The Illusive Meatball and the Making of Rob Roy

Beall and Bob to the North and South

The illusive meatball - finally

got him

No hands in the Mediterranean

Practicing safe sunning while

enjoying our own boat

Panarea, this view comes with a cost

of 15 dollar Coronas

Just me and Stromboli

Lipari, Isola Eolie

Captain Bob, navigating us

straight to Stromboli

Exploring the nooks and crannies

of Panarea
No cars on Panarea, but have to watch

out for the high speed golf carts

The closest Bob came to Don Corleone

One happy camper - finally got

his carbonara back in Trastevere

Reveling in the splendor of Bellagio,

with the view from our room
And then doing what you do in Bellagio

Rob Roy drinking a Rob Roy, still

not sure exactly what's in this drink

but it's pure magic for Rob

Tricking Bob into a hike to get to these views
And the reward - playing in a castle
Stopping by Richard Branson's for

afternoon snacks
Don't worry we posed like statues
AND reenacted Star Wars at

the villa where it was filmed

Putting the newly minted MBA to

good use taking Rome's vendors by storm

with his unbeatable negotiation skillz

Oh yeah, ol Trevi got him

Grazie mille per una bella vacanza Bob!!!

Just about one year ago, Bob came to visit me in New Zealand where we spent a week chasing waterfalls and Gollum through middle earth. This year Bob decided to come to Italy to chase down meatballs and George Clooney - so obvi we would be heading to Sicily and Lago di Como, basically as far south as you can go in Italy and as far north, all in 8 days. To summarize, Bob came to Italy for 12 days of which I had two long weekends to spend traveling with him. His four days on his own will not be catalogued here (however he did stop by Chaplins to see Maria!!) - what happens when you're not with me in Italy stays in Italy.

Chivalry and damseling - Bob quickly came to realize that chivalry is alive and well in Italy - and highly enforced. Example, purchasing food at a grocery store and I grab the bag, shop clerk takes it out of my hand and puts it into Bob's. Or renting a little boat to take out around the Isola Eolie for the day, boat rental guy knows only I speak Italian, so has a conversation with me in Italian about how to run the boat, but only makes eye contact with Bob because clearly I as a dainty female could not possibly man the boat. For years I talked about needing to work on my damsel skillz so that I could meet someone that would take care of me instead of me taking care of them - well problem solved in Italy, I am forced to be a damsel, and yes it is quite luxurious. Bob asked me what he (and men) get out of all this chivalry in return. To which I explained that men in Italy are allowed to openly stare at women, meaning up and down, and yell whatever they'd like at them at any time even if they're with another guy. Chivalry gets you unlimited ogling. I'd say its a fair trade

Food - As soon as I arrived in Italy Bob gave me an assignment to track down the best carbonara for him. Luckily, carbonara is a Roman specialty so I didn't have to go far and was ready to deliver for Bob's visit. I didn't realize that Bob was also coming with a whole host of other food expectations - for instance being adamant about eating meatballs in Sicily. Since we spent most of our time in Sicily on the Isola Eolie (where they favour seafood) we were on a mad hunt for meatballs and canolis for our one night in Palermo - and still failed. I'm not actually sure that meatballs are a Sicilian thing, but Bob was less than pleased until we got to Rome and he could drown his sorrows in carbonara and tiramisu. In Lago di Como, Bob was still on the look out for meatballs, but settled for the best lasagna he's ever had and unlimited Rob Roys. Finally, for Bob's last meal we happened by a restaurant near the good ol Trevi Fountain where they're apparently hiding all of the meatballs in Italy.

Travel biz - So you know that brilliant idea for a travel biz that I talked about in my last post - SheMoon Adventures? Well, my biz partner might need to be the one in charge of details/logistics and I might need to be the big picture one....Travel mishaps included me booking our flight back from Sicily for the wrong day (the ol European calendar starting the week on a Monday trick got me), and of course all flights for the rest of the day being sold out, resulting in a 12 hour train ride from Palermo to Rome. Let me tell you that while this may not be your first travel choice we certainly got to see A LOT of the Italian countryside, and have the very weird experience of our train being loaded onto a boat. Next travel mishap included getting a rental car for maximum Clooney stalking, only to have it broken into/rear window shattered in the broad daylight in a busy parking lot - oh and NOT having purchased insurance.

If you haven't realized it already from this blog, dealing with any kind of customer service/complaint/problem in Italy in anything but logical or easy. We tried to call the police to only find out that they were "closed" - how comforting. So although I've tried to ameliorate myself to working within the Italian bureaucracy - this instance resulted in what we Americans do best - calling in American reinforcements in the form of my US credit card company.

Negotiating skillz - Part of Bob's reason for coming to Italy was to take one last long (in American terms) trip before getting back to the real world after finishing his MBA. Well instead of going on vacation, Bob put that MBA to work on the real streets of Rome and showed me how to stick it to all the Roman/Bangladeshi tourist vendors of crap. If you're ever in need of a bubble gun, bouncy balls that glow, a glowing spinny in the air thing - well Rome's your market. Bob showed me all he'd learned in B school, getting these savvy vendors of crap down over 50% of their asking price. End result - two bouncy glowy balls for less than the price of one, which I should add are the only two gifts/souvenirs that Bob actually purchased in Italy

Dance parties - I mentioned before how Italians are too Christian for dance parties, well that doesn't include dancing at the Christian event of a wedding. Bob and I hit the jackpot in Lago di Como with crashing a rehearsal dinner with a DJ who let's just say had a thing for Lady Gaga. After a couple hours of giggling, critiquing, and commenting on the dance party before us....we were about to unleash the robot and the lean back onto the dance floor and get ourselves invites to the wedding the following day when all of a sudden the dance party was over. Lesson Italy - dance parties never end before midnight, that's a direct edict from God, he's told me many times before via the song Dancing in the Moonlight

Entertainment - I've mentioned before that I haven't seen TV in quite awhile, or watched a movie other than on a plane. Bob showed up with seasons of Mad Men and Californication to entertain us on our voyages. I forgot how nice it is to just space out and watch something entertaining every once and a while. When we weren't watching these, Bob filled in the other time with explaining the Godfather 1,2, 3 in their entirety to me; telling me about (and playing me) all the latest top hits from the U.S.; and keeping me informed of the NBA finals scores. Let this serve as notice for future visitors - you may think you're coming to Italy for me to entertain you, but you should also plan to come and entertain me so don't show up empty handed

La Bella Figura - Bob asked me what I like best about Italy and while it's sometimes hard to put in exact words - one of my favourite things is the simple glamour with which Italians live even small moments of their lives, from the way they set a table, to the way they walk (only strolling, never with speed), to the way they treat strangers. I will elaborate on this in a future post, but this can best be described as La Bella Figura. Bob got to see this in action in a few ways, but none was more poignant than when our rental car got broken into and we immediately had 5 random strangers (truth be told, I think two might have been the town pedophiles, but anyway) helping us clean up the glass and insisting that they get every piece out, to tracking down plastic/tape/scissors to help us tape up the window, etc. Italians might initially come off as brutish, but they are also incredibly kind (and meticulous in this kindness).

So those are the highlights and again it was an amazing time from the far South to the far North - thank you Bob! We may not have found Clooney, but at least we found meatballs. Bob where are we going next year??