Stuffing my face in Italy

Mmm....

Mozzarella Caprese

Tartufo (a combo of two ice creams.... this one was white chocolate on the outside, coffee on the inside)

Ravioli with meat sauce

Pappardelle

Gelato

One of my favorite things.... ribollita. A bread and veggie stew thing.

New favorite Italian dessert: Cantuccini (biscotti) with sweet dessert wine

My favorite guy noshing on gelato.

One of many wine tastings.

Matt's a professional.

They had a nice wine-tasting flight here, complete with snacks.

Pici pasta (nice thick spaghetti) with cheese and garlic sauce.

Angel and Demon dessert: panna cotta and chocolate lava cake :-)

I have been looking all over Italy for these since Matt and I first found them in 2012 in Rome. Yum.

Is that MORE pappardelle? Uh huh.

 UH HUH.

Grilled veggies...

 ...to go with the famed Steak Florentine. That's over a kilo of meat that they brought out to him before slapping it on the grill. Love the presentation here, bringing it out like this all sizzling.

After that steak we finished the evening off with a tiramisu that had a fresh shot of espresso at the bottom.

One of my car snacks was this cheese stick. Parmesan cheese stick? Oh yes, oh yes I say - one bite here, one bite of ham. Good stuff.

Fettuccine with tomato sauce.

Mmm... penne arrabiata.

Goulash with dumplings at the top of a mountain pass. Pretty freaking delicious.

Are you hungry yet?

Lake Garda, Italy

Like Lake Como, Lake Garda has a laid-back relaxed vibe. What sets it apart are the amount of shops and restaurants - so many more!

And always pretty buildings.

I wish I could just take all these :-)

Mmm, Aperol Spritz....

This was our view for most of the afternoon. All you could hear was the water lapping up against the shore. everything was perfect until some traveling musician decided to setup his routine steps away, with a microphone and speaker. Hope he has another job, because he was not all that great. All you really need here is the water to listen to.

Aaahhhhh.... so pleasant.

I think the best part was when Matt walked into a shoe store and bought three new pairs of shoes, including these blue suede numbers. He's going to be soo stylish in Seattle.

Bravo Italian lakes, bravo.

Innsbruck, Austria

Driving to Italy takes a while - there are these huge mountains in the way. Alps.

I was most looking forward to the first part of the trip because it involved McDonald's breakfast:

 They should really have these sandwiches in the U.S. Stupidly good.

We also had to turn down a hitchhiker on the way. Too bad for that guy - trying to get to Munich.... not in our car, buddy.

Anyway, we stopped for lunch around Neuschwanstein Castle and snapped a few pictures before continuing:

Our destination for the night was Innsbruck, Austria. What a totally beautiful city!

Of course we stayed at the Hilton and found our parking spot right up front....

...and were upgraded to a junior suite with a great view of everything.

When Chris and Joyce arrived, we met up for dinner at the hotel. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures, but even if I did it could not convey how amazing our meals were. We both had filets of Austrian beef with sauces on the side, though there was no way these slabs of meat needed anything at all to make them perfection. One of the best steaks I've ever had, and it came on a wooden slab to boot.

They did have advertisements of the restaurant in the elevators in the form of delicious looking cows...

Anyway, before heading out the next day we got to walk around the pedestrian area, and despite some rain, it was super fun. They had multiple stores that just had slabs of bacon in them. How could this city get any better?

Found a store we totally own....

 Look at the intricate designs on the buildings! So cool.

 Beautiful church....

And can we talk about how gorgeous this is?! Wow. They had tons of shops with amazing things like this, but this one was absolutely the best of the bunch.

So yes, add Innsbruck to your list. Great combo of restaurants, shopping, and those pretty mountains.

Back from Italy!

Here's where we went:

Innsbruck, Austria
Lake Garda, Italy
Tuscany in Italy
Dolomites, Italy

After 11 days on the road, I've got a lot of photos to go through. Here are some of my favorites.

Lake Garda.

Mountain pass.

 Someone forgot to bring a jacket.

 Crossing into Tuscany!

 Chris and Joyce.

Huge wine selection at an even bigger grocery store.

A day in Sienna.

 Getting ready to tour a Tuscan castle.

Chris and Joyce in the garden.

 Me in the garden.

 My go-to pasta dish for the bulk of the trip: pappardelle.

 Villas outside of one of the castles.

 Touring yet another castle.

Matt and I took a train to Florence for one of the afternoons.

 Someone finally got a jacket when we headed back north into the Dolomites.

 Super large mountains.

 Here's Matt by a mountain lake.

 I'll have more detailed posts soon, so stay tuned!

Hello, Seattle.

Things have been bonkers here this summer, and I can finally tell you why!

Matt has been studying and interviewing for a new job, and we are pleased to report that last week he accepted an offer.

We immediately broke out the champagne. Because that's what you do when you have a lot of champagne.

We went for the Mumm. Mmm, Mumm.

Here is where it gets especially insane......

Matt's new job? It's in SEATTLE.

Who's it with? It's NOT with the Government.

It's....

With.....

,,,,,

.......

.......aaaahhhh!

THE GOOGLE!

I could not be prouder of my husband!

He has not been enjoying his current job like he used to, so he's been looking to make a change. This has involved countless mornings and evenings studying material in order to prepare for some pretty serious interviews. It's been going on all summer, and earlier this month he even flew to Seattle for final interviews. (Yes - they flew the poor guy halfway around the world. And he brought me back a bag of espresso beans and a whole lotta jet lag.)

Anyway, Matt starts his new job mid-October. This has several implications:

1. Ugh, We have to move again. And quickly. And internationally. 

2. We have a boatload of last-minute trips to take before we leave the continent.

3. Sadly, this blog will be ending a lot sooner than expected.

While I know you're super bummed about not getting your Euro-fix, rest assured that I share in your grief. But only a little. I love living here and am so glad we have had this amazing opportunity, but now it's on to the next opportunity. I'm so excited for Matt!

I've never been to Seattle before but have heard great things. I tend to do this, though - make huge moves to places I've never been before. It's worked out so far. We both know some people there, so it's going to be great catching up with them. I hope I can adjust to being a West coaster!

It's going to be hard to leave Europe, but it's the right move for us. I'm looking forward to returning to work, and Matt is giddy at the idea of working on challenging projects surrounded by incredibly talented and smart people. Oh-and I never ever have to make him lunch again because Google has a ton of on-site food options to keep him busy. Plus a gym, and kayaks to borrow. And a billion other perks.

So keep reading! Like I said, we have an ambitious schedule of trips to take before leaving in six weeks or so (oh gosh that's making my heart beat so much faster, SIX weeks! So much to do!) and we definitely plan on making the most of it.

Hello, Seattle!