Tuscany

We rented a car in Rome and headed up into Tuscany. We were staying at Fattoria di Rignana, which is an old farm converted into a B&B. On the way up, we stopped at Orvieto, a cute hilltop town.

Striped church in Orvieto

The place we were staying was in the middle of the countryside, surrounded by rolling hills and vineyards.

View from our B&B

We caught the villa's cat making a funny face

The infinity pool was amazing, and we made sure to take some time to relax there.

We wanted to check out San Gimignano and Siena, and the drive to these towns was picturesque as well. We'd come around a corner and see this, for example:

Here are a few pics from San Gimignano:

Siena had a beautiful public square with a giant clock tower, and more striped churches!

Even though this trip was less about seeing museums and monuments, we decided we might as well go to Florence since we were only staying about 45 minutes south of the city. We'd already done the must-see things while we were backpacking back in college, so we spent our time walking around the city, checking out the Duomo, and eating, of course.

The Pointe Vecchio

I took these shots of the river's reflection of the buildings

I love that this one looks like a watercolor

We had some amazing food in Tuscany. Our villa had a great rustic restaurant on the property, which was so good we ended up eating there two different nights.

This is where we had the best dish of our entire trip - in fact, we decided it was the best pasta dish we've ever had. It was called "Sedanini alla Norcina" - sedanini pasta with Tuscan sausage, onions, cream and black truffle shavings. We remembered towards the end of our meal to snap a picture:

We also had steak with fresh rosemary on top, which I'd never seen before. That was delicious as well.

Not to mention all the great Italian wine which accompanied most meals. :)

I'll be back with the last part of our trip soon.

Italy

This is a bit delayed, but I wanted to post some pictures from our trip to Italy. We had a great time. We landed in Rome, spent a couple days there, explored Tuscany, and then headed down to the Amalfi coast, with stops in Naples and Pompeii along the way.

First - Rome.  Enjoy the pictures!

"Bridge of Locks" - We stayed at a friend's apartment right near this bridge.  Couples sign their names in permanent markers on a lock, and then lock it onto this bridge for eternity, throwing the key into the river.  But what happens when they break up?

 John taking a break on the Spanish Steps

 The Pantheon at night is gorgeous

 Same with the Trevi Fountain

 Awesome pizza in the cute Trastavere neighborhood - the place is called Dar Poeta

 We couldn't believe that the Michael Jackson impersonators drew a huge crowd right next to the Coliseum... until I realized we were watching them ourselves and even took a photo......

 The top of the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II just might have the best view in Rome

Another bridge right near where we stayed, which is called Ponte Milvio.  It was nice staying in a true Roman neighborhood without tourists.  Plus, it's a hotspot for people our age, so there were plenty of fun bars and restaurants to choose from.

Our hostess recommended this restaurant near Piazza Navona, even though it's where Julia Roberts eats (in the garden restaurant scene) in "Eat, Pray, Love."  Though we normally look for places off the beaten path, we were glad we went, as the outdoor garden seating area was beautiful, and the black truffle pasta was wonderful.

Next stop?  Tuscany!

Portuguese Bullfighting

Portuguese bullfights are different in many ways from the Spanish version. The greatest difference is that the bull is not killed in the arena. Another major difference is that the cavaleiros (horsemen) are the main figures of the fight rather than the matadors. The cavaleiros are dressed in traditional 18th century clothes and their goal is to place small javelins in the center of the bull's back. They ride Portuguese Lusitanos, which are specially trained to run sideways and dodge bulls. Here are a few photos.

A fight ends with the pega (the grab), in which eight men try to subdue the bull by grabbing its head. One unlucky guy pulls on a green stocking cap originally worn by bull herders in the area northeast of Lisbon. His job is to make the bull charge, grab its head and hang on until the other guys can grab on to the bull and calm it down. They all let go of the bull in unison, but one man continues to hold on to the bull's tail. He then tries to the make the bull spin around until it's subdued so that he can calmly walk away. Watch the video to see the pega. 

We recently saw a fight in Campo Pequeno (photo below), Lisbon's historic bullfighting arena, which was celebrating its 119th anniversary that night by featuring some Portuguese "legends" of bullfighting. The arena has amazing architecture and there's not a bad seat. Here's a few photos of our group at the bullfight and one photo of a random group of our neighbors (it looks like an ad doesn't it?).

Super Bock Super Rock

Portugal is home to tons of concert festivals every summer. It's a little amazing how many famous bands come here and we're even more amazed by how many Portuguese can afford to go to expensive concert festivals every weekend of the summer.

We went to Super Bock Super Rock, one of the big festivals near Lisbon. Our friends had gone the previous year and said it was a lot of fun to camp and go to the concert. The festival was near the coast 45 minutes south of Lisbon. Unfortunately, it was down a tiny road and the traffic was terrible. Hillary, one friend and I went on Thursday after work to catch the first night of the show and set up tents. It took us three hours to get there, but we finally made it. We struggled to find space for our tents in the mass of humanity crowded in the area!

We saw some good bands and eventually kind of got to sleep at 2 a.m. (No one warned us that club music blasts until 6 a.m.) I had a meeting on Friday and had to go to work. Hillary had originally planned to go back too, but the three hour car ride changed her mind. The festival venue was near a beach, but too far to walk. Hillary and our friend waited an hour to board the bus and then waited on the bus an hour to go the three miles to the overcrowded beach.

After work, three more friends and I made the drive back to the concert venue, this time with no traffic. Here are some photo highlights.

Our campsite

The garbage pile grew bigger and bigger

At least the beer delivery guy was never too far away

Random photo dress up booth

 We brought surgical masks because we heard the dust was bad. It was worse than we even expected. 

We had fun with our friends and saw some good performances. We won't be around for the next one, but we probably wouldn't be going back if we were. It was definitely memorable though.

Hillary's Birthday Getaway

Hillary can no longer say she's in her 30. To celebrate her birthday, we decided to get out of town and explore the Alentejo coast. We have visited the interior Alentejo region several times, but this was our first time to drive down the 100 miles or so of coast south of Lisbon.

We started by going to our new favorite beach, Comporta, an hour and a half from Lisbon. It had beautiful turquoise water and soft sand. Although there were many people taking advantage of the great day and Monday holiday, the beach was so long that we walked a little further and had plenty of space.

Because we're going to Italy next weekend, we were trying to do this on the cheap. We borrowed a tent from friends and planned to find a campsite. We stopped at the first campground south of Comporta, but it was completely full. We called a another one an hour further south and although the tent sites were full, they had an available "teepee" that we could rent for the night. It was more triangle-shaped shed than teepee, but it did the trick.

The next day, the teepee wasn't available, but we were able to pitch our tent. The campground was really interesting because lots of Portuguese go there and spend weeks. They set up elaborate sites with TVs, refrigerators, floors and potted plants. Our campsite wasn't so elaborate.

After spending our day at another beautiful beach, Zambujeira do Mar (photo above), we went back to Milfontes where we had camped and relied on our local food review book to pick one of the best restaurants we've been to in the region to celebrate Hillary's birthday. We had a great meal and Hillary's sister, Brooke, reached us by cell phone to say happy birthday right before we sat down. The next day, we made our way back to Lisbon via another stop at Comporta beach. It wasn't the fanciest birthday vacation, but it was great.

Jakarta friends reunion

I might be a little behind on our blog - but that's only because we've been so busy. In June, we had three different friends that we worked with in Jakarta come visit us in Lisbon. Hunter is now in Helsinki, Finland; Kira is in Islamabad, Pakistan; and Joel is in Washington, DC. (DC doesn't sound quite as exotic as the other two, huh?) I thought it was amazing that the three of them could get their work schedules, vacation time and flights to sync so they could come visit together. They were here for about nine days, and we had so much fun! I think the best part is that while they did a lot of sightseeing and day trips, they still had time to relax and enjoy their vacation - something that's not always easy to do in a European capital. Plus they got to hang out with our group of friends here a few times and that was fun for everyone. The above picture is from the requisite visit to St. George's Castle, overlooking Lisbon. I never get tired of the view from that place!

Here are some more pictures...

Group shot on the castle walls of Obidos. We drove about an hour north of Lisbon to visit this picturesque walled city. We had gone last year for the annual "Chocolate Festival", but this trip was nice because the city wasn't nearly as crowded.

Obidos is home to "ginginja", a cherry liqueur that was first made in the small town. One of the ways it is served is in a chocolate tasting cup, which you eat after you've tasted the liquor - sort of like a chocolate-covered cherry. Our friend Joel thought it was the best thing in the world. John got a nice shot of the drinks being poured into the chocolate cups...

Here we are enjoying a home-cooked meal that Hunter made us

You may remember our post from a year ago here: We were excited for another St. Anthony's festival, and we were hoping that it would live up to last year's. It was nice that our friends were visiting during the festival, especially given the fact that we got a four-day weekend due to the Portuguese holidays surrounding it! During St. Anthony's, everyone pulls tables out into the streets to eat. While some may be the tables from people's kitchens, there are plenty of restaurants which have tables out in the streets as well. We had to wait a bit to nab a table big enough for all of us, but we did succeed!

At one point our group (of about 15 people!) stopped to take a photo. We were supposed to be imitating the mural on the wall behind us - although some people did a better job than others. :)

By far the most crowded area was the street along which runs a funicular called the "Bica Elevador". Thankfully it wasn't running that night, because I can't imagine the funicular would even have been able to move a few inches much less the 245 meters to the top through the crazy crowd of people. Even though it was slow-going, they were selling beers in every other doorway, so no one seemed too worried about moving very fast!

At one point the crowd parted to allow this band to get through - I love that!

The best group shot of the night

Thanks for visiting guys, and come back any time!

To the beach!

Portugal has more than 1,114 miles of coastline. Needless to say, but I'll write it regardless - Portugal has a fair number of beaches. Luckily, some of those beaches are within a 20 minute drive of our apartment. We visited amazing beaches in Southeast Asia, but we have never lived in a city with a strong beach culture. When the weather is warm, Lisbon goes to the beach.

One of our most favorite beaches is not the most accessible. It's about 45 minutes from Lisbon near the westernmost point of continental Europe and down a steep trail that drops more than 500 feet from the "parking lot." But it's beautiful.

Hiking back up

Fortunately, there are beaches that are a lot easier to get to all around Lisbon. We often go to the beaches just up the coast from Lisbon, which are always crowded on the weekend and make for great people watching. We also like the beaches on the other side of the Tagus river, which seem to have never-ending stretches of sand.

The beaches that Portugal is most known for are in Portugal's southernmost region, the Algarve. We've made several trips there already and will be going back at least once more with Hillary's family in a couple weeks.

But one of the best things about the beach is having a cold beer in one of the many restaurants to take a break from the sun.

Beaches have become such a part of our life here that it's hard to imagine not having them nearby. We'll be looking for our next post in the coming months, and I certainly hope there are some options with good beaches.