The Road to Florence...

Many of you might remember that our original plan had us going to Munich for 2 days of Oktoberfest after Madrid and Paris... Well, plans change when ur on the road and we added an extra day in Paris and Madrid, which turned out to be an awesome decision... We got to know those 2 cities better with an extra day in each and didnt feel as rushed. We wouldnt have that problem on our next stop, Italy, as we're slated for a three and a half week journey starting in Cassano (40 km outside of Milano) where my grandfathers brother, Zio Enzo (Zio means uncle in Italian, conversely Zia, means aunt), and his large family lives. Thus begins the first part of our Italian trip: The Road to Florence.

We landed in Milan-Linate airport and made our way to my fam's house. Zia Giulia had a wonderful lunch ready for us and we stuffed our faces. The family had gotten bigger since my last visit as both my cousin Roberto and Sara welcomed new additions to the family; Alessandro and Asia (pronounced Ah-zee-ah), respectively.

After finishing off our lunch with dessert, coffee and limoncello, we lumbered over to a nearby soccer field to watch Roberto's team play. It was a close match and Roberto's team lost 7-5, but the highlight was when Roberto, like a true Spinelli, got a yellow card.

We went out to dinner and again, i stuffed myself. It was no surprise when i got a stomach bug the next day and was largely on the shelf for the next 2. It made for a lot of family time, hangin with cousins and my uncle and aunt. It was a blessing in disguise for Bianca, as she took the reins and sharpened up her Italian, which is far better than mine. We'd end up needing her prowess in the language throughout our jaunt.

We decided renting a car was better than taking the trains on this trip, since our plan was to hit up smaller cities throughout the country. We rented a Lancia Ypsilon, pretty sweet car... Brand new, but a stick shift and i had no option but to enroll in Biancas crash course in driving a stick. The best part about the car is that it runs on this stuff called GPL, which is like a super fuel that costs less than half as much and gets better kilometrage than gas. 18 euro will get you like 32 liters of this stuff, which runs for about 350 km... Once u do all the math and conversions, youll see how cheap it is (and that we need it in the US).

Ok, enough babble... Our first destination was Cinque Terre...5 neighboring hillside towns all along the Italian Riviera. We stopped in Genoa along the way and left within an hour... It was pretty skanky. It was getting dark and we decided we'd find a place to stay and head to Cinque Terre in the morning. Driving along the coastal hillside, wed pull over and knock on doors of a hotel/b&b, etc...Out of the second door we knocked on, in a town called Sorí, walked an older Italian man. Bianca waited in the running car as i asked the man to show me around. We walked up to the 3rd story and as soon as i caught a view of the vast oceanic panorama from the patio and our intended bedroom, i said "Ok... We'll take it and let me go get her." i knew B would be as stoked as i was. There were 4 rooms in the b&b and ours was the only one occupied. We basically had our own apartment overlooking the water and we promptly decided that we'd be there for 2 nights.... Ahh the flexibility of a three and a half week trip with an open agenda :)

The next day, after breakfast over the Italian coast, we day tripped down the riviera starting with lunch at a small town called Recco, the birthplace of focaccia (How Bianca knows this kind of stuff amazes me, but i was game). Our next stop wast Portofino; A well developed seaside town that despite the presence of many wealthy tourists, still has a lot of charm. We strolled around and then lay on the beach and took a dip in neighboring Santa Margherita. We stopped at a market on the way back and bought supplies for the first of many Italian dinners prepared by yours truly... We enjoyed a drink on the patio as we watched the sunset and knew that days like these were exactly what we quested for on this journey... We shared a feeling that we'd only come to experience again the next night :) in Cinque Terre....

We drove through a loopy road and randomly chose Vernazza (one of the five Cinque Terre) as our first destination. We walked down to the edge of the water and caught a brief glimpse of Monterosso, the furthest south of the 5 towns, but knew that this wouldnt compare to the views from the hiking paths, which stand tall in between each of the 5 towns.

We felt lile the luckiest stiffs in the world when we randomly decided to knock on a door advertising rooms for rent as we climbed the stairs towards the trail and were graced with a small apartment that boasted a terrace high above the beautiful town, with stunning views of the bustle below and ocean on the far horizon, for the reasonable sum of 70 euro. It was a good feeling to settle in and know where we would stay for the night before we started our early afternoon hike to Corniglia, another one of the towns.

The hike was awesome and being able to see each little patch of homes, shops and vines where each town rested on the mountains in the distance put the not only the area, but also our state of mind into perspective. Our trip was in full swing, with 2 weeks of travel under our belts. The road to Florence waited for us tomorrow. Our gateway to Tuscany, where we would find our little paradise and then some..... But that's another story. One that'll have to wait til next time.

And finally, id like to raise a glass of chianti classico to my pal Ryan Harrington, who just got engaged. We lived under the same roof for a shade under 3 years (actually, he lived in the guesthouse, so it was "technically" a different roof.) You found yourself a great girl in Carrie. Lots of love and nothing but the best to you both!

Still in Italy,

Adrian Spinelli, International Man of Mystery

Musical selections:

Yesterday's New Quintet - Angles Without Edges
Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
Elliott Smith - From a Bassment on A Hill
The Fiery Furnaces - The Fiery Furnaces
Grizzly Bear- Veckatimest

Biancas musical selections:
"Jay Ho" from the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack and a bunch of random Italian songs.

Reading Selections:

David Cross - I Drink For a Reason
Ernest Hemingway - The Sun Also Rises

A Note About This Blog...

Sooooooo..... We're in Italy right now and have been for the last 2 and a half weeks, so that essentially puts me about 2 and a half weeks behind on the blog. Keep that in mind, if you see facebook updates that don't correspond with the timing of the blog posts.

I dont get much time on the internet, but ive been using my trusty iphone app and uploading the writing that i save.

We're in Santa Maria di Castellabate in the SOuth of Italy, where my family is originally from. Im off to try and find us accomodations on the Amalfi coast for the next couple of days. Full details of our Italian itnerary are to follow!

Ciao!

AS

Sink the Seine

Paris is a special city... One of Europe's largest and most populated. I had been there on my last worldwide jaunt, for 3 days and never really felt like i got to know it and what it was all about. Fortunately for me ive got my girlfriend with me who has an affinity for all things wonderful, delicious and expensive... Which in Paris, goes a long way.

We found lodging a stones throw from the louvre and immediately after checking in, made our way through the louvre courtyard and into the tuileries... Right away i was loving the sights without dropping a dime. We took up a chair by a fountain and watched the ducks and gulls lobby for supremacy... I was relaxed and ready to walk and soak this place in. We hoofed it up Champs Elyssés and over to the upscale 8th arrondisement (paris is broken up into 17 arrondisements which are essentially districts. The first is near our spot by the louvre and they spiral outward like a nautilus shell). By the time we arrived in the 8th, the sun had long since set and nightime had settled in. We got our first glimpse of the Seine and the lit up Eiffel tower hovered above us. We chose to postpone our Eiffel tower trip to the next day in favor of a nice dinner somewhere in the 8th. We wandered off the main strips and found Chéz Andre, across from the Franklin Roosevelt hotel. I was drawn by the shellfish station on the sideqalk and we quickly put in for a table and had one of the best meals of my life. The French have nailed the cold shellfish platter (Café Luck in Santa Barbara does a nice job with them btw) and i indulged in a half dozen assorted oysters and shrimp as an appetizer, with a glass of a white wine. I ordered the hangar steak which came with heavily buttered scalloped potatoes. The flavor of the meat was rich and full, with no spices to steal the show. I sipped my 2nd glass of bordeaux and knew that this was a true French meal... No frills and it was done proper....

We rose late on our first full day and after a trip to the cafe and patisserie, mosied over to my favorite museum on the entire planet: Museé de Orsay. I was looking forward to spending hours in there and quickly lobbied Bianca for a guided tour (i heard the tour guides explaining the art work at the Prado in Madrid and became extremely jealous, hence, i figured listening to a lecturer talk about my favorite painters was in the works). The tour was great and the museum did not disappoint. The tour got pretty interactive at times and you know i didnt hesitate to debate with the French lecturer and some other English guy over the finer points of Impressionism vs post-impressionsim.

We strolled to the eiffel tower from orsay just before sunset. We drank Bordeaux and had a great conversation with an Australian couple long past sunset and into nightfall. After a while, we realized that more than 2 hours had passed. We mustve gotten caught up in the Parisian sunset and countless walks around the view deck. We made our way down the steps and stared at the beautifully lit up city.

Once back to Earth, we got some crepes (the guy with a doo rag by the tower males one hell of a crepe amd its fun to watch) and hit up a boat tour of the river Seine (which runs through Paris). As we passed through and saw many of the major sites along the river, what we couldnt help noticing was how many young folks were drinking and being merry on the ledges of the Seine and knew that we had to do that too...

So we did... After a day in the 4th and 5th, namely Marais, we bought a nice bottle of cotes du rhone, bread, and 2 different cheeses and posted up on a ledge looking across to ile st louis and waxed philosophical while watching the boats pass by with notre dame in the back drop. THIS was what Paris was all about. I thought about how many generations before us would sit on these ledges and drink wine as the nights passed. The buildings around us and the ones we looked upon were hundreds of years old and we celebrated their existence with this delectable rhone by E.Guigal ( check it out... Fantastic!). We got a different bottle, a crozes this time, and did the same thing the next night, then rolled into the Latin quarter for some cocktails.

What a proper fucking city Paris is. Its huge, the metro goes everywhere, its older than ur great grandfathers great grandfather, its super cosmopolitan and has so many beautiful places to just sit back and relax. The food and wine are great, they put butter in everything (even the rice) and i know theres still so much more to see. Paris would be the coolest place to study abroad in for a year. Youd pick up the language in no time and would really get a feel for the European culture and way of life. I really got to know Paris sooo much better my second time around and look forward to hitting it up again when i have more money to throw around!

In the meantime, we're off to Italy to visit the Spinellis residing in the north.

Au revoir!

Adrian Spinelli "International Man of Mystery" (accompanied by Bianca Raker "international girlfriend of mystery")


Musical selections:

Saint Germain - In Laye Cafe
Yeah, yeah, yeahs - Show your bones
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Of montreal... - Hissing Fauna, are you The Destroyer?
Non-prophets - Hope
Flying Lotus - 1983

Book:
David Cross "I Drink For A Reason"
-- Posted from my iPhone

Playing catch up...

Woooooo! Just got back from the Fiorentina v. Lazio match! Hooligans were wild and brought the noise in a killer match up... But before i get ahead of myself.... I'll have to tell you how i got here:

We left SFO on a Thursday morning and arrived in Madrid on the heels of the worst jet lag either of us had ever experienced.... A return to the MAD hostel was in the cards and we quickly met some Aussie friends (typical...i know). We quickly hit the Madrid bar scene and settled on a mellow mid east bar called blue moon... The comfortably mellowed spot proved a perfect spot to relax and do what we do best on our first nite...

Madrid for us was filled with stops at outdoor bars and taperias, the sampling of the food and AMAZING white wines of the land... Rueda, rioja and verdejo proved the perfect companions to nightly self guided tapas tours.... Mercado San Miguel boasted BY FAR the best collection of taperias. Everything from fresh sliced jamon serrano to langostinos and oysters all under one massive roof!

We found an evening to see the melange of shadow creations and interpretive dance that was "Pilobolus" of academy awards fame. But the most memorable eve in Madrid was our last, when we fatefully met a group of locals as we chatted over a glass of verdejo at san miguel with our newest new yorker friend, gabrielle. We were led to an inconspicuos bar with an ecclectic group of Madrileños and drank the evening away exchanging stories about life in our respective cities.

I found that our Spanish counterparts had a profound love for Madrid and a distinct understanding and respect for the history of the city and country in which they resided. Such amazing people and so outgoing... The very way we were initially approached to join them seemed to have and alterior motive at first, but the more we talked and got to know each other, i realized that our invitation was driven by their thirst to get to know our culture and to share the ways of theirs.

I'm thankful for the perspective i gained on that final night in Madrid and the people whom we befriended... I got such a better sense of this city my 2nd time around and left pumped to experience Paris with the same reckless abandon and a sparked appreciaton for life...Lets do this!

Adrian Spinelli - International Man of Mystery

Musical selection: Dirty Projectors- Bitte Orca