What's that saying Dorothy made famous? Oh yeah - "There's no place like home." Amen sister. We got home late last night after the longest day in the history of man. Waking at 7:30am Italy time, flying into the day (9 hour flight, plus a 6 hour time change), 5 hour layover in Philly, a 40 minute flight to Norfolk, then finally a 40 minute drive to Poquoson, we arrived home @ 10:30pm. A 21 hour trip. Needless to say, we are glad to be home.

We were greeted at the airport by two very silly, very excited mommies. Told all our stories of Italy on the car ride home, only to tell them again once we got to Shelia and Earls house and visited with Jenni's parents and Trip's family.

We've enjoyed our trip greatly but have no immediate plans to travel anywhere for sometime. Hopefully we will be getting more pictures up soon (of the wedding and the honeymoon) and invite you to take a look.

Thanks for tuning in!

Mr and Mrs Humphrey

We are finally in Rome. Never did we think we would be so ready to leave a town as soon as we arrived. Dont get us wrong we have loved the sights, sounds, and at least some of the smells, but we miss you guys and we miss our bed and we mis feeling clean and free water. I loved driving the car that we ended up renting. It was a little Lancia Ypsilon and was immensely fun on the twisty mountain roads of Chianti. The views were beautiful and endless.


We picked up a couple bottles that we can try and taste test when we get back to the states. Maybe if you are there you could help us out since neither of us know a lick about wine.

So like I said driving in the mountain was fun...the driving in Rome is an unpleasant venture into insanity. Once again Jenni put our feelings at the moment quite well into a little video...(note the excitement in her voice.)



We have just tracked down the location of our elusive hotel and will be heading there after we leave this internet point. We do not expect to leave the hotel until 15 minutes before we need to be at the airport on thursday morning ;-) though I guess if the mood strikes us we may venture down to tour the ancient parts of Rome. Despite our tired legs and dirty faces we have still enjoyed our jaunt into Italy. If all goes well there may be one more post to the blog whiel in Europe otherwise it may have to wait until our 5 hour lay over in Philly. Either way you will probably hear from us at least one more time.

We already have instructions delivered to the people picking us up from the airport to be ready to go to Taco Bell ASAP where we will recuperate our bodies back to health.

Well we hope everyone is doing ok without us there, but dont worry we will be home soon.

Ciao Ciao,
Jenni and Trip (btw Trip was the one driving the car)

Well last we spoke we were heading out of Cinqueterre (why we did that no one will ever know) . We were trying to head towards Tuscany and then end up in Rome but you will soon see how that worked out.

Due to a certain holiday round these parts called "Sundays", we didnt get too far in Tuscany. We took a few trains this way and that...stopped over in Pisa



, met a nice man on the bus who spoke NO english but told us stories and stories of growing up in Italy and surviving as a boy while America bombed them.

All we could say was "mi dispiaci". During our misadventure we ended up having the only cappucino to match my fathers artistic standards(see picture below), meeting a very nice couple from Ontario, and having the best Italian cuisine to date. Ultimately we ended up here in Firenze where we found a gorgeous 4 star hotel with a tiny (but very nice) room across the street for 1/2 the price of its cheapest room. We have a fresco on our ceiling so I guess we did alright!!



Once the rain lets up we hope to head out and see some sights here in Florence, then we will head back to Chianti tomorrow by car (weve had enough of trains for now).

Times running out...
ciao ciao!

(Trips New Note: Success is MINE!

Trips note: I have pictures to post but this cyber place is what the italian call il crappy...hopefully I can edit this post with the pictures and posts from the hotel when we get back in tonight. oh and we cannot get spellcheck to work for the same reason as the previous problem)

Boungiorno from Italia once again...
Now we are posting from a small cyber cafe in the small town of Vernazza. We said we were going to tour all over Italy but now that we have spent some time here in Cinqueterre we cannot seem to pull ourselves away. With the painted houses, beautiful beaches, quaint and inviting cafes...not to mention "il dolce far niente" (the sweetness of doing nothing), we have forgotten about the rest of the country. Here is a video of a particularly breathtaking view we stumbled upon while wondering around the villages.



We have been indulging quite heavily in Italian traditions. Gelati and Cappucinos seem to be our main vices. We have had at least 8 Cappucinos each and 16 different gusti/flavors of gelati in only 5 days. We have a list of all the different flavors below. Though it will almost certainly be outdated within about two hours of this post.

• Fragola / Strawberry
• Fior di Latte / Milk
• Frutti di Bosco / Berries
• Cocco / Coconut
• Cioccolato / Chocolate
• Nutella
• Biscotto / Biscotti
• Tiramisu
• Ananas / Pineappple
• Angurla / Watermelon
• Banana
• Yogurt
• Yogurt con Fragola
• Crema/ Vanilla
• Mandorla / (We are guessing it is cake or icing)
• Affogatto con Gran Marnier / Creamy Vanilla with Gran Marnier

We are staying one more night here and then we will be heading to the rolling hills of Tuscany. We hope to visit a few small towns and wineries as well as the leaning tower of Pisa. The towns are rumored to ber very small and rural so chances of a post seem remote but there is always the possibility a random farmer will invite me to use their brand new dell or something. Here is a little glimpse of what our evenings have looked like.

Ciao Ciao from Vernazza, Italy

Jenni and Trip

Has to be a super quick post people...we are on a budget and you pay by the minute here.

Having a great time here in Venice but we are looking forward to our next destination, Cinqueterra. We leave tonight and shoudl be arriving in the morning. Wooohoo sleeper train.

Hope to have another post soon.

Ciao ciao ciao...

Well this is officially my first online post since becoming a married man. Jenni and I have arrived in Philly on our way to Venice and we are killing time until we can catch our flight out of the states. I just wanted to take some time to thank everybody who has wished us well either from a distance or in person. Hopefully I will be able to update this at least a few times during our time in Italy.

Next time I should be posting while sipping some sort of fancy Italian drink and eating gelato.

Ciao,
Trip & Jenni