Ireland & Italy: The Hotels

Over the course of our 14 day, 13 night trip to Europe last summer, we stayed in six different hotels and one villa. That's a lot of hotels!

I spent a lot of time on TripAdvisor prior to booking to research where we would stay as much as possible, and 6/7 of the places we stayed were great.

Since we were trying to keep to a pretty low budget, and our flights went about $500 over what we were expecting, we decided that we wanted to keep our total hotel budget under $1,000 per person, or around $150/room/night. With the exchange rate, this meant compromising on location or amenities in a few places.

Here's a run down of our hotels.

Florence, Italy

As I've mentioned before, Florence holds a special place in my heart. So you can imagine that I was a little bit disappointed that our time there didn't quite go as planned.

Our first challenge: We were exhausted. We had been rush rush rushing for 10 days by the time we got to Florence, and we just hit the wall when we got there.

Our second challenge: The weather was still ridiculously hot and humid!

We still managed to see what we wanted to in Florence, and I wouldn't have skipped it for the world. But I didn't get to show off the city in the way I had wanted to.

Florence's Duomo - the photos never really do it justice!

San Gimignano, Pisa & Cinque Terre, Italy

After the stunning Tuscan wedding, there were only a few short days left of our trip, but boy were we determined to make the best of them!

SAN GIMIGNANO
The first stop was San Gimignano, which I was SO excited to share with SAY, M and Shorty. See, I'd been talking about this town since I'd first been in 2003 (on the trip where I met BF), and we were all really looking forward to it, and to having a night in a small little town where SAY and Dr G could decompress after the craziness that is planning and executing a destination wedding in Italy!

A Big Fat Tuscan Wedding

I've been to quite a few weddings in the last few years. And while all of them had special, beautiful, memorable moments, none were quite as magical as SAY & Dr G's wedding at Tenuta di Corsano in Tuscany.

It could have been the build up: a stunning evening of delicious food in Siena, fireworks and fireflies...

Siena & Corsano, Italy

After a hot and crowded Rome, the breezy Tuscan countryside was just perfect. The weather was still HOT but there was much less humidity, making it a pleasant change!

We arrived in Siena in the early evening, and took a cab from the train station to our hotel. The train station in Siena is at the bottom of the hill the city is situated on, so cabs are a good way to get to the main areas.

Rome, Italy

Rome.

Rome was the exact opposite of Ireland. Where Ireland was cool, clean and refreshing, Rome was hot, dirty, and humid. But even though we wilted the moment we left an air conditioned environment, Rome was beautiful. Crowded and expensive, but beautiful.

Our time in Rome was split - a full day and a half at the beginning of the trip, and another almost full day at the end of it.

St. Peter's Basilica is one of the most gorgeous spots in Rome. You can go into the basilica without touring the Vatican, but of course, there's a line to get in.

Derry, Northern Ireland & Dublin, Ireland

While the girls were having a blast exploring Dublin, BF and I decided to drive up to Derry, Northern Ireland for a day trip. BF had wanted to go to Belfast when we were in Ireland in 2009, but it didn't work out because we had such limited time, so this time, Northern Ireland was on the top of his list. I was not quite as eager. Not because I didn't want to go, but because of all of the unrest and "The Troubles," which, though "officially" over are still somewhat ongoing. There were riots going on in Belfast (not uncommon, but still), and we had no idea what Derry was going to be like.

But we went anyway, and I am SO glad that we did.

Derry is one of the only remaining European cities with fully intact city walls. Our tour had us walking the walls!

Travel Photo Tuesday: Central CA

I took this photo on a road trip to San Francisco. It reminds me of what Central CA drives can mean: lots of open space and greenery, and me feeling happy.

Why you should never, ever book with Spirit Airlines

Otherwise known as "Why Spirit Airline sucks balls," or "Why I hope Spirit Airlines goes out of business."

Amazing photo borrowed from Awesomely Luvvie, yet another blogger who had a terrible experience. 

Counties Donegal, Sligo & Leitrim, Ireland

On this trip, we only had four nights in Ireland. This was a fact that BF found incredibly unbalanced, given that we then went to Italy for nine nights. But that's how it worked out this trip, so we made the absolute best of our short time in Ireland!

After the first, incredibly long day of traveling, driving across the country, getting lost in sheep covered countryside, hiking the Slieve League cliffs, and beers and fish & chips, a day of driving around the counties in the north west of Ireland was perfect.

View of the beach from the passenger side of the car!

Travel Photo Tuesday: Roman Accordion Player

Resurrecting an old favorite of mine: travel photo Tuesdays! I'll be honest here and say I probably won't do this every week, but I love sharing my passion of photography on here, so I'll give it a shot.

We stumbled upon this guy while we were wandering around the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome. I have a special spot in my heart for accordion players, and this guy was such a gem!

Slieve League Cliffs and Donegal, Ireland

Well, we've been back for over three months. Three months! And for almost each day of those three months, I've spent at least a few minutes a day daydreaming that I was back in Europe on our trip. So I decided it's high time to get around to detailing what we did on our great big fabulous trip!

THE TRIP
First up: our flights over, and our first days in Ireland, which included the Slieve League cliffs and the town of Donegal!

Neglected!

I have seriously neglected this blog since I returned from my big trip to Europe!

What can I say - life has gotten in the way of blogging. And by that, I mean I've been absolutely swamped at work, and have not had the energy to get on the computer once I'm home. But! I just might have found my blogging mojo again, and am currently drafting some posts about our amazing trip to Europe.

So be patient, anyone out there reading who hasn't disappeared in the weeks and weeks since I've last posted!

Recaps of our trip are coming soon!

Atlanta Part Deux Redux: The Food!

We're back from Atlanta, and it was a great trip. And while I still didn't fully explore the city, I got a good taste of it! We did almost nothing but work and EAT the whole time we were there. I'll get to the stuff we actually did do later, but here's a breakdown of our culinary tour.

- Fried pickles, fried okra, a BBQ plate with beef brisket, ribs, "Fritos" pie (a bag of Fritos with chili and cheese on them), spicy green beans, sweet tea, and banana pudding at Fox Bros BBQ. I'd never had fried pickles or fried okra, and both were tasty! And the BBQ - well, I guess there's a reason they're ranked #1 BBQ in Atlanta - it was so good! We definitely ordered too much, though, we all had leftovers, which is a bummer when you're traveling.

- Two awesome breakfasts (Thursday, then Saturday) of eggs & turkey bacon, then a "Southern scramble" of eggs, turkey bacon, cheese, and greens, both along with "creamy dreamy grits" and an amazing biscuit from The Flying Biscuit Cafe. The grits and biscuit were out of this world. I would have eaten there every morning if it had been possible. And the "southern scramble" was one of the better egg plates I've had in a while. I also love the use of turkey bacon!

They had all kinds of cute "The Flying Biscuit" stuff!

Pack light?

Fun article about packing light for summer vacations... check it out!

How to Pack Light This Summer

I? Did not exactly pack light. I didn't go too overboard, but I definitely could've gotten away with less.

House sitters in place, we're almost ready for our vacation!