DC This Week ™ Goes to Italy: Re-Cap

Picture 1: Us at the Coliseum on the first day
Picture 2: What I packed in that tiny little backpack :)
Picture 3: Craig's toy car in Rome
Picture 4: My bounty upon my return with tons of gifties for myself (and maybe for some of you girls too).



So there are a few questions on everyone’s mind. And it might take me all week but I promise to capture the entire trip in DC This Week. I came back home to about 300 emails between work and my personal email. So I have a lot of catching up to do on the parties and events this week. I also came back to $3.70 gas, a bad windshield wiper and I think my car needs alignment! But WHO CARES. I just got back from 5 days of glory with the most wonderful man in the world. We went to Italy for a few reason, first, because we’re ballin’ like that and can, two because we wanted to spend time together, three because we wanted to try that whole backpacking thing, and four because I wanted to shop for great jewelry which is exactly what I got.

So you must want to know……………..

1. How was the trip?
2. What did you buy?
3. How much did it cost you?
4. How long did it take you to check into a hotel with those freakin’ backpacks strapped to your back?

Let me start from the beginning with me leaving work on Tuesday at noon only so I could go to REISS for a quick stop off and then to Craig’s house to pack his backpack. The kid has known for a month we were going to Italy and he has not packed at all. Finally after three hours and his super duper large backpack we are off, with my super tiny pack and a light tote that I could fold away. We get to Dulles a bit tired.

Our flight arrangements were made by one of my very good girlfriend who is a flight attendant for United. So needless to say, we got the hook up for roundtrip flights $350 each. So many thank you’s to T.O., you are our little airplane angel.

Flying standby we easily got on the flight and the attendant tells us that either one of us goes coach plus and one business or we could both go coach. Being all lovey dovey we decide to stick to together and fly coach plus, which thank the Lord meant extra leg room for the giant. (More details on the swank ass business class on the return flight later on).

We arrive in Rome after a super long flight and me being the intelligent one did not check any bags so we wait for the giant’s mammoth pack, which by my standards was literally half the size of me (but according to Craig if he could take this pack to Africa and Australia and back with no problems for a month he could handle 5 days in Italy.

We arrive in Rome and jump on the train to the city center. Not impressive so we decide to jump on the metro to the Colliseum. Still not too impressed, so we jump back on the metro, head back to the Termini and book the first train to Naples. What can I say……..we get bored quickly and we’ve been all over the world so it takes a lot to impress us.

The train ride to Naples was in a rail car with two HOT Italian guys, Craiggy and I. I must admit they were eye candy and I just couldn’t get over that everyone in Italy had stellar shades. Dior, D&G, Armani and Ray Ban seemed to be the pick of the litter when it came to shades. Europeans have such a great sense of style from their boots. BOOTS everywhere with jeans tucked in to jackets and blazers to dope bags. I got so many great ideas for fashion.

Just as the train ride was about to wind down we passed through this town that had a dreamy view of the ocean to our right and the mountains to the left. I wanted to jump off the train with my bags and never look back. We decided not to stop off in that town but keep on the path to Naples.

And a great idea it was……………….As soon as we got off the train we embarked on a miserable three hour hike through the city to find a hotel and this gorgeous bay we saw in the pictures. Little did we know we could have jumped on the metro and been there in 5 minutes. Nevertheless, we finally were like screw it, lets look in our travel book and have a cab driver take us to a nice hotel. So day one we both folded, so technically both lost the bet! We had the cabbie take us to Hotel Canada which was right on the marina, sadly it was closed, but we decided to get out and walk and just go into Bed and Breakfast’s and hotels and ask if they had room. We found the most perfect B&B called Caracciolo 10 (Via f. Carracciolo 10) (oh and just in case you are wondering what the heck that meant, I’ll add all of the addresses for these great places so if you ever go to Italy you can stop in and stay and eat and shop too!) along the water. To get to the hotel you go into this tiny tiny elevator that is the size of like my stove. Both Craig and I were like holy crap we are gonna fall to our deaths in this lift elevator, but after hiking all across Naples with backpacks on our backs we were NOT hiking up 5 flights of stairs. We go in the lift and off we went with our stomachs at our feet praying we didn’t fall. We got off and knocked on this BIG door and out pops and Italian woman with baby in arm. We asked for a room and she had one! Presto. We walked into the most modern B&B with art deco paintings on the wall and leather couches. I was totally impressed. She showed us one of the 6 rooms and our view was of the marina, ocean and palm trees to the left and a busy, bustling circle (kinda like Dupont Circle) to the right. And then she said the price………….100 Euros.

We almost threw money at her like she was a stripper because we couldn’t believe it was so cheap! So we threw down our backs. Opened up our huge window that was a full wall, tooks showers and relaxed on the balcony. That night we ventured out to a really great restaurant recommended to us by the lady called something something Riviera. I will look up the name and report back. The pizza was phenom and we had a bottle of wine to top off the wonderful day. Then we ventured out down side streets to bars and fond Happy Rock Café. More on that later.

Have to take a break in my writing. I’m a bit tired and have to get up for work in the morning! I will write more on the trip throughout the week for you all so keep checking back everyday. And I will upload pictures this week too! Here are a couple of teaser photos just to keep you entertained.

Next on the trip was our two days in Naples and then hellish trip to Rome. Can I just say that both of us hated Rome. More on that later! Prost!