last year in paris was
terrible, and so is the Negroni.
Yeah, so yeah.
We had.
It was hard to find somethingto Well.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
I knew both of those.
I wasn't going to like those,so I just went right for gin and
tonic.
Speaker 5 (36:35):
Yeah, oh well.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
Yeah, some drinks are universal.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (36:39):
That's yeah that's right, so funny good, else you,
we both got the same purse.
This is one of our italianitalian handbags mine's blue
white.
Yep, they're kind of cool andthey have a cool little leather
(36:59):
bag in a bag and it's allleather.
The inside, you know, is theinside of the leather.
So that was fun pretty I did,and we bought this in no but in
venice.
We bought it in venice, this Ibought in florence.
Yeah, this is my other bag, myleather bag.
(37:20):
So yeah, stacy, bought a colorother than red beautiful I know,
it's yeah, of course I wasdrawn to the red, which I have a
hundred of, in the black, whichI have a hundred of.
So this is more like a cordovan, I'm gonna yeah, really classic
really pretty, yep.
So anyway, that was um.
(37:41):
What else did we get?
What else did you?
Speaker 4 (37:43):
get, I got, so I a leather kind of a leather keeper
for work which I'm superexcited about.
That I'll give back forever andyou know just a handmade
leather thing and bought someother stuff to give my darlings
which I haven't given them yet,so I can't talk about it we
can't talk about it we can'ttalk about that.
Speaker 5 (38:04):
No, we can't, can't talk about it.
We can't talk about that.
Speaker 4 (38:06):
No, we can't talk about it but didn't really,
didn't really bring tons ofstuff, but meaningful things and
meaningful things that I willuse.
That's my other.
I want to be able to useeverything that I can bring back
with me, yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
Yeah, well, it sounds like it was an amazing
adventure.
Speaker 4 (38:31):
Yes, yeah, it sure was, and we did it in a carry-on
.
We both took carry-ons.
I think I can even cut mycarry-on down.
Speaker 5 (38:42):
I was going to say what did you?
Is there anything you didn'twear?
I had two shirts and swimsuit,because we didn't end up doing
any kind of water sports.
So I I had my swimsuit and twoshirts that I didn't wear.
Speaker 4 (38:58):
I had two dresses that I didn't wear.
One dress I wore once, so Icould have left all those home,
because when you stay you knowwe beat airbnb versus the hotel.
The airbnb I did a lot oflaundry, but even if it wouldn't
have, there were so many umplaces where you could drop your
(39:20):
laundry off, not even the hotelsort of thing.
So I really think that for ninedays you could get away with
about four days worth of clothesand repeat it right and,
honestly, our nine days.
Speaker 5 (39:33):
One was plain, so that wasn't in our suitcase.
One was coming home.
You could have rewore.
I wore we could have, we couldhave wore whatever, we yeah, you
know, wanted to yep, so a war,whatever we yeah you know wanted
to yep, so yep.
It can be done.
Speaker 4 (39:50):
You can do it with just a little roll on, yep and
pay.
Pay for better, better flight,better seats.
Yeah, that's my other piece ofdice yeah, in a nine hour flight
you're not gonna want to sitcoach for sure yeah, and, and we
just did comfort, so it's notlike we did give yourself a
(40:12):
little, give your tushy a littlebit more cushion, and cushion
in a room, yeah was it anovernight flight but you fly
during the night.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Yeah, yeah, and that's.
That is the nice thing thatwhen you land in the morning,
you're, it's the morning yeah,that that is a far harder flight
for me to deal with, jet lagwise.
Speaker 4 (40:39):
Coming home back, I was up for 24 hours, I think,
and and went to work the nextday.
Speaker 5 (40:45):
Yeah, we were up for 24 hours.
It probably would have matteredif the time we got home would
have been different, butliterally I got home in time to
go to bed and slept really welland got up and was fine.
But going where you're losingeight hours.
Yeah, you lose time and thenyou have a whole day.
(41:06):
So you're flying for 10 hoursand then you're in the daytime.
For the rest, that's harder.
Speaker 4 (41:13):
Harder than coming back, yeah, so.
So if anybody wants to reachout with questions about how to
complete do-it-yourselfers,novices, we are not world
travelers.
We are just normal people likeeverybody else who one day wake
up and say you know what, let'sgo to Italy.
(41:37):
We are more than happy to talkabout it and we're trying to
figure out where we're goingnext.
Speaker 5 (41:49):
Stacy's going to leave me behind next summer.
Next summer we got to gotta, weand I say have to, we have to
go to Alaska.
So we're not doing a Europeantrip next summer.
Anyway, she's going to Alaska.
Yeah, I'm going to Alaska.
Speaker 4 (41:59):
I my my planning is still up for grabs, but I will
not.
I will not be going to theequator in July.
I might be heading a little bitNorth, maybe hitting
Scandinavia or something likethat, where it's cold.
The rest of the year.
So yeah.
Speaker 5 (42:17):
Yep, all right.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
Awesome.
Well good, Thank you guys forsharing.
Well good, Thank you guys forsharing and we will be back
again next week with anotheraddicting conversation.
Thank you guys so much fortuning in and follow along we
appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (42:37):
Ciao, ciao, ciao Ciao .
Speaker 2 (43:00):
Cheers, bye-bye, go.
Here I go coming.
I can't ever stop.
I'm a tour de force running.
Get me to the top.
I don't need a invitation.
I'm about to start acelebration.
Let me in.
Brought a good time for somefriends.
Turn it up loud past 10.
All right, look I got that.
Wow, who wants some heads upright now?
We got that.
Turn it up loud.
I know you're wondering how.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I got that.
Wow, here I go.
Here I go, coming.
I can't ever stop.
I'm a tour de force running.
Get me to the top.
I don't need an invitation.
I'm about to start acelebration.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Good evening.
Good evening, get me to the top.
I don't need an invitation.
I'm about to start acelebration.
Good evening, good evening,welcome.
Welcome to a new episode ofthree cocktails in.
We are all present andaccounted for everyone back in
the same country yes yes,buongiorno, buongiorno, buona
(00:53):
sera at this time of night.
How sad was it waking up onthat first morning and not being
in italy.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Yeah, yeah, um I don't know, waking up in my own
bed in an icy, cold bedroomwasn't so bad.
Yes, it was hot.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
It was hot, okay, well, so here we are.
We're back.
Amy and stacy had a funadventure.
They went to italy over thefourth of july.
So we're just gonna kind ofthis is our first time being
able to be back together again,so we're going to chat a little
bit about the travels, yes, andhopefully it inspires other
(01:31):
people to take the trip.
Speaker 5 (01:34):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Right, definitely Take the trip.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Yep, okay, stacey just has the best attitude about
these trips in relation towhere to stay, where to go, what
to do, what to eat.
She's like we've never beenthere.
We don't know any different.
How do we know if it's good orbad?
We don't have anything tocompare it to.
So if it looks good, let's justgo do it, which is a great
(02:03):
juxtaposition to my overthinking, overanalyzing, trying to pick
just the right thing.
Speaker 5 (02:10):
The right, thing, yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
So, how do?
Speaker 5 (02:18):
you bring those two things together.
Well, I've tried doing thesearches and throwing out ideas
and then Amy ends up going anddoing her own research and
picking things anyway.
So I just let it happen andthen she'll get down to
something and I'll say, okay,I'll go book it, and as long as
(02:39):
she doesn't like freak out, thenthat's the thing to book.
Sometimes she'll go, oh, but ittook it took two trips to
figure this out because I didn'tdo very good with the last year
because she would change hermind and say, oh, no, let's not
go do that and I wouldn't pushto book something right away.
So then we spent another weektrying to figure out something
(02:59):
and another week and now it'sjust okay.
Yeah, that looks good, I agree,you agree.
Yep, I'll book it.
Just okay.
Yeah, that looks good, I agree,you agree, yep, I'll book it.
Yeah, so that's kind of how wedo that.
There's a lot of people that youknow like even watching reels
to try to figure out what wewanted to do.
A lot of it was centered aroundlike where you should eat.
You know, get a reservationhere.
(03:19):
We do none of that, because howyou know?
How do we know where we'regoing to be and what we're going
to be hungry for and if we'regoing to want to eat at nine or
six or two, or you know what Imean.
So we never we don't ever makea reservation for, yeah, dinner,
because we don't know whatwe're going to be in the mood
(03:41):
for yeah and a lot of times, notbecause we're in bed early.
honestly, after walking all day,we're pooped, so um.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
So I would just like to clarify that when Stacey says
she does the research and thenI go do research, yeah, we're
both researching the same thing,so it's not like I don't want
to do what she wants to do.
Yeah, we talk about what it iswe want to do, right?
Speaker 5 (04:11):
That's true, because we made a plan when do we want
to fly into?
What do we want to see?
Where do we want to go afterthat?
It's a matter of detailingwhere we're staying that's
usually the thing or whatexcursions we want to do, what
extra things we want to do.
That's the research part wealready know basically what
we're going to do.
(04:32):
It's just what we're going tobook ahead of time.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Yeah, yeah, yep um, so when we talk about where we
want to stay, I think now, aftertwo trips Stace, I don't know
what you think I like to staynot in the commercial center.
(04:56):
I like to stay a little bit,not necessarily farther out, but
I like to stay where it's alittle bit more local, maybe a
little bit more arty, um, whereI just I don't want to be in
city center, where it's massivehotels and 2,000 people per
(05:16):
square inch.
That's not so.
So this time we did airbnbs InParis, we did hotels, yep, and I
think that we got on that wholeair because price-wise it was
going to be the same maybe ashotels and we came across a
(05:42):
couple really funky ones, so Iliked the first one.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
We both did agree.
Yeah, so yeah, yeah, the one inFlorence is very so yeah, I
should.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
I took a lot of videos of it I should post.
I'll post them.
You know around where this iswhen we're dropping.
Um, it was located close to theschool of art and design, I
think.
So, first of all, artists livethere.
Um, it's not one single inch ofthat entire place.
(06:16):
That was a natural paint color,a wall color, um, or you know,
even the brick kind of flooringwas painted.
I had next to my bed probably anine foot by five foot gold
framed mirror.
(06:36):
It was enormous.
It was just this.
It was an art gallery.
There was paintings everywhere.
I just thought it was reallyinteresting.
I mean, when are you going toget to stay in a place like that
, right?
So yes, there was art.
I thought that was kind of cool.
Speaker 5 (06:54):
Stacked on top of stacked.
My entire room was basically ina yellow gold, painted yellow
gold and then a what do I wantto say?
Kind of jungle theme somewhat,and then there was a big
painting of a what do you callthat Like what you would have
(07:17):
seen in the Coliseum, like abullfight type scene.
It was just very.
The whole thing was veryeclectic.
There was very different stylesof art throughout the whole
place as well.
So yeah, it was interesting.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Yeah so when you um went to the bathroom, what you
were looking at was like thisfour by four painting of um the
queen and prince william holdingum the oldest, uh, george no, I
(07:56):
know, and then it was.
Speaker 5 (07:58):
No, it was four of them.
It was Charles, yes, standingbehind.
William as older.
Is that what his name is?
What was the queen's husband?
It's the queen's husband andthe daughter.
No, I didn't think.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
Oh yeah, I thought, oh, that's interesting.
I thought I thought it was thefour generations, I thought it
was Charles William and OkayWell, anyway, four generations.
I thought it was CharlesWilliam and Okay well anyway,
weird thing to have in thebathroom.
Speaker 5 (08:26):
It was weird, yeah, yeah, it was weird, whatever.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Also very weird Talk about eclectic area.
We came home one night and aswe're walking over to the piazza
because there's this big piazzaright outside we start to see
this gathering of people andthere were a lot of people and
there were lights set up andwe're like is there a concert?
It was a boxing match, a liveboxing ring, and it was the guy
(08:58):
in blue versus the guy in redand the dude with the bow tie
doing the whole thing.
So we went up into our room andopened up the bedroom windows
and leaned out and watched aboxing match.
Who would have figured, yeah,like they didn't mention this in
the strange thing, but yeah, sothat's fun yeah, it was an
(09:19):
interesting area, very old, oldarea of Florence, I would say.
Speaker 5 (09:24):
You know the building very old, they were doing some
construction next door.
You know, just very interestingold area.
The streets are tiny and slimand you can only get one car
down, most of them, or a Vespa,and they drive a ton of those
around.
So, yeah, interesting area forsure.
One car down, most of them, ora vespa, and they drive a ton of
(09:45):
those around.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
And so, yeah, interesting area for sure, yep
so um so our first night staystell them about our adventure
the first night.
Oh, should we mention it tooklike almost 14 hours to get
there?
Yeah, from here it was a longass day.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
It was a long, long day, Because we flew into
Amsterdam, Minneapolis toAmsterdam and then Amsterdam to
Venice and then took a cab, orto Florence, I'm sorry, into
Florence, took a cab.
Finally got to our our you knowplace at noon the next day.
(10:27):
So, yeah, that was a lot.
So, yeah, yeah, our firstexcursion that night was an
Airbnb, and I think we talkedabout this last year when we
went to Paris.
That Airbnb Also hasexperiences.
So if you're going to a bigcity any big city you should
look at the Airbnb experiencesas well, because they're pretty
(10:52):
local.
I think it's less of a.
You know, you're booking a tourthat everybody can see and do.
So, yeah, our first night we,despite the, the rain it rained
really hard as we were trying toget to our meeting spot, we
took a vw van, an old one likefrom what did he say?
(11:14):
What year do you say?
it was 64 from brazil yeah, howthe heck they got it I, I have
no idea With three Italian guys.
Everybody but Amy and Icanceled, so it was just the
five of us and we went around tothese wine doors.
(11:35):
So Italy, or Florencespecifically, has these wine
doors based on historical.
Has these wine doors based onhistorical?
There was some law at one pointwhere you could only sell wine
if it was out of your winery.
So, you know, there would be abuilding where they're you know,
(11:55):
bringing wine in or storing thebarrels or whatever, and they
would have these little tinyabout this big you know doors
and you'd knock on the door andyou'd open it and they would
have these little tiny aboutthis big you know doors and
you'd knock on the door andyou'd open it and they'd serve
you a glass of wine out the door, because that's how they could
sell it from within what theyalready owned.
So kind of funny.
(12:15):
So now it's just a fun thing togo do.
So yeah, we went around to winedoors of Florence.
Yeah, that was fun.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
But it was pouring.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
It was literally pouring.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Yeah, and the guys were like, oh, it's.
And we kind of were like, whereelse, where is everybody?
And they're like it's just youtwo.
Everybody else canceled and welooked at each other like we
didn't even know that was anoption, I know.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
Which is our kind of thing anyway, because we don't
want it to be crowded and be inthere.
So we had a blast on that one.
That was fun.
Yeah, it was really fun.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
So that was good.
The other couple of things thatwe did in Florence we went to
two museums and they were a bust.
We went to two museums and theywere a bust.
So it honestly was 99 degrees,99 to 100 degrees.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
Very humid.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Imagine going to Florida over 4th of July.
I think, as we were jokinglatitudinally.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
We were too far south .
Speaker 4 (13:24):
We were far south, that we we were not aware of.
Um, so, but their idea of airconditioning is to, like, have
it be about 10 degrees coolerthan whatever it is outside.
Yeah, and it's still 85 degrees, so it's kind of miserable.
Um, so those old old museumshave absolutely no air
(13:46):
conditioning.
And it, yeah, it was um.
Yeah, we got better, but thefirst one was better.
Speaker 5 (13:55):
If we'd have seen the first one second, it'd have
been a little better.
Do you have your book?
Do you have your book?
Did you get your book?
Speaker 4 (14:03):
My, I Didn't you buy a book From Venice?
Speaker 5 (14:09):
Oh, that was from the Peggy Guggenheim, so that's a
third museum we did in Venice.
Yeah, we didn't see much,honestly, and we didn't some
statues I mean the first one hadstatue after statue after
statue, it was more like thatdown a giant hall, but there
still was some, you know,paintings and that kind of thing
(14:32):
, but yeah, it was so hot so wekind of had it at that point.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
We took the train and went to Cinque Terre and again
I did apologize to Stacey, I wasso exhausted by the heat.
It was hot, it was like statefair that many people in a a
walking path that was maybe 40feet wide.
(15:04):
And the thing I was most bummedabout, because they were really
beautiful bays and very prettyand gorgeous water, but every
and we went to what?
Four of the different towns,three or four of the different
towns, I think three yeah.
They all had two dozen of thesame tchotchke shop shops that
(15:27):
were just selling crap, and forsome reason I did not think
that's what we were going to see.
Yeah, so we spent a lot of timethat day riding on the tram and
the train going back and forth,back and forth not so much,
because it was three, threeseparate train rides there and
(15:47):
then three back, and we missedthe one.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
So we just hopped on one and came home on the wrong
train.
It wasn't the wrong train, itwent to the right destination.
We just missed the one that wepaid for so it's interesting.
I think the same thing in France, like you have to have a ticket
.
Nobody's checking your ticketas you get on, but there's a
(16:10):
possibility they can comethrough and then look at your
ticket.
You have to have the rightticket, thank goodness, and we
didn't.
We did not.
We got back with no fine, yeahit wasn't even close, it wasn't
like the scene.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
We we went from the the speed train to a regional
line and just got on it and goton.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
We get back, it's going to work.
We broke the law?
Yeah, we did.
We didn't go to jail and itwasn't our fault, because our
train, coming in, was got hungup, not, you know what, I mean,
it got slowed down for somereason.
We sat for a long time and thenmissed our connecting train.
(16:54):
So, yeah, we've learned, Ithink now between Paris and
Italy, that how to deal with themetro and the terrain system.
It's interesting.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
Yep, the key is always know the end.
The end that you're going inthe right direction.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
Doesn't matter what stop you're on, but just make
sure that the last stop on thatline is the direction you want
to go, when you go thatdirection and then get off at
your stop and again, I'm surepeople that live in New York
know this stupid fact or a bigcity, you know, or if they're
riding the bus, I think peoplemaybe know that we just don't
(17:36):
because we never.
We just never do it, yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
Yeah, did you, kitty.
You took trains when you werein Italy, right, yep, Did you?
Speaker 3 (17:49):
was that your primary mode of transportation?
Yep, it was our only, only modeI really like riding the train.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
I really enjoy it it's.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
I mean, it's a, it's an incredibly efficient system
and it really is easy to getanywhere.
And it's just easy to getanywhere.
And it's just, it's sodifferent there than it is here.
I hear you, you have to.
You it's many, many hours toget somewhere where you're truly
(18:22):
seeing something different.
And it's not, it's not there.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
So yeah, yeah, it's super comfortable, you can read
a book.
You can take a little nap youknow, see, see, a whole bunch of
the countryside yeah.
Everybody's doing their ownthing and you do not have to
speak the language to do it.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
Yeah, If that's not to get on.
Yeah, if that's some honestly,if that's someone's hang up
about going anywhere in europe,they you know and and to.
We should do better honestly.
But every it seems like almosteverybody in europe speaks
whatever language they speak,plus english and maybe another
(19:02):
one.
You know what I mean.
So we rarely found people thatwe couldn't communicate with.
Yeah, rarely.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
So I I found so thinking about our trip in its
entirety, the the component thatwas most stressful for me was,
even though the trains were easy, it was getting the train to
the next place, and then wetended to, I preferred the
(19:35):
Airbnbs that we picked.
We picked around the trainstation, wherever we were going,
so that way we can pull in andwithin a very short distance we
could walk to our Airbnb.
Um and so, but one of thethings that I would do
differently I would do hotels.
I wouldn't do I, so I would gostraight to the country and I
(20:01):
would do little hotels.
Um, did you guys go to a hotelroom?
Yeah, why?
Over what did you do?
I would do little hotels, didyou guys go to Rome.
Yeah, why?
Over?
What did you do?
I just so, I mean, I felt likeso we went to Rome, we went to
Florence and I felt like I don'treally feel like I need to do
that again.
(20:21):
Have the city experience of it.
We're not museums and stufflike that.
That is not what we do.
So, now that I feel like we'vedone that, the next time we'd
fly into I don't know either one, rome or Florence, and we would
(20:41):
go straight to the country, tothe smaller well, and venice
isn't really I.
I loved venice.
Venice was number one for me.
Yeah, I would go to venice andI would stay in a hotel, um, to
just have that, to have that,that um, because I I did feel
(21:04):
that there was a barrier withlanguage.
I didn't feel that people wereall that friendly.
So, like when we did, meet withlanguage.
I did not find people to beoverly accommodating at all.
I think Bill would say the samething.
Speaker 5 (21:19):
Yeah, I don't think we had that issue.
You know what you're saying istrue because, again, we liked
our Cinque Terre day.
Our other, you know, excursionaway from Florence was our day
that we took a van tour to threewineries and that was a lot of
(21:43):
fun.
Again, there was only six of us, um, that went, it wasn't
crowded, you know, we had allthe time to talk to the people
that were giving us the winepresentation and whatever.
So that was nice and we saw alot of pretty countryside and
you know different things out ofthe city as well, so that
(22:04):
you're right, that was certainlya highlight instead of walking
around, and yeah, in the cityyeah yep we.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
We also had the horrendous weather.
I think it was a hundredhorrendous heat, I think it was
a hundred degrees when we werein rome and we were doing our
walking tour of the city, ohyeah see, that's why we were.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
We were in Rome and we were doing our walking tour
of the city.
Oh yeah, see that's why we were.
We were thankful because thesame night we saw, or that we
went on the um wine door tour,we saw people walking to do it
and it's like, oh my gosh, thathad been so bad to try to walk
it all through that.
So we were happy.
We took a fun little van allthrough that.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
So we were happy.
We took a fun little van.
So, um, when we got to venice,we actually stayed on the island
of morano, which wasrecommended to me by um.
A mutual friend of ours saidyou know that it's adorable,
cute little buildings and prettycolors and slower pace, and I
loved it.
I thought that was fantastic.
It was so easy to get over tothe eye, you know, to get to
(23:15):
Venice proper.
But we went to the same littlecorner spot when we got there
and had a sandwich and a drinkand pretty much at least once a
day stopped there for somethingand talked to them, and so that
was really, really fun.
(23:39):
I learned something new.
I was all excited about MuranoGlass, murano glass, murano
glass, murano glass, and Ithought it was a specific Murano
brand name glass factory.
What I learned was they allthere are so many different
glass blowers there.
The region, all the glass inthat region, is called Murano
(24:03):
glass.
Yeah, so, um, we went and saw aglass blowing demonstration.
That was really cool.
Um, probably only lasted like20 minutes, which was perfect,
perfect.
We wouldn't have needed more.
Yeah, nope, we didn't need anymore.
We had fun shopping for that.
I bought some stuff that, um,it's getting mailed, I decided,
(24:24):
yep, ship it to me.
I'm not not worrying aboutcarrying that around.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
Yeah, that was really fun, I can show off mine.
So Amy bought some biggerthings to have shipped.
I bought little tiny things, soI got a little Murano glass
atomizer.
Isn't that cute?
I's adorable, it's so pretty, Iknow.
And then my necklace is fromMurano.
(24:50):
I don't know if it'll show upvery much, but there's a lot of
little cuts of different coloredglass all melted together.
So that was my excitingpurchases on Murano.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
These are the bracelets Got a vase.
Speaker 5 (25:09):
It's pretty.
What do you have In?
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Venice.
Is that what you?
Speaker 5 (25:11):
bought in Venice.
Oh, we were looking at those.
Yeah, yep, very cute.
Yes, very cute.
I'm excited to get my vase.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
I got a vase, probably about a nine inch vase.
That's was so like in the beadsand those.
And then, stacy's, they havethe real small little beads that
were cut the this, the.
The shop worked with aprofessional glass blower and
(25:46):
they use bigger pieces that theycut, so in the glass you're
getting almost like, not as bigas a Kiwi, but you're getting
like if you were to cut a biggreen grape in half.
That's how big the beads of itwere.
So I'm, I don't know.
I'm just, we looked at so manyshops, so many know I'm.
(26:07):
We looked at so many shops, somany shops, so many shops, so
many shops, and I saw thissomething in the window.
I'm like, oh, let's go in hereand then, as everybody now knows
, I overthink it.
Speaker 5 (26:17):
I stand there and overthink it for way you changed
her line yes you changed yourmind 50 times, I think yep, and
then I finally got it.
I think I shopped four or fiveother stores in the time but
then I went back to what drew mein.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
To begin with I'm like nope, I'm gonna get the one
that I saw that I liked so much, that made me come in.
Speaker 5 (26:42):
So right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
If I had it to do over again, Ithink I would want to stay in
venice or morano longer and lessin florence.
And then we were kind offlipped.
We had just a couple a day.
We had one day in florence andwhat would we call it?
(27:02):
A day and a half in Murano.
I would guess by the time wehad to get up and leave, yeah,
so, yeah, yeah, that area was alot nicer.
The Airbnb we stayed in Muranowas, I don't, know, Very modern
yeah very modern, newly updated.
(27:24):
So it was a total differencefrom where we stayed in Florence
.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
It was very nice and new Now the one thing that the
cruddy old place not cruddy, butthe kind of decrepit old place
had over.
The brand new one was theshower size, so in the showers
in Murano.
So we each had our own bedroomand our own bathroom.
(27:50):
It was one of thosethree-quarter semi-circle ones,
the plastic one that's like abank tube.
I don't think three-quarter.
Speaker 5 (27:59):
I think one-quarter.
I think it was one-quarter Imean nine-four.
Yes, so a quarter of us.
Somebody said I mean, yes, wepulled the shower door apart and
it got to about this far andyou shimmied side.
Oh, I'm not kidding, youcouldn't.
(28:20):
Even.
You could, kitty, I don't thinkyou could have walked straight
in it oh so's the first thing.
So then and it's so skinny thatI was continually, if I turn
around, I would back into thefaucet and turn it off.
Turn it around, turn around,turn it back on.
Let me continually.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
It was that, it was that yes, yes, I did the same
thing and and I actually droppedthe bar of soap I was using
once and I'm like I'm gonna haveto turn this on, open the door
to get the soap, because I can'tthere's not enough space.
So that was kind of funny.
So one of my moments, you know,besides sleeping in an
(28:59):
air-conditioned hard bed bedroom, I was super excited to take a
shower and wash my hair.
I felt like I had so much youknow stuff in the hair.
It was like oh yeah, so thatwas fun.
Speaker 5 (29:15):
It was fun, it was nice.
Yeah, we bought it.
We bought a ton of stuff.
Well, I did spend a lot ofmoney, but you only go right,
right, that's what vacations arefor.
I bought.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
I'll do a little show and tell so you know.
Last time when I went to paris,I bought this um I don't know
if you can see it, this diorring and this time I bought um
from the artisan that who waswho was making it.
It's an 18-carat gold all theway through.
That he used like a chiselthing.
(29:50):
Where am I at here?
A diamond chisel?
A diamond chisel and make allthese little recessed things so
it looks like there's diamondsand sparkles in it, but it's
actually just stents in it.
Yeah, yep, yeah, this is thefunniest.
So before I bought that, Ibought this silver ring, this
(30:13):
multi.
Before I flip you off, thismulti, there are four rings here
, okay, and um, we were sofreaking hot and sweaty that day
that I had to keep tryingdifferent ones on, and this one
fit perfect.
And now, look at it, fallsright off, and it falls off all
(30:38):
my fingers and the guy's like,well, you know, just put it on
your other hand, because yourright hand will be bigger Yep,
the finger coming up, andbecause it's four bands, I don't
know that there's any way thatI'm going to be able to make it
smaller.
So this might just have to bemy, my July, august ring, and I
(30:59):
can't get it to wear it anyother time of the year.
So, but that was kind of fun.
Oh, the one, the one museum wewent to that I loved was the.
There was a Peggy Guggenheimcollection in Venice and so
evidently Peggy Guggenheim livedin Venice in this gorgeous,
(31:21):
very mid-century, modern, veryVenice kind of low to the ground
glass house.
That was pretty fabulous andshe was a huge art collector and
she had all these differentartists come live and stay with
her, so we got to see originalPablo Picassos and Jackson
Pollocks and a whole bunch ofdifferent art.
(31:43):
It wasn't very big big, whichwas perfect.
It was in a really nice housewith air conditioning, also
perfect.
Um, I really liked that.
Did you see?
You got a book in there too, sowe got a.
Speaker 5 (31:56):
Yes, we got a book on one of the artists.
She was yeah, what do you callit?
Um had a patron of a large well, and she had a.
There was a large collection ofher.
Speaker 4 (32:09):
Yeah, so I think a lot of these people came and
lived with her for various timesand um, so that was pretty cool
, so I loved.
You know that was probably anhour, hour and a half.
It's not like it took us a longtime to get through.
Um, I always like to pick upart books.
I think they're fun, goodmemories, and I just like the
(32:29):
stories as much as I like,especially when they're stories
about how this artist stayedwith her right, right.
Speaker 5 (32:36):
So the artist friends yeah, you, I, I didn't know her
name um, her last name was desilva, I believe, but she was
the wife of Cezanne.
So if anybody is much of anartist, that was the deal.
So look what showed up today.
You got the wine I did.
It just came today.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
Yes, numb.
Speaker 5 (32:58):
Yes, and I can't remember Amy got one, I got two
and I got my husband threebottles, so we got six.
Which was yours, the cab or theother red?
Speaker 4 (33:09):
No, we got the cab for Barney Mine's the other one,
because there should be threecabs?
Speaker 5 (33:16):
No, there's two.
I got two of each.
Oh okay, so this was the secondwinery we went to is where I
ended up buying wine from.
This was the second winery wewent to is where I ended up
buying wine from, and the winelabels the son of the owners had
just graduated from the RhodeIsland, yeah.
(33:38):
And he was the one.
He's the artist that drawspictures on the label.
It was a cool story.
This LaPia gosh how do weexplain her?
Um, you know, early descendantof that exact spot in italy?
Um, in the chianti region?
(33:59):
Yeah, the chianti region?
Yeah, yep so they're.
Speaker 4 (34:03):
They're hopefully going to be writing a book,
because it's a really good story.
The the very quick version isit's an american man who met an
italian woman when they bothworked for general electric.
Um, they fell in love andthey've been married and living
there for 17 years.
They buy this dilapidated,run-down farmhouse across from
(34:29):
across the street, from thevilla, so it's the secondary
house, turns out, that house wasused by the german headquarters
during world war ii and then,as they start to bring it back,
they discover that there waslike this massive park Park.
It was built, and the wholetime that he's talking about it.
(34:50):
Also, we're standing outsidewhere it's unbelievably hot and
telling us all about this, andwe're looking around and I'm so
into the story, but all I keepthinking is ka-ching, ka-ching,
yeah.
I mean oh my God, everythingthey did, but she.
She cooked us lunch, so the sixof us had just this.
(35:13):
That might've been my favoritemeal of the whole trip.
Speaker 5 (35:17):
Oh, I think so, yeah, yeah.
It was several courses andcharcuterie and a couple of
different salad.
Speaker 4 (35:24):
I'd call them type things yeah, very good, really
good, really fresh and good food, homemade bread and yeah, yeah,
very good had no idea, that wasa fun winery go ahead.
Had no idea that so manywineries also produced olive oil
.
Yeah, they all have olive trees, yeah.
(35:45):
So I brought home olive and ginbecause that place made their
own gin from all the juniperthat was around there, so I'm
kind of excited to crack one ofthose open.
Yeah, who knew you could go toVenice and Florence and drink
gin, which is what I did.
It was kind of too hot for wineit was yeah, we drink more
(36:08):
drinks.
Speaker 5 (36:09):
Um yeah, not a fan of the negroni.
I had to do it because I do.
Oh my gosh, it's awful.
I also thought the apparelspritz last year in paris was
terrible, and so is the Negroni.
Yeah, so yeah.
We had.
It was hard to find somethingto Well.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
I knew both of those.
I wasn't going to like those,so I just went right for gin and
tonic.
Speaker 5 (36:35):
Yeah, oh well.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
Yeah, some drinks are universal.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (36:39):
That's yeah that's right, so funny good, else you,
we both got the same purse.
This is one of our italianitalian handbags mine's blue
white.
Yep, they're kind of cool andthey have a cool little leather
(36:59):
bag in a bag and it's allleather.
The inside, you know, is theinside of the leather.
So that was fun pretty I did,and we bought this in no but in
venice.
We bought it in venice, this Ibought in florence.
Yeah, this is my other bag, myleather bag.
(37:20):
So yeah, stacy, bought a colorother than red beautiful I know,
it's yeah, of course I wasdrawn to the red, which I have a
hundred of, in the black, whichI have a hundred of.
So this is more like a cordovan, I'm gonna yeah, really classic
really pretty, yep.
So anyway, that was um.
(37:41):
What else did we get?
What else did you?
Speaker 4 (37:43):
get, I got, so I a leather kind of a leather keeper
for work which I'm superexcited about.
That I'll give back forever andyou know just a handmade
leather thing and bought someother stuff to give my darlings
which I haven't given them yet,so I can't talk about it we
can't talk about it we can'ttalk about that.
Speaker 5 (38:04):
No, we can't, can't talk about it.
We can't talk about that.
Speaker 4 (38:06):
No, we can't talk about it but didn't really,
didn't really bring tons ofstuff, but meaningful things and
meaningful things that I willuse.
That's my other.
I want to be able to useeverything that I can bring back
with me, yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
Yeah, well, it sounds like it was an amazing
adventure.
Speaker 4 (38:31):
Yes, yeah, it sure was, and we did it in a carry-on
.
We both took carry-ons.
I think I can even cut mycarry-on down.
Speaker 5 (38:42):
I was going to say what did you?
Is there anything you didn'twear?
I had two shirts and swimsuit,because we didn't end up doing
any kind of water sports.
So I I had my swimsuit and twoshirts that I didn't wear.
Speaker 4 (38:58):
I had two dresses that I didn't wear.
One dress I wore once, so Icould have left all those home,
because when you stay you knowwe beat airbnb versus the hotel.
The airbnb I did a lot oflaundry, but even if it wouldn't
have, there were so many umplaces where you could drop your
(39:20):
laundry off, not even the hotelsort of thing.
So I really think that for ninedays you could get away with
about four days worth of clothesand repeat it right and,
honestly, our nine days.
Speaker 5 (39:33):
One was plain, so that wasn't in our suitcase.
One was coming home.
You could have rewore.
I wore we could have, we couldhave wore whatever, we yeah, you
know, wanted to yep, so a war,whatever we yeah you know wanted
to yep, so yep.
It can be done.
Speaker 4 (39:50):
You can do it with just a little roll on, yep and
pay.
Pay for better, better flight,better seats.
Yeah, that's my other piece ofdice yeah, in a nine hour flight
you're not gonna want to sitcoach for sure yeah, and, and we
just did comfort, so it's notlike we did give yourself a
(40:12):
little, give your tushy a littlebit more cushion, and cushion
in a room, yeah was it anovernight flight but you fly
during the night.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Yeah, yeah, and that's.
That is the nice thing thatwhen you land in the morning,
you're, it's the morning yeah,that that is a far harder flight
for me to deal with, jet lagwise.
Speaker 4 (40:39):
Coming home back, I was up for 24 hours, I think,
and and went to work the nextday.
Speaker 5 (40:45):
Yeah, we were up for 24 hours.
It probably would have matteredif the time we got home would
have been different, butliterally I got home in time to
go to bed and slept really welland got up and was fine.
But going where you're losingeight hours.
Yeah, you lose time and thenyou have a whole day.
(41:06):
So you're flying for 10 hoursand then you're in the daytime.
For the rest, that's harder.
Speaker 4 (41:13):
Harder than coming back, yeah, so.
So if anybody wants to reachout with questions about how to
complete do-it-yourselfers,novices, we are not world
travelers.
We are just normal people likeeverybody else who one day wake
up and say you know what, let'sgo to Italy.
(41:37):
We are more than happy to talkabout it and we're trying to
figure out where we're goingnext.
Speaker 5 (41:49):
Stacy's going to leave me behind next summer.
Next summer we got to gotta, weand I say have to, we have to
go to Alaska.
So we're not doing a Europeantrip next summer.
Anyway, she's going to Alaska.
Yeah, I'm going to Alaska.
Speaker 4 (41:59):
I my my planning is still up for grabs, but I will
not.
I will not be going to theequator in July.
I might be heading a little bitNorth, maybe hitting
Scandinavia or something likethat, where it's cold.
The rest of the year.
So yeah.
Speaker 5 (42:17):
Yep, all right.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
Awesome.
Well good, Thank you guys forsharing.
Well good, Thank you guys forsharing and we will be back
again next week with anotheraddicting conversation.
Thank you guys so much fortuning in and follow along we
appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (42:37):
Ciao, ciao, ciao Ciao .
Speaker 2 (43:00):
Cheers, bye-bye, go.
Here I go coming.
I can't ever stop.
I'm a tour de force running.
Get me to the top.
I don't need a invitation.
I'm about to start acelebration.
Let me in.
Brought a good time for somefriends.
Turn it up loud past 10.
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