Au Revoir Paris! Until We Meet Again…

We woke up very early on Saturday (July 7) to take a bus to Charles De Gaulle Airport. It was hard to believe it was time to go home—it felt like we had just gotten here and now it was already time to leave! Four days in Paris was simply not enough time to explore the city. There’s so much to see and do. It’s such a magical place that casts an enchanting spell making you not want to leave.

After packing our suitcases to the brim, we enjoyed one last croissant at a boulangerie near our hotel, savoring every last buttery morsel. Then we checked out of our hotel and hauled our suitcases down the hill to the bus stop (luckily we didn’t have to go far with our heavy bags and newly-acquired piece of luggage!).

I was teary-eyed as the bus pulled away from the stop, leaving our hotel in the distance and speeding off toward the freeway. This was it—our European adventure has come to a close. We laughed and reminisced on the ride to the airport, thinking of all the things we would miss (and those we might not miss as much)...

Here are just a few highlights of what we will miss:

• The excitement of exploring a completely new city
• The beauty all around us, all day long
• Seeing buildings that are more than 50 years old
• Walking everywhere or taking public transportation (There’s no need to drive anywhere here. We wondered if we’d even remember how to drive!)
• Climbing hundreds of stories to see amazing city views
• The passion for soccer
• The incredible artwork (both in the museums and in the architecture on every street corner)
• The beautiful blue waters of Cinque Terre
• The magical feeling of Paris
• Eating amazing food at every meal
• The food (This could be its own long list, so try not to let your stomach rumble too much)...
• Fresh pasta
• Tomatoes (we don’t know what they do to them over here, but they taste so good!)
• Gelato (so many flavors!)
• Pesto
• Risotto
• Olive oil
• Salami (yes, I will miss meat!)
• Seafood
• Croissants
• Baguettes
• Macaroons
• Tartines
• Salted caramel ice cream

And, it’s a short list, but here are just a few things we won’t miss:

• The incessant smoking
• Not having an alarm clock (yes, even I realized their importance)
• The porn magazines prominently displayed at newsstands (although I will admit we got a good laugh out of the title, “Mission Ass Possible”)
• The heat and humidity in Italy (next time we will visit in the spring, not summer!)
• The aching we felt in our feet after the many miles of hitting the pavement day in and day out

We may even miss the Vespas, the controlled chaos, and the feeling you get when you’re struggling to communicate, yet connecting with people who were genuinely grateful for your effort. In fact, the people we encountered were lovely and friendly, further proving our theory that the energy and attitude you put out comes right back to you!

As we boarded the plane back to Los Angeles, I suddenly couldn’t wait to get home—to sleep in our bed, to talk to our families, to see our friends, to return to yoga class, to do our own laundry, to cook again and to just stay in one place for more than a few minutes at a time.

We want to thank all of you for reading our blog and sharing in our adventures along the way. This was an incredibly special experience for us, and we are thrilled that you could enjoy all of the ups and downs (but mostly ups!) with us. We’re already dreaming about our next European Adventure—and keeping my ears open for more radio contests! This experience just goes to show that dreams really do come.

More pictures and videos coming soon, but for now, au revoir, mon amis!

Minajin’ in Paris

I’ve put off writing about our last day in Paris, because then I felt like then the trip would really be over…But I want to document every minute of this special experience, so as the cliché goes, all good things must come to an end…

We woke up early, hoping to get to the Eiffel Tower right when it opened and before it was too crowded to summit the tower. We took the Metro and arrived about 15 minutes after it opened. The line was already a mile long as hundreds of people were waiting to take the elevator to the top. I held our place in line as Kyle went to explore the various entry points to see if there might be a shorter wait elsewhere. Sure enough, he came back five minutes later and told me he found an entry point where we could take the stairs to the second level, and from there take the elevator to the very top. We had been training for weeks leading up for this moment—stairs to the second level would be a piece of cake!

We walked right up to the ticket counter, purchased our tickets to climb the stairs and take the elevator to the top, and went on our way. It was surreal to climb the stairs inside the Eiffel Tower since we had spent the last few days admiring the outside of it from a distance. We reached the first platform relatively quickly and soaked in the sites below. We saw the spot where we enjoyed our Fourth of July picnic and the various locations we rode past on our bike tour. We then climbed our way to the second-level platform. Here the ground below looked even smaller and the views of the city expanded beyond what we had seen the night before at the Arc de Triumph.

Then we waited in line to take the elevators to the very top (there wasn’t an option to take the stairs all the way up, otherwise knowing us we would’ve done it!). After about a 15-minute wait, we crammed inside the elevator, which dropped us at the highest viewing point in all of Paris—324 meters above ground! We walked around inside the observation deck, looking at the comparisons between the height of the Eiffel Tower and other major landmarks around the world. We were amazed to see that the Burj Khalifa in Dubai was more than twice the height of the Eiffel Tower at 828 meters!

We walked along the outside of the platform and took pictures of the spectacular views below. What an incredible feeling to be 324 meters above ground on top of one of the most beautiful, iconic structures in the world looking out at the gorgeous, sprawling city below! After basking in the moment, we began the descent down by elevator and then by stairs.

The whole experience took about two hours (it would’ve taken much longer if we had waited in that long line for the ground-level elevator!). Since we had skipped breakfast in order to book it to the Eiffel Tower, we decided to enjoy a late-morning croissant and coffee at a nearby café. Just as we took a seat under an outdoor patio awning, it began to pour cats and dogs. What perfect timing for us! We could’ve been on the outdoor platforms getting pelted by rain, or even worse, been one of those people still standing in line!

We waited for the rain to subside before setting out for our afternoon adventures. Our friend, Alexis, told us about a restaurant called L’Entrecote, where the only thing on the menu is steak and frites. While I don’t eat steak, I couldn’t deprive Kyle of this culinary experience, so we set out to find the restaurant on Rue de Marbeuf. When we arrived, there was a line stretching out into the street. The restaurant was only open from lunch from noon to 2 p.m., so we kept our fingers crossed that the line would move fast enough for us to get a table before they closed.

It took about 30 minutes for a table for two to open up. While waiting outside, I practiced saying “no beef” (or “no boeuf”) for me. As soon as we sat down, the waitress came over and since there is literally no menu, she just asked “How would you like your steak prepared?” Kyle said “medium rare,” and when she looked at me, I said “No boeuf.” She replied, “No eat?” She looked annoyed as I replied “No,” and immediately grabbed my place setting. As Kyle ate his appetizer salad, I asked the waitress for water. She shook her finger at me and said, “NO! Not for you!” I felt like I was on the “Soup Nazi” episode of Seinfeld!

Despite me pissing off the waitress with my non-beef-eating ways, Kyle thoroughly enjoyed his meal of filet mignon with a delicious sauce (we couldn’t figure out what it was made of—Kyle guessed pesto was an ingredient, but whatever it was tasted amazing!) and a pile of French fries. When the waitress turned her back, I snuck bites of Kyle’s fries soaked in the green sauce. It tasted so good that I even tried a bite of Kyle’s steak, which tasted great! Kyle fell even more in love with the meal, when the waitress came around and gave him a second portion of steak and fries! Not only was this steak scrumptious, but for just 28 euros you also get seconds! If you eat steak, this place is a must visit on your next trip to Paris! (And if you don’t, sneaking French fries is allowed as long as you don’t ask for water.)

By the time we got the check it was now after 2:30 p.m. and I had yet to do any shopping in Paris! Fueled by French fries, croissants and coffee, I led us back to the Champs-Elysees to do some shopping. (Kyle thought I may have buttered him up by taking him out for a steak lunch before spending the rest of the afternoon shopping. I will never admit to this coincidental timing!)

Our first stop was the Laduree, or macaroon store, on the Champs-Elysees. The smell of fresh cookies was intoxicating as we stepped inside the door. I took out my camera to take a picture of the brightly colored little wonders, and was yelled at for the second time today, “No pictures!” What a terrible tourist I was being today! Putting away my camera, we ordered a dozen macaroons, which we immediately delved into after stepping out of the store. The cookies were light, airy and full of flavor. We shared a raspberry macaroon and a salted caramel one. There was so much flavor packed into such a tiny treasure!

Since the stores along the Champs-Elysees rival those of Rodeo Drive, we set out for a different part of town that would, hopefully, offer more affordable stores. We stumbled upon the Galeries Lafayette on Haussmann Boulevard—a giant department store that was having a huge sale. Thousands of people filled the store searching the sale racks. I set out to look at French designers like Zadig & Voltaire, Antik Batik and Comptoir des Cotonniers. While I admired the beautiful clothing, I couldn’t find anything I liked in my size, so sadly I was about to leave the department store without purchasing a thing when I found a section called COS. Here I found a bright yellow, summery top that I couldn’t pass up. And we had acquired so many keepsakes and trinkets along the way that we purchased an extra suitcase to bring back all of our goodies!

After stopping at a creperie for a savory poulet, fromage, and oeuf (chicken, cheese and egg) crepe, we went to the hotel to change. I took my time getting ready, as the concert was scheduled to start at 8 p.m., but we all know how concerts work…The opening act usually doesn’t come on until after 8 and then the main act doesn’t come on until after 9 at the earliest. Kyle looked up a subway route to the concert at the Zenith—a part of town we had not yet seen.

It took 45 minutes to get to the venue by subway and by now it was nearly 9 p.m. We arrived at Will Call with our fingers crossed that the tickets would be waiting there under my name. Sure enough we got our two tickets and walked right in to see that Nicki Minaj was already on stage! We weren’t sure how long she’d already been performing, but it’s good thing we didn’t show up much later!

The usher showed us to our seats, which were dead center above the standing-room only, general admission crowd. We had a great view of the stage, and the sound in the venue was excellent. The place was packed with thousands of people, all excitedly dancing and singing every word of every song. We were stunned to see how much the crowd loved the show—they knew way more songs than we did!

Nicki Minaj said that this was her first concert in Paris, and that she was so impressed that the crowd knew all of her lyrics. She threw T-shirts into the crowd and even brought three teenage girls on stage to take photos and dance with her during one of her songs. The girls were all from Paris and were so thrilled to be on stage with Nicki. The atmosphere felt like a huge party, as Nicki rapped the lyrics, “Put your drinks up. It’s a celebration every time we link up.” What a fitting way to end our trip with the Nicki Minaj concert, considering this was the reason we were in Paris in the first place!

As she performed “Moment 4 Life,” the words rang true as we soaked in these last few hours in paradise: “No, I’m not lucky. I’m blessed, yes.” She played until 10:30 p.m., and as the crowd moved from the venue back to the Metro, Nicki Minaj’s lyrics summed up not only this moment, but how I felt about our trip in general:

“I wish that I could have this moment for life. Cause in this moment I just feel so alive. This is my moment, I’ve waited all my life I could tell it’s time. Drifting away I’m one with the sunset, I have become alive.”

(This is one many videos we filmed—slowly starting to post them on my YouTube channel.)

Museum Madness

This morning we transferred from our boutique hotel to the one the record company would pay for as part of our grand prize trip. As we were checking out of the hotel, we rode the elevator with an employee who asked where we were from. I said “Los Angeles, California,” and she said “Ooooh! I’ve always dreamt of going there!” How crazy is that?! Here we are in the most beautiful city we’ve ever seen and this Parisian girl’s dream is to go to LA?

To say bon voyage to our neighborhood, we had a nice leisurely breakfast of croissants, omlettes, coffee and juice at a small café. As we took a taxi to Montparnasse, I surprised the cab driver with something my friend, Alexis, taught me. The cab driver sneezed and I immediately responded “a tes souhaits” (or “bless you” in French). He chuckled (as I had probably butchered the pronunciation) and smiled, saying “Merci,” to which I responded, “De rien.” At that point I had cashed out all of the French words I know. Thank you, Alexis, for teaching me those little French phrases that came in handy along the way!

After checking in to our last hotel of the trip, we were determined to take advantage of the second and last day of our Museum Pass. Kyle was starting to feel better today, so we set out with an ambitious schedule of knocking more things off our “must do” list.

First, we went to the Musee d’Orsay, which soon became our favorite museum in Paris. The building is an old train station now outfitted to house some of the greatest artwork in the world. The most remarkable of which was the collection of Impressionist paintings by Monet, Renoir, Manet and Degas. It was mind blowing to wander from room to room taking in the works of these incredible talents. While each of these artists is brilliant, we agreed that Monet is an absolute genius. We stared at his works up close and then stepped across the room to take in the full picture. We felt frozen in time as we stood looking at his work in amazement and contemplating how he had such vision to create so many masterpieces. This was the sublime experience that was lacking at the Louvre!

After pulling ourselves away from the Impressionist paintings and works of Van Gogh, we decided to stop by the Musee de l’Orangerie to see Monet’s water lilies. On the way there we shared our first crepe of the trip. The texture was light and doughy, and it was filled with creamy, melty Nutella. Mmmmmmm melty!

On the way to the Orangerie, we crossed the bridge to left bank. The chain link fence on the bridge was filled with padlocks (just like those we had seen on the Via dell’Amore walk in Cinque Terre!). The bike tour guide told us it was common practice for lovers to walk the bridge, put a padlock on the fence and throw away the keys in the Seine River. While I don’t condone littering, I was all about this lover ritual. Kyle took a picture as I wrote on the lock with a marker and locked it on the fence. Then he threw the keys into the river. Now our love was locked over Paris—very fitting for a city we were falling in love with!

After our leisurely walk, we arrived at the Musee de l’Orangerie. Here, eight of Monet’s water lily paintings are on in display in a simple, impactful way. Two oval-shaped rooms display four paintings each—one per white wall with natural sunlight shining in from the roof above. Benches through the center of the room allowed onlookers to sit and soak in the beauty of the paintings surrounding us. The stark white walls made the vibrant colors from the paintings stand out even more. This experience confirmed that our next trip to Paris, we must go to Giverny to see Monet’s house and the gardens that inspired these paintings.

We decided to round out “Museum Madness Day” (as we later deemed it) by going to the museum of modern art, the Centre Pompidou. The building is ultra modern design. We realized that we saw it from Notre Dame the day before and wondered what that bizarre, high-tech building was. And now here we were! While modern art is more Kyle’s aesthetic than mine, I admired the work of Picasso and Warhol. We only found one Dali painting for Kyle, but since we had seen so many works of art already today, he was satisfied with that.

We worked up an appetite looking at all that art work, so an early dinner was in order. Right before we left for the trip we saw a special episode of Anthony Bourdain’s show, No Resrevations, on Paris cuisine. He went to a small restaurant called Les Cocottes de Christian Constant. The food looked great and the atmosphere looked fun, so we decided to check it out. We read online that—true to the title of Bourdain’s show—the restaurant does not take reservations, so you’d better get there early if you didn’t want to wait hours for a seat.

We showed up just after the restaurant opened at 7 p.m. and got right in. There are a couple of tables for large parties, but the main seating runs down the center of the restaurant where diners sit side-by-side on high chairs at a bar. The menu changes based on what’s in season, so we knew whatever we ordered would be made from fresh, local ingredients.

To start, I ordered a rich and hearty mushroom soup with duck and croutons. This was no Campbells Cream of Mushroom soup, my friends! Kyle had tuna salad, with a layer of eggplant on the bottom, flaked tuna in the middle, and beads of tomato jelly on top that acted like caviar. Kyle said, “I have no idea what I’m eating, but it tastes delicious.” Adventure bites pay off!

For the main course, I had sea bass with a sweet, white corn foam, clams and artichoke hearts. Kyle ordered pork loin with sundried tomato, onion, garlic and roasted potatoes. Both entrees (yes, I tried the pork loin!) were incredible. The fish practically melted in my mouth, and while I usually don’t like clams, the sweet corn sauce made them taste like candy of the sea. Kyle’s pork loin was juicy, as the garlic, onion and parsley sauce below soaked in to the loin that was presented in the cocette (a shallow baking dish). For dessert we had red berry cobbler, filled with raspberries, cherries and tart cranberries. The berries were just the right blend of tart and sweet.

While we’d consider the food fine dining, the countertop seating and presentation of the food made it feel like more casual atmosphere, which we loved. We would highly recommend this restaurant to anyone who’s visiting Paris, and we plan to go back next time!

Since it’s not possible for us to go a day without climbing a ridiculous amount of stairs to the top of something, we ended the night with a climb to the top of the Arc de Triumph. From this vantage point we watched the sun set over Paris in all directions as traffic whizzed by the major intersection below.

Parisian Paradise

The bed at Hotel 7 was the most comfortable we’d slept on the entire trip, but despite the good night’s rest, Kyle woke up not feeling well. Perhaps it was our constant activity (yes, we know we’ve squeezed a lot in to this trip!) or lack of sleep, but I knew it wasn’t good since Kyle doesn’t get sick often. He had a slight fever, his lymph nodes were swollen and his mouth hurt, but being the trooper that he is, he said he’d take some Tylenol, drink some water and keep going. He decided that if he was still feeling sick, he’d go see a doctor when we went home in just a couple of days.

Powering on, we walked to the nearby market to get croissants from the boulangerie. The croissants were light, flaky, and buttery all at the same time. They practically melted in our mouths. Like the sandwiches we had in Florence, these first croissants in Paris are a food memory we will always cherish.

Over coffee Kyle asked what I wanted to do while in Paris, and I immediately rattled off a list of 10 “must dos.” A bit overwhelmed, we prioritized the list knowing that there’s no way we could do everything in just the 3 days we had left—we already knew we’d just have to come back!

At the top of the “must do” list was the Louvre. We took the Metro (which would soon become our best friend in Paris) and waited in line with thousands of other tourists to get in. This would be the first of many long lines we would wait in, which led Kyle to deem Paris as “adult Disneyland.” Once inside, the museum was completely packed. We went straight to the Egyptian art section to see the many artifacts and sarcophagi.

As we made our way to the section housing the Mona Lisa, we walked by a stunning statue called “The Winged Victory of Samothrace.” We walked through the Greek and Roman antiquities and Italian paintings where we arrived at the Mona Lisa. We were forewarned that the painting was smaller than you’d expect, and it definitely was! The room was filled to capacity with onlookers snapping photos and pushing their way to the front to get a better view of the painting. The experience was not as sublime as I expected as there were far too many people crammed in the room to really enjoy the moment.

Soon after we left the Louvre, we went off the beaten path to find a place to eat lunch. We stumbled on a small café filled with what appeared to be locals. We sat down and knew we’d picked a good spot when everyone greeted one another just like Cheers in the U.S. The menu was in French, so thumbing through our guidebook, we guessed at what we were ordering. We were delighted to be served an unbelievably tasty meal of a cheese plate appetizer, a green salad with smoked salmon and caviar, and grilled salmon with roasted potatoes. While completely different from Italy, the food in Paris was already proving to be equally outstanding!

The two-day Museum Pass we purchased would give us access to more than 50 museums and attractions in the city and cut the line at certain places (much like a fast pass at Disneyland). The next spot on the “must do” list was Sainte-Chapelle to see the stained glass windows. This 13th century Gothic church was commissioned by France’s King Louis IX to house his collection of the Passion relics, including Jesus’ Crown of Thorns. The church was breathtaking inside, with more than 15 nearly floor-to-ceiling stained glass windows in the upper chapel. The details on the windows were so precise and intricately painted. When the sun shone through, it reflected the most gorgeous colors on the hardwood floors.

Next we headed to Notre Dame. We had seen the church from the outside the night before, but the inside of this Gothic church was gorgeous. While much darker than the illuminating stained glass of Sainte-Chapelle, you could feel the rich history of Notre Dame. Praying in the pews felt like connecting to spirits of the past.

Our pass also included access the towers of Notre Dame. We waited in line again (are you sensing a theme here?), where we met a couple from Huntington Beach, California. It turns out that the man works for Aerospace Corporation, directly across from Kyle’s building in El Segundo. What a small world yet again! We climbed the steps of Notre Dame where at the top we could see the gargoyles up close and amazing views of the city. What a surreal experience to be on top of Notre Dame looking down at Paris below! We visited the bell tower before descending the narrow spiral staircase.

By now it was 6 p.m. Paris time on American Independence Day. Normally at this time we would be biking down the boardwalk to Redondo Beach for our annual Fourth of July barbeque at our dear friend Sandra’s house. We decided we’d celebrate the holiday by having a picnic at the Eiffel Tower. We stopped at little specialty shops along the way where we picked up a baguette, grapes, a cucumber and tomato salad, salami, roast beef for Kyle and roast chicken for me. We brought the bottle of champagne the hotel had given us for our troubles the night before and set out for our Fourth of July picnic.

We found a spot on the grass just south of the Eiffel Tower and set out our spread. We sat and took in the view and munched on our meal for over an hour. The lawn soon filled with other picnickers, travelers and locals alike. We relaxed here until the sun set after 10 p.m. so that we could see the twinkle lights of the tower (up close this time!).

After relishing in the light show, we packed up our picnic and decided to round out our Fourth of July celebration by going to visit Harry’s Bar that American writers F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway frequented in the 1920s. Stepping inside brought me back to my English major days of undergrad, studying The Great Gatsby and In Our Time. Knowing that these great American authors had once clinked glasses here gave me chills. The dark wooden walls of the bar were decorated with at least a hundred pennants from American universities. Kyle said that next time we come to Paris we should bring one from USD to hang on the wall.

We only had time to stay for one drink as the last train was leaving at 12:30 a.m. We ran back to the station just in time. Although we didn’t have fireworks or apple pie, we still managed to have a very memorable Fourth of July celebration!

Ciao Italia, Bonjour Paris!

We left Rome early in the morning to fly to Paris. We were sad to leave Italy, but excited to explore a new city and try new cuisine. Things at the Rome airport moved very slowly as the security line and boarding took double the amount time it would normally take in the U.S. It was a good thing we get to the airport early, but the downside was we were so tight on time that we didn’t get a chance to eat breakfast before boarding the plane.

After a bit of a delay, we arrived in Paris at about 1 p.m. and called the hotel to ask the best way to get there from the Orly airport. We took the RER bus and transferred to the Metro where we took the subway to the Corvisart stop, as they suggested. The hotel recommended we call again when we get off the Metro so that they could explain the easiest way to walk from the subway stop. But this time when we called we spoke to a different person at the hotel who said we should actually get back on the Metro and transfer to a different train line to get off on a closer exit. Since we had already exited the subway and didn’t want to pay for another ticket, we looked at a map and decided the location would be close enough to walk—that is if set off in the right direction!

We hauled our 50 pound suitcases and backpacks down the busy sidewalk, only to realize after about a half of a mile that we had gone the wrong direction. At this point it was close to 2:30 p.m., and I had my first (and luckily for Kyle only) meltdown of the trip. I was starving and we were lost lugging heavy suitcases down a city we didn’t know, trying to ask people for help in a language we couldn’t speak. I’m hoping this is normal for most travelers—that at some point in your journey you reach a breaking point. But I will admit that my hunger and exhaustion got the best of me. Finally, toughing it out, we found our hotel.

We were staying at Hotel 7 for two nights, a boutique hotel near the Latin Quarter. When we arrived they said they were having “electrical problems” and could not let us into our room. We didn’t mind as long as we could leave our bags and go in search of food. The hotel manager pointed us to a nearby market on an old street called Rue de L’Arbalete.

This street was bustling with specialty vendors selling bread, meats, cheeses, fresh produce, seafood and baked goods. If only we had such a market in Los Angeles! At the end of the street we found a small café with tartines (open-faced sandwiches) on the menu. Just what we were looking for! We sat at a small table outside so that we could people watch as we enjoyed our meal. Kyle ordered chicken and cheese and I had smoked salmon and avocado. They were incredibly tasty (and I don’t think it’s just because we were starving!). The sandwiches came with a delicious green salad with light lemon dressing. For dessert I ordered a cappuccino, and we just sat and relaxed taking in the scenery. I felt a million times better after eating and revitalized by the energy and the beauty around us! This was more like it!

We returned to the hotel to find mass chaos. Electricity was still an issue and the manager had to take us to our room as the key cards still weren’t working. Then when I went to take a shower, the drain didn’t function properly and I nearly flooded the bathroom floor! Kyle ran downstairs to get towels, and the hotel assured us that they would clean up the mess and fix the drain when we went out for the night. They offered us a bottle of champagne as a consolation. Cheers to that!

A bit frazzled by the chaos at the hotel, we raced out at 6 p.m. to take the Metro to the Eiffel Tower, which was the meeting point for our bike tour of the city we would take that night. When we arrived at the Eiffel Tower, the sheer size took our breath away. Seeing this iconic landmark in person was both stunning and surreal.

We met the guide from Fat Tire Bike Tours at the south pillar of the tower. There were about 20 people in our tour group. They outfitted us with bicycles and reflective vests (very cool looking…we didn’t stand out as tourists at all!) and we set off on our way. The guide took us through the streets of Paris, past the Louvre, pointing out and stopping at major sites along the way. When we reached Notre Dame, we parked our bikes and got an ice cream. We ate the most amazing salted caramel ice cream as we looked over at Notre Dame—unbelievably amazing!

The bike tour ended with a boat ride over the Seine River. This was the perfect way to get spectacular views of Paris at night (that is when the sun finally set after 10 p.m.!) We passed by the Louvre and the Orsay museums that were beautifully lit with floodlights, and even got to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle with thousands of tiny twinkle lights that illuminate nightly at 10, 11 and 12 p.m. The boat ride sealed the deal—just a few hours in to our first day here and we had already fallen in love with Paris. We borh agreed that it is the most beautiful city we’ve ever seen.

We couldn’t have thought of a better way to spend our first night in Paris. We loved the chance to get an introduction to the city by bike and by boat. We highly recommend the Fat Tire Bike Tours to anyone who’s planning a visit to Paris!

Our Last Day in Roma

Our last day in Rome started at 10 a.m. as we toured the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. Our tour guide shared the violent history of the Colosseum. It was eerie to stand in a space where killing was a spectacle sport and so many people and animals had brutally lost their lives. Despite the tragic nature of the setting, the building itself was quite impressive. Built more than 2,000 years ago, the fact that even some of the structure is still standing today was unbelievable. We learned that the Colosseum actually had a retractable roof that workers moved on tethers—what an advanced system! We also learned that the Colosseum is the most pillaged site in Rome, which you can see by the holes where looters dug into the limestone to extract the metal.

I was even more impressed by the Roman Forum, where archaeologists have uncovered ancient ruins from the times of Julius Caesar and Emperor Augustus. Walking through ancient ruins was also an unusual feeling, but remarkable to see what people so many thousands of years ago were able to construct. It was exciting to see the archaeologists at work excavating ancient ruins from the ground below. What an incredible day at the office that would be!

The tour ended at 1 p.m. and by now the heat was sweltering again. We took the bus back to our neighborhood and decided we needed to correct the bad sandwich experience we had last night and find something that could rival the deliciousness of what we ate in Florence. There was a carniceria next to our hotel that smelled delicious every time we walked by. We popped in to discover that they offered sandwiches with fresh bread, meats cured at in the shop and different types of cheeses. For just 9 euro, we got one spicy salami and cheese sandwich, one regular salami and cheese sandwich and two giant bottles of water. Why hadn’t we eaten here every day for lunch?

We took our sandwiches and walked to the Pantheon. As we rounded the corner we were amazed that we had not yet seen this incredible structure. We sat on some steps at a bank across from the entrance to the Pantheon and ate our sandwiches while looking at this beautiful monument. The sandwiches were absolutely delicious (Kyle thought they were on par with those in Florence!). Then we went inside the Pantheon, which has a gorgeous dome that Brunelleschi studied to construct the Duomo in Florence. We saw Raphael’s tomb here (one of the world’s greatest painters) as well as the first two kings of Rome. Walking around the outside of the Pantheon, we could see remnants of the ancient city below that had been built on top of over the years.

We did some more souvenir shopping and then took a short siesta. For dinner we went to a top-rated restaurant in Rome called Matricianella. We ate a memorable meal of insalata with pear and pecorino cheese, penne arrabiata, fettuccini carbonara and eggplant parmigiano. For dessert, we went to our favorite gelato place, Il Ciampini, and each enjoyed a blackberry and lemon cone.

To celebrate our last night in Italy, we went on the romantic “Night Walk Across Rome” that Rick Steves published in his travel guide. We opened a bottle of Montalcino wine and walked from the Campo de’ Fiori to the Spanish Steps. Along the way we stopped at the Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, Piazza Colonna, Via del Corso and the Trevi Fountain (this time Kyle tossed in a coin, wishing for a return trip to Italy). The sites and fountains are beautifully lit along the way. At the end of the walk, we sat on the Spanish Steps looking out on the street below. When Kyle asked if I was ready to go back to the hotel, I teared up knowing that meant our trip was over and we’d be waking up early to head to the airport. We stayed until the polizia ushered everyone out at midnight.

And that, my friends, was our arrivederci a Italia.

An Unforgettable Day—Part 2

This is part two of the Unforgettable Day—Euro Cup Championship Game.

As soon as we left the Vatican Kyle was eager to watch the championship game of the 2012 Euro Cup in the main square that we heard would be filled with Italian fans. Kyle read online that the game would start at 1:30 p.m., so we raced back to the hotel to change. (We bought blue Italia shirts from a street vendor to share in the excitement with the crowd.)

The hotel told us that the game would be shown in the Circo Massimo (the ancient circus grounds where chariots used to race). This was a long walk from our hotel but equally far from a Metro, so we took the streets on foot. I struggled to keep up with Kyle’s long legs as he looked at the map to lead us to a part of the city we hadn’t yet explored.

We walked so briskly that we arrived at the site in less than 30 minutes only to find it completely empty except for one lone fan. This man was shirtless in the middle of the empty space, waving an Italian flag and yelling, “VIVA ITALIA!” at the top of his lungs. (He was surely on drugs.) Confused, Kyle said, “I don’t understand…The website said the game was at 1:30.” We walked over to the tents where the TV cameras were setting up, and I asked a man what time the game would start and he said “20:45” (or 8:45 p.m.). Turns out Kyle had read the time on the United States ESPN website (which meant the game time was 1:30 p.m. Eastern time). D’OH! Since we were now 7 hours early for the game, we decided to go find a nice restaurant for lunch.

On a road just off the beaten path from the Colosseum, we found a restaurant with a
shaded outdoor patio. We sat down to enjoy one of the best meals of our trip so far. For antipasti, we ordered the fried artichoke, zucchini, cod and octopus plate. As Kyle put it, the fried cod tasted like “the best fish and chips ever!” For the main course, Kyle ordered lemon linguini with roe and zucchini, and I had risotto scampi. Both dishes were unique and scrumptious. We enjoyed a cold beer in the shade and then went on our way.

We had plenty of time to get some sightseeing and shopping in after lunch. We stopped at Piazza Venezia, which is a giant, beautiful building housing the tomb of the unknown soldier. We then shopped at stores along Via del Corso before retreating to our hotel for yet another siesta to escape the heat.

When it was finally closer to game time, we walked back to Circo Massimo, this time with a huge crowd of people with their faces painted, soccer jerseys and scarves on, and waving flags as they walked. Vespas whizzed by with Italian flags waving in the wind, all headed in the direction of the square. We stopped at a sandwich shop to bring a picnic with us to the game. We got caprese and salami sandwiches (which sadly turned out to be the worst meal of the trip), olives and beer.

When we arrived at the Circo Massimo the scene was quite different than what we saw earlier; the square was now filled with at least 100,000 people (and more kept streaming in), all wearing blue like the team jerseys or red, white and green like the Italian flag. Flags were waving and smoke bombs were being lit left and right, also giving off the colors of the Italian flag.

Awed by the site, but leery of how rowdy the crowd might get, we chose to sit on the hill off to the side of the main square. We sat on the grass between other travelers from Holland and Denmark. Here we had our picnic people watching and waiting for the game to start.

The fact that we were sitting in the country’s capital for the championship game sunk in when the TV screens showed the news and we saw the square where we were sitting. The crowd roared with cheers and vigorously waved the flags for the TV cameras. Soon the players took the field and Italy’s national anthem played loudly over the speakers. The crowd went even crazier, lighting off the brilliantly-colored smoke bombs and singing along.

Unfortunately, Spain dominated the game, scoring within the first 20 minutes. This sucked the energy from the crowd like letting helium out of a balloon. Spain scored again before the first half was over and the crowd went silent. Flags still waved in support, but the tension was palpable. We stood through halftime among the eerily silent crowd.

When the second half began, Italy had renewed energy and looked stronger and more confident on the field. Sadly, this revitalization was short-lived as Spain scored its third goal around the 70:00 mark. The crowd was getting anxious now and more smoke bombs were being lit. Kyle turned to me and said, “If you see one of those things fly in our direction, make sure you jump up quick and move.” No less than 10 minutes after he told me that, a fiery smoke bomb came streaking into the grassy hill where we sat and landed just two people away from us. I jumped up and grabbed Kyle’s arm. He quickly pushed me behind him to protect me from the heat. The people around the smoke bomb stomped on it, putting out the fire that had started in the grass. The two guys who were sitting were the smoke bomb landed complained of burns and left immediately for the first aid tents.

Shortly after the smoke bomb incident, we decided to leave and beat the crowds that would be streaming out of the square at the end of the game. As we walked away, we heard Spain score its fourth and final goal. The news the next day called the Spanish team “the best in history,” and it certainly showed as they dominated the entire game.

Despite the loss, the fans were surprisingly low-key as we walked away from the stadium. No one caused any trouble, and we saw no one rioting or vandalizing like often happens in the U.S. Even though Italy lost and we almost got lit on fire, this was such a cool cultural experience.