Rome - The Eternal City

We're finally getting around to uploading, organizing, and captioning photos from the Italian leg of our honeymoon.





Here's the link to our photos of Rome. We hit the high points - The Vatican, Palatine Hill, Roman Forum, Coliseum, Spanish Steps, and the Trevi Fountain. Not bad for essentially 2 days.


In addition to the fun of watching Matt experience all these sites for the first time, I thoroughly enjoyed the moment in St Peter's when, 30 minutes into our 40 minute Rick Steves podcast, Matt quietly came up to me and asked if I was listening to the podcast for St. Mark's.


"Umm no, we're in St. Peter's in Rome. St. Mark's is in Venice. Like the title of the podcast says. So I'm listening to St Peter's"


"Oh, that would explain why I'm having difficulty"


He was really jetlagged

Quick update

We're wrapping up in Florence (spent today in the Tuscan countryside tasting some fantastic Brunello wines) and heading to Cinque Terra tomorrow.

The internet connection at the hotel is crazy slow (yes, we're taking lots of photos but not nearly enough to warrant 7 hours of upload time). Blogger's "Post via e-mail" function let us down so we're going to give SMS and MMS updates a try. This feels dangerously close to Twittering but I'm going to try to ignore that and focus on the band-aid solution it offers for the next week.

"I don't think 'casual' means what we think it means"

(Since we now have to pay for Internet access posts will be slightly less frequent, there will be no photos, and filled with a lot more typos since I am relying on Matt's iPhone)

When Di moved to Seattle, she lamented that her "Boston casual" was apparently "West Coast formal." Knowing that East Coasters tend to erron the formal side, Matt and I were reasonably confident that ourcasual attire would meet the "casual" requirement for our hotel'srooftop restaurant with the panoramic Views of Rome.

We were wrong

we walked in - the waiters were in coats and tails, all the malecustomers were in dark suits, and the women were in cocktail dressesand fab jewelry. In contrast, Matt was in jeans and a dress shirt andI was wearing a t-shirt capris and flip flops. Nothing but class.

Only one thing to do in a situation like that: own it.

The meal was amazing and I was able to survive with only a minor complex.
More from our next city - Florence - soon (I hope)!

Do they make Bull Bars for the VW Eos?

Matt and I concluded Phase 1 of our two-phased honeymoon this afternoon when we departed Bermuda and, after a surprisingly uneventful flight, arrived back home in Boston.

Although we had many non-fun chores ahead of us (unpacking, laundry, errands, re-packing), we were happy to be home, if only for a few hours. That happiness quickly faded once we realized what we had come home to - college move-in time

There are many many colleges in Boston and they're all on the same calendar (not literally, but it sure feels that way). This means that there are two truly horrible times of year for Boston/Cambridge residents. Graduation is one - when new graduates drink away the rest of their loans and stumble about our streets while their parents try to pack 4 years of college stuff into whatever rental vehicle they could get their hands on.

But far, far worse than graduation is move-in week(s). This is because (1) tens of thousands of people who have never driven are now driving in Boston, (2) tens of thousands of people who have never walked in Boston, let alone tried to cross a street in Boston, are now walking around and crossing streets, (3) every store that sells anything resembling necessities - grocery stores, office supply stores, Target - look like they have been ransacked by the barbarian hordes.

It is a truly truly horrible time. So while running around and navigating around the new residents of the Commonwealth, I remembered something I learned about last summer when working on my Trucks project. We spoke to a fair number of ranchers and farmers and several mentioned "bull bars." For the city-folk reading this, think of the half pyramid thing on the front of train engines and the imagine something like that (except more rectangular than pyramid shaped) attached the front of a truck and used to move stubborn bulls (or cows) out of the way without damaging the truck.

I wonder if they make something like that for people because, seriously, the new pedestrian/drivers are no smarter than the average head of cattle. I don't want to hurt them, just nudge them out of the way.

It's a good thing we leave for Italy in 12 hours. We're taking a taxi to the airport.

"Perhaps it's a good thing we bought the supplemental insurance"

Sorry kids, no photos from Friday. That's because our activity for the day was not camera friendly - we rented a jet ski and went on a tour of the eastern part of the island.

Just a short trolley ride from the hotel is Jews Bay, which is notable only for its 4-star steakhouse and the jet ski company that runs tours for hotel guests. Since we made our reservations late (i.e. the morning of the tour), Matt and I had to share a jet ski. Since we've shared a snowmobile before (see trip to Ice Hotel), I was not terribly concerned about being a passenger despite Matt's tendency to be an aggressive driver.

We set out from Jews Bay, through Little Sound, under Somerset Bridge (the smallest drawbridge in the world, when it is fully up, the opening is only wide enough to allow the mast of a small sailboat to pass through), and into Ely's Harbor. The harbor is actually named for a small outcropping of rocks that has been worn away to look like elephants drinking from the harbor (it made me think of Big Bird in China or Japan, the one with the phoenix and the monkey). It's tradition that when fishermen set out from this harbor, they throw fish to the elephants for good luck. From there it was out into the open sea and, I'm not kidding, the Bermuda Triangle. We saw a shipwreck, stingray, red snappers, and a sucker shark (they usually attach to whales but sometimes get confused and attach themselves to jet skis and go on little rides). We did not see Amelia Earhart.

We were a bit early getting back to Jews Bay so our guide said we could spend 5 minutes doing doughnuts in the open waters. He was also surprised that Matt hadn't yet bounced me off the jet ski and suggested he try to accomplish that in the final few minutes. Obviously, this guide did not know me well. Matt did a few doughnuts which only succeeded in making me a bit nauseous. However, on the last doughnut, he forgot to accelerate properly and flipped the entire jet ski, thus launching both of us into the water. Our guide quickly came to our rescue, giving us his jet ski (which I pulled myself up onto, thank you Cory for all the ab and arm workouts) and jumping into the water to right ours.

As all this was going on, one of the other people on the tour floated by and asked what happened. "He tried to bounce me off so I just decided to take him and the ski down with me." The response - "I get it. Don't get mad. Get even."

Yep. Pretty much sums it up

(p.s. we did not actually need to use the supplemental insurance, but I will no longer question Matt when he suggests that we get it)

Relaxation and Romance

Hi Everyone! This is Matt, and this is my first contribution to ever-so-witty blog that Robyn has started for us. As Robyn mentioned, I am in fact writing this post during the Bucs game - but hey, it's only preseason :) ...

Yesterday, Robyn and I enjoyed one of the most relaxing and romantic days that either of us can remember.

The day started with a couple's spa treatment called "The Ritual for Two." This treatment involved taking an hour to give each other multiple skin treatments in a private room with a warm jacuzzi, sweet aromatics, and very relaxing music (with prior coaching from the experts on Fairmont Spa staff, of course). Following this hour, we were then treated to a simply wonderful whole-body massage - this was definitely the best whole-body massage that either of us can remember.

This was a great start for any day. In fact, this start was so good that it required us to nap almost immediately, and for many hours :)

Thankfully, we recovered from our napping in time to make our "Bermuda Moon Dance" dinner. What is a "Bermuda Moon Dance" dinner you ask? Simply put, it is a very romantic, delicious, fun, and memorable dinner experience that included a five course meal with great wine on the Fairmont hotel's private beach in a beautifully decorated cabana, with table-side food preparation and two butlers to cater to our every need. What really made the evening so special was having the beach to ourselves and being able to take our time talking, laughing, and doing whatever we wanted - this included a break between courses for us to walk the beach and even do a little dancing under the moon.

The picture at the top of this post was taken as we were walking to the cabana at the beginning of the evening. The picture below gives you an idea of what the cabana looked like.

Romantic and relaxing dinners don't get much better! This dinner was the perfect end to what was a truly memorable, fun, relaxing, and romantic day!!

"Holy crap! Is that Ben Stein?"

Post about Wed activities coming soon (I'm going to try to convince Matt to write it, despite the fact that the Bucs game is on) BUT just couldn't wait to write about today's exciting event



We met Ben Stein in the hot tub.



The Fairmont has a fantastic spa (best we've been to) and, if you get a spa treatment or pay a daily membership fee, you get all day access to the private indoor pool, terraces, and hot tubs. So, after our facials (which were awesome), Matt and I decided to spend the day in these exclusive digs.



After several hours of lounging outside, I wandered into the pool area where Matt was lounging. As we were chatting, I looked up and saw across the room someone who looked very much like Ben Stein. I apparently need to work on my "inside voice" because when I uttered the words in the title of the post, the man turned and looked at me.



To avoid further embarrassment, Matt assured me that it was not Ben Stein because the hair color was all wrong and suggested we go outside and sit in the hot tub.



After a few minutes in the hot tub, the man who looked like Ben Stein (probably because he IS Ben Stein) joined us. He gave us a bit of applause for getting married, congratulated Matt, wished me good luck, and gave us the following advice: "Walk around with one eye closed" (considering he's married the same woman twice, he may know what he's talking about. Matt just thinks he's a cynic). We also chatted a bit about politics (the passing of Sen Kennedy and plans to fill his seat) and the importance of getting a hot tub for our apartment in Cambridge. Also, in a rare display of self-control, I did not ask him to say, "Bueller. Bueller" Possibly because I wanted to avoid further embarrassment or because I thought I should mention something slightly more recent than a 23 year old movie quote.

It was only a few minutes, but it was the most super awesome non-romantic things that's happened. He's very nice (especially after my outburst) and sounds EXACTLY the same in person as he does on TV.