As we are solidly counting down the days to our next trip, I’ve enjoyed going through our photos, and this one gets me every time. Smiles all around, as we were both secretly exhausted, but couldn’t complain, as after all, we were on our way to Venice! What is not shown here, is the walk out of the train station, into the city, when someone was finally kind enough tap my arm, and pointed out to me that I had tucked the back of my dress into my tights! Absolutely mortified, I turned to my charming husband, and asked him how on earth he didn’t notice?!?! The girl saw my apparent embarrassment and was so sweet. There was a slight language barrier but she laughed, took my hand, smiled, and said that she would hope someone would do the same for her. I remember feeling so far from home, but in that moment, I was reminded that kindness is all around us, and that is a beautiful thing. Not to mention, a little humility from time to time is good for the soul. It also made for a good laugh after a couple glasses of wine later! It had to have been that way for hours, we switched trains twice!
They say that traveling abroad will shift your perspective. It does. Going to countries with thousands of years of history, eating exotic food that is best thing you ever tasted, drinking wine poured straight from the barrel that beats the pants off of anything you can buy in the states for $20 a bottle, (and there, they pour it in a plastic wine bottle for …. wait for it…. a whole 2 Euros.) It is amazing. And yes, it leaves you wanting more.
(Yeah, these are the said bottles of wine that we got from the winery right down the street from our Airbnb in Genoa, Italy! And Boom! They were amazing!)
But let’s be real about what Wanderlust really means. Sure you may see the words etched on glass across a map of the world, but doesn’t mean for one second that you shouldn’t get out there and enjoy the beauty in your own back yard. Yes, my Vacation App has the countdown at 111 days til I’m snorkeling in the French Riviera, but when I think about my last camping trip in Yosemite (which was practically in my backyard growing up) It makes my heart smile. How can you not look at it it’s beauty and not feel that power of wanderlust stirring in your soul?!? Get out there an explore already! Just do it!
The night after we got back from Italy, we sat in the kitchen with a sub par bottle of wine (I mean, come on, we just came back from Italy!) reminiscing about our trip. We finally decided the only way heal our wonderlust souls was to choose where we were going next, which would be in 2 years, for our 10 year anniversary. We jotted a few ideas on sticky notes, threw them in a hat and I picked Paris. We then stayed up all night as we threw one idea after another into a fishbowl. The 7 wonders of the world, Beach destinations, Alaskan adventure Cruzes, a River Boat trip that takes you down the amazon river for 7 days. … You get the idea! Some may take years to save up for, but that’s part of the fun!
The thing is , what we have quickly realized that when you pick a spot in Europe, it’s just a starting point! Yeah, we are packing 17 days of clothes in a carry on bag (somehow!) Gotta love how cheap it is to bop around out there!
102 day countdown has begun! Cleveland to Paris, Paris to Nice, Nice to Corsica, Corsica to Genoa, Genoa to London, London to Paris and back to Cleveland.
To say that I’m obsessed with travel, is an understatement. Long before I could ever afford to fly to Europe, I was taking road trips. Once I drove for 23 hours from Northern California to somewhere Mid Baja Cali. I’ve camped in the Redwood Forest, Climbed Half Dome, and spent many trips driving up Highway 1 free diving for abalone and camping in Fort Bragg.
2 years ago, a customer walked into my shop. He was grinning oddly, and informed me that he wasn’t there to buy pasta. I will never forget the way my mouth dropped, my heart stopped and my chest tightened as he proceeded to tell me that he worked for an airlines company and that he has a buddy pass that he can share with someone. FOR A YEAR! He went on to say how cool it was seeing my business grow from the home business it was, to watching me sling pasta at the farmers markets for years, to now opening my shop and he wanted to give it to ME! It was truly the last thing I ever expected. Within 2 months my husband and I booked our first trip to Italy!
I will never forget getting off the plane, and backpacking into Genoa. The moment we walked into the city, I knew my life would never be the same. We spent 14 days traveling through Northern Italy by Train and by the end of our trip, we looked at eachother and vowed that this would not be our last trip. Whether we used bonus’s , tax returns, or saved for years, we want to travel the world. Traveling changes your perspective of what’s important in life in one of the most beautiful ways. Realizing that the world, is much much bigger than you.Wanderlust now runs in my veins. I’m an entrepreneur and work hard, but now I know just what I’m working so hard for.
Yeah, I am constantly manifesting travel
Our next trip is 103 days ! We are going flying into Paris, flying from Paris to Nice, then flying from Nice to Corsica. Then it’s a boat ride to Genoa, then a flight from Genoa to London and then London back to Paris. 17 days in Europe! To say I’m excited, it’s an understatement!
Somewhere amongst the magic of wandering the streets in Florence, drooling over the gorgeous displays of Gelato and being taken back by the beauty of it all, it came time to find a place that we could watch game 4 of the American League playoffs. I know, watching baseball while in one of the most romantic cities in the world may seem a little ridiculous to you, but hey, I’m married to a born and raised Cleveland guy. Anyway, the series had started when we landed into Genoa a few days earlier. We were exploring the city during the day and struggling to stay up til 3 a.m each morning trying to listen to the game on the radio which came in spotty at best. It was exhausting ! By the time we got to Florence it was game 4 and time to try to find a place that might be having the game on tv. With a little research, we came across the Monkey Bar which not only was showing the game but was also known to speak a bit of English. Perfect !
A little dark and dingy and a tad goth, we grabbed some beers and waited for the game to start. Before we knew it , the bar was packed with American College kids studying abroad, and sitting next to us was a travel agent from Canada. Did I mention the Indians were playing the Blue Jays? You can’t make this stuff up. We became instant friends, and chatted about our travels, where we came from, where we were going. We bought rounds of beers, cheered loudly and when the Indians lost , we were bought shots to help heal our broken hearts.
Side note: Don’t opt for the Nachos. We got a sad plate of chips topped with runny marinara sauce and bell peppers.
The point of this post, is simply that one of the best things about traveling abroad is when you find a small piece of home, meet new friends and have memories that will last a life time. Wanderlust is what crosses the barriers and brings people together.
We joined the tradition, and carved our names into the wall
I know it’s a bold claim! Let’s just say that we are going to Europe for 17 days this May and are literally taking an over night boat ride from Corsica to Genoa just so we can stay for one night, eat at this incredible restaurant once again, before flying off to London.
So, a small bit of me, so you can understand the true excitement I felt at this moment. I am chef/owner of a small pasta shop in Ohio. I sell my pastas out of my brick and mortar, and also have been working hard over the last 6 years slinging my pastas at local farmers markets and events. Pasta is my life to say the least. My culinary teacher joked that she thought I must be Italian that first day we made fresh pasta in class, and to say that I at least have a soul of one, sums me up pretty well.
Tucked away in an Alley, where one might miss it should they not looking hard enough is da Maria Osteria con Cucina.
Walking in, we found the downstairs packed wall to wall while waitresses seamlessly shuffled amongst the crowd and happy conversation filled the air. The smell, well, it was incredible, and my husband and I looked at each other a tad heartbroken as it seemed that there would be no room for us. Finally a charming woman walked up to us, and quickly discovering our Italian wasn’t that good, simply smiled and lead us to the upstairs. The kitchen is upstairs so to say the smell was incredible would be an understatement. The only other table was a group of fireman on their lunch break, and gathering as we were clearly tourists, they gave us a friendly welcome . By the time our lunch came, the upstairs was absolutely packed as tightly as it was downstairs.
My heart leapt out of my chest when we got the menus. Handwritten was the menu of the day, and I found myself studying the menu for a bit trying to gather what I could of understanding. Gnocchi d Pesto alla Genoese jumped out at me as well, if you haven’t heard, Genoa is worldwide famous for their pesto. (Yes, we tried it on other parts of our trip, and nothing compared to this pesto!)
Now, Gnocchi was one of the things I wanted to learn as soon as I moved to Northeast Ohio. Oddly enough, there are a ton of amazing Italian joints and nothing beats fresh Gnocchi. The plate came, and at first I was almost unimpressed. I know, totally shameful to admit now. I was a little disappointed in what I thought was a lack of sauce, and hesitantly took my first bite. My husband laughed at me as I grew silent, and my eyes grew bigger with every bite and my eyes got a little teary eyed. The pillowyness of the Gnocchi and the freshness of the multiple fresh flavor’s in the Pesto. It was heaven. I had never had anything like this. My husband, whom had gotten the beef ravioli which were delicious, was in shock when he tried my dish, and insisted we go back again just to get this dish. Sadly next time we went to go back at dinner time, we were unable to get a table.
Now when I say this is the best Pesto we had on our trip, I’m not joking. Even in other restaurants in the Genoa area, didn’t have a pesto to compare. There’s were over oiled, and bland. I tried again and again throughout Northern Italy to find something that compared but could not.
Like I said, we are going back to Europe for our 10 year wedding anniversary and are taking an overnight boat trip from Corsica simply to enjoy this place once more.
The stars have been etched into my soul. I grew up in the country and during the summers my mom and I would grab our sleeping bags and head for the back deck where we would look at the starts until we finally drifted off to sleep. This is where I learned about the Pleiades, the Big and Little Dipper, the Milky Way Galaxy and saw my first meteor showers.
Fast forward a ton of years, and now I’m living just outside of Cleveland. I think in my 11 years of living here, I have seen a total of maybe 10 stars from my back yard, and honestly when I think about that, I truthfully want to cry.
Needless to say when I found out about the Lunar Eclipse in 2017 , I grabbed the computer and mapped out exactly where the best viewing spot would be. My husband and I looked at each other, and grinned. Road Trip!
We bought our viewing glasses off of Amazon, loaded up the kayaks and headed out!
The best viewing spot within a 7 hour drive was Center Hill Lake in Tennessee. It was a bit of a drive but seriously, so freaking beautiful, I want to go back to there!
In case you were wondering, that’s a Kodiak Canvas Tent. They are amazing and yes, if all of my other businesses fail, I could get a job as their top salesmen. Love it!
The Lunar Eclipse
The morning of the eclipse had an electric charge. People were buzzing around their campsites, talking about what kind of cameras they had and their hopes of capturing some good footage. I remember grinning. I had brought my knock off Go Pro but had never used it before…..(Nope didn’t get one good shot with it)
Anyway, there is a small island that we could see from the campsite and decided that’s where we would watch it. The hubs grabbed our cooler of beer, our innertubes, tied them to our kayaks and we paddled out.
Note to self: Styrofoam coolers full of beer are not easy to drag behind a kayak!
We bobbed up in down in our tubes for abut an hour before the eclipse began. Fellow enthusiasts joined us on the island and yachts from the boat club around the bend joined the party. As the eclipse began to take place one of the boats blasted “It’s the end of the world as we know it” and every single person on that island sang it at the top of their lungs, I was no acceptation. The excitement amongst the crowd was intense.
Bobbing in my tube, with my glasses on, I was in awe as I watched the moon begin to cross the sun. It got cold and then the bugs came out, and then the bats! They were clearly confused as to what was going on. I looked away from the moment and looked around me to see everyone gasping as they were watching it. I remember tearing up, and realizing how just very cool this was. The moon continued crossing over, and I caught myself holding my breath. It was absolutely unlike anything I had ever seen. It seemed to last for hours, and then it was gone as quick as it had came. But, just before it was over we saw the ring! I had heard about the ring in an eclipse but seeing it was another story. The beach was absolutely silent. It was incredible, standing their in the water, amongst a group of strangers with beers in their hands, and not one peep from anybody. As soon as the sun came back out there was cheering and many of us had unexplainable tears running down our cheeks. Someone lead a toast to which we all held up our beers and yelled Cheers! Strangers came up to us and introduced themselves with a hug, and it was just the most awesome feeling ever. It was that sense of community. We may not have known each other but we were all there, sharing that exact moment, in that exact place together. It was surreal.
Yes, I had forgotten to wash off my mascara before we paddled out and yes, my hair is a hot mess, but those smiles say it all. It was an incredible once in a lifetime opportunity.
Remember folks, wanderlust is real, and adventures are all around you as long as you make it a priority to look for them. This is something I will never forget!
Take me back to Center Hill Lake!
Behind the sunset is the island where we viewed it from!
“Making Grown Men Cry since 2012”
wanderlust 