Itching for a Trip? Go to Ischia!

Every once in awhile it's great to unplug.  Matt and I enjoy  staying connected through the blog, our Facebook status, and checking in on FourSquare but sometimes is great to not let anyone know where you are going.  Which is why two months ago when we were blessed with a four day weekend after Ramadan, Matt's nimble fingers found their way to Jetsetter.com and snagged a last minute deal for us to go mingle with the awesome Italians.  Blissfully unaware of all the trip details, I only asked that we actually find some time to relax (our vacations generally tend to be shall we say...aggressively scheduled).  As with all things touched by Matt, the trip began to take on a life of it's own.  We needed to book a car to drive down the coast to Naples (he naturally chose a convertible, despite having no trunk for the luggage), catch a ferry with our car to the island, and then upon return he threw in another night in Rome, before returning to Dubai.  Matt's motto - if you can't do in 4 days, what you could accomplish in 8 - why bother?

Our little getaway was looking a bit more complicated, but as they say: when in Rome!  We checked in with our parents when we touched down ("you are where?" my Mom says exasperated) and headed down the coast to enjoy some fun in the sun.

A little bit about Ischia.  It's on the West coast of Italy, off the coast from Naples.  Most people know her much more famous cousin Capri, but she can hold her own.  The volcanic island is home to natural hot springs that mix with the sea water on the coast and her very own castle.  The island has shown up throughout history since about 730 BC in literature as a major trading point and as land of strategic importance between warring city-states.  And is absolutely beautiful!

Happy as a clam driving to Naples.

 

Italians think that people who don't eat carbs are crazy - I tend to agree!

These people can definitely do food right.  This was a little "snack" of lemon sorbetti, they promised us it was not too big.

We stayed at the fantastic Terme Manzi hotel on the island.  It comes highly recommended.  This was this indoor hot springs pool, the mineral water on the island is known for it's healthy and restorative properties.

On our first night I really wanted to try this local restaurant that was recommended but it was on the other side of the island.  We called to inquire about reservations and the guy on the other end said - "Where are you?  Be ready in 20 minutes I'll come and get you."  Nice!  Door-to-door service from the youngest brother of five who own the family run business.  They sat us in the lemon grove, where the trees are literally dripping with lemons, they were falling on our table all night! 

Yeah, we'll have the pizza.

Mamma Mia!  My hand is fully extended over my head and this string of cheese from the pizza will not break.  Don't worry I wasn't afraid to use my teeth.  But who says you can't play with your food?

The next morning we had plenty of stored energy to explore the island.  So my Prince Charming and I headed strait for the castle.  The Castello Aragonese is a medieval castle which stands on a volcanic rock, it is the most impressive historical monument in Ischia, built by Hiero I of Syracuse in 474 BC. In 1441, Alfonso V of Aragon built a stone bridge which connected the rock to the island, and fortified the walls in order to defend the inhabitants from the raids of pirates.  Here we are standing on the stone bridge that connects the island to the castle rock.

The walk to the castle is filled with all kinds of fantastic stores!  When life gives the Italians lemons - they make limoncello!

Finally at the top of the castle you can see the island behind us and the stone bridge below.  If you have any sense of how far this camera is from us for a self timed picture, you'll appreciate how fast Matt had to run in 10 seconds (and down a flight of stairs) to be in it!

Going to the hot springs was such a unique experience!  This is a rocky outcropping at the southern point of the island where the soil under the water hides cracks where the thermal water comes up.  It mixes with the sea water and the end result is a natural jacuzzi in the ocean!

You have to be careful!  If you slip and fall in you could be severely burned.  Some of the water closest to the shore is almost near boiling so you have to gingerly make your way out to cooler temperatures.

The Terme Manzi has a Michelin starred restaurant the Gli Ulivi and we decided that our anniversary was close enough around the corner for a treat.  This was truly a 'feast for the eyes'.  It was some of the most stunning presentation that I've seen.

   

The sunset on the last day in Ischia gave the impression that now, the island was just showing off!

If this isn't a testament to accruing hotel points, I don't know what is!  We stayed for one glorious night at the St. Regis Rome (on points!)  It is classic and beautiful, and a total jewel from a bygone era.  When it opened on January 11, 1894, it was Le Grand Hotel, the newest venture of Cesar Ritz, the Swiss hotelier whose name was to become a synonym for high style and found its way, some decades hence, in the Irving Berlin tune: “Puttin’ on the Ritz.”  The inaugural gala which featured a concert conducted by a leading maestro of the time.

Each room is named for the hand painted mural that sits behind the bed.  And while I could have laid in bed for the rest of the afternoon just staring at the room - it was time to hit the streets!

Rome has a very special place in our hearts.  Matt and I took our first trip together here six years ago.  Three months after meeting he whisked me away to the Eternal City and we both tossed a coin in the Trevi Fountain.  

 

 Six years ago (almost to the day)!

 Our wishes must have come true, as we celebrate six happy years and our second wedding anniversary!

Love it.  Every time.  The incomparable Pantheon.

Summer night in the Piazza della Rotonda (the Pantheon).

No trip to Rome is complete without a trip to Giolitti.  We always skip dessert and come here for gelatti.

Piazza Navona.

Wonder if the Pope lets you make house calls this time of night?

Spanish Steps.

We are a little obsessed with Bernini's sculptures and this fountain was no exception.  The hotel fittingly decided to go with the brand.

The Arch of Constantine built 315AD.

This one needs to introduction.

Amo l'Italia!!

November Sunsets Bring December Showers

So, it's finally getting nice outside - and by nice, I mean "not sweaty".   Sure, it's snowed a few inches just about everywhere else already, but now is the time in Dubai when most people come out of their air-conditioned hibernation, and the rich folk fly back for the winter.  We've even had a drizzle ourselves already, but with only two seasons a year (Summer, and REALLY HOT Summer), it's hard to remember what it's like when it's nice out.

Some people watch the thermometer, but I tend to wait for the clouds - and lately, we've started to get a couple:

Beyond morning fog from The Day After Tomorrow (that's actually a photo from Abu Dhabi yesterday by Pavel Janosik), you can tell because the sky is suddenly clear (read: not full of sand) and you the great sunsets start.  Katie and I recently brought along a camera on our evening walks, and snapped a couple good ones.  Enjoy!

Time Out Dubai Crowns Young Chef of the Year

If the world of culinary arts has a caste system, then its young chefs are well on their way to being Masters of their craft and our tummies, of course, our happy to help contribute to their success.

Last week, Matt and I joined a group of friends to help Time Out magazine judge which one of four chefs, all under the age of 30, would be crowned the Top Young Chef in Dubai. It was grueling work, and a thankless task to serve as a judge - it was all we could do to eat delicious food for a few hours and offer our humble critiques (what a strain)!

All the ingredients were standardized across the chefs and provided by sponsor Galleries Lafayette, but chefs could use them for any course that they wished. We saw some really fantastic showmanship, beautiful presentation, and had our taste buds tickled while we watched the chefs perform in a shared open kitchen.

At the end of it all, there was just one point separating first and second place, and just four points between first and four - talk about by the skin of your teeth!

All said and done it was Chef de Cuisine Wesley Berghoff who won the night (third from left above).

Wesley did it with a starter of slow-cooked salmon and cured red snapper, a beef consommé soup with braised topside, a main course featuring sous vide lamb and saffron lamb jus, and a dessert of roasted white chocolate, pandan parfait spiced berry jelly and coconut cream.

Here's just a few of the courses the competitors whipped up.  There may have been only one chef that could take the prize, but all the diners definitely left winners!

USS Stennis: Not Your Average Cruise Ship

Dubai is a pretty nautical town, so it's not uncommon to be invited out on a boat for the day by friends and colleagues, but when the US Embassy asks you if you want to join them for a reception on a boat - and you find out that that "boat" is the aircraft carrier USS Stennis, you definitely say yes!

In honor of the Dubai Airshow being in town (check out "Boeing Secures Record Emirates Deal") there are a lot of government officials and current and ex military folks who have all converged upon our little city for the next week for all things - flight!  So Matt and I were pretty delighted to keep them company while we hung out on floating city that's over three football fields in length.  USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) is the seventh Nimitz-class nuclear-powered supercarrier in the United States Navy, named for Senator John C. Stennis of Mississippi. She was commissioned on 9 December 1995.

Supercarrier?  I'd say so.  The experience of being on the carrier was like none other, because, of course, I have nothing to compare it too!  We had a great evening exploring the boat with our Navy escorts, who gave up their leave to attend as staff for the event.  It was all fun and games for us, but I have to say it really gave me pause to think about the men and women who live aboard that ship and the time they sacrifice with their family and friends to sail around the world doing good work for the US.  It made me very proud.

The ship wasn't too hard to identify in port - oh yeah, it was 10 times the size of anything around it!

Matt thinks is this funny.  I didn't realize that I'd have to go below deck for the ladies room, and let's just say a pencil skirt and heels didn't make the ship too easy to navigate.  I wonder if they have any standard issue stilettos?

 There were a lot of impressive guest in attendance including our own Ambassador and Consul General, and foreign defense ministers from the UAE and Italy (to name a few).  As an aside, I've never been called "ma'am" so much in my life.  A gal could get used to that kind of thing.

And there was cake.  Every hear the phrase "it's enough to feed an army?"  This was the Navy, but you get the idea.

The Stennis broadcasts her identifying number for all to see.  Imagine my surprise when I thought carriers had around five to ten aircraft on board.  Yeah, it's a plane parking lot and I had no clue.  In this case it's the boat that make the planes look small.

Big boy toys.

I asked Matt what this plane does, and twenty minutes later I was still learning about the nuances of radar.

It was really cool to be able to go on deck to get up close and personal with the planes.  It was every thing I hoped it would be after seeing Top Gun.

You can't see it in the picture but I'm humming Kenny Loggin's "Highway to the Danger Zone".

Go on you know you want to:

Now you enjoyed that, didn't you?

Oh yeah, the cool kids get to park inside of course, a dozen planes and 500 guests - no problem for a boat that can double as a basketball arena ("Hoop Deck").

You never know when you are going to meet a hero.  (Check out Matt's grin!)  I was standing at the end of the gangplank thanking the sailors for a great evening when Matt took off from my side and ran, literally, after a side-burned man in leather jacket.  One minute later he reappeared and yelled "Katie come quick!"  He looked like a kid on Christmas morning and I couldn't imagine what had him so enthralled.  That's when I was introduced to Burt Rutan.  I can't say that I knew exactly who he was, so here's the wiki brief:

Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan is an American aerospace engineer noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, energy-efficient aircraft. He is famous for his design of the record-breaking Voyager, which was the first plane to fly around the world without stopping or refueling, and the sub-orbital spaceplane SpaceShipOne, which won the Ansari X-Prize in 2004 for becoming the first privately funded spacecraft to enter the realm of space twice within a two week period. He has five aircraft on display in the National Air and Space Museum: SpaceShipOne, the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, Voyager, Quickie, and the VariEze.

Geez, why is this guy such an under-achiever? Matt's idolized him for a long time and this was an extra, extra, special treat.  He was a very friendly guy, for a total genius, and Matt was delighted.

Moral of the story, when someone invites on to an aircraft carrier, you say yes!

HGTV: Living Abroad!

Lights, camera, action!  When I visions of being on TV as a little girl I pictured delivering a line like, "I'm ready for my close up Mr. Deville." and not "I really love our granite counter tops!"  Alas, when the small screen came calling we decided not to be picky.

Back in August we were approached by a casting agent who contacted Matt and I through the American Business Council, to see if we might want to participate in a program that showed how Americans live abroad, how we make homes in far away places and adjust to different cultures.  Any follower of this blog knows that we don't miss a beat to share our experiences however weird or wacky, so of course we were happy to oblige.

After two months passed and we survived several casting rounds but hadn't heard anything more, we weren't counting on the call that happened at the beginning of last week when HGTV called and asked if we were ready to shoot at 7:00am in four days time!  Well...that pretty much put a stop to our weekend - let's put it this way, there is clean and then there is ohmygosh there is a camera crew coming to my house "clean".  After making sure you could eat off our floors, and stocking up on some fresh flower we were ready for our close up!

A crew of 10 arrived bright and early to set up all the equipment necessary for the shoot.  I have a new respect for how much work it must be to produce these shows.

All the additional lighting was great around the house, I was sad to see it go!

Cameras and crew everywhere!

Matt getting mic'ed up for his interview.

Apparently the mic gets clipped to your ankle - clever.

With the host Chi-Lan Lieu.

Cool big boy toy alert - get a dolly to roll through your living room!

Trying to look natural (and not 10 pounds heavier) on camera!

The crew asked if we could show them the conveniences available in high rise living in Dubai.  I told them I could order a cup of coffee at Starbucks and their eyes lit up!  Not only did they want to see us make it happen they decided to film a segment on it - 45 minutes later we had Starbucks, Burger King and Tasti d-Lite delivered to our door.

We had a blast with the filming and are looking forward to seeing how the 30 minute show turns out.  It's set to air around March so be sure to keep an eye out on your basic cable channel and hopefully we didn't say or do anything too embarrassing!

The Burj Residences Block Party

Welcome to the first annual Burj Residences block party!  We've been residences in the Burj Khalifa/Downtown area for four years now (spanning two decades!), but this is the first time that we've been able to get the neighborhood together.

Credit goes to our new homeowners association, one of the first in the area that can actually stand up to the all-powerful developers!  Of course, as with all things Dubai, it wouldn't be an event without merchandising, merchandising, merchandising!  Burj cupcakes and pizza (thank you Marzano), Burj moon bounce (thank you MoveOne), and my personal favorite, Burj cholestorol and blood sugar tests (thank you Burj Dubai Medical Center!).  It's been a while since I went to a neighborhood block party as a kid, but I definitely don't remember needles!

If you're wondering, we passed with flying colors (but I would recommend against having two cupcakes right before a blood test).

The kids seemed to love the party, with balloons flying away every few seconds, bingo for the adults, and of course, great weather.  Now we just need to make sure that Tasti d Lite sponsors the next event...