forget it.

On the plane over to Italy, I watched Still Alice. Stephanie had mentioned it a couple months ago and talked about how sad it was. I apparently was not listening carefully enough cause umm...yeah...Still Alice is incredibly sad. I was crying and snotting myself on the plane. If you need a good, hearty, deep cry - I would recommend watching it asap. The short of it is, Alice Howland (played by Julianne Moore) is diagnosed with early-onset alzheimers and the film tells her struggle to stay connected and keep remembering. It is heartbreaking.

This NYTimes piece, A Marriage to Remember, from last August - which includes a short documentary - was touching and powerful as well. Maybe its the pain and sadness about alzheimers that has always hooked me, but it  is one of those things I can't help watching and reading about. And, this was before I ever met Ben. But with Ben there is an additional dimension because his grandfather had alzheimers and his memories of it - visiting his grandfather with his Dad are heartbreaking to hear. But so important.

travelogue ~ rome, italy.

The Italy trip was amazing. I had never been to Italy and Ben has long been touting Rome as his favorite city in the world, so the bar was set high from the start. The anchor to the whole trip was Ali and Davide's wedding in Florence and Ben's parents turned it into a family trip for all of us. Very lucky! I am going to break the trip into a couple of posts, starting today with Rome.

Our trip was bookended by Rome - the perfect start and finish to the trip. In total, we really only ended up with two days but we definitely made the most of it. We landed in Rome on Friday morning and hit the ground running...

We checked into our hotel - Hotel Babuino 181 - which we would definitely recommend, did a quick change and started walking the city. First things first, Ben took me over to Sant Eustachio Il Caffe - just around the corner from the Pantheon - it is a little coffee shop and roaster that has been there since the 1930s. It is fantastic.

And from here, we began walking through the heart of Rome...our first stop was the Forno Campo di Fiori where we popped in for pizza. 

Immediatly following, we headed over to Carapina for gelato.... 

And onwards to the Coliseum. Rome is breathtaking and incredible, and obviously the Coliseum is just awesome. We opted to wait in line so that we could go in - Ben has obviously been in various times before - so it was a true gesture of love to stand in the line we did....but it was worth it...

From the Coliseum, we doubled back to visit the Arch of Constantine...

...and on to Palatine Hill. It was a beautiful and cloudy day and actually not all that crowded, so we slowly made our way past the ruins of the temples and palaces...

After the full afternoon, we headed back to meet up with Ben's parents for a drink before dinner at the Piazza Novona.

I loved all the painters...

For dinner, we headed to Armando al Pantheon, a classic, old restaurant serving up fantastic pasta and traditional italian.

It was a lovely first meal in Italy and with that we wandered back to the hotel and crashed for the night. We woke up the next morning early to get a quick run in before we left Rome. Our run was gorgeous. The streets were empty and we ran up to St. Peter's along the river and then circled back...

And that was my first taste of Rome - all in about 22 hours...next up Pietrasanta!

big money.

Did any of you read this New York Times piece, Poor Little Rich Women?  Alex sent it to me and I read it yesterday on the plane - quite something. The anthropological angle to it makes it smart...and the rest of it just makes me feel lucky that I am not an uber-wealthy woman on the UES. Yikes!

weddingness.

How was your long weekend?! Ben and I got back late last night from Italy and I am going into full cleanse and recovery mode for the next week! For anyone planning to go to Italy in the near future, I will be sure to post some recommendations (especially restaurants) in the next couple of days. But before that, right before we left, we were up in NYC for a very close friend's wedding. It was small and charming and beautiful. They had the wedding and reception at Haven's Kitchen in Chelsea. We stayed in an airbnb in an awesome location just a couple blocks away (here is the link in case you are looking for a place to stay). We also went for a great run along the west side...

And got a fantastic brunch at The Standard Grill in the meatpacking district...followed by a walk on the high line!

We happened upon the Gansevoort Market which is phenomenal...and we would highly recommend for a snack/lunch...

And not pictured is a lovely mother's day brunch with Ben's parents on Sunday morning and some stops into some of our favorite haunts (Third Rail Coffee and Fish's Eddy).

The wedding was wonderful and it was so good to see friends and to have a spring weekend in the city...here are some photo highlights!

sprinkles.

It's Friday!!!! We are headed up to NYC tonight for the weekend - one of my best friends from college is getting married. What are you all doing?!

And in a garden/yard update (since I know you all have been waiting for it), Ben went all out yesterday and installed a sprinkler-drip system. We leave for a trip next week and were fretting about the watering situation, but he researched and installed this whole system. He bought the Orbit Digital 2-0utlet HT Timer that he attached to the hose faucet and set a timer for it to go on every morning. And then he ran this Micro Sprinkler Landscape and Shrub Kit throughout the yard--all for about $100.  It is not obtrusive at all and the system allows you to buy more stakes/sprinkler heads if you need them. We are loving it so far. Proud Ben jumped up out of bed this morning to look out at the window to make sure the timer worked and the flowers were being fed!

messi mania.

Holy moly. Did you all see Messi's goal last night? I think I have watched it no less than twenty times! Dear god - he is just unbelievable. Unbelievable! Here is the link to the ESPN video. After seeing so much talk about his goal this morning, I went down a rabbit hole of Messi clips - I highly recommend this for some motivation! Also, this NYTimes piece - The Burden of Being Messi is a fantastic read and a good reminder that we should all remember to appreciate and love Messi not just when it is a World Cup year!

benched.

Next time I need a bench, I am going straight to Barrington Blue. I spotted these benches online a couple months ago and I keep coming back to them - big fan. Love the texture, love the color, love the style.