STG in the KSA: A Carb-Filled, Red Wine Colored Dream

Italy is a dream. A carb-filled, red wine colored dream, where everywhere you look are masterpieces and ruins and friendly people who just want you to enjoy their country. Our travels around Italy left us with tight pants but wonderful memories that will last until our return. Because while we saw a lot of the country, there's still so much more to see and so many more slices of pizza to devour. Plus, the wine in Italy is magic and doesn't give you a hangover! We will be back!

Milano

Our journey started in northern Italy, where we met up with fellow Saudi expats who had been transferred to Milan at the completion of their time in the kingdom. Mike and Christine showed us the lovely city of Milan, where we enjoyed famous paintings and stuffed pizza that should be just as famous.

We viewed the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci... a great experience, made even better due to the fact that only 25 people are allowed in at one time in order to keep the room at a steady temperature to protect the fresco.

Got to see it up close and personal without people squishing me!

Opposite the wall with the Last Supper is this painting called Crucifixion by Giovanni Donato da Montorfano. Art historians believe some of the figures on this painting were also painted by Leonardo da Vinci.

We made our way to Milan's most famous building, their Duomo (cathedral), the 5th largest cathedral in the world.

It was quite large!

A replica of the "Madonnina" statue that's on the main spire of the church.

No medieval building is complete without creepy gargoyles!

You can also go up a bunch of stairs to explore the roof.

A lovely walk through Milan in the fall.

The Porta Sempione, a city gate in a gorgeous park in Milan.

Venezia

We jumped on a train from Milan with Mike and Christine for an unfortunately short but incredibly beautiful weekend in Venice.

We somehow managed to maneuver the tiny, narrow alleys throughout the city without getting TOO lost.

For our first meal in Venice, I ordered a traditional dish of squid in its own ink and polenta. It was pretty good, but even better was how everyone's teeth looked after tasting it.

On a walking tour of Venice, we passed this strange structure, which our guide told us was put in as a deterrent for public urination! The splash back is terrible.

These guys were brave to jump so close to a canal.

The view from our AirBnB balcony, which was right across the street from a hospital... So nice to have a morning coffee out there and watch the ambulance boats glide by.

On our one full day in Venice, we set out from our apartment to go tour the Doge's Palace. It took us a little longer than expected to get there after we saw that St. Mark's Square had flooded!

Plastic shoe covers (AKA fancy plastic bags shaped like shoes) were on sale for 9 Euro a pair, or you could wait and walk on the boardwalks that were set up for visitors' convenience.

Inside the Doge's Palace we saw room after room of beautiful furniture and art. We also did the Secret Itineraries tour, which gave us access to private rooms including where Casanova was held prisoner and made his famous escape.

Christine taking an artsy shot!

Tiny tourist admiring the artwork.

Strolling around the picturesque city

Post-lunch drinks of aperol spritz!

When the sun started to set, we started looking for a gondola to ride along the Grand Canal.

We chose one at random and ended up with a super cool 7th generation gondolier named Stefano!

Gondola selfie

Stefano took us down the Grand Canal and through smaller canals to show us cool sites like Marco Polo's house!

Our gondola ride was awesome! An experience I highly recommend!

Roma

At the end of our great Venice weekend, Mike and Christine headed back to Milan while Brian and I took the train down to Rome. I feel like I could visit Rome many times and still not see and experience everything, but we tried really hard to see everything in the four days we were there.

One of my must-sees was the Roman Forum, which we toured with an audio guide (thanks, Rick Steves).

The Forum was the center of ancient Roman public life. Many of the structures are from the 7th and 8th century BC!

Another view of the expansive forum! It was a particularly dreary November day but the site was really interesting.

A Roman Big Nose in the Forum. There are over 2,000 of these public drinking fountains all around the city! It certainly saved us from having to buy bottled water everywhere!

From up on Palatine Hill, we got a great view of the Colosseum, which we visited next.

There are holes all in the Colosseum where there used to be iron clamps holding the stones together

It was really, really big!

We took our time walking around the inside as well.

You can see where the floor used to be, as well as the pathways underneath the floor. It's hard to imagine this place filled with spectators watching a gladiator fight!

We made sure to visit the Trevi Fountain, and threw in some coins to ensure a return to Rome.

Apparently we weren't the only ones trying to visit that fountain.

One night we took a stroll across the Tiber River. Here's a view of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

We got a little closer.

The next day we got really close. As in, we went inside of it.

Pictures weren't allowed inside the Sistine Chapel (which was INCREDIBLE), but I sneaked one anyway.

The Raphael Rooms in the Vatican were amazing! My face when I looked up and recognized this one from a slideshow I used to show my 6th grade students.

Inside St. Peter's. So impressive.

Outside St. Peter's we caught a few of the Swiss Guards and their SPECTACULAR outfits.

We spent an afternoon in a cooking class, where we made several dishes and polished off several bottles of wine.

Stuffing some artichokes

Straining the tomato sauce

First pasta--cavatelli made from semolina flour and water

Second pasta--fettuccini made from all-purpose flour and eggs

Napoli and Pompeii

We begrudgingly left Rome and headed further south to meet up with my cousin Cale and his wife, Diana. They are living outside of Naples for a few years and hosted us for two nights. We made a trip to visit the archaeological site of the city of Pompeii, which was completely destroyed in 79 AD by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Some of the ruins with Mount Vesuvius in the background. The explosion was so intense that the entire top of the mountain was blown off and ash, gas, and rocks were thrown 21 miles into the air, completely covering the city of Pompeii and nearby Herculaneum.

Brian with some of the ruins.

A Pompeii fast food place. Food was placed into those holes in the stove to keep them warm for hungry townspeople.

One of the many houses you can wander into in Pompeii. The devastation was massive and almost incomprehensible.

Barolo

We boarded a train and headed back north. Mike and Christine picked us up in Milan and we drove west to the wine region of Piedmont, to a charming, tiny village called Barolo for a weekend of wine tasting. Though the weather didn't cooperate, we still had fun!