Omaha has a scooter club! We plan to become members and further ourselves in the scooter culture.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Meet Ruby!
As I said in our last post, we got the "bug" to get a scooter while in Italy. We followed through on that desire and bought a new scooter last weekend. It is a Honda SH150i, in metalic red. Kelli likes to name her vehicles and bicycles, so we came up with the name Ruby for our new scooter. We plan to use it as italians do, getting groceries, getting to and from work, and running errands around town. It goes almost 60mph and gets around 90mpg. It is a much more ecomonical way to get around with gas prices nearing $4/gallon.
Italy!
In April Kelli and I traveled to Italy for 2 weeks. It was a great trip. Italy is definitely a place we will return to at some point in our life. It is real easy to get around and there is not much of a language barrier. We learned that most schools teach English from grade 1 through 12.
We started our trip by flying through Atlanta, then to Paris, and finally to Naples. It noon in Naples when we landed so we hit the ground running adjusting to the time change as we went.
Naples was a dirty city and hard to navigate. We got lost numerous times but did find our way to the National Archaeological Museum. We also found a good pizzeria along the way. By the time we were done at the museum we were tired and ready to get out of the city. We boarded a train to Sorrento called the Circumvesuviana. This was a round trip train that runs back and forth between Naples and Sorrento. It is sort of a commuter train, even though tourists make up a large part of it's passengers.
Sorrento was a welcome sight. It was clean and picturesque. We walked to the hotel checked in showered and went back out for dinner. We called it a night around 10 or 11. The next day we walked all over town visiting the marinas and little shops and markets. We had fun finding new places to eat and new beers to try. The next day we took a bus to Positano another little town nestled in the cliffs of the Amalfi Coast. The town was very neat and catered to tourists. We walked on the beach and we looked for sea glass for Kelli to make jewelry out of. After we returned to Sorrento we walked around some more had dinner and went back to the hotel. The next morning we got packed up and headed back to the train station to head for Rome. We were going to stop in Naples one more time to visit a fish market and famous pizzeria. Naples must have heard us complain about the trash problem in their town. It was amazingly cleaner and since it was a weekday it was less busy and crowded. We found the fish market and pizzeria, had a great time. It rained on us the heaviest rain we had the whole trip. We ducked into the pizzeria before they opened to take shelter. The pizza was the best we had in all of Italy. There were some contenders but it won the best pizza award. We headed to Rome from there.
Rome was busy, but Naples gave us a preview of what to expect so it wasn't so bad. Rome is a beautiful city with such rich history. I'm not much of a history buff, but could appreciate all it had to offer. We checked into our hotel and headed for the Trevi Fountain and Pantheon. The Trevi Fountain was cool but seriously crowded. We returned to it several times in the 3 days we were there and it was always packed with tourists. There were amazingly a lot of groups of kids in Rome. We had later put two and two together that since it was culture week in Italy, all the museums were not charging admission. So what better time to take 30 screaming youths to a museum. We dealt with the crowds, but it took away from the experience at times. We spent 3 nights in Rome but I believe you can see all the sights in a day and a half. It was nice to have the extra time to wonder around and get to see some of the less traveled areas. We saw all the major sights right off the bat and spent our last day checking out the Campo di Fiori market, Trastevere, and the Basilica of San Clemente. San Clemente was probably my favorite place we saw. Not only was it off the beaten path with few tourists, but it gave the best look at how Rome was built on itself. Beneath the church they had excavated to reveal 3 layers of old structures it was built upon. We were able to walk through there and get a feel for how ancient Romans lived.
Florence was the next place we visited. Our hotel was in an ideal location to walk everywhere. There was real neat indoor market nearby with vendors lining the streets leading to it. We saw the Duomo, Uffizi Gallery (from the outside), and the Ponte Veccio Bridge. Our last full day in Florence we spent taking a Vespa Tour through the Tuscany countryside. This was one of the highlights of out trip. We got to ride scooters around beautiful Tuscany, what more could you ask for. We toured a winery, had lunch there, and had gellato at the end of our trip. It was great. Kelli and I got the "bug" to get a scooter when we returned home.
We headed towards Bologna the next morning. Our trusty guide Rick Steves, did not have any info on Bologna. We were flying blind for the most part not really knowing what to expect. Bologna was different, it was not a touristy town, and really faced our first real language barrier. It was something we had taken for granted. We were quickly brought back to reality that we were in a foreign country. Ordering off an Italian menu was hard, up to this point the menus had been in both Italian and English. Our highlight in Bologna was the cooking class we took. La Veccia Cooking School is run by the Paula Dean of Italy. I guess she was kind of a big deal. We learned to make pasta dough from scratch, torilini, tortiloni, and few other basic noodles. It was a great experience, one we hope to recreate in our home. Making pasta is a very labor intensive process, but well worth it.
Last stop, Venice. Wow, the best way I can describe Venice is it's like the Las Vegas of Italy. It's full of tourists and there's so much to look at it's over stimulating. We started out taking a water taxi to the island of Murano. We hadn't really researched it so didn't know where to go. We had also gotten out there later in the day and places were starting to close. In Venice, I had the best time wondering around getting half lost. Wondering around took up most of our two days there. I took a ton of pictures and finally stopped myself because everywhere I looked I wanted to take a picture. It is such an amazingly beautiful place. On our last night we took a gondola ride on the Grand Canal. It is a typical touristy thing to do, but an experience that you have to do. It was fun and our (boat rower) was fun and informative.
The next morning we got up way to early and caught a 04:40 am bus to the airport. We flew through Paris again and then onto Chicago, Minneapolis, and finally Omaha. After 22 hours of flying and layovers we couldn't wait to sleep in our own beds.
We are waiting for one more thing to finish off our trip. In Venice we splurged and bought a glass bowl. It was made in Murano by a master glass blower. It was too awesome to pass up. We had it shipped to us, so hopefully we'll see it soon.
See pictures from our trip by clicking HERE.
Thanks for reading
Drew & Kelli
We started our trip by flying through Atlanta, then to Paris, and finally to Naples. It noon in Naples when we landed so we hit the ground running adjusting to the time change as we went.
Naples was a dirty city and hard to navigate. We got lost numerous times but did find our way to the National Archaeological Museum. We also found a good pizzeria along the way. By the time we were done at the museum we were tired and ready to get out of the city. We boarded a train to Sorrento called the Circumvesuviana. This was a round trip train that runs back and forth between Naples and Sorrento. It is sort of a commuter train, even though tourists make up a large part of it's passengers.
Sorrento was a welcome sight. It was clean and picturesque. We walked to the hotel checked in showered and went back out for dinner. We called it a night around 10 or 11. The next day we walked all over town visiting the marinas and little shops and markets. We had fun finding new places to eat and new beers to try. The next day we took a bus to Positano another little town nestled in the cliffs of the Amalfi Coast. The town was very neat and catered to tourists. We walked on the beach and we looked for sea glass for Kelli to make jewelry out of. After we returned to Sorrento we walked around some more had dinner and went back to the hotel. The next morning we got packed up and headed back to the train station to head for Rome. We were going to stop in Naples one more time to visit a fish market and famous pizzeria. Naples must have heard us complain about the trash problem in their town. It was amazingly cleaner and since it was a weekday it was less busy and crowded. We found the fish market and pizzeria, had a great time. It rained on us the heaviest rain we had the whole trip. We ducked into the pizzeria before they opened to take shelter. The pizza was the best we had in all of Italy. There were some contenders but it won the best pizza award. We headed to Rome from there.
Rome was busy, but Naples gave us a preview of what to expect so it wasn't so bad. Rome is a beautiful city with such rich history. I'm not much of a history buff, but could appreciate all it had to offer. We checked into our hotel and headed for the Trevi Fountain and Pantheon. The Trevi Fountain was cool but seriously crowded. We returned to it several times in the 3 days we were there and it was always packed with tourists. There were amazingly a lot of groups of kids in Rome. We had later put two and two together that since it was culture week in Italy, all the museums were not charging admission. So what better time to take 30 screaming youths to a museum. We dealt with the crowds, but it took away from the experience at times. We spent 3 nights in Rome but I believe you can see all the sights in a day and a half. It was nice to have the extra time to wonder around and get to see some of the less traveled areas. We saw all the major sights right off the bat and spent our last day checking out the Campo di Fiori market, Trastevere, and the Basilica of San Clemente. San Clemente was probably my favorite place we saw. Not only was it off the beaten path with few tourists, but it gave the best look at how Rome was built on itself. Beneath the church they had excavated to reveal 3 layers of old structures it was built upon. We were able to walk through there and get a feel for how ancient Romans lived.
Florence was the next place we visited. Our hotel was in an ideal location to walk everywhere. There was real neat indoor market nearby with vendors lining the streets leading to it. We saw the Duomo, Uffizi Gallery (from the outside), and the Ponte Veccio Bridge. Our last full day in Florence we spent taking a Vespa Tour through the Tuscany countryside. This was one of the highlights of out trip. We got to ride scooters around beautiful Tuscany, what more could you ask for. We toured a winery, had lunch there, and had gellato at the end of our trip. It was great. Kelli and I got the "bug" to get a scooter when we returned home.
We headed towards Bologna the next morning. Our trusty guide Rick Steves, did not have any info on Bologna. We were flying blind for the most part not really knowing what to expect. Bologna was different, it was not a touristy town, and really faced our first real language barrier. It was something we had taken for granted. We were quickly brought back to reality that we were in a foreign country. Ordering off an Italian menu was hard, up to this point the menus had been in both Italian and English. Our highlight in Bologna was the cooking class we took. La Veccia Cooking School is run by the Paula Dean of Italy. I guess she was kind of a big deal. We learned to make pasta dough from scratch, torilini, tortiloni, and few other basic noodles. It was a great experience, one we hope to recreate in our home. Making pasta is a very labor intensive process, but well worth it.
Last stop, Venice. Wow, the best way I can describe Venice is it's like the Las Vegas of Italy. It's full of tourists and there's so much to look at it's over stimulating. We started out taking a water taxi to the island of Murano. We hadn't really researched it so didn't know where to go. We had also gotten out there later in the day and places were starting to close. In Venice, I had the best time wondering around getting half lost. Wondering around took up most of our two days there. I took a ton of pictures and finally stopped myself because everywhere I looked I wanted to take a picture. It is such an amazingly beautiful place. On our last night we took a gondola ride on the Grand Canal. It is a typical touristy thing to do, but an experience that you have to do. It was fun and our (boat rower) was fun and informative.
The next morning we got up way to early and caught a 04:40 am bus to the airport. We flew through Paris again and then onto Chicago, Minneapolis, and finally Omaha. After 22 hours of flying and layovers we couldn't wait to sleep in our own beds.
We are waiting for one more thing to finish off our trip. In Venice we splurged and bought a glass bowl. It was made in Murano by a master glass blower. It was too awesome to pass up. We had it shipped to us, so hopefully we'll see it soon.
See pictures from our trip by clicking HERE.
Thanks for reading
Drew & Kelli
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