Ella and Francisco

Ella and I visited Rome and Siena from 5/4/08 to 5/18/08. We had a great experience visiting this amazing part of the world for the first time. Every day we walked extensively in both places. We also made use of the local bus and train systems to get around in each city and to journey from Rome to Siena and back. Some of the highlights of our trip included:

• The food, which required constant sampling. I had a wonder stuffed-pepper dish in Rome at an osteria by our apartment in Trastevere. Ella had an amazing pasta alla carbonara in Rome. The gellato overflowed everywhere we went. And the coffee was truly good, including every capuccino we sampled in bars and restaurants.
• All the big site in Rome, including St. Peter’s square and the Basillica, the Vatican Museum, the Circus Maximus and Coliseum, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, the Villa Borghese,  and every piazza we discovered just by turning the corner.
• In Siena, the Duomo and the Piazza del Campo were the big sites. The Campo is the site of the annual horse race, the Palio. We could not enter the tower at the campo because they were filming the next installment of the James Bond series (the Quantum of Solace, whatever that means).
• Our neighborhood was the old Jewish ghettoe in Rome near the river Tiber. We crossed the river everyday to get into the ancient part of Rome.
• The view from our agriturismo in Siena was like a painting. At night we could see the lights of the villas all over the Chianti countryside. We actually ordered pizza on our first night in Siena.

Some life lessons I learned on our trip to Italy include:

• A combination of English, Spanish, high-school French, and phrase-book Italian does not compensate for not speaking Italian. Most people seemed less frustrated if I just spoke English.
• Deodorant does not last on a multi-leg flight. It just doesn’t.
• The pasta is truly better in Italy.
• Every ill can be cured by taking an afternoon walk while eating a scoop of gellato.
• You can get tired of seeing amazing sites every day, so you need to space it apart with doses of pizza and wine.

Next time we plan to visit other areas of Italy in order to keep sampling the gellato and write a paper on the regional impact of gellato manufacturing processes.

The link below will take you to the hundreds of pictures we took during our trip:

Italy Pictures

Some of our favorites are below.

This year for our wedding anniversary Ella and I spent the day at Mandola’s Winery in Driftwood, TX. Central Texas has a burgeoning wine country and we selected Mandola’s because of the beautiful pictures on their web site and they have a nice outdoor Italian restaurant. The winery began only a few years ago so their stock is low and consists mostly of wine made from grapes from other nearby wineries. Eventually they intend to import wine varieties from Europe and in 5 years hope to have their own blends. We toured their wine pressing and maturing facility, learned a little about wine-making, then bought a bottle to enjoy with our meal.

The atmosphere evokes a Tuscan setting, with lots of Italian folk music and, of course, Sinatra, wafting throughout the grounds. I don’t know if it was because it’s a 40 minute drive outside of Austin or the spectacular setting, but we felt like we had flown somewhere and forgot about work and home for the day. Our dinner was wonderful, culminating in a dessert of Italian donuts with honey (Woohoo!).

Ella and I spent an incredible two weeks in Mexico City thanks to my Dad, Luz-Maria, and her family. This was Ella’s first time in Mexico and as you can see from the gallery below she made the most of the trip by trying everything: food, drink, sites, and more food. Being the considerate man that I am, I couldn’t let her embark on all these sights, sounds, and food by herself. Especially the food.

For the full set of photos check out the entire album at our new online photo gallery.

Ella and I traveled to Minnesota to visit friends in the Twin Cities and my folks in Rochester. I dragged Ella to all my old haunts in St. Paul including the Tavern (for the walleye basket), Bruegger’s (for the bagels), O’Garas (for the beer), and Summit Avenue (for the beautiful houses). I introduced Ella to Summit Pale Ale, a wonderful Minnesota brew. We also visited my old apartments on Grand Avenue including the one Juan and I and his two cats used to share, back in the day.

The day was capped by visiting all my high school friend’s at the Kelly and Ger’s home in Blaine. I was overwhelmed to see that Carmen, Jeannine and Nathan’s daughter, was not only a bit older but within reaching distance of a steering wheel. She is only 3 to 4 years away from her driving license. I also got to see Anastasia, Nick, Ben, Charlie, and my godkids Carolina and Zak. We had a great time and it was just like high school except everybody got pregnant and had kids during study break.

I have great memories of my late twenties in the Twin Cities and everytime I come back I am always reminded of that time in my life when I was starting my career and sharing life with Juan and Cat, Gerald, Chris, Leah, Doug and Sara, Dave, Julie and Stephen, and many others.

My Dad and Luz-Maria met us for a day in the Twin Cities and then we all drove down to Rochester to stay in their appartment building. They’re building a house not far from their old house due to be completed in October. We had a wonderful time sharing meals, shopping, watching “Memoirs of a Geisha” and just conversing. Rochester has certainly grown as evidenced by the view from their 24th floor vantage point.

This past weekend Ella and I traveled to her parents’ home in Farmington Hills, MI. They threw a little party at Shiro in our honor where I met all the family’s friends from the Filipino medical community. The afternoon was a blur of kind faces, lots of hellos and goodbyes, dancing, and some really great food. Below are some photos from the grand event:

Shiro has an interesting haunted background. Read about it here.

We also met our newest friends in Michigan including Isabel G., daughter of Jen and Zach, and Ian C., son of Mandy and Kevin. We also visited with Katy and Mike, Kristen and Earl, Mark, Ko-ling, Kevin’s brother Cliff, Shirley and Tim. Needless to say, we put some miles on the de Leon automobile.

Other events in our five day visit included catching a show at Second City Detroit, eating pancakes at the Original Pancake House in Grosse Pointe, dim sum at Shangri-La, sipping sangria in Ann Arbor, and bocce ball in Brighton. Lots of fun!