Mambo Italiano

Tonight was my last bike ride before my last triathlon of the summer.  It took a little bit of convincing but I kept telling myself it was the LAST one!  And after Sunday I can put my bike away (and my goggles) until next year!  I knew I was I was cutting the daylight close, but I thought I might make it by the skin of my teeth.  So yeah, it was not the best bike outing I have ever had.  I was passed on a hill by a guy running.  Yes, I was huffing & puffing on a low gear and he ran by me like it was nothing.  I'm sure I'm made his day.  He's probably blogging about the fact he totally passed some chick on a bike!  Ha!  I did eventually pass him back but I kept expecting him to repass me at any point.  And then I rode through a swarm of bugs and I'm sure swallowed a few.  Bugs are good protein, right?  Ick!  I got to the other side of the bridge and realized I could see the moon and could barely see the setting sun.  Okay, this was going to be extremely close.  I made it back to my car on the wrong side of the sunset by a few minutes.  Done!

So what does this have to do with Italy?  Absolutely nothing...  But my upcoming trip to Italy is finally starting to take shape.  We'll be visiting the "Big Three" or Venice, Florence & Rome.  I love, love, love both Florence & Rome but I just tolerate Venice.  I think for a lot of people Venice is a place you either love or hate and for a long time I hated Venice.  All I remembered was the smell and the heat.  However I also remembered how much I really did love St. Mark's.  And then I did go back and realized as long as I didn't go in the summer, Venice is tolerable.  So now I'm going back again.  Jessica has never been & Nilufer has been once (about 10 years ago).  So we'll be doing a lot of the typical touristy stuff - Forum, Colosseum, David, Bridge of Sighs, etc.  We're starting to get more into the planning phase, which I love.  One of the days in Florence I'm hopeful we will take a side trip to Siena, which has been on my list of places to visit for awhile now.  If anyone has any tips or favorite places for Italy, please share! :) 

I will be dreaming of margherita pizza & gelato until we leave!  Someone once pointed out to me that margherita pizza is just cheese pizza, but it is oh so good.  Maybe it's being in Italy?  I don't know.  But I will be eating more than my fair share! :) 

And with that, I'm off to bed!