Italian Indulgence & Morgan Mayhem

June was a jam-packed month for sure! Hanleigh and I went on a date night for dinner at 131 Main, one of our favorite places to eat. It was nice to spend some one-on-one time with her. I definitely need to focus on that more and it will be easier to do once Brayden goes back to school. Trent and I attended Matthew Gray’s high school graduation party. He is my dear friend, Julie’s, son and will be headed off to UNCW in August. It was great to see all of my local besties there as well. The next morning, Trent woke up at the crack of dawn to join his F3 friends in the mountains of North Carolina for the Ridge to Rails half marathon. I totally admire him because I only stick to flat half marathons (and haven’t done one in a few years). Running up and down mountains takes it to a whole other level! While he was doing that, mom joined me for hip hop class at the gym and we had an absolute blast! That class will put anyone in an amazing mood and is a great way to start the day with positivity! That evening, we headed up to Buona Vita to watch the ‘Canes play in the Stanley Cup with some of our friends. A few days later, Kendall and I met up at the Jia Foot Spa to have our tootsies massaged and then went to dinner at Papa’s House for wine and charcuterie. Hanleigh wrapped her freshman year of high school as well. It’s so hard to believe another year has passed and she is no longer the young person on campus. Sophomore year, here we come! She finished the year with straight As, which is amazing! We are so Ppoud. She also had an interview as a hostess to begin a new job once she turns 16. I know she’s looking forward to making some money.

On Thursday, June 11th, we continued checking off another place that our family collectively decided to go to on as a family vacation together. Years ago, the four of us sat down and each, with a dry erase marker in hand, marked up a map of the world with the places we wanted to travel. We then went through everyone’s lists to see what all we had in common and came up with an overall travel list. These will take years to get through, but we are determined to make it happen. This year’s trip: Italy. Our flight ended up being delayed for about three hours, which wasn’t ideal, but we arrived to Rome safely on Friday early afternoon. Unfortunately, it was a bit too late than we were supposed to arrive and we missed our Colosseum tour. So, we checked into our Airbnb and then just walked around and did some exploring for a few hours. We decided instead of getting a formal tour of the Colosseum, we would just walk around the entire thing and explore other nearby areas. Even though we were tired from the flight, I think we were running on a bit of adrenaline because we walked so much that day! That night, we had dinner at Sospiro Trastevere in an outdoor courtyard and it was delicious! Trastevere is the area of Rome that is known for amazing food. That evening, after dinner, we walked around and listened to musicians play in the square and enjoyed some scrumptious gelato. 

The next day, we woke up bright and early and made our way to the Vatican, where we would meet up with our amazing tour guide who would take us through this historic place over the next few hours. He was beyond knowledgeable, providing a very detailed background of the history, even getting down to the minute detail of the entire Sistine Chapel painting. As we walked through the hallways filled with gorgeous sculptures, busts of gods, and intricate maps (Brayden was totally fangirling over those !), our guide was beyond informative. He knew the names of every person painted and even told a story about how the earliest parts of the Sistine Chapel that were painted were done so by a group of artists who ended up painting way too many people on one panel that it was too difficult for someone on the ground below to view and appreciate. So, all those artists were pretty much fired and the rest of the ceiling was painted by just Michaelangelo himself. Then, there was another story of in the bottom right of one of the panels, where a person has a serpent wrapped around him and its getting ready to strike his private parts. This is because that person pissed off Michelangelo and had told other painters to put shorts on people in the paintings. Michelangelo felt that people should be naked and not clothed, so he got an artist’s revenge on him by painting the serpent striking at his goods. Hilarious! The Sistine Chapel was beautiful, although very crowded. Your neck does hurt a little bit from looking up for so long. They should make the whole room full of yoga mats or chairs where people can sit at an angle to look up. 

After we left the Sistine Chapel, we did a quick perusal of St. Peter’s Basilica, and then took our neighbor’s advice and purchased tickets to climb the steps to the top of the cupola. Five-hundred+ steps, and narrow, angled hallways later (even holding on to a knotted rope to make up a tight steep staircase), we made our way to the top and the reward was the breathtaking view! It was incredible to see how expansive Rome is from up there. Absolutely stunning and well worth the climb! After exploring the Vatican square, we walked around for a bit and then I had a delicious lunch, our first of many pizzas, where we learned that later that afternoon there was going to be a very large, but friendly protest regarding immigration. We knew we wanted to visit the Trevi fountain, which involved walking by some of the protesters. It hadn’t begun quite yet, as everyone was organizing themselves, but definitely interesting to see. The fountain was beautiful, but extremely crowded with tourists. That night, we had dinner at Grazia & Graziella. This was a highly recommended restaurant and did not disappoint. We did have to wait a bit, but the host was so kind and even brought us out some prosecco to sip on while we waited. When we sat down to order our drinks, they must have mistaken Hanleigh and Trent’s orders because they brought her a glass of white wine (so, they swapped). It was pretty comical. I’m pretty sure that night also ended with a gelato stop somewhere. 

The next day, we woke up bright and early again and navigated the Rome train station before heading to Florence, upon which we immediately got in our rental car and drove to our Airbnb near Lastra a Signa in the Tuscany region. The Airbnb was only about a 25-minute drive from Florence, situated on a beautiful plot of land with an infinity pool overlooking endless vineyards. It was so idyllic. The path leading up to the agriturismo home was lined with fresh lavender that was so aromatic! We tried having lunch somewhere nearby, but it was too busy, so we drove around and found this adorable hillside place called Da Mario. Of course, we brought Louise with us and played Wizard while we waited for our food (a tradition that has been going on for quite a while and will never end!). The views were absolutely splendid! We had a few hours to kill and I left it up to Brayden to plan our afternoon. She led us to a small, Italian-speaking town called Montecatini. It was absolutely beautiful and perfectly quaint! We then headed to dinner to Ristorante Casorino where we dined on wild boar pasta, truffle ravioli, pizza, and chicken. The food was so fresh that at one point, we thought we heard an animal underneath the restaurant (which was making plenty of noise earlier) getting ready to be served for dinner. I wouldn’t be surprised! 

The next day was incredible. We hopped in our rental car with Trent as our navigator and did a one-day tour around Tuscany. Leslie put it best when she had told me before the trip, “Just wait until you get there. You’re going to feel like a little car driving around in a painting!” She was 100% correct! We began our day by driving to San Gimignano (san jee-mee-NYAH-noh). This is a walled city and is beyond stunning. As you drive up to it, it is perched upon a hill. We parked the car and walked up inside of the fortress and explored all the different nooks and crannies. This is where we had the best gelato of our entire trip: salted caramel that had an entire layer of thick caramel on top. It was insane! After spending an hour or so there, we drove to Greve for lunch. We were greeted with glasses of prosecco (these Italians know how to do it right!) and had the most delicious pizza of our entire trip. Tuscany, so far, so good! After lunch, we ventured to Montefioralle and walked around for a bit. This was another beautiful, walled-off city. After that, we drove to the nearby Montefioralle Winery where we had reserved a tour and tasting. It was so nice to learn about the wine process (this is so interesting to me and I think the girls were impressed as well), and sit back and relax and take in the expansive, gorgeous views. We had dinner reserved that night, but we were so full from the amazing pizza and still had some left over, that we decided to buy a bottle of the tasty wine from the vineyard and enjoy that poolside before eat dinner back in the Airbnb. It was such an incredible day! 

The next morning, we woke up and took the local train to Florence to spend the day there. Our first stop was a Pastamania cooking class. The Mazzolas had recommended it as they had taken it before. Our teacher was 100% Italian and she gave us some background on the history of pasta in Italy and then we got to the good part: making the pasta! We started from scratch with the flour, egg, and water, and through great tutorials from the teacher, we converted those ingredients into homemade fettuccine and ravioli stuffed with goat cheese, herb butter and sage. We made another ravioli as well. Then, our group got to enjoy the fruits of our labor with a nice meal, served with wine. At our table was a family from Boston and then a couple from Australia, so it was good to get to know them as well. After the class, we walked around, saw the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, and then ventured to La Accademia, which is where Michaelangelo’s David sculpture resides. Words can’t even express how incredible that was! There was one point when Brayden and I walked over to read about the statue on a sign that was on the wall and my eyes just started tearing up. I turned to her and said, “how lucky are we?” It was at that moment when I was just so overcome with emotion because I was with the people I love the most viewing one of the most historic and well-known works of art in the world and I just felt so incredibly blessed to be there. Very, very grateful. The statue is just so huge and so beautiful. I was in awe! I also was smiling inside because in high school and college, I had a refrigerator magnet of David, but he came with a bunch of clothing and other items with which you could accessorize him, like Santa Claus outfits or beach clothes. And here I was seeing the real thing in person. Kind of cool! After we visited David, we searched for one of the historic wine windows. These are scattered all over town and there are only a handful of them that are original. Basically, a person sits inside of this room and the only portal to the outside world is through a little window that is open air. You bend down and request what kind of cocktail you want, they make it and then put it in the window for you to retrieve. It’s absolutely adorable! We had dinner reservations at Tratttoria Gobbi 13 (a Michelin-star restaurant), which the Mazzolas had also been to and recommended. It did not disappoint! We also confirmed with our waiter that all of the really fancy, dressed-up guys we saw around town were there for men’s fashion week! We returned to our Airbnb for the final night there and we’re definitely exhausted from the long day. 

The next day, we dropped our rental car off in Florence and hopped on the train again, this time to Naples. Once we arrived there, we made our way to the ferryport and hopped on a ferry to Sorrento. It was about a 40-minute ride and was absolutely gorgeous. We passed by Mount Vesuvius (which I remember reading all about when I took Latin in high school), and as we approached Sorrento, you could see the tall cliffs emerging from the sea. It was so impressive and so beautiful! We hopped in a cab and made our way to the Airbnb, which was oceanfront it had the most amazing view of the marina, full of the tiny fishing boats, dark sand beaches, and restaurants lining the seaside. We were all really tired, so we bought some Turkish beach towels and laid on the beach for a couple hours before heading to dinner at Trattoria da Emilia, just a few steps away from our Airbnb. Out of all the places that we ate throughout the entire trip, this was the one that was least impressive terms of the food. It was just meh. 

The next day, we woke up early and made our way via foot to the larger marina where the ferryport to meet up with our tour group for a full day on a boat, with a three-hour stop at the Isle of Capri. We began the day boarding the boat with two other families of four who were absolutely wonderful. Everyone had kind of the same vibe: friendly and easy to talk to. We made our way to the Blue Grotto, a very famous landmark and tourist attraction. We watched the parade of all the little rowboats come in since we were one of the first boats there. It was adorable. Then, that’s when a bit of the madness began: they charge you a hefty natural park fee per person and then they expect a €20 tip. The four of us squeezed into a tiny little row boat and had to duck down in order to fit inside the cave. When we went inside, it was expansive and gorgeous and the watercolor was absolutely stunning, but it gets a bit hectic in there because there’s so many rowboats, all of gentlemen are singing loudly, and it’s echoey and then you’re really only in there for a maximum of two minutes and then you go out. I think we ended up paying over €100 just to do that. This is one of those examples of been there, done that. It was pretty, but not the relaxing experience that we had all envisioned. Our next stop was a relaxing swim off the island. Everyone took turns jumping off the boat and cheering each other on. We then motored over to the Faraglioni rocks (a very popular rock formation that you would definitely recognize from movies or books) to take in the view. We then went on land for three hours of free time. We did some exploring and then found a delicious place to have pizza and some limoncello spritzes. So tasty! We let Hanleigh have one, but she had only drank a few sips and I could tell she was already getting a tiny bit giggly, so I cut her off. It was hilarious! Extremely gorgeous and bougie, but in all the right ways. There are trellises of flowers everywhere and you can’t even imagine the view. I think one of the photos I took will be the inspiration for possibly redoing our downstairs bathroom. We stopped at another swimming spot where our captain floated some limoncello out to us on a tray. Again, the thought of “how lucky are we” just kept resonating in my mind. We hopped back on the boat and made our way back to Sorrento. We consider ourselves a boating family, so naturally this was one of the highlights of our trip. It was probably my favorite day! We came back to our Airbnb, got all cleaned up, and took a long walk to La Cantinaccia del Popolo for dinner. This was another restaurant that was highly recommended as well. I knew the line would be long, and it was, but it was well worth it! Another amazing meal of pizza, ravioli, and burrata! 

The next day, we took the ferry to Positano! It was another 30-40 minute ride and our plans that day were to really just relax. I had rented us four beach chairs and two umbrellas at Da Ferdinando Beach Club. We chilled there from about 11:00am-3:30pm, ordered lunch and cocktails, and it was just nice to sit and listen to the ocean lap against the sand. We needed some down time after all the hustle and bustle, and were happy to have it. In the late afternoon, we made our way back to the busy part of Positano and walked up the hill to do some shopping. It was extremely crowded with narrow walkways completely full of people. The girls bought some trendy bags and I mostly did some window shopping. I did purchase a really pretty necklace and a beautiful purse, but they were very inexpensive compared to everything else that we saw. We took the ferry back to Sorrento and walked to a delicious, yet quaint restaurant, Ristorante Da Gigino. Another tasty meal in the books. After that, we walked up to the main street and found ourselves at an Irish pub watching the USA vs. Australia World Cup football game. We met a group of seven young ladies from Australia who were all taking a gap year to travel together. The stories they told were just amazing. They were going to some of the coolest places! 

The next day, we had nothing specifically planned because we wanted to have some time to relax and not have anything that we were committed to per se. When we are in line for dinner a couple nights before, we met these two women who told us about this beautiful swimming hole, so we decided to take an hour-long walk there, but it was a great way to get some exercise and see more of Sorrento. The swimming hole is called Bagni Regina Giovanna and is this beautiful emerald water-filled swimming hole that has a rock archway that you can swim through, which takes you out into the ocean. Brayden and I immediately did that and we were probably treading water out there for 30 or 45 minutes, just meeting new people and talking about everyone’s travels. It was sincerely the best thing ever. We swam back into the swimming hole and retrieved Hanleigh and Trent and the four of us all went out to the ocean together again. There were a few brave people jumping off of the cliffs as well! When we were done swimming, we climbed up to the top of the cliffs and walked along the plateau up top to get different perspectives of the sea from above. It was breathtaking! After that, we had worked up quite the appetite, so we walked into town and ate lunch at A’Marenna, a small, but absolutely delicious deli! We came back to the Airbnb and got all of our bags packed and then walked a few steps away to have dinner at Porta Marina, followed by more gelato from our favorite place in Sorrento, Raki! The next day, we had a really early departure from our driver who drove us back to the Naples train station where we rode a train to the Rome airport and flew home. Italy is absolutely incredible! There’s so much more of it that I want to see. It’s such a big country. The people are so kind, the food is very good (albeit limited options), and the views and landscapes are unmatched! We can’t wait to go back!

By the way, I’d like to thank two of my besties, Leslie and Stacy, for for all the recommendations about what cities to go to and in which order. Italy is one of our happy places and they have been a couple times. All of their recommendations were on point! Thanks, ladies!

After landing back in the United States where reality slapped us all in the face, I met up with Julie for dinner at Foxcroft Food and Wine Bar. It’s always great to see her! Hanleigh began her flag football practice his in preparation for tryouts, which she still seems to really enjoy. Then, Leslie and Emilia flew to the Concord Airport, so we scooped them up on a Friday night and then we all went to dinner at Postino. The next morning, Leslie and I went to a workout class and then the two of us, joined by Brayden, Hanleigh, and Emilia, all drove down to Clemson for the Morgan Wallen concert.  You would think it would be as simple as just going to a concert, but no. There’s always something interesting or crazy or funny that happens. This night was kind of a perfect storm of all three! We decorated the car with a shout out to one of his song lyrics that said, “Chasin’ you to Death Valley” and made our way to South Carolina. We set our bags down at Emilia’s house and the girls went and dropped my car off at her friend Kayla’s house. The plan was for us to walk back to Kayla’s after the concert and then drive my car back to Emilia’s house. As I said, that was the plan.

After the girls came back from dropping the car off, all five of us pre-partied and had an amazing time getting ready together and doing our makeup. We then migrated to Kayla’s house to continue the party and then walked to the concert. However, mother nature had other plans in mind. The weather was pretty nasty and there were some thunderstorms nearby, so the concert was delayed. We decided we would just walk around downtown and that ended up entailing us standing in line to go to the bathroom at Moe’s for a very long time. Finally, we got the all clear that the storm had passed and the concert was ready to start. Unfortunately, that meant that the first two acts were canceled in order to allow more time for Ella and Morgan. We arrived, happy as little larks and had an amazing time at the concert. Ella Langley did not perform that long, which was unfortunate, but she sounded and looked great! Morgan, of course, made an elaborate entrance and his pyrotechnics were off the chart! He sounded great and navigated the crowd well. And, of course we knew most of the words to all the songs. When the concert concluded, we made our way to a meet-up spot where we would see Heather and Campbell, and the plan was for them to ride back with us to Emilia’s house and get their car, which they had dropped off earlier in the day. Just before we saw them, Brayden asked me if I had the key to my car. I looked at her with bug eyes and said and,  “Nope, I don’t have it.” In all the hustle bustle and happiness of the pre-partying, I didn’t even think for once to grab my key, completely forgetting what the plans were for the rest of the evening. I guess that’s a good thing that I was present. But, it wasn’t such a great thing at the end of the night. So, we all walked to Kayla’s house and everyone got on their phones trying to order Ubers or Lyfts, but there was no hope. Apparently, Clemson is notorious for having horrible time getting out of concerts and the whole city pretty much shuts down. That was the case for us as well. When we finally got a ride about 45 minutes later, Heather, Campbell, Leslie, and I got in the car. We knew we would get home before anyone else, so we also grabbed the key to Emilia’s house. However, life had other plans! We were literally trapped in the Uber with a guy who did not speak very good English, who nearly had an accident five minutes into the drive, who couldn’t even see out of his front windshield because he didn’t know how to work the defrost, who had an altercation with the cop, who didn’t understand how to do a u-turn, and so much more. Leslie was afraid for our lives and was on the phone in the backseat all slouched down talking to Emilia’s boyfriend and telling him that “this is a safety issue and we need to get out”. They thought that we thought we had been kidnapped. We had him drop us off at a 7-Eleven and since we had been in the car so long, the rest of the group had already made their way back to Emilia’s place, but they didn’t have the key (we had it!)! So, they had to go back to her boyfriend’s house and hang out until we got home. The only way we got home was for Hanleigh to scoop us up. Thank you, Hanleigh! Needless to say, we all were safe, but we did not even go to sleep until 3:30am. It was such a wild night. And all because I forgot a key. I never could have predicted it would have ended the way that it did, but no one was mad at me, although I did apologize an infinite amount of times. We were laughing about it by the time we had breakfast the next morning…just a few hours later. This weekend we’ll definitely go down in the memory books! 

To wrap the month up, Hanleigh continued volunteering as a YMCA camp counselor, which has really helped her earn her hours. This will look really good on her high school resume! Get it, girl! What a month!

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