food?! yeah. I like that stuff.

Thirteen months after receiving my very own pasta machine as a rad gift, I finally took the thing for her maiden voyage on Saturday using my recipe that I learned from the adorable Ariana during our stay at Hotel Malu in Rome.

there are literally six ingredients to this recipe: flour, eggs, olive oil, salt, water and time
(no, I spelled that correctly - this recipe takes a good 2 hours. and its SO worth it.)

rollin' rollin' rollin'

you've gotta let the pasta rest in the fridge, on the counter, before/after its been mixed, cut, cooked...a ton o' resting going on here...I recommend passing the time with a bottle (or two) of wine

flour'll turn your cooking water all nice and frothy, turning you into an impresssive-looking chef

there are no words

The results were not only completely edible, they even tasted gooooooooooood! I had 3 servings. Oops. I'm working on perfecting my skills, but that pasta machine works like a champ!!!


Sunday was Father's Day, which meant more eating was in order. We headed over to Dad's place armed with enough Kinder's ball tip to feed a small army (if you've never had it, you've not lived.) and about a gallon of their potato salad...*sigh*

the (self-appointed) GrillMaster at work

Don't let him fool you, the man loves to barbecue, and is damn good at it! He was not at all put out by having to cook his own dinner on Father's Day, no matter what he tells you. Barbecued ball tip, beer and a backyard = a great way to spend the day.

Rome, Italy

May 11th
After leaving Naples, I didn't feel so hot. We figured it was due to the general stuffiness of the train, but I didn't feel much better when we checked into our hotel.

My sweet boyfriend had emailed the hotel a few days before our arrival, telling them that it would be my birthday, and asking if they'd help arrange a nice surprise for me. After woozily checking in, I was supposed to open the door to notice the lovely vase of flowers and a bottle of champagne. I was so ill by this point that I barely saw the stuff (Rob had to point it out...). I hardly thanked him and our host before disappearing into the bathroom...

An hour later, we were both in trouble. It wasn't exactly as we'd intended to spend my birthday, so we decided to postpone it and celebrate on Tuesday.

May 12th
Still fighting with our touchy tummies, we were Vatican City bound by 9:30am. Saint Peter's Basilica was glorious...really. Its gigantic and manages to exude a grandness even when swarming with thousands of people.


I'd been in Italy for like five days and still hadn't had gelato. A crime against humanity, I know. Even though my guts were nervous, the raspberry goodness made things much better:


The Pantheon was up next. Its the oldest un-retrofitted building in Rome, and was pretty spectacular.

the look of general disgust on Rob's face is thanks to the street-vendor in the green shirt, who was offering (and offering, and offering) Rob some stupid little trinket. it got really old, really fast to be harrassed to buy something all the time...

After a nap, we headed to the Colosseum. It was closed when we arrived, but relatively uncrowded. We eavesdropped on an Aussie tourguide's brief history of the giant, and then headed out for some dinner before a nighttime visit to the Trevi Fountain.





May 13th

an awesome mobile knife-sharpener who was hard at work right outside our hotel...

Since much of our time was encroached upon by being sick, we hadn't climbed Michaelangelo's dome (cupola) at Saint Peter's Basilica. Our train was set to depart at 2:44pm, so we hustled back to Vatican City in the morning to climb the 437 steps to the top.

I was shocked by the things that people wear. I try (not hard enough) to be non-judgemental, but when going to what is called the Holy City, must you dress like you work in a brothel? Really? Appalling. Rob's favorite moments of Holy City irony were when people would cut in line to get into the Basilica. Are you serious? Are you really that important that you can't be an honest world citizen when at the Pope's house?!??!! Ugh.

Okay, on to the climb:

as we got closer to the top, the walls started to curve inward

our view from the top

Next on our schedule was the highlight of my time in Rome: learning how to make homemade pasta. Our amazing, fantastic, terrific hotel hosts, Arianna and Ivan, caught wind (from Rob) that I was dying to see pasta be made (and then eat it...of course), so they arranged for us to learn how to make fresh, homemade pasta. I took three pages of notes. I cannot WAIT to make/eat this again:

pasta pasta pasta

a PERFECT lunch (Rob called it my 72-hours belated birthday lunch)

I was truly sad to leave Rome, especially as our time there wrapped up with an awesome experience with fabulous people.

Overall opinion: Dear Rome, I'll be back. And this time, I plan to eat waaaaaaaay more than before. I heart Rome, even if it is crowded and hot and loud. I want a moped, I want a pasta machine, and I want to speak Italian. For the most part, Rome was amazing and I'll definitely return.

Question: you know what's the opposite of fun on your birthday?!

Answer: suspected food poisoning.

Wait, that sounds like someone dropped cyanide in my drink or something. Not the case. However, something that has been tossed down my throat in the last 12 hours has severely disagreed with me. And Rob's in the same boat. This boat sucks. I want to eat pasta and gelato and drink wine, but my tummy's saying nuh-uh. Dammit.

I must say, though, that my birthday was lovely until this crap kicked in. We've arrived by train in Rome, and from our room, I got to hear an accordion (?) play the typical Italian music, which was awesome. Upon checking into our hotel room, I opened the door to a beautiful room outfitted with a vase of flowers and a bottle of champagne...Rob is such a wonderful guy. (Okay, mushy stuff over). We'll be saving that bottle until tomorrow, methinks.

Oh yeah, and I didn't write this post for sympathy, really. I'm on a world tour and loving it. I'm a VERY lucky girl. Hell, I could even explain that this is the best possible time on this trip for us to be feeling like this. Really. I wrote this post so that next year, when I go, "What did I do on my 27th birthday?," I can remember it.