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3 Cocktails In
Addicting conversations between friends who have been there, done that and still want more.
We are 3 friends who got this crazy idea to start a podcast based on our friendships, family lives, professional lives and experiences! This idea kept coming up in our conversations, especially after a cocktail or two or maybe three, and we finally decided to ACT on it!
We don't claim to be experts on too many things, but friendship? Well, we've got that down. We're making our way through major life changes, searching for work that excites us, busting myths associated with 'old' people, and keeping a sense of humor about it all.
Self employed, boss - CHECK
Mom, wife, single - CHECK
Rural, suburban, urban life - CHECK
Vodka, gin, wine - CHECK
Make sure to subscribe to our channel ~ FOMO is real and it sucks.
Amy, Kitty & Stacey
P.S. Isn't our intro music great?! Yah, we think so too. Thank you, Ivy States for "I Got That Wow".
3 Cocktails In
Italy Uncorked: Amy & Stacey Navigate Heat, History, and Hidden Gems
Two friends, two carry-ons, and one unforgettable Italian adventure! Amy and Stacey take us along on their summer journey through Florence, Venice, and beyond, sharing candid insights that will inspire even hesitant travelers to pack their bags.
Their contrasting travel styles create the perfect balance – Stacey embraces the "we've never been there so how do we know it's not great?" philosophy while Amy researches options meticulously. This partnership leads them to unique accommodations including an art-filled Florentine apartment where royal family portraits hang in bathrooms and an unexpected boxing match unfolds outside their window.
The duo navigates Italy's efficient train system between cities, discovering the charm of Murano island with its legendary glass blowing traditions and comically tiny showers where "if you drop the soap, you have to turn everything off and open the door to retrieve it." They explore Florence's historic wine doors from a vintage VW van, tour Chianti vineyards with fascinating backstories, and battle 99-degree heat that transforms museum visits into endurance challenges.
What makes this episode particularly valuable is their practical wisdom for everyday travelers. They debunk common fears about language barriers, demonstrate how to pack efficiently for extended international trips, and show that meaningful travel doesn't require expertise – just willingness to embrace new experiences. Their genuine enthusiasm for discovery comes through in every story, from hunting perfect Murano glass souvenirs to sipping Negronis (despite finding them "awful") and shipping home Italian wines.
Have you been putting off international travel? Listen as these friends prove that with minimal planning, reasonable budgets, and open minds, unforgettable adventures await. Where will your next journey take you?
Amy, Kitty & Stacey
P.S. Isn't our intro music great?! Yah, we think so too. Thank you, Ivy States for "I Got That Wow".
All right, look I got that. Wow, who wants some heads up right now? We got that. Turn it up loud. I know you're wondering how.
Speaker 2:I got that. Wow, here I go. Here I go, coming. I can't ever stop. I'm a tour de force running. Get me to the top. I don't need an invitation. I'm about to start a celebration.
Speaker 3:Good evening. Good evening, get me to the top. I don't need an invitation. I'm about to start a celebration. Good evening, good evening, welcome. Welcome to a new episode of three cocktails in. We are all present and accounted for everyone back in the same country yes yes, buongiorno, buongiorno, buona sera at this time of night. How sad was it waking up on that first morning and not being in italy.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, um I don't know, waking up in my own bed in an icy, cold bedroom wasn't so bad. Yes, it was hot.
Speaker 3:It was hot, okay, well, so here we are. We're back. Amy and stacy had a fun adventure. They went to italy over the fourth of july. So we're just gonna kind of this is our first time being able to be back together again, so we're going to chat a little bit about the travels, yes, and hopefully it inspires other people to take the trip.
Speaker 5:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Right, definitely Take the trip.
Speaker 4:Yep, okay, stacey just has the best attitude about these trips in relation to where to stay, where to go, what to do, what to eat. She's like we've never been there. We don't know any different. How do we know if it's good or bad? We don't have anything to compare it to. So if it looks good, let's just go do it, which is a great juxtaposition to my overthinking, overanalyzing, trying to pick just the right thing.
Speaker 5:The right, thing, yeah.
Speaker 4:So, how do?
Speaker 5:you bring those two things together. Well, I've tried doing the searches and throwing out ideas and then Amy ends up going and doing her own research and picking things anyway. So I just let it happen and then she'll get down to something and I'll say, okay, I'll go book it, and as long as she doesn't like freak out, then that's the thing to book. Sometimes she'll go, oh, but it took it took two trips to figure this out because I didn't do very good with the last year because she would change her mind and say, oh, no, let's not go do that and I wouldn't push to book something right away. So then we spent another week trying to figure out something and another week and now it's just okay. Yeah, that looks good, I agree, you agree. Yep, I'll book it. Just okay. Yeah, that looks good, I agree, you agree, yep, I'll book it. Yeah, so that's kind of how we do that.
Speaker 5:There's a lot of people that you know like even watching reels to try to figure out what we wanted to do. A lot of it was centered around like where you should eat. You know, get a reservation here. We do none of that, because how you know? How do we know where we're going to be and what we're going to be hungry for and if we're going to want to eat at nine or six or two, or you know what I mean. So we never we don't ever make a reservation for, yeah, dinner, because we don't know what we're going to be in the mood for yeah and a lot of times, not because we're in bed early.
Speaker 5:honestly, after walking all day, we're pooped, so um.
Speaker 4:So I would just like to clarify that when Stacey says she does the research and then I go do research, yeah, we're both researching the same thing, so it's not like I don't want to do what she wants to do. Yeah, we talk about what it is we want to do, right?
Speaker 5:That's true, because we made a plan when do we want to fly into? What do we want to see? Where do we want to go after that? It's a matter of detailing where we're staying that's usually the thing or what excursions we want to do, what extra things we want to do. That's the research part we already know basically what we're going to do. It's just what we're going to book ahead of time.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, yep um, so when we talk about where we want to stay, I think now, after two trips Stace, I don't know what you think I like to stay not in the commercial center. I like to stay a little bit, not necessarily farther out, but I like to stay where it's a little bit more local, maybe a little bit more arty, um, where I just I don't want to be in city center, where it's massive hotels and 2,000 people per square inch. That's not so. So this time we did airbnbs In Paris, we did hotels, yep, and I think that we got on that whole air because price-wise it was going to be the same maybe as hotels and we came across a couple really funky ones, so I liked the first one.
Speaker 5:We both did agree. Yeah, so yeah, yeah, the one in Florence is very so yeah, I should.
Speaker 4:I took a lot of videos of it I should post. I'll post them. You know around where this is when we're dropping. Um, it was located close to the school of art and design, I think. So, first of all, artists live there. Um, it's not one single inch of that entire place. That was a natural paint color, a wall color, um, or you know, even the brick kind of flooring was painted. I had next to my bed probably a nine foot by five foot gold framed mirror. It was enormous. It was just this. It was an art gallery. There was paintings everywhere. I just thought it was really interesting. I mean, when are you going to get to stay in a place like that, right? So yes, there was art. I thought that was kind of cool.
Speaker 5:Stacked on top of stacked. My entire room was basically in a yellow gold, painted yellow gold and then a what do I want to say? Kind of jungle theme somewhat, and then there was a big painting of a what do you call that Like what you would have seen in the Coliseum, like a bullfight type scene. It was just very. The whole thing was very eclectic. There was very different styles of art throughout the whole place as well. So yeah, it was interesting.
Speaker 4:Yeah so when you um went to the bathroom, what you were looking at was like this four by four painting of um the queen and prince william holding um the oldest, uh, george no, I know, and then it was.
Speaker 5:No, it was four of them. It was Charles, yes, standing behind. William as older. Is that what his name is? What was the queen's husband? It's the queen's husband and the daughter. No, I didn't think.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, I thought, oh, that's interesting. I thought I thought it was the four generations, I thought it was Charles William and Okay Well, anyway, four generations. I thought it was Charles William and Okay well anyway, weird thing to have in the bathroom.
Speaker 5:It was weird, yeah, yeah, it was weird, whatever.
Speaker 4:Also very weird Talk about eclectic area. We came home one night and as we're walking over to the piazza because there's this big piazza right outside we start to see this gathering of people and there were a lot of people and there were lights set up and we're like is there a concert? It was a boxing match, a live boxing ring, and it was the guy in blue versus the guy in red and the dude with the bow tie doing the whole thing. So we went up into our room and opened up the bedroom windows and leaned out and watched a boxing match. Who would have figured, yeah, like they didn't mention this in the strange thing, but yeah, so that's fun yeah, it was an interesting area, very old, old area of Florence, I would say.
Speaker 5:You know the building very old, they were doing some construction next door. You know, just very interesting old area. The streets are tiny and slim and you can only get one car down, most of them, or a Vespa, and they drive a ton of those around. So, yeah, interesting area for sure. One car down, most of them, or a vespa, and they drive a ton of those around.
Speaker 4:And so, yeah, interesting area for sure, yep so um so our first night stays tell them about our adventure the first night. Oh, should we mention it took like almost 14 hours to get there? Yeah, from here it was a long ass day.
Speaker 5:It was a long, long day, Because we flew into Amsterdam, Minneapolis to Amsterdam and then Amsterdam to Venice and then took a cab, or to Florence, I'm sorry, into Florence, took a cab.
Speaker 5:Finally got to our our you know place at noon the next day. So, yeah, that was a lot. So, yeah, yeah, our first excursion that night was an Airbnb, and I think we talked about this last year when we went to Paris. That Airbnb Also has experiences. So if you're going to a big city any big city you should look at the Airbnb experiences as well, because they're pretty local. I think it's less of a. You know, you're booking a tour that everybody can see and do. So, yeah, our first night we, despite the, the rain it rained really hard as we were trying to get to our meeting spot, we took a vw van, an old one like from what did he say? What year do you say?
Speaker 5:it was 64 from brazil yeah, how the heck they got it I, I have no idea With three Italian guys. Everybody but Amy and I canceled, so it was just the five of us and we went around to these wine doors. So Italy, or Florence specifically, has these wine doors based on historical. Has these wine doors based on historical?
Speaker 5:There was some law at one point where you could only sell wine if it was out of your winery. So, you know, there would be a building where they're you know, bringing wine in or storing the barrels or whatever, and they would have these little tiny about this big you know doors and you'd knock on the door and you'd open it and they would have these little tiny about this big you know doors and you'd knock on the door and you'd open it and they'd serve you a glass of wine out the door, because that's how they could sell it from within what they already owned. So kind of funny. So now it's just a fun thing to go do. So yeah, we went around to wine doors of Florence. Yeah, that was fun.
Speaker 4:But it was pouring.
Speaker 5:It was literally pouring.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and the guys were like, oh, it's. And we kind of were like, where else, where is everybody? And they're like it's just you two. Everybody else canceled and we looked at each other like we didn't even know that was an option, I know.
Speaker 5:Which is our kind of thing anyway, because we don't want it to be crowded and be in there. So we had a blast on that one. That was fun. Yeah, it was really fun.
Speaker 4:So that was good. The other couple of things that we did in Florence we went to two museums and they were a bust. We went to two museums and they were a bust. So it honestly was 99 degrees, 99 to 100 degrees.
Speaker 5:Very humid.
Speaker 4:Imagine going to Florida over 4th of July. I think, as we were joking latitudinally.
Speaker 5:We were too far south.
Speaker 4:We were far south, that we we were not aware of. Um, so, but their idea of air conditioning is to, like, have it be about 10 degrees cooler than whatever it is outside. Yeah, and it's still 85 degrees, so it's kind of miserable. Um, so those old old museums have absolutely no air conditioning. And it, yeah, it was um. Yeah, we got better, but the first one was better.
Speaker 5:If we'd have seen the first one second, it'd have been a little better. Do you have your book? Do you have your book? Did you get your book?
Speaker 4:My, I Didn't you buy a book From Venice?
Speaker 5:Oh, that was from the Peggy Guggenheim, so that's a third museum we did in Venice. Yeah, we didn't see much, honestly, and we didn't some statues I mean the first one had statue after statue after statue, it was more like that down a giant hall, but there still was some, you know, paintings and that kind of thing, but yeah, it was so hot so we kind of had it at that point.
Speaker 4:We took the train and went to Cinque Terre and again I did apologize to Stacey, I was so exhausted by the heat. It was hot, it was like state fair that many people in a a walking path that was maybe 40 feet wide. And the thing I was most bummed about, because they were really beautiful bays and very pretty and gorgeous water, but every and we went to what? Four of the different towns, three or four of the different towns, I think three yeah.
Speaker 4:They all had two dozen of the same tchotchke shop shops that were just selling crap, and for some reason I did not think that's what we were going to see. Yeah, so we spent a lot of time that day riding on the tram and the train going back and forth, back and forth not so much, because it was three, three separate train rides there and then three back, and we missed the one.
Speaker 5:So we just hopped on one and came home on the wrong train. It wasn't the wrong train, it went to the right destination. We just missed the one that we paid for so it's interesting.
Speaker 5:I think the same thing in France, like you have to have a ticket. Nobody's checking your ticket as you get on, but there's a possibility they can come through and then look at your ticket. You have to have the right ticket, thank goodness, and we didn't. We did not. We got back with no fine, yeah it wasn't even close, it wasn't like the scene.
Speaker 4:We we went from the the speed train to a regional line and just got on it and got on.
Speaker 5:We get back, it's going to work. We broke the law? Yeah, we did. We didn't go to jail and it wasn't our fault, because our train, coming in, was got hung up, not, you know what, I mean, it got slowed down for some reason. We sat for a long time and then missed our connecting train. So, yeah, we've learned, I think now between Paris and Italy, that how to deal with the metro and the terrain system. It's interesting.
Speaker 4:Yep, the key is always know the end. The end that you're going in the right direction.
Speaker 5:Doesn't matter what stop you're on, but just make sure that the last stop on that line is the direction you want to go, when you go that direction and then get off at your stop and again, I'm sure people that live in New York know this stupid fact or a big city, you know, or if they're riding the bus, I think people maybe know that we just don't because we never. We just never do it, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, did you, kitty. You took trains when you were in Italy, right, yep, Did you?
Speaker 3:was that your primary mode of transportation? Yep, it was our only, only mode I really like riding the train.
Speaker 4:I really enjoy it it's.
Speaker 3:I mean, it's a, it's an incredibly efficient system and it really is easy to get anywhere. And it's just easy to get anywhere. And it's just, it's so different there than it is here. I hear you, you have to. You it's many, many hours to get somewhere where you're truly seeing something different. And it's not, it's not there.
Speaker 4:So yeah, yeah, it's super comfortable, you can read a book. You can take a little nap you know, see, see, a whole bunch of the countryside yeah. Everybody's doing their own thing and you do not have to speak the language to do it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, If that's not to get on. Yeah, if that's some honestly, if that's someone's hang up about going anywhere in europe, they you know and and to. We should do better honestly. But every it seems like almost everybody in europe speaks whatever language they speak, plus english and maybe another one. You know what I mean. So we rarely found people that we couldn't communicate with. Yeah, rarely.
Speaker 3:So I I found so thinking about our trip in its entirety, the the component that was most stressful for me was, even though the trains were easy, it was getting the train to the next place, and then we tended to, I preferred the Airbnbs that we picked. We picked around the train station, wherever we were going, so that way we can pull in and within a very short distance we could walk to our Airbnb. Um and so, but one of the things that I would do differently I would do hotels. I wouldn't do I, so I would go straight to the country and I would do little hotels. Um, did you guys go to a hotel room? Yeah, why? Over what did you do? I would do little hotels, did you guys go to Rome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, why? Over? What did you do? I just so, I mean, I felt like so we went to Rome, we went to Florence and I felt like I don't really feel like I need to do that again. Have the city experience of it. We're not museums and stuff like that. That is not what we do. So, now that I feel like we've done that, the next time we'd fly into I don't know either one, rome or Florence, and we would go straight to the country, to the smaller well, and venice isn't really I. I loved venice. Venice was number one for me. Yeah, I would go to venice and I would stay in a hotel, um, to just have that, to have that, that um, because I I did feel that there was a barrier with language. I didn't feel that people were all that friendly. So, like when we did, meet with language.
Speaker 3:I did not find people to be overly accommodating at all. I think Bill would say the same thing.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I don't think we had that issue. You know what you're saying is true because, again, we liked our Cinque Terre day. Our other, you know, excursion away from Florence was our day that we took a van tour to three wineries and that was a lot of fun. Again, there was only six of us, um, that went, it wasn't crowded, you know, we had all the time to talk to the people that were giving us the wine presentation and whatever. So that was nice and we saw a lot of pretty countryside and you know different things out of the city as well, so that you're right, that was certainly a highlight instead of walking around, and yeah, in the city yeah yep we.
Speaker 3:We also had the horrendous weather. I think it was a hundred horrendous heat, I think it was a hundred degrees when we were in rome and we were doing our walking tour of the city, oh yeah see, that's why we were.
Speaker 5:We were in Rome and we were doing our walking tour of the city. Oh yeah, see that's why we were. We were thankful because the same night we saw, or that we went on the um wine door tour, we saw people walking to do it and it's like, oh my gosh, that had been so bad to try to walk it all through that. So we were happy. We took a fun little van all through that.
Speaker 4:So we were happy. We took a fun little van. So, um, when we got to venice, we actually stayed on the island of morano, which was recommended to me by um. A mutual friend of ours said you know that it's adorable, cute little buildings and pretty colors and slower pace, and I loved it. I thought that was fantastic. It was so easy to get over to the eye, you know, to get to Venice proper. But we went to the same little corner spot when we got there and had a sandwich and a drink and pretty much at least once a day stopped there for something and talked to them, and so that was really, really fun.
Speaker 4:I learned something new. I was all excited about Murano Glass, murano glass, murano glass, murano glass, and I thought it was a specific Murano brand name glass factory. What I learned was they all there are so many different glass blowers there. The region, all the glass in that region, is called Murano glass. Yeah, so, um, we went and saw a glass blowing demonstration. That was really cool. Um, probably only lasted like 20 minutes, which was perfect, perfect. We wouldn't have needed more. Yeah, nope, we didn't need any more. We had fun shopping for that. I bought some stuff that, um, it's getting mailed, I decided, yep, ship it to me. I'm not not worrying about carrying that around.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that was really fun, I can show off mine. So Amy bought some bigger things to have shipped. I bought little tiny things, so I got a little Murano glass atomizer. Isn't that cute? I's adorable, it's so pretty, I know. And then my necklace is from Murano. I don't know if it'll show up very much, but there's a lot of little cuts of different colored glass all melted together. So that was my exciting purchases on Murano.
Speaker 3:These are the bracelets Got a vase.
Speaker 5:It's pretty. What do you have In?
Speaker 3:Venice. Is that what you?
Speaker 5:bought in Venice. Oh, we were looking at those. Yeah, yep, very cute. Yes, very cute. I'm excited to get my vase.
Speaker 4:I got a vase, probably about a nine inch vase. That's was so like in the beads and those. And then, stacy's, they have the real small little beads that were cut the this, the. The shop worked with a professional glass blower and they use bigger pieces that they cut, so in the glass you're getting almost like, not as big as a Kiwi, but you're getting like if you were to cut a big green grape in half. That's how big the beads of it were. So I'm, I don't know. I'm just, we looked at so many shops, so many know I'm. We looked at so many shops, so many shops, so many shops, so many shops, and I saw this something in the window. I'm like, oh, let's go in here and then, as everybody now knows, I overthink it.
Speaker 5:I stand there and overthink it for way you changed her line yes you changed your mind 50 times, I think yep, and then I finally got it. I think I shopped four or five other stores in the time but then I went back to what drew me in.
Speaker 4:To begin with I'm like nope, I'm gonna get the one that I saw that I liked so much, that made me come in.
Speaker 5:So right, yeah, yeah, yeah. If I had it to do over again, I think I would want to stay in venice or morano longer and less in florence. And then we were kind of flipped. We had just a couple a day. We had one day in florence and what would we call it? A day and a half in Murano. I would guess by the time we had to get up and leave, yeah, so, yeah, yeah, that area was a lot nicer. The Airbnb we stayed in Murano was, I don't, know, Very modern yeah very modern, newly updated.
Speaker 5:So it was a total difference from where we stayed in Florence.
Speaker 4:It was very nice and new Now the one thing that the cruddy old place not cruddy, but the kind of decrepit old place had over. The brand new one was the shower size, so in the showers in Murano. So we each had our own bedroom and our own bathroom. It was one of those three-quarter semi-circle ones, the plastic one that's like a bank tube. I don't think three-quarter.
Speaker 5:I think one-quarter. I think it was one-quarter I mean nine-four. Yes, so a quarter of us. Somebody said I mean, yes, we pulled the shower door apart and it got to about this far and you shimmied side. Oh, I'm not kidding, you couldn't. Even. You could, kitty, I don't think you could have walked straight in it oh so's the first thing. So then and it's so skinny that I was continually, if I turn around, I would back into the faucet and turn it off. Turn it around, turn around, turn it back on. Let me continually.
Speaker 4:It was that, it was that yes, yes, I did the same thing and and I actually dropped the bar of soap I was using once and I'm like I'm gonna have to turn this on, open the door to get the soap, because I can't there's not enough space. So that was kind of funny. So one of my moments, you know, besides sleeping in an air-conditioned hard bed bedroom, I was super excited to take a shower and wash my hair. I felt like I had so much you know stuff in the hair. It was like oh yeah, so that was fun.
Speaker 5:It was fun, it was nice. Yeah, we bought it. We bought a ton of stuff. Well, I did spend a lot of money, but you only go right, right, that's what vacations are for. I bought.
Speaker 4:I'll do a little show and tell so you know. Last time when I went to paris, I bought this um I don't know if you can see it, this dior ring and this time I bought um from the artisan that who was who was making it. It's an 18-carat gold all the way through. That he used like a chisel thing. Where am I at here? A diamond chisel?
Speaker 4:A diamond chisel and make all these little recessed things so it looks like there's diamonds and sparkles in it, but it's actually just stents in it. Yeah, yep, yeah, this is the funniest. So before I bought that, I bought this silver ring, this multi. Before I flip you off, this multi, there are four rings here, okay, and um, we were so freaking hot and sweaty that day that I had to keep trying different ones on, and this one fit perfect. And now, look at it, falls right off, and it falls off all my fingers and the guy's like, well, you know, just put it on your other hand, because your right hand will be bigger Yep, the finger coming up, and because it's four bands, I don't know that there's any way that I'm going to be able to make it smaller. So this might just have to be my, my July, august ring, and I can't get it to wear it any other time of the year. So, but that was kind of fun.
Speaker 4:Oh, the one, the one museum we went to that I loved was the. There was a Peggy Guggenheim collection in Venice and so evidently Peggy Guggenheim lived in Venice in this gorgeous, very mid-century, modern, very Venice kind of low to the ground glass house. That was pretty fabulous and she was a huge art collector and she had all these different artists come live and stay with her, so we got to see original Pablo Picassos and Jackson Pollocks and a whole bunch of different art. It wasn't very big big, which was perfect. It was in a really nice house with air conditioning, also perfect. Um, I really liked that. Did you see? You got a book in there too, so we got a.
Speaker 5:Yes, we got a book on one of the artists. She was yeah, what do you call it? Um had a patron of a large well, and she had a. There was a large collection of her.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so I think a lot of these people came and lived with her for various times and um, so that was pretty cool, so I loved. You know that was probably an hour, hour and a half. It's not like it took us a long time to get through. Um, I always like to pick up art books. I think they're fun, good memories, and I just like the stories as much as I like, especially when they're stories about how this artist stayed with her right, right.
Speaker 5:So the artist friends yeah, you, I, I didn't know her name um, her last name was de silva, I believe, but she was the wife of Cezanne. So if anybody is much of an artist, that was the deal. So look what showed up today. You got the wine I did. It just came today.
Speaker 4:Yes, numb.
Speaker 5:Yes, and I can't remember Amy got one, I got two and I got my husband three bottles, so we got six. Which was yours, the cab or the other red?
Speaker 4:No, we got the cab for Barney Mine's the other one, because there should be three cabs?
Speaker 5:No, there's two. I got two of each. Oh okay, so this was the second winery we went to is where I ended up buying wine from. This was the second winery we went to is where I ended up buying wine from, and the wine labels the son of the owners had just graduated from the Rhode Island, yeah.
Speaker 5:And he was the one. He's the artist that draws pictures on the label. It was a cool story. This LaPia gosh how do we explain her? Um, you know, early descendant of that exact spot in italy? Um, in the chianti region? Yeah, the chianti region? Yeah, yep so they're.
Speaker 4:They're hopefully going to be writing a book, because it's a really good story. The the very quick version is it's an american man who met an italian woman when they both worked for general electric. Um, they fell in love and they've been married and living there for 17 years. They buy this dilapidated, run-down farmhouse across from across the street, from the villa, so it's the secondary house, turns out, that house was used by the german headquarters during world war ii and then, as they start to bring it back, they discover that there was like this massive park Park. It was built, and the whole time that he's talking about it. Also, we're standing outside where it's unbelievably hot and telling us all about this, and we're looking around and I'm so into the story, but all I keep thinking is ka-ching, ka-ching, yeah.
Speaker 4:I mean oh my God, everything they did, but she. She cooked us lunch, so the six of us had just this. That might've been my favorite meal of the whole trip.
Speaker 5:Oh, I think so, yeah, yeah. It was several courses and charcuterie and a couple of different salad.
Speaker 4:I'd call them type things yeah, very good, really good, really fresh and good food, homemade bread and yeah, yeah, very good had no idea, that was a fun winery go ahead.
Speaker 4:Had no idea that so many wineries also produced olive oil. Yeah, they all have olive trees, yeah. So I brought home olive and gin because that place made their own gin from all the juniper that was around there, so I'm kind of excited to crack one of those open. Yeah, who knew you could go to Venice and Florence and drink gin, which is what I did. It was kind of too hot for wine it was yeah, we drink more drinks.
Speaker 5:Um yeah, not a fan of the negroni. I had to do it because I do. Oh my gosh, it's awful. I also thought the apparel spritz last year in paris was terrible, and so is the Negroni. Yeah, so yeah. We had. It was hard to find something to Well.
Speaker 4:I knew both of those. I wasn't going to like those, so I just went right for gin and tonic.
Speaker 5:Yeah, oh well.
Speaker 4:Yeah, some drinks are universal. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:That's yeah that's right, so funny good, else you, we both got the same purse. This is one of our italian italian handbags mine's blue white. Yep, they're kind of cool and they have a cool little leather bag in a bag and it's all leather. The inside, you know, is the inside of the leather. So that was fun pretty I did, and we bought this in no but in venice. We bought it in venice, this I bought in florence.
Speaker 5:Yeah, this is my other bag, my leather bag. So yeah, stacy, bought a color other than red beautiful I know, it's yeah, of course I was drawn to the red, which I have a hundred of, in the black, which I have a hundred of. So this is more like a cordovan, I'm gonna yeah, really classic really pretty, yep. So anyway, that was um. What else did we get? What else did you?
Speaker 4:get, I got, so I a leather kind of a leather keeper for work which I'm super excited about. That I'll give back forever and you know just a handmade leather thing and bought some other stuff to give my darlings which I haven't given them yet, so I can't talk about it we can't talk about it we can't talk about that.
Speaker 5:No, we can't, can't talk about it. We can't talk about that.
Speaker 4:No, we can't talk about it but didn't really, didn't really bring tons of stuff, but meaningful things and meaningful things that I will use. That's my other. I want to be able to use everything that I can bring back with me, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, it sounds like it was an amazing adventure.
Speaker 4:Yes, yeah, it sure was, and we did it in a carry-on. We both took carry-ons. I think I can even cut my carry-on down.
Speaker 5:I was going to say what did you? Is there anything you didn't wear? I had two shirts and swimsuit, because we didn't end up doing any kind of water sports. So I I had my swimsuit and two shirts that I didn't wear.
Speaker 4:I had two dresses that I didn't wear. One dress I wore once, so I could have left all those home, because when you stay you know we beat airbnb versus the hotel. The airbnb I did a lot of laundry, but even if it wouldn't have, there were so many um places where you could drop your laundry off, not even the hotel sort of thing. So I really think that for nine days you could get away with about four days worth of clothes and repeat it right and, honestly, our nine days.
Speaker 5:One was plain, so that wasn't in our suitcase. One was coming home. You could have rewore. I wore we could have, we could have wore whatever, we yeah, you know, wanted to yep, so a war, whatever we yeah you know wanted to yep, so yep. It can be done.
Speaker 4:You can do it with just a little roll on, yep and pay. Pay for better, better flight, better seats. Yeah, that's my other piece of dice yeah, in a nine hour flight you're not gonna want to sit coach for sure yeah, and, and we just did comfort, so it's not like we did give yourself a little, give your tushy a little bit more cushion, and cushion in a room, yeah was it an overnight flight but you fly during the night.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, and that's. That is the nice thing that when you land in the morning, you're, it's the morning yeah, that that is a far harder flight for me to deal with, jet lag wise.
Speaker 4:Coming home back, I was up for 24 hours, I think, and and went to work the next day.
Speaker 5:Yeah, we were up for 24 hours. It probably would have mattered if the time we got home would have been different, but literally I got home in time to go to bed and slept really well and got up and was fine. But going where you're losing eight hours. Yeah, you lose time and then you have a whole day. So you're flying for 10 hours and then you're in the daytime. For the rest, that's harder.
Speaker 4:Harder than coming back, yeah, so. So if anybody wants to reach out with questions about how to complete do-it-yourselfers, novices, we are not world travelers. We are just normal people like everybody else who one day wake up and say you know what, let's go to Italy. We are more than happy to talk about it and we're trying to figure out where we're going next.
Speaker 5:Stacy's going to leave me behind next summer. Next summer we got to gotta, we and I say have to, we have to go to Alaska. So we're not doing a European trip next summer. Anyway, she's going to Alaska. Yeah, I'm going to Alaska.
Speaker 4:I my my planning is still up for grabs, but I will not. I will not be going to the equator in July. I might be heading a little bit North, maybe hitting Scandinavia or something like that, where it's cold. The rest of the year. So yeah.
Speaker 5:Yep, all right.
Speaker 3:Awesome. Well good, Thank you guys for sharing. Well good, Thank you guys for sharing and we will be back again next week with another addicting conversation. Thank you guys so much for tuning in and follow along we appreciate it.
Speaker 5:Ciao, ciao, ciao Ciao.
Speaker 2:Cheers, bye-bye, go. Here I go coming. I can't ever stop. I'm a tour de force running. Get me to the top. I don't need a invitation. I'm about to start a celebration. Let me in. Brought a good time for some friends. Turn it up loud past 10.
