Naples

So I went from the serenity of Venice into the the chaos of Naples. Lots of yelling, fighting, garbage on the roads etc. I cannot say that I enjoyed my time here and at the risk of giving anymore detail and offending anyone, I am going to stop there. This is a politically correct blog afterall. 

I had 2 days to explore the ruins of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Mount Vesuvius. And what makes any visit to Naples complete is eating Margarita Pizza! I went to the most sought after place by locals and tourists, Da Michele. This is where Julia Roberts indulged in her Margarita pizza in her Eat Pray Love movie. And just like here in the movie....my pants are feeling tighter!

Crater of Mt Vesuvius

View of the coastline from Vesuvius

The worn streets of Pompeii

The Anfiteatro - 70BC

Example of some uncovered murals

Exterior of a streetscape

When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79AD it destroyed both Pompeii (rediscovered in 1594) and Herculaneum (rediscovered in 1709). Pompeii was covered under the burning pumice stone from the volcano and Herculaneum was buried by a river of volcanic mud. I was far more impressed with the preservation of Herculaneum - see photos below.

View of the town

A dining room in a house

One of the many Bottega's 

Archeologists at work

Building of commerce

This is a small example of what I saw
on the streets in Naples

Pizzeria - photo of Julia Roberts on left:)

Cooked in a wood fire, and I ate the whole thing!

This is the line up outside the door to get in!!!

Italia! (Venice)

My body has been a bit confused. I have moved from the cool fall season to the warm temperatures of spring, an 11 hour time change, struggling with jet lag and now some congestion after traveling for 3 days on 6 planes to 6 different countries! Remarkably, all of my flights arrived at their destinations on time, and the 6 bottles of wine I packed didn't break! I was able to spend a short night at my friends house in Zurich on my way to Italy. Katarina made dinner, I unpacked, did some laundry and repacked.

My first stop is Venice where I am meeting my good friend Chris for a few days. Chis is a chef from London, Ontario, and is working in Lake Garda, Italy for the summer. So, with his taste in food and my taste in wine, I don't stand a chance of fitting into my skinny jeans when I leave!

Venice is an unbelievable place, magical and surreal.
Therefore, once again I got snap happy with the camera:)

Views from the canals of Venice

Water taxi from airport to hotel

Di & Chris with Rialto bridge

Entrance to our hotel - the coolest
 entrance I have ever seen!

On the street side of the hotel,
there is a Burberry store in front of me:)

Dodge's Palace

Bridge of Sighs - with a
disappointing amount of advertising
surrounding it.

Prosecco & people watching in Piazza San Marco

Sunrise at St. Marks - a rare opportunity
to see the square with no people

I'm at the airport....

Now that I am waiting for my flight to Europe I thought I should go through my photos and write about the culinary and winery delights of New Zealand. It's been such a pleasure to take the time to look through the events of the past 3 months. Here are some of highlights of my wine & food adventure....

The vines of Yealands

Cloudy Bay winery - a popular choice at home

Auntsfield Winery

After harvest the sheep are everywhere grazing through the vines.

The rainbow that greeted me when I got home after some
winery visits:)

This is NZ tahr, which is a type of goat. I made it myself....
(yes that's right Aunt Sandy, I actually cooked!)
Thanks to my friend Chris for the recipe.

Surf & Turf in Picton

Crayfish in Kaikoura

Bluff Oysters in season - from the very bottom of the south island

Lamb done 2 ways in Queenstown

Nelson Bay scallops, in Nelson. This was paired with the most
perfect glass of mouth coating Pinot Gris.

Beef Carpaccio in Waiheke Island

Green Shelled Mussles in Auckland

The Galbraith Ale House in Auckland....yes, I had the ale...

What's next????

Last night the mates from work and I went out to celebrate the end of vintage. Good times and I managed to catch the ferry to the north island this morning. I will be in Wellington for a couple nights and I fly to Europe on Monday night. Yeah, another 30 plus hours of flying! I will be visiting some spots in Italy and Malta. Stay tuned.....

Vintage 2011 Complete!

Friday was my last day of work at Kim Crawford. One of the lab techs asked me what I thought of the experience. My answer, this was one of the best things I have ever done! Its been an incredible experience to live and work in another country. I have learned so much about wine production, the culture of New Zealand and other countries from the people I have met. But what really made it for me are the people that I worked with! I thought I should include some pictures of my mates that I just spent the past 7 weeks with. They would put a smile on my face even when it was 7am, cold, rainy and working outside.

  

Allie (UK, 25), Nick (NZ, 30), Calvin (Ontario, 33)

Sylvain, Josh & Dean




Sylvan (Loire France, 29), Josh (Vancouver, 21), Bob (Ireland, 25)



Ryan (Ontario, 23) - Ryan will be working for Opus One
in California this year which is one of highest end winery around.
This is a good guy to know;)



Dean (California, 27)

Marco (Peru, 37)



Jayne (NZ Maori, age??) She is one of the kindest and
most generous people I have met during my travels.



Renan (Bordeaux France, 24) This is the sucker that
bought my car. hahahaha.....

Darragh (Ireland, 33) & Bob. Bob was
one of the guys that would make me laugh
the most. I would consider him, as he would
call it, one of my "besties".



Last but not least is Josh, who would be my
other "bestie". Has the little brother qualities that
I miss when Big D isn't around:) Here we are
doing the Titanic pose on top of the tanks.