London Baby!

9/27 - 1:11pm

Espresso.  Passport stamp.  Wheels off.  London baby.  Pubs.  Pints.  20 miles walked.  Birthday suit.  Ribeye.  Cocktails.  No sleep.  Alarm.  Security check.  Italy.

What a blink of an eye this past weekend was and yet logged into my memory forever.  We boarded Ryanair from Perugia just 30 minutes from our door and set off for a birthday weekend massacred in London, one for the history books.

We’d booked a place in the heart of Covent Garden which is in the dead center of the London scene and our very first stop off after exiting the cab was a cask ale pint and a Guinness at Flag and Lamb.  The immediate allure, and maybe because we can’t do this in the states, is that everyone, and I mean everyone, stands in front of the pubs with their mates and drinks their beers in the streets.  It gives this facade that the pub is actually slammed inside to which after working working our way through the street crowd realized was not the case.  We ponied up at the front of the pub looking out the window into the crowd and immediately settled into our weekend home. 

Our apartment was on the 3rd floor overlooking the main square that was bustling with Friday foot traffic over the uneven cobble stone road that is blocked off to cars on the weekend while live street performers are serenading us as we get ready to go out.  So much of how Shiloh and I vacation, and really live our life, is eating and drinking our way through the days.  Yes, of course we saw the Eye, Westminister Abbey, Piccadilly Circus and Buckingham Palace - but those were only amuse bouche’s to our weekend meal.

Friday:
London Edition: Non traditional High Tea with 3 courses of tea, snacks and cocktails
Barrafina: Michelan Star Spanish Tapas Bar where we had a glass or red and chorizo chips and fish
Lamb & Flag: Pints of cask ale and Guinness
Hawksmoor: We sat at the bar and had a make your own cocktail for 2, Potted Beef & Yorkshires, and butter infused whiskey
Flesh & Buns:  Japanese style pork belly and duck steamed buns and loads of sushi with some champagne and local craft beer

Saturday:
Delaunay: had a traditional birthday brunch with pastures and coffee along with eggs benedict and avocado toast
Brewdog Soho: a bucket list beer bar visit for me.  we shared a pint of dark chocolate stout on nitro, citrus IPA, Scotch cask aged strong ale, and juniper berry abstract stout
Blanchet: a quaint French bistro where we had braised lamb shoulder, beef tartar and some french wine
City Social: Swanky Cocktail Bar on the 33rd floor overlooking all of London, a couple pre-dinner drinks, oysters and tapas (our server was the Sneaky Sneaky guy)
Barbacoa: Jamie Olivers upscale Steak House.  68 Ounce Dry Aged Rib Eye, bottle of 2003 Ormes De Pez Left Bank Bordeaux and finished with a glass of 20 year Pappy and birthday treats
Arts Theater Club: And underground speak easy cocktail bar playing 80’s music and patrons singing and dancing along, kind of a time warp
Pub: can’t remember the name, too many drinks, just grabbed a beer and some wine and stood in the street

Sunday:
Heddon Street: Gordon Ramsey’s higher end bistro for brunch.  Local craft beer breakfast, no croissant.
Shakespeare’s Head: More drinks in the street
Lamb & Flag: Couldn’t leave London without a proper Fish&Chips and theirs is touted as one of the best
Andrew Edmonds: Cutest little restaurant with almost no signage, incredible food and had a Treacle for dessert with our bottle of Chateauneuf De Pape
Experimental Cocktail Club: We had plans of going to a few cocktail bars, but when we locked down our corner bar seats here and befriended the head bar tender we spent the next 3 hours and 10 cocktails with him.
**wandered home, picked up gyros and pizza, the end.

We fit all of that into 2 1/2 days and it couldn’t have been more perfect, including a hipster haircut at a proper barber shop called Murdock's.  The worst part of the trip was waking up at 4:30am Monday morning to catch our flight home after going to bed at 3am (1 1/2 hours of sleep is basically negative sleep.  I think it’s worse for you to fall asleep only to wake up than to have just powered through).  Security, take off, landing was all an insomniacs blur and the first memory I have is our saviors Tony & Andrea picking us up from the airport and giving us a lift home. 

And the most perfect birthday gift awaited me when I got home, other than my beautiful children, the wild cat that we’d been taking care of had 2 kittens and picked our home as her place to raise them.  So beyond the kids being on cloud 9, me being an Ace Ventura animal lover, I’m pretty happy too.

We barbecued some chicken and sausages and had a great meal together, but the attention was completely stolen by the kittens.  A little work, then I passed out and slept until noon.  Much needed.

The Stoniers Are Coming

9/22 - 11:45am

The Stoniers are here!  or Boppa and Grammy as they are more commonly known in our house.  After an adventurous day in travel they miraculously made it to the right train stop and at the time they were scheduled to arrive (if you don’t already know how much of a cluster the trains from Rome are read the blog post from our first time in Italy caffreyitaly.blogspot.com May 21, 2011) bottom line, miracle.  Kennedy accompanied me for the late night pick up at the train station 40 mins from our place after begging mom and doing chores around the house all day, and I loved every bit of the company, singing Switchfoot songs and cryptically following the blue dot on my iphone map.  We got them settled into their villa, a nice late night cheese board and wine then it was off to bed.

The last two days have been all about cooking.  We barbecued a chicken in the pouring rain, umbrella and trash bag poncho courtesy of Senorita Shiloh then made chicken stock from the bones for dinner the next night.  With the endless selection of fresh produce and perfectly raised meats I could eat at home every night in Michelin Star fashion (thanks of course to the head chef I married).

Tonight we are going to the Agritourismo just up the road to hang with the kittins and wizard goats (what Brody calls them because of their beards) and eat an incredible 4 course meal.

This is the good life.

Bologna & The Olive Tree

9/20 - 1:00pm

What a perfect day.  I am sitting out on the back patio as the sun beams down on the single olive tree that is perfectly manicured and has the honor of the owners dog as fertilizer.  I haven’t really stared at it much but now that I am I can’t take my eyes off it.  The sun is shining in such a way that the shadow on the ground looks like the roots growing from beyond the base of the trunk.  Ha, I sound like I've been drinking too much.  Today we are just relaxing all day long and I hope to get some uninterrupted God time.

Our drive home from Treviso was actually a lot easier than I thought.  The rain was light and we stopped off in Bologna where the sun had completely broken through and had lunch at a salumeria that had the best mortadella both Shi and I have ever tasted.  A quick beer at Open Baladin (and one to go) and we were back on the road.  Bologna is beautiful and historic but I’ll take our small town in Montone all day long.

Waking Up in Treviso

9/18 - 8:43am

Woke up this morning to the sound of a million elves river dancing on the roof. The pitter pat of rain hasn't ceased since last night and the thunder crack is as loud as ever. It's 8:45 and the family has gone up to the west wing rooftop room for breakfast. I joined them for a beautiful spread of biscuits and sweets and a perfectly made macchiato. Knowing check out was at 10:30 I quickly went back to our room, opened the shutters climbed into bed and am looking out the window at the cafe across the street through a sheet of rain. There is an awning outside where the Italians are sipping their espressos and smoking cigarets and I'm loving every ounce of this culture. I'm thinking about the guy who owns this B&B, maybe 10 rooms here, where he and his wife run everything, room change overs, front desk, breakfast, dishes, and think how great that simple routine of life must be - and also thankful that we get to stay here and that it's not our life at the moment. Time to drive home to Umbria now, 4 hours in the pouring rain. At least I get to wear my pajamas all day.

Treviso

9/18 - 2:02am

It's 2am and I'm lying in bed looking at Facebook like an idiot and the city is alive in our bedroom. No joke it was so loud 5 minutes ago it woke Shiloh up and she walked to the windows and looked out because it sounded like a 90's LA riot. I calmed her by saying, "it's okay babe, just Italians." Even as I'm writing this I'm wondering if I'm missing a firework show or a live election or something.  I mean, we left the kids in the B&B room and went and had drinks at the bar downstairs until 12:30 and I thought we were solid, but this is next level. I kind of want to book another night and see if we can hang! I am not falling asleep anytime soon thanks to my OCD FOMO so I might as well watch Stranger Things on Netflix.  It feels like just minutes ago we were in town having sushi, hanging at the fish market, dining on the river.  And now I am in another world lying here in bed.  Peace out Treviso.

...

Wait. I'm back.  It’s only been 37 minutes. This shiz just got so much cooler! Now lightning is striking the city center and its dumping rain and the thunder is so defining that it's setting off car alarms and everyone is getting shnockered and cheering (but secretly they must be scared out of their minds) - and deep down I am a little boy again experiencing my first storm. I am squatting by the only un-shuttered window in our place watching the lightning crash against the concrete just outside and in awe of the power and sound and blown away by the Italians ability to continue to drink through it.  I mean, I'm safe up in this room (I think) but they are literally on the street. Shiloh just woke up again from the thunder and asked me what's happening and I told her and she said "no really what's happening" and I was like "you wouldn't believe me if I said it again" and boom, she is back asleep. I envy her ability to do that. I will be awake all night now knowing it is pouring rain, lightning and thunder and people are still crushing booze right outside my room.  I LOVE THIS!

Thank you Treviso.

Zanotto Baldo Reunion

9/17 - 11:11am

Woke up in Treviso after what can only be described as an Italian soiree booze fest with some of my favorite aunts uncles and cousins and family I have never met before.  There were about 95 of us in total jammed into this tiny wood-oven pizza restaurant speaking 88% Italian and 12% English, singing hopeful World War 2 songs guzzling chilled red wine and unlimited pizza.  I had a great moment when the night was winding down with the cousins over at the bar drinking grappa and laughing at how poor my Italian was, but just enough to know I’m still funny even in Italian (well at least I think).  We are off to downtown Treviso for the night just the 4 of us.  This town is the perfect blend of old world stone and cobble streets meets Versace modern.  The Rodeo Drive of Italy.  Can't wait.