La Dolce Vita

So I've been lazy and neglected to post some of the pictures from our last night in Rome as well some of the pictures of where we stayed during the week, Castel Gandolfo. So here's a little bit of la dolce vita experience in Italia...."the sweet life"

First we'll start with Castel Gandolfo, a picturesque lakeside town just south of Rome. I stayed here for my training and the majority of my two week trip to Italy. (Patrick met up with me for my second week). There are very few English speaking locals in Castel Gandolfo, unlike Rome. Here we were able to experience authentic Italian food, which was delicious! Although small, I miss the peacefulness and resort-like feel of Castel Gandolfo.

(Click on the pictures for a larger view)

Across the lake from our hotel

It was glorious to wake up to this view every morning:

Sunrise as seen from my room - Hotel Castel Vecchio

Lake view near our hotel

Piazza della Liberta in Castel Gandolfo with Bernini Fountain - Pope's summer residence in the background

Our last night in Castel Gandolfo

Quaint streets in Castel Gandolfo

Piazza and Pope's summer residence at night

mmmm.....limone gelato

View from the hotel restaurant

Hanging out on the rooftop terrace

And now on to our last night in Rome. Being that it was our last night, I wanted to experience romantic Rome. After dinner we walked around Rome to see several sites lit-up at night that we already saw in the daylight....absolutely beautiful!

We didn't have a tri-pod, so we balanced our camera on a garbage can for this slow shutter speed shot: (we make do!)

Colosseum

Roman Forum

Monument of Victor Emmanuel II

Finally our last stop of the night....The Trevi Fountain. So romantic! We sat by the fountain, people watching, while eating....you guessed it! ...Gelato!

I will leave you with these two final images from the Island of Capri. While I was in training, Pat visited this breathtaking island. After seeing his pictures I'm extremely sad I missed out. However, I WILL make a point of visiting this island when I return to Italty....so something to look forward to I guess!

Ciao,

Summer Fun

Ahhh I love the summer! Last weekend we spent as much time outside as possible, soaking up the sun. On Saturday we went to a beach in Gloucester with my work pal Teresa and her bf Tyler. Pat and I recently went on a shopping spree at Costco (such an addicting place....a story for another time) and purchased all our beach gear - big towels, beach chairs, a big umbrella - so we were dying to put them to use. It was the perfect day for the beach - warm, clear skies. We were destroyed by the awesome waves and I learned the hard way to restrain from screaming every time I caught a wave - a mouth full of salt water is not so pleasant.

After lounging at the beach we went for pizza at Teresa's family restaurant. Yummm it was so amazing! She is definitely in Pat's good books!!!

 

Sunday we went Kayaking on the Charles River. We attempted to go in June, but we were turned away because it was too windy. Every weekend I say, "we need to go kayaking" and we never do. But we made a point to go last weekend. The weather was perfect for it! It was extremely hot, but the wind on the river brought it down to the perfect temperature. We had a blast! We rented a double kayak from Charles River Canoe and Kayak for $18. We were out on the river for an one hour and a half, but they only charged us for one hour because we had to wait. I can't wait to go back!

MIT

 We spent the remainder of the afternoon running errands and then lounging by the pool. :)

We also set up a tent in our living room. YES you read that right! We're going camping next weekend, and came to realize that we can't borrow camping gear from Pat's parents anymore, given that they live so far away (and that we're grown-ups now). So we purchased an inflatable mattress.....among other delights.

Lately, it's extremely difficult to find a standard size single height mattress, all we could find was a queen size, most of which were double height. Having a double height mattress normally be great. It would actually be perfect for company, which is why we thought it would be a win win. But the problem is our tent is pretty small.

Instead of ending up with a bad surprise while camping, we decided to test out our mattress to tent ratio. We don't have a yard, so next best thing is setting up the tent in our living room. (hey, at least this way I was able to give a much needed vacuum to the tent floor). MUCH needed indeed! Found some grass, dirt, and dried up insects. Very pleasant!

Long story short, although we loved the mattress it's much too high for our teeny tiny tent. It took up the entire tent, was bulging out the front and back, and we were pretty much touching the top of the tent while laying down. Overall it would probably make me feel claustrophobic. But the good news is that Pat found a standard size single height mattress online...are you surprised by his online shopping skillz??? He's become quite the pro as of lately....hem hem

And in case you think I'm bluffing, here's the proof:

The Urban Experience

Friday night Patrick and I went to the Keith Urban concert - Get Closer. Ok.....I went to the Keith Urban concert and Patrick, being the great husband that he is and knowing how much I wanted to go, graciously tagged along.

We had a blast! This was the second time I've seen Keith Urban in concert. He puts on such an energetic show! He's completely involved with the audience the entire time. He played a mixture of both his new songs and some of his old stuff too. I love his music and I never tire of it. He's an artist I can always go back to. His band is amazing too. I was so impressed by one band member in particular who plays almost every instrument you can think of! He was incredibly talented.
 
Opening song..."Put you in a Song"

He came into the audience a couple times to play. The first time was from a stage in the center of the audience. But more importantly he played just a few rows up from where we were sitting. I think a took at least 5 pictures and all of them were out blurry....of course! :s

 
Sporting a Bruins jersey....

Confetti everywhere!

Here are a couple video's from the concert:

"Jean On": Yep that's me dancing when the camera pans to the left....I asked Pat to film this one because I was too busy dancing and singing. hehe

"You'll Think of Me": The quality of this video is pretty crappy....but I still enjoy it. :)  (Just don't watch it in full screen).

Still on my concert high,

4th of July Fireworks

To partake in the 4th of July celebration, we watched the Boston fireworks from a rooftop balcony on MIT campus. This was my first 4th experience in the US. The fireworks were brilliant, lasting approximately 20 minutes. Boston is known for having spectacular fireworks for July 4th. These were definitely one of the best displays I've ever seen!

Here are some of my favorite pics taken by Patrick:

Yes those are cubes!!

And here is a video of the fireworks finale. Patrick did the camera work and I put together the video on my Mac. It's my first video creation :)