Bongiorno Italy! (A tale of 2 lovers on an Italian getaway)

Mike had his yearly team meetings in a fabulous place for 2011 that I could not resist: Florence, Italy! This is his 6th year of team meetings in great places around the globe. Most years the meetings have taken place the week of my birthday too. However, this year I was not pregnant, not nursing, my kids are used to Singapore by now so I really had no good reason not to go!
We have had Marnelie, the world's best housekeeper and nanny, living with us for 6 years now and she knows the routine at home. We also roped in the two best babysitters on the planet to stay with the kids all week, Blake & Jane Moore.
With all that in place, we were off to Firenze!


We had a layover in Zurich. We enjoyed the 2 hours of coldish weather and Swiss chocolate while there.

After landing in Florence we quickly checked in and then set out to see some favorite sites of Flo-land. Our hotel was right down the street from the Arno River so it was easy to walk up and down the river to the sites.



Florence is a city full of beautiful art and architecture, which you are surrounded by wherever you turn:





Day one in Florence was super productive! We checked into the hotel, then went straight for some gelato, to the Duomo, Michaelangelo's David and dinner at Ristorante Paoli. There was a small line at the Piazza Academia, where David lives, so we cruised in and saw David right away.



I had to take this photo of this couple who sat down next to Mike and I while we were admiring David's tush:



I guess they didn't find David's tush as interesting as we did!

We stopped for dinner at our neighbor's fave restaurant in Florence; Ristorante Paoli.




I was very pleased with my ravioli: Bon Appetito!



On Monday Mike was free so we walked on over to the train station to take the train to Pisa.

We grabbed some pizza, on our way to Pisa.



We had some panini's while waiting to go up in the leaning tower: Yes, we ATE our way through Italy. The food was unbelievable!



Of course, we had some gelato:



Then we walked the 294 steps up the leaning tower. It really felt like we were leaning as we were climbing.









One of my most favorite things about Italy, next to the food, the beautiful architecture and the shopping is the people-watching. The people are so attractive and have a great sense of style.



I especially love watching them riding around everywhere on their bikes. It doesn't seem to cramp their style at all.






I was always happy when Mike was with me; ESPECIALLY for his awesome map-reading skills. Yes, he has some good skills.



When we got back to Florence we thought we needed some more gelato since the Pisa gelato was probably digested by now, so we went to one of the top 5 Gelato places listed in my guide book: Grom. We were not disappointed.



On day 3 Mike was free in the morning so we rushed over to the Duomo, the famous dome designed by Filippo Brunelleschi.

While I was waiting in line Mike grabbed a morning gelato:



We really enjoyed the climb up the 463 steps to get an amazing look at the city.


It took 11 years for 2 artists to paint the ceiling: it really was beautiful.









Mike was goofing around on the steps up to the top of the Duomo:


He had to go to work after the Duomo climb so I set out on my own to explore the leather market and more of beautiful Firenze:

This ring was in the Tiffany's window...loved how it was displayed on gelato:





This is one of my favorite stores in Singapore so I had to make a stop inside to find something for my girls.



I found a hand painted Italian nativity set that I bought from these cute nuns at a Christian store near the Duomo. They were so sweet and I was taken back a bit to high school days. (These nuns were nicer than the ones I had for teachers though.)





I managed to find one more of the gelato stores on my top 5 list:



Mike and I met back up later that night for a wine tasting event with his colleagues, followed by dinner. Since Mike and I don't drink vino we just focused on the food; however, when we found out that the yummy bread we were eating was spread with lard we lost some interest in the wine tasting event.

Today Mike had meetings from 9-6 so I booked myself a shopping tour. I took a bus ride about 45 min's outside of Florence. I got very homesick for my kids this day and spent the bus ride back to Florence writing down everything I love about each one of them...and Mike too.

Mike and I got a recommendation from our hotel for a trattoria to eat at for dinner. The name was Il Profeta. This was the "eating experience" in Florence that I'd been waiting for. The head waiter was a charming man who had a great sense of humor, his also charming wife was a waitress there too. The ambiance was perfecto!

At the head waiter's recommendation we had bruschetta, smothered in one of the finest olive oils in all of Italy:



Then we had this sample plate of all of these amazing things wrapped in zucchini leaves:



Next we shared the house pasta, otherwise known as John Travolta pasta, in an orange sauce that was delicious. I'm sorry that I don't have a photo. I was so engrossed in how good it was that I forgot to take a picture!

Then, we each had seafood risotto which was fabulous, but we were so full at that point that we could hardly eat much of it.




Then, when we didn't think we could eat any more, our waiter sent out to us their tiramisu to have, on the house. Mama mia! It was a taste of Tuscan cooking at it's finest.

To top off the night Mike and I walked over to the Ponte Vecchio with a lock with "Mike + Becky" written on it in black sharpie. We were fully prepared to lock up our love on the Ponte Vecchio and throw the key into the river, according to the Florentine legend that if we do this, our love will last forever. However, our plan was foiled when we arrived at the Ponte Vecchio and saw a huge sign telling us that polluting the bridge with a lock is against the law. Also, there was a security guard sitting on the bridge watching all the lovers every move to make sure that no one dared to lock up anything.





Some lovers have dared to put their lock at the end of the bridge like this:





However, Mike and I decided to find our own bridge to "lock up our love."



This bridge was closer to our hotel, a few bridges down from the Vonte Vecchio. I couldn't help letting out a giggle every time I walked past our lock for the rest of our trip.




To Be Continued...

Mid-Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a fun Chinese holiday that we used to celebrate in Hong Kong when Sammy was very little. This year we decided to join the masses of Chinese people in Chinatown on the night of the big "lantern walk" when thousands of people light their lanterns and walk the streets.

Here is one of the legends of the Mid-Autumn Festival, or Lantern Festival:

The time of this story is around 2170 B.C. The earth once had ten suns circling over it, each took its turn to illuminate to the earth. But one day all ten suns appeared together, scorching the earth with their heat. The earth was saved by a strong and tyrannical archer Hou Yi. He succeeded in shooting down nine of the suns. One day, Hou Yi stole the elixir of life from a goddess. However his beautiful wife Chang Er drank the elixir of life in order to save the people from her husband's tyrannical rule. After drinking it, she found herself floating and flew to the moon. Hou Yi loved his divinely beautiful wife so much, he didn't shoot down the moon.

We started the night in Chinatown on Smith Street with a delicious dinner from the Noodle Man:

The old man on the moon: There is a saying in Chinese that marriages are made in heaven and prepared on the moon. The man who does the preparing is the old man of the moon (Yueh Lao Yeh). This old man, it is said, keep as a record book with all the names of newborn babies. He is the one heavenly person who knows everyone's future partners, and nobody can fight the decisions written down in his book. He is one reason why the moon is so important in Chinese mythology and especially at the time of the Moon Festival. Everybody including children, hikes up high mountains or hills or onto open beaches to view the moon in the hope that he will grant their wishes.

How Mooncakes Came About:

As the story goes, the Han people of that time resented the Mongol rule of the Yuan Dynasty and revolutionaries, led by Chu Yuan-chang, plotted to usurp the throne. Chu needed to find a way of uniting the people to revolt on the same day without letting the Mongol rulers learn of the plan. Chu's close advisor, Liu Po-wen, finally came up with a brilliant idea. A rumor was spread that a plague was ravaging the land and that only by eating a special mooncake distributed by the revolutionaries could the disaster be prevented. The mooncakes were then distributed only to the Han people, who found, upon cutting the cakes open, the message "Revolt on the fifteenth of the eighth moon." Thus informed, the people rose together on the designated day to overthrow the Yuan, and since that time mooncakes have become an integral part of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Carson loves these little, expensive cakes made mostly from lotus paste with a surprise duck egg in the center. They are really expensive so Mike always brings home the boxes his clients give him for Carson.




Here's Carson & Jack picking out their lanterns. They both chose Angry Birds themed lanterns with a light inside. When you turned on the light it also played a song. We got to "enjoy" those songs over and over again as we walked through Chinatown!


We met up with some friends in Singapore...which always makes the walking in the crowds more fun...

                                                                   Sammy & Sophie

The Bates boys and Carson

Ice Cream makes the walking easier (and the whiners happier!)

                                         Fun night - all that was missing was our sweet Skylar!

Bailey's First Cross Country Meet

Bailey had her first Cross Country meet on Friday. It was at Bukit Batok Reservoir. She ran 2 1/2 miles, including a big hill. Here she is getting a last minute pep talk from Mike before the race:


Can you see her poking her head up in the red shirt? The teams were SAS, OFS, 2 UWC teams and maybe a couple of others.






Bailey did great! There are only 2 6th grade girls on the Middle School team so Bailey should be pretty proud. Running in the heat of Singapore is a feat for anyone much less an 11 year old. Way to go Bails!