I Went to Italy and Can’t Believe this Happened

Two weeks in Italy, two lost bags, Gatwick Airport nightmare, big nightmare. Celebrity sighting on our airplane and lots and lots of gluten free pasta gelato and gluten free pizza, lots and lots of that. Even gluten free gelato cones I'm going to be sharing with my husband today. Brooks is on. We just got back from Italy two weeks and after our Portugal episode, we thought, let's do another debrief together talking about all things Italy, what we went through. Thanks, Brooks, for jumping on this conversation.

Oh, you're welcome.

If you're watching this on YouTube, you're going to have a lot of pictures and video footage to go along with it. And if you're on YouTube, make sure you hit that subscribe button. So you always know when we have a new episode releasing. And if you're listening on the podcast, make sure you follow along there, hit subscribe. So you always know when we drop another episode. But you also might want to check out the YouTube channel at Natalie Jill Fitness, because that way all these videos have images and video clips and pictures that go around along with what we're talking about. And you might want to see some of that, especially Brooks's three a day gelato habit. Got lots of pictures of that, Brooks. You can't deny it. Three a day. All right, so let's get started. Let's tell you what. This even came from where this trip came from. So we had so much fun in Portugal and Spain. We had. I had not been to Europe in, gosh, 33 years before that, and I felt like we just didn't have enough time there. So we instantly started talking about our next impossible European trip. And we both had the idea that we'd love to go to Italy. And it just so happened that your best life, which is a travel group of entrepreneurs, business owners, they do these amazing travel experiences usually three times a year. I had been invited in to speak for them in the Dominican Republic last year, and part after I spoke with them, they invited me into the group. And part of that was being able to go on those future trips if we wanted to, if we wanted to be a participant and go on future trips. So it was perfect timing. When they had an opening and a space open for another couple to attend their Italy trip. I thought, well, this is perfect timing. So we jumped on thinking, we'll be with your best life for a week, which is such an amazing group because they, they organize it all for you. You don't have to do any of the planning like they think it through like all the sites, all the things you're going to see. And then we would do another week after that. Because I'm married to basically a travel agent. He's not a travel agent, but he's very. He plays one on tv. He's so good at. You're Brooks, you're really good at planning travel.

Oh, thank you.

Because he likes to research. So you like to like, find the best place to use American Express points and what's good. Any tips on that? Because you're so good at that.

It's just one of those things to me. Like, I enjoy research. Just like you despise research. Like, I enjoy research.

I don't despise it. When it's a topic I'm interested in, I'll despise it.

Yeah, even then. I mean, it's fine. You. You're like very quick. Where I. I enjoy the process of researching.

Well, that's true. I'd probably just hire a travel agent. I'd be like, here, plan me an Italy trip. But you like to like dig in and compare the different places and all that.

I just, I like to check it.

Out, which is awesome. So we decided to do it and we started looking at plane tickets. And if you listen to our Portugal, Spain episode, you know that I. Your girl here, she's like, I want to fly, lay flat. I'm flying all the way to Europe. I want the lay flat, first class, business class, whatever seats. That's the only way to travel. And Brooks was like, no, I'm going to enroll you in premium economy. Which I was super against and annoyed about. But when we did that on the way to Portugal, it was actually really nice. The premium economy international is kind of like a regular first class in the States. It's like, it's got a big gushy seat, it reclines some. Doesn't lay flat, but it reclines. They serve you meals. So it actually was pretty nice. It wasn't terrible. It wasn't bad at all. In fact, I highly recommend that over economy. And if first class or business class is just out of your price range, it's actually not bad at all. I didn't mind it, but this time I said, no, I am a visionary. I'm going to find a way that we're getting business class or first class seats. It's happening. I knew we were going to be flying overnight. So my friends Chalene and Brett, Chalene and Brett Johnson, they kept talking about Flight King that they use. So they connected us with Flight King. You can find Them on Instagram, by the way. They didn't ask me to say this or I'm not paid to talk about them, but it's really cool if you can be flexible with your dates of travel and like your how you're getting there, like what cities you're going through. They rates on great tickets. So I thought we got great first class or great business class tickets all the way to Rome. What'd you think, Brooks, of that experience? But I'm going to talk about what went wrong but at least getting the tickets. What'd you think about that experience?

Yeah, Flight King is awesome and if you're flexible it just gives them more options. But they're great and they can do more than you can just on kayak.

Or whatever or even using your points yourself.

Yeah, they, they're just really good at getting in there and finding all the different ways in the deal. So I was extremely impress with them.

So they were able to find us. They were not cheap, but they were definitely less money than on our own trying to navigate. But we had to be flexible dates. So I think Brooks gave them like, hey, we can leave any of these three days, we can come back any of these three days. He gave them like a. And he didn't care what airport we were flying through. And that's how they got us a good deal. So I was all excited. I was like, I've got my lay flat seat and this time I'm packing a big bag. Because when we went to Portugal and Spain, I ended up shopping a lot. So, like, this time I'm not bringing a little bag, I'm bringing a big bag. I'm gonna have lots of choices that I won't need to shop. That was my thought process. Okay. Little did I know what was about to go down and what was about to happen. So board our flight from Phoenix on our way to London Heathrow. That part was amazing. Like we had the lie flat seats.

Well, who's behind you?

Yeah, well, I was gonna say when we were getting ready to board, I saw Russell Brand right next to me. So if you don't know who he is, he's a comedian, he's in a lot of movies and he's funny. And I saw him. Brooks knew he. A lot of people know who he is. And I looked up to remember all the movies that I'd seen him in. And he sat right behind me on the plane. So I walked right over to him, even though I was like, should I do this? Should I not? But I thought you only Live once. And he worse thing is he could say no. And I said, can I have a selfie with you? And he said sure. So I took a selfie with Russell Brand.

Well, I just, I didn't get a selfie, but I did get to talk to him for about five minutes. Yeah, I don't even know what time it was. I went up to go use the restroom, quote unquote, in the middle of the night. And they've got, in this one area after, around the restrooms for business class. They've got waters and snacks set out. And so I was getting water, he was coming through. So we talked, we talked about Jesus for about five minutes. It was really good.

It was cool. We saw him reading his Bible. I think he's a new Christian.

So I've been, I've been following his journey with that. So that was what.

Yeah, that's pretty cool. So, so got this. He was super friendly. A lot of people asked him for a picture and talking. He was nice to everybody. Like he was super friendly. I noticed that.

And he was flying back to England because he was at Tucker Carlson's. He was speaking in Arizona because I'd seen that on social media because he closed out the thing in prayer because several people had sent me that Instagram clip of that. So that's what he was flying back from.

Do you know what was super cool too? Okay, so he boarded first. Like I saw him in the waiting room. The, not the. Before you board. Everyone was like surrounding him. And then they came and got him and boarded him. Then when we landed, they came and escorted him off into some like secret elevator. I'm like, what is happening? And I learned later that honestly, anyone could do it. You could pay an additional. Did you guys know so you could pay an additional 500 to be escorted privately on and off of an airplane? I didn't know that. So I think apparently a lot of celebrities do that. That's what I learned. So, okay, so we land in London. We're all excited. We got about three hour situation before we're going to head to Rome. And we knew that we were not going to have to get our bags. They were going to automatically be checked through to Rome. So we go to scan our passports and our passes and it's like big X, you cannot go through. So then Brooks tries. You cannot go through. So we look at the gate agent and they're like, oh, that flight was canceled. Go get in that line. Like, what do you mean it was canceled? Get in that line. So we go Wait in this line. And they tell us that we have been rebooked for Amsterdam. Well, that makes no sense. We're going. We just landed in London. We're trying to get to Rome, which we have a very pricey hotel booked that night. And they tell us the flight's canceled. You're going to Amsterdam tonight and then we'll get you on another flight tomorrow to Rome. And that was not going to work. So what happened?

Brooks, I think you should just tell this part of the story.

Why?

We just have two completely different.

No, tell your perspective first. What happened?

We got in there and the flight was canceled. So they were trying to rebook us. I guess London part of it. They had some weather again, I don't know, but there was a lot of flights. So there was a lot of people trying to be rebooked. And they said we were going to go to Amsterdam that night. And then the next day from Amsterdam to Rome. And I was like, well, there has to be. And that's one that was really cool. So I called Light King and like they picked up their quote unquote emergency line. Picked up in about three rings. So, you know, they were helpful on their end. Just again, when these situations happen, there's only so much you can do. So I just stayed calm. Then we ended up. We ended up finding a flight from Gatwick, which I'd never heard of it. It's another airport, I think it's 50 miles south in Heathrow.

Listen, if you never fly out of Gatwick Airport, you are doing well in life. That was the worst airport experience I have ever experienced. So we get in a cab in London without our bags, by the way, because the, the gate agent who was rebooking us says, oh, we're going to pull your bags for you. It'll take about an hour and you get your bags and then you'll take a shuttle or a cab over to Gatwick and then you'll have another flight tonight to Rome. Okay. Sounds hunky dory. I didn't believe her. I'm like, I've lost my bags of four. She is lying. This is Natalie's feeling. She is lying to me. We're not getting our bags. She is lying. Bruce is like, oh, no. She's so helpful and nice. We're getting our bags. So I then I share on social media and I have countless of you messaging me, you're not getting your bags. You're at London Heathrow. They are known for this also with British Airways. They are known for Losing bags and lying. So, okay, so we wait for these bags for how long, Brooks?

We sat down there for five, five and a half hours. And then we got to the point where we had to go because it was also raining in traffic to get back to make our flight.

Okay. By the way, we have air tags on our bags at this point. Those good old air tags you can get so we can see where our bags are. And they're like, in the next room over, basically, according to our phones. So Brooks takes my phone with the airtag tracker, and he's like, I'm going to go speak to him. So he takes my communication to my phone and his phone. This is like 5 hours in after waiting for the bags, and he goes into some mystery line. I have no idea where he is. So I'm hungry, I'm moody, I'm tired, I'm annoyed. I know I'm not getting my bag. Brooks is ex military, so he always says, never be without your comms, your communication. He took my comms, he took my communication, and I had to sit there and be miserable in my own pity without a cell phone, without knowing where he was for what felt like an eternity.

Brooks, that's Natalie's point of view. I get that it felt like an eternity. Yes. From my background. This is first world problems. We're in an airport, London. I was literally 50 yards away in a line.

I had no idea you were. I was hungry.

I don't doubt anything.

So then I finally find him, and I'm dragging his heavy. Like his heavy duffel because he doesn't do roller carry on. He's got like two heavy duffel bags and my carry on stuff. So I bring all of our stuff and I find you. And Brooks is like, meet so and so. She's so helpful. And I knew. I'm like, this lady's lying. So the lady's like, well, we can't pull your bags today. She's talking her London accent. I can't even do it. And she says, but when you get to Rome, we are going to put them on the next flight to Rome and you will have your bags delivered to your hotel. And Brooks is like, oh, she's so helpful. I'm like, she's freaking lying. She's paid to be customer. Nice. She does not know or have any. Any anticipation of where our bags are going. She has zero clue where that's happening. It's not happening. Our bags are not coming. I knew she was lying, and I wanted to ask questions, but Brooks wanted me to Stop asking questions. He wanted me to stop asking questions. So we left without our bags into the cab. Brooks believed her. You believed her? You did.

It's not about believing somebody, like, when you're dealing these situations. I mean, I could see what's going on. I think the funny thing is Natalie is amazing. Loves to control things. I think she thought she was all of a sudden going to control stuff here.

No, I didn't think I was going to troll. I just wanted my bags and I saw them on the air tag and I thought she was lying to us.

By seeing them on the air tag. Let's be clear. There's. I forget how many terminals. Like, it wasn't like they were 20ft away. We could see that they were in some other terminal. Who knows? But.

So I wanted to ask questions like, okay, well, what happens if we don't? And Brooks is like, we will. So I'm like, okay. So we. So we leave for Gatwick Airport, and this is where it gets really fun. We leave without our bags. And this is the one time I packed zero change of clothes. Like, not an extra pair of underwear. Zero, nothing. No change of clothes. I had my makeup. I did on my makeup. I had my laptop and I had my supplements. That was it. And I had like my bottle of water from the airport, but I had no, like, deodorant. I had no underwear. I had no change of clothes. I had nothing. And Brooks, Brooks had packed his pillow. For the first time ever in your life, like, you usually carry your pillow.

I usually pretty much carry, but I try to keep as much of the important stuff with me. So. Yeah, but I did have. Because I knew we had a Michelin star dinner when we were getting to Italy. So I had a brand new pair of nice shoes for that that I checked. And just to save the weight, I checked my pillow. And I mean, I checked some other stuff.

But the funny. The funny part is I also checked my hormones, which was not a good idea. So don't ever check your hormones. That gets. That gets a little better a little later in the story. So we. So we get to. So we get in the cab, we get to Gatwick Airport. And this airport, I don't even know how to describe it, is the craziest airport I've ever experienced. You don't go in, like to your gate and sit down and wait. There's like one waiting area that's like a zoo. It's so chaotic and loud and there's like this big kids running plaything in the Air in the middle of it. So I'm sitting there already annoyed and hungry and tired and stressed. And we now have a flight that's gonna supposed to leave at like 8 o' clock that night. And I don't know what time was it when we're actually sitting in the playpen area. I don't even know what time it was.

Like that flight got delayed too. But think of this Gaelic airport. It's basically. It looked, it felt more like a mall. It felt like a two story shopping mall. And then you just kind of waited in this mall. And London's a big city. Like it's crowded and there is this like this kids play thing. You know how like when one kid starts like screaming and it was little girls. Like a little, one girl would start screaming and another girl tries to be louder. And it's like none of the parents were like, hey, so you just started. You'd have these kids just screaming at the top of their lungs.

Okay, so picture this. So picture like a big square and seats all around the square, like one row of seats. And then in the middle of these screaming kids. And then there's chaos and yelling and screaming and all that. So our flight's supposed to leave around 8 and we get like two notifications. Now it's gonna leave at 9, now it's gonna leave at 10. It keeps getting delayed. And there's no way to escape this noise. Like, it's just loud. It's like so loud in this thing. And Brooks and I are just laughing. So we're all squished together and there's two seats open up right next to Brooks. So in walk these three people, family of three, all adults. They walk in and you would think two of them would sit in the two seats, but no, they decided all three of them to sit in the seat. So one of them is basically on Brooks's lap.

He literally slid down my leg to sit down.

Like there was contact, there was touch. And then he decides to take off his shoe and his sock. It was like a whole thing. So Brooks and I are just, we're so annoyed that we're just, we're laughing at this point. It's like, no, you were annoyed too. Don't even act like you weren't. You were annoyed.

She's trying. Like there's two levels here. I was pretty just baseline calm. Like this is first world problems. The level of annoyance between me and Natalie, we were not on the same level.

I beg to differ. I think you were annoyed too. Anyways, that was So I was laughing because here we were. So Brooks originally had found a premium economy ticket that was going to go direct. I think it was gonna. How was it? Was it gonna go to jfk, I think, or Philadelphia?

Yeah, it was basically gonna go from Phoenix to JFK to Rome, and then from Rome to JFK back to Phoenix.

So it was kind of like a big lesson for me. Like, no, Natalie wanted to fly business class. So instead we flew all the way to London Heathrow, and now we lost our bags and are at this Gatwick crazy airport. So we gave up our. They canceled our second flight, our second first class leg or his business class leg to get to Romeo. We end up on some, like, crazy. I don't even know what the heck that airline was. It was definitely not a luxury airline situation. It was like a very old airplane.

I don't know. It was like the Spirit Airlines, basically.

Spirit or Value Jet or one of those. It was like that kind of airline. So we get in. By the time we actually get to our hotel room, it's like three in the morning. So this room that we had spent a lot of money on, we got to sleep in at 3 in the morning. So there was that. Okay. So the next day we wake up, new day. And we realize our bags, we can still not see them. They're still in the. Still in London at this point. We could see them on the air tags. So we go shopping. The good news is we're right in the middle of all kinds of shops in Rome. So your girl here was on a mission. I'm like, I need underwear. I need workout clothes. I need this. I need that. We have a formal thing tonight, so we go shopping, which was kind of fun. And I. I'm telling Brooks the whole time, like, we can get. If you have to replace stuff, you can save the receipts, and we're gonna get them reimbursed. So that was my attitude. We didn't go crazy, but we went and shopped and I found stuff. I didn't go crazy. You bought one thing. I think I bought more than one.

It's fine.

I love that you try to act like you're so calm and unbothered, but you were a little bothered too.

No, I didn't say it like. Yeah, I was slightly annoyed. I'm just saying that it's not like we were both on the same level. We were. We were at different levels of annoyance, but.

So meanwhile, Brooks is calling and tracking, and they keep saying, oh, it's going to be coming to. I Was like, we're not getting our bags for a few days. I already know this. It's not happening. So we go shopping. Brooke starts this three day a gelato habit.

I don't.

Yes, you did. You love that.

Every day.

Almost every day you did. You'd have gelato for breakfast. You'd have it on a walk, you'd have it at night. Yes, you did. You absolutely had it for breakfast.

For breakfast.

When I sat there eating and you ordered gelato. I ordered a meal and you ordered gelato.

I remember. But you did.

It's okay. That's why they call it no matter what he eats.

That's why they call it gelato. Because if not, they would have called it gelato.

So just to close the loop on the. The bag story and then we're going to get into the actual adventure of what hap. What happened in Italy. So we traveled in on a Friday. Saturday. Sunday. Monday. I think we got our bags Tuesday.

No, we got our bags Monday morning.

Monday. Okay, Monday. But we had to go to the actual airport. So what happened was they still weren't telling us, but we could see on the air tags they had now arrived in Rome. But the. We physically went to the airport and brought somebody with us that could translate who got us approved to go look in the baggage area. And that's how we ended up getting our bags back. So we did get them back several days later. That's how that happened. So we did get them back. And because of that lesson, because of being annoyed with losing them, having to replace things and now having to buy another piece of luggage to bring home everything that we bought, I have like sworn off checking a bag ever again the rest of my life. I think I might be exaggeration, but right now that's how I feel.

So there might be a silver lining because of this.

Yeah. So. So we will not be checking bags anymore. Nope.

And then also a big shout out to that was Jesse and Phoebe because they're with yb, they were with ybl but because they've done so much travel, they. They ended up having. I don't know how, but they had a contact that when we went to the airport, we met their contact and their contact could speak Italian to the people. So we had to go in the back. And so without that, we probably would have had.

We know. I don't know if we'd have our.

Bag still if we would have our bags. Because here's my thought process. The airlines don't. They're not in the business of Throwing people's bags in the dumpster, like you're going to get it eventually. It just might take a while in most cases.

So for those of you that don't know what airtag are, those are like, there's little white things. They look like. They look like a cgm, but they are these little white things that sync with your phone and you can put them in your bags and you can see where your bags are at all times. It doesn't help you get it back from the airport, but it helps you know where they are. So I do recommend having those so you can see where your bags are. That was. That definitely comes in handy. And then also because we were with ybl, that it was so nice because they loaned me shoes. It was like I had other things to borrow. So that was amazing. So then we started our adventure in Rome. And the first part of the trip was Rome, and it was part of ybl. So what I loved about that is they had everything completely planned for us. So we stayed at. It was called the Palazzo Repetta, which was a beautiful hotel. I highly suggest that it was such a pretty hotel and such a great location in Rome. You could walk everywhere. And we did an amazing dinner the first night. And then the next day, we did Brooks's absolute favorite thing. We did a Vespa tour.

Yeah, the Vespa tour was awesome. And at first I was slightly disappointed because I thought we were going to be able to drive the Vespas, but we're actually right on the back of them. But once I saw, because we had 32 people in the group, plus the support in the video. So trying to get 36 people with different experiences to drive their own Vespa in a town that they don't know, it would have been an absolute nightmare. But the drivers were super cool. And it was. It was the most fun thing driving around Rome for, like, we're going by the Coliseum with our 36 Vespas.

People thought. Didn't know what to make of it. They were taking pictures. It was just like they'd never seen 32 Vespas like that in our thing with two people on each one.

Oh, yeah. And then some of those again. I'm a car guy, so I was really geeking out. I mean, I didn't realize some of these Vespas have been on the road for 50, 60 years, and then we're going along. I seen. So I was like, wait a second. That one sounds different. So I kind of befriended a couple of the guys and learned about Their bikes, how they work on themselves. They did customization. So then once the whole thing was done, I ended up hanging out with one of the guys for 10 or 15 minutes, you know, doing a little drive by. And, yeah, it was. It was pretty cool.

There's a couple interesting things to note on the vessel. One, it was super fun. I highly recommend doing a Vespa tour if you can. If you could figure out how to do one. It was awesome. Two, Brooks has been oddly newly obsessed with Vespa research now. And in fact, this morning I woke up to. Would you ever consider letting me get it? Vespa. Which means he's not going to drop this for the next however many years it takes for me to say yes. He's already like, he's already working me for a Vespa.

Well, it's not like, yeah, Vespa, but I really want just like that. That retro, old school, like, Italian kind of motorcycle. Not crazy fast.

When we live in Italy, then we can get one. But we don't live in Italy. We live in Scottsdale, Arizona. And I don't trust the other people.

Driving around, but if I make enough gelato, it'll be like, Italy.

Okay, so that's. That's the best. Oh, and then a couple funny things on the Vespa tour is there was like two female drivers. The rest were these guys. And then there was this one guy. Did you see him, Brooks? He looked like Fabio. He looked like he, like, walked right off a romance novel cover. So that was kind of funny. And one of the women, like, Beeline to get on his Vespa was hysterical. So it just was like, it was a funny scene to watch everybody on this Vespa expedition, but it was really, really fun. So that was day one. And then we did something that was really cool. We. I don't know the name of the place, but maybe we will by the time we air this. We went about an hour outside of Rome for this experience. It was like, oh, they make their own wine. I got to actually stop. Me and Brooks both got to stomp on grapes with our feet. That's how they used to actually make wine. So he stomped on the grapes, which is pretty funny. And then we learned how to make pasta from scratch. And I had no idea it was that simple. Are you gonna start making pasta here, Brooks?

I mean, I could make pasta, but the whole gluten free is just a whole nother sourdough. Sourdough's easy, but gluten free sourdough, it's a Whole nother.

So what went into pasta? This was cool. It was like flour, water, a little bit of olive oil, a little bit of white wine and salt. That was it. That was the whole thing with. With pasta. And then it was like. It was really cool watching how that happened. And then you just make that. It's like you make the dough, and then you cut it. And you know when you buy already dried pasta and it takes, like, forever, like 30 minutes or whatever to boil it, that's not fresh pasta. But this. They just drop that dough in the water and they watch it. There's no amount of time. They watch it until it boils up to the top. That's what I learned. And so we learned all different types of, like, how to make different kinds of noodles or, like, raviolis with it or all that. We also. They did a fun pesto contest. So they gave you ba. A basil plant, they gave you hazelnuts. They gave you olive oil, garlic, and salt. That was it, I think. Was there anything else? Those.

No. Like, they gave you all of the ingredients, but they gave you way more than you would need of each one. And you did this in groups. So there was, I think, what were there for five groups, six groups when they split it up.

And no instruction.

And no instruction. Just kind of make it. But just because they give you three cloves of garlic, I think some people thought, oh, they gave us all these ingredients. They all need to go in the thing.

This is what I did in my group. We definitely put three cloves of garlic, right?

And that's why when they did the taste test at the end, they were like, all of you put entire. Like, we should have used a quarter of one of the cloves of garlic. But everybody. Everybody put all their garlic in there. So.

So we made pesto. We made pasta. Some of you asked me, you said, they know you know I'm a celiac. And you said, since gluten and products are different there, could you eat it? No, not if you're celiac. If you are gluten sensitive or you're gluten intolerant, you probably will be. Be fine in Italy or with fresh sourdough or fresh pasta. If you're an actual celiac, your body does not recognize gluten, which is wheat, rye, and barley, and you will get very sick. So do not do that. If you ate it and you're celiac and you said you didn't get sick, you're probably not a celiac. I stay. In fact, I didn't even make the pasta because I can pull like meat off of bread and eat it fine. But there was something about the flying flour everywhere that was making me nervous. So I did not. I didn't do that. I. I filmed Brooks doing it, which is fine. But I was raised my hand pretty early to stomp on the grapes because that looked really fun. Brooks went first on that, first. That was fun. And no, we didn't actually drink the grape water, but. Or the grape wine water. But it was fun to do that. It felt slimy. It was fun, though. So the next day we did something really cool. We had a private tour of the Vatican. Now, I had been to the Vatican 33 years ago and did not have a private tour. I learned that the private tours are. You can do it. It's just very, very pricey. Like, we got there early in the morning before it ever opened. It's expensive. But because we had a group of 32 people and YBL had negotiated and figured that out, we actually. It was a pretty cool experience to be in a private tour of the Vatican. Like we were in the Sistine Chapel with nobody else in there. Pretty cool. I personally, if you've never seen the Vatican, it's kind of up to you. Knowing what I saw now, knowing how I saw it private and then how I saw it after when it got crowded, there's no way I would go back in the crowds and do that. What about you, Brooks?

Yeah, I think just for context, I think they said about 40 to 50,000 people per day go through there. And because we had to get up really early that morning, we were. We had to immediately be in that.

Thing at like six something.

I thought, yeah, we were leaving the hotel at 6aM to get over there. And I think we had the first two and a half, three hours where it was just us. And then there was one other guy who was separate. He had his own person. So he paid for just himself to have.

Yeah.

To be completely private. So there's like our group and then one other guy, but. And the only time we saw him was when we were in the Sistine Chapel for a little bit.

So then.

But then once we got out, once they like opened the gates and then people. It's just too crowded. Like, holy cow.

So I thought it was super cool to see. I mean, just the artwork and the, the. Just the sculptures, just everything. The Sistine Chapel is really amazing. Michelangelo and painting the ceiling of that is beautiful. What. And what's really cool is 33 years ago, when I Was there. They had not started the renovation of it, so I remember seeing it all faded. They hadn't started the renovation. Now, obviously, the renovation's been complete. They did that in the 90s, so it's cool to see it. Part two, I thought. I don't. It was just a little. It felt eerie being in there, to be honest with you. I felt a little bit like an eerie feeling being there and. But it was. It was cool to see. I don't know if you don't have a tour or a way to get in there early. I don't know. Depends on how interested you are in that.

Yeah.

My feeling, maybe if you're Catholic, you probably really want to because it's part of you. We're not Catholic, so I don't know. It wasn't a. As of the whole Vatican, I thought the Sistine Chapel was the coolest part. That was my favorite.

Definitely, the Sistine Chapel was the coolest part. But I just think it's crazy how you just don't realize how big so big the Vatican is. And then I think after a while, for me anyway, just. It just got old.

Yeah, that's. I was here.

Here's another huge room with gold and statues. Here's another huge room with, you know.

So I say if it's yay or nay, if you can do it for an hour and see. This is teen chapel. Yay. Otherwise. Or you're Catholic and you're really into it. Yay. Otherwise, I'd say you're really not missing that much. Unless you're a total history buff. I am not a total history buff. So I.

It was good. Like, I checked that box. So I went once in my life, so I would say do it once. Even if you had to wait in line, you know, whatever. Do it once.

Coliseum, super cool. We drove by it on the Vespa. We saw it a few times. We did not do the Coliseum tour. I did do the Coliseum tour years ago. What's cool about it is just to see it there. To see this really amazing, beautiful ruin in the middle of this crazy busy day city is pretty cool. But I don't know, I can't advise you, like, if you should go see it or not. I mean, you want to see it, but having the actual tour of it, I. I would imagine it'd be the same kind of crowded experience to do that. But driving by and that's pretty cool, just being right there. And when we were there, it was, like, under construction. The outside, it looked like there were a Lot of construction parts up to it.

Yeah, I think they were maintaining or something. Rehabilitating, I don't know.

But overall, I thought Rome was cool. It wasn't. It's not my favorite. It was. It was super cool to see. I think spending just a couple days there is plenty. It's just. It's a big, huge, crowded old city is what it.

And so because it's huge, like, it's spread out, unlike New York, where everything goes up. I mean, base. I mean, there's some higher stuff, but most of it's just that four to five stories tall. It's crowded.

So then we got to my favorite part of the trip. We then took a train to Napoli. And the train system in Europe is different than the train system here. I mean, people use the train to go between countries. It's. It's very. And between cities, it's very organized, very easy to do the train. So we took all of our bags and got on a train to Napoli and then there was a drive to Sorrento. Sorrento is on the coast that's near, on the Amalfi coast of south southern Italy. And it is spectacular, beautiful there. It is so pretty, the coast of Italy. So when we were in Portugal, we went to the Algarve region, which I loved. Now what I loved more about the Algarve is it's not crowded at all. The Amalfi coast is very crowded. It is very pretty, but it is very crowded. So we were in an area. We were staying in an area called Sorrento. I'll get the name of the hotel so I have it when we. When we publish this. I was not that impressed with the hotel, to be honest with you. It was just a very old. The location was great. It was just a very old hotel. Average, very average service. I don't recommend that hotel, but we were in that hotel and I liked that you could walk places. You had to like. I was a little scared for my life, I'm gonna be honest. Walking places. Brooks and loved it. He didn't care. The roads are super narrow and there's cars going super fast. And then you're walking and there's not really a sidewalk. It's a tiny, tiny. So you're like literally inches from buses and trucks and cars. So for me, I felt like it was a risky. My life going for a walk. But I did it many times. But what I loved was that coast there and how beautiful that coast was. I thought it was gorgeous. So we. We walked around. We loved that area. Then we. The coolest thing we did the whole trip, I thought was we did something called the Path of the Gods months. And this is an amazing park, trail hike, whatever you want to call it. It is gorgeous. And you walk. It's a, it's. It can be a workout, it can be a stroll, depending on how long you do it. But we spent most of the day doing this. And when you get to the top, you overlook Positano and the Amalfi Coast. So I just. This was my absolute favorite part of the whole trip. What'd you think, Brooks?

Yeah, I enjoyed the hike. I just. I just want to let people know, if you're coming from the United States, as a country, we're not that old, but when you're going to go to a place like Rome, you're going to go to Italy. And that's just the thing with some of these hotels. Like, they're literally hundreds of years old. And that's kind of their mystique. Like people are going there because, hey, because there is so much history. So if you're expecting like the latest and greatest contemporary or modern stuff, it's going to be harder to find those hotels. So I just want to be that at all.

Yeah, I just wanted to be clean. There was like hair on the floor. It was just, it was dirty. And they were just kind of rude. Like you got. You went to sit outside by the pool just to look at the. And they were like, we're close. Like, they just weren't nice. I didn't like that hotel. They were not nice. I didn't think they were nice. I don't recommend. They were not very nice.

Just. Just be aware that when you go to Rome, a lot of the places, they're old. And so when they were built hundreds of years ago, everything wasn't built to, you know, the quote unquote, America. Bigger is better. So you just gotta. Oh, no, you just get used to smaller spaces and things like that. But that's also the character and the history and.

And they're like Palazzo Repetta in Rome was beautiful. And it was small. No, I loved it. I loved it.

It was beautiful.

They definitely took care of it and their service was incredible. So we do the Path of Gods. I love that. And what was really cool is when you want funny. The funny part of the Path of the Gods is we walk all the way up and I think the group is kind of tired and they surprise us with this little house. It doesn't even look like a house. It looks like an old. Like an abandoned house. But apparently this guy that owns it. What was his name? Do you remember his name, Brooke?

I forget his name.

The guy that owns it, he's. No electricity, no running water, nothing. He started a little restaurant out of it. So you can actually go and eat there at the top of Path of the Gods, which is what we did. And we went and had lunch there, which is so wild. Like you would never think this is a business or anything there. And then we went on the journey to walk back down and back out to. To get back to the hotel. But that was my favorite day by far. So that's what we did. The. Then our. The tour was over. YBL was done for the trip. So everybody on was either going back home or going on their own. And me and Brooks were going to go venture on our own to Tuscany and Florence. So we went back to Rome. Rome to rent a car, which is Brooks. He gets excited about this stuff. Running a car.

I don't get excited.

Drive in those areas.

Well, it's just because we weren't going to places where there's a train or anything like that. I really enjoyed the first week, but I also wanted kind of the vacation from the vacation, because it's great. We get to see a lot of stuff. It's. It's curated, it's amazing. And I really kind of prefer the countryside, the smaller towns, less crowds, those type of things. That's more or less what I planned for for the second week.

Which you planned very well. I loved that It's a Tuscany region. Tuscany region includes a whole big area. A place that we used to live in San Diego was called Rancho Santa Fe. And Rancho Santa Fe looks like a copy of Tuscany. It's a very little area in comparison. But I can see why I loved Rancho Santa Fe. Right now. It really looks like it could be part of Tuscany. It's that same idea. But Tuscany is beautiful. It looks like wine country, like rolling hills, beautiful landscape. It's just. It's so pretty, Tuscany. And. And the climate's nice there. So lots of beautiful drives throughout Tuscany. And we ended up. The first night Brooks found this place, which was a natural hot spring area called Fonte Verde, which we stayed at one night. And can you talk a little bit about that place, Brooks? I loved that place. We could have stayed longer there. I loved it.

Yeah, they had just these natural spring spas and it's. I don't know, I'd say kind of. It's in the middle of nowhere. I mean, we walked 300 met. And there's this cute little town with the residences there. I think there's two restaurants, there's a church, there's a coffee shop. But it was just really cool. But it was just amazing. Just the roads, because I tried to stay off the interstate or whatever they call them there as much as possible. And just going through some of these little twisty two lane roads. And that didn't help either because I see like lots of guys on motorcycles just cruising these back roads. I'm like, oh, that's just. I either wanted my little red Porsche out there or I wanted a motorcycle. But yeah, it was just beautiful there.

It was very pretty there. So Fonte Verde. Highly recommend that place. That was amazing. We were only there that one night and day, but we walked both of those times. I just loved that they had great service there. It was very pretty hotel. And then we moved on to our final main place, which was another amazing find that Brooks found. It was right outside of Florence, Villa La Massa. This hotel was like 400 years old. I think 4 or 500 years old.

I think it might have been older. Like it had been converted into a luxury hotel like in the 1940s or something like that.

But really a good job of like keeping the old but really nice.

Like there's a little river that's right there and it's on 25 acres, so there's not a ton of rooms, but it's on 25 acres. Has a beautiful pool and has little nature trail with some workout stuff and just.

And a Michelin restaurant inside.

Yeah, yeah, Michelin restaurant inside. And it's just iron gates to get in there, but it's just very quiet in. And it was cool is they have a shuttle and it was just 15 minutes. They drop you off at the same spot right there by Florence so you could go into town. It was, it was really nice.

So we preferred that versus staying right in Florence.

And Natalie loved their. Their bedding.

Oh my gosh. Okay, so first of all, the hotel's super old, but we were. They were so welcoming. Like you walk in and I don't know if the woman owned it or she's a manager that whatever, but they were so welcoming. They almost treat you like family when you walk in. Really like grateful that we're there, welcoming us. Probably the best, best night's sleep of my life those three nights. But the first night I was like, what is these sheets? I'm like, it was like almost. I just didn't recognize it. And then Brooks figured Out. He's like, oh, they're pure linen sheets. Which is so good for you.

Because at first she thought she was like, they're rough, but it was just stress. Starched linen sheets. But it's so good for regulating temperature. And then once you sleep on them.

So good.

And the mattresses were great.

Oh, it was such a great night's sleep. And it's just so quiet and yeah, I felt amazing there.

And then the heated towel racks.

So I love that hotel and that location. And I loved doing that instead of staying right in Florence because we had already done the city thing in Rome. And I like the idea of being like kind of private, quiet, beautiful scape and then got to walk or take a short shuttle into town to go to Florence each day, which we love doing. And Florence is a really great. That was our favorite city. We absolutely loved doing Florence there. It's so fun to walk around there. There's great food. If you love pizza and pasta, you are definitely in love. Also, by the way, for my gluten free girls or if you're celiac, there were so many celiac options. They always had gluten free pasta, gluten free pizza. They even had gluten free gelato cones. And what's wild about how they do gluten free there? They take celiac very seriously. All their bread is individually wrapped. So when you get gluten free bread, they don't bring you a basket of bread. They bring you individually wrapped bread to make sure it wasn't contaminated. So I really. And their bread and pasta there tasted amazing. It didn't taste like our American gluten free that it tastes like gluten free. Whatever. This stuff tasted actually really good. I wanted to have gluten free pasta every day. It was really, really good. So we, we did every day we went to Florence. The two things Brooks and I fell in love with in Florence was shopping was leather and linen. What do we get, Brooks? We got a lot of stuff. We did.

Yeah. Because I guess linen is really big in Italy.

Yeah.

So I ended up getting some shirts and shorts when we were in Sorrento and I bought some. Lawrence is known for leather. Like that's for hundreds of years. That's what they're known for.

So here's what we learned while we were there. We didn't know this until we were there. You'll see these big leather mark marts on the street, a lot of them and like really inexpensive and people negotiating and all these leather marts. What we learned later Is that is not always authentic Italian leather, that a lot of it comes from Indonesia. A lot of it is brought in. A lot of it is not. Is fake, it's not real, and it's copies of the good stuff. So what you want to do in Florence is not necessarily go to the marts. You want to find the little one off stores that are a little bit more hidden. And we happen to find two amazing stores. One, the owner, the name of the store is Michelangelo. And I actually found it first on Perplexity, just looking up on the AI app called Perplexity. My best friend, by the way. I say Perplexity is my best ADD friend because I have like a million questions throughout the day. That's just my life. Like, I wonder why this is that, or I wonder where that. And every time I have a question, I just go to Perplexity. And it never tells me to shut up. It's always there to answer. It always gives me a concise answer. If I don't like its answer and I want a different one, it gives me them. So it's like the ideal app if you've got ADD and you have lots of questions.

I'm grateful for Perplexity because it used to be hey, babe. Hey, babe. Like Alexa, he'd say, I'm not Google. I'm like, I don't have all the answers.

Perplexity does, though. So I went to Perplexity when I heard this about the leather, and I'm like, where is the best authentic place in Florence to get Italy? And the first place that came up was this Michelangelo. So we went into his. We happened to see his shop. We went in there. It was amazing. He actually blacks out his windows because he says a lot of those street vendors copy what he does. And he did amazing stuff. I mean, just the most incredible, beautiful bags and jackets. And so I bought quite a few bags. I also bought. If you have a birthday and you're my friend, you have a bag coming from Italy, probably because I. I bought some gifts there. It was amazing. And then we found another. What was the other guy's store? Do you remember his name? The one I got the blue leather jacket at?

I'd have to go look. I forget off the top of my head.

So I went to this other. Brooks got a blue leather jacket. Then I wanted a blue leather jacket. So he left with blue leather jackets. Brooks left with two big duffels, one blue, one brown. I left with with a lot of handbags. It was fun. I liked the shopping part, but we had to go buy a big, huge extra suitcase to put all the stuff that we bought.

Yeah, it was good. I grabbed those two bags and then it was cool to get a custom belt for like 20 bucks. Like a fully Italian leather belt where they custom cut it and everything. So of course I got a blue one. It was nice.

So after Florence, we had extra luggage. We had. My biggest fear heading back was like, I don't. I knew we're gonna have to return the rental car in Rome.

We.

Which note to yourselves, if you ever have to return a rental car in Rome, it is not easy to find the rental car return in Rome. That was. I was. Brooks is not stressed. I was definitely stressed on that one. We could not figure that. How did you finally find the Rome airport return? Rental car return?

Because I went just basically. And this is the rental car return at the terminal. This is at the train terminal, not at the airport.

That's what I meant. Sorry.

So basically, where all the rental car places are, you return the car on the opposite side of the terminal is basically what it comes down to. So when your nav tells you. So, basically, I was right outside. So I literally went in. I was like, where do I return the car? And then the guy told me, it's on the opposite side. So if you get a car at the Termini, the Rome Termini, which is what it's called. It's. It's the huge train terminal in the middle of the city. You. Where you pick up your rental car is different from where you drop it off. It's on the opposite side.

So we did that. And then my. I. I was like a loop in Brooks's brain. And then I. I was worrying about this for hours. And then we didn't need to. I'm like, all I could think about is how were we getting on the Rome train station back to the airport with all this luggage? Because we now each had two carry ons, two check bags for me, a big check bag for him. We looked. We couldn't look more American touristy. We had all this. I was like, how are we getting on the crowded train with all this? That was just. That's what I was worried about. And then we ended up getting in a cab. So I worried all that time for.

Nothing, which is usually the case. Just in general about worrying. It doesn't help you at all. But you have to realize this terminal, think of it like an airport. Everybody in there, there's all sorts of people rolling luggage, luggage tied together. It's like being at the Airport, you don't. Everybody has luggage. And these trains have plenty of place to put the luggage, so.

Yeah. But they also have a high level of theft and pickpocketing, so I had that in my brain too. So I didn't want to. Was like, worrying about it. But we did the cab. We got a cab. It was about an hour from the train to that we went back to Rome. We decided to stay at Rome airport that night because we had an early flight out the next day. And then the next day, our flights back were pretty, pretty smooth. We flew direct from Rome back to jfk and we were just tired. But then we had JFK to Phoenix, so pretty smooth home. So overall, like, here's my overall thoughts on Italy. I definitely liked Italy a lot. I liked Portugal and Spain better. I just. I really enjoyed our Portugal and Spain trip.

Trip.

I liked. It was less CR. To me. And I know it all depends on the places you go, but it felt less crowded. It felt less chaotic. I just. I loved that if I did Italy again, we both agreed we'd want to go to, like, Lake. Lake Como, and we'd want to do more time in the. In space versus crowds and big cities. That's what I'd love to do. And I. One thing on food there, I loved the food in Portugal and Spain. In Italy, people rave about the food in Italy. If you like pasta and pizza and gelato, you're good. I. I had a very hard time finding fish. I rarely saw fish on the menu. I never saw chicken on the menu. Very rarely saw fresh vegetables. So it was a lot of pasta, a lot of pizza, a lot of gelato and some cheese. That's really what I saw. And a lot of wine.

I think she's missing a key point. There's lots of beef and meat.

Oh, yeah. There wasn't meat.

I don't eat beef.

Yeah, but not if you're a chicken and fish girl. Nope, not that there's not.

There's not a lot of chicken, you.

Know, I saw no chicken. Did you ever see chicken on the menu?

You. Yeah, I did. They just did, like, one thing, like a chicken breast. Obviously, the closer you are to the water, there's going to be more fish, which is. I think in Portugal, we were on the water pretty much the entire time almost.

So I remember we went to dinner one night when we were staying at the. I think it was the Fonte Verde place. Or maybe it was the other one, the Florence, the Villa La Mesa. One of them. We walked. No, it was the first one, the fonte verde. Verde. We walked to dinner and I was so hungry and I was like, like. And all they had, they had no gluten free pasta. It was just regular pasta and beef. And they had one fish thing on the menu and they didn't have it. And I was like, oh, my God, I'm so hungry. What am I gonna eat? So I ordered lamb, which for whatever reason, I don't know why, in the last few months I've been. I hadn't had red meat since I was 12, but I've been okay eating lamb. But I have not been okay eating. I can't eat cow still. I'm just having a hard time with it. Just me. Just my own neurotic weirdness. I don't know. I know it's good for us. I just can't do it. That's me. Brooks was happy. He had gelato, he had steak, he had pasta, he had sourdough. He was happy. You were happy.

I thought. I thought the food was. Was great.

Oh, another interesting. Brooks and I are not drinkers. We. I mean, I think we like maybe have one or two glasses of wine a year. We do not drink, but we got in the habit of having, like we'd share a glass of red wine each night and we liked that. We would.

Yeah. It wasn't every day, but it was. I mean, I think. Think that night when we went to the place outside of Rome, because it was a vineyard where they make their own wine. Like that was the first time I had wine. I think there was, but it definitely wasn't even.

It was good. That tasted good.

Yeah, it was really good. And just to have half a glass of wine with a nice. With a nice meal that paired well.

Yeah, it was yummy. So that was fun. So I think if we. We will go back eventually one day. But we both want to go to Lake Como. That. Why are you laughing at that?

Because Moto Guzzi, which is making Italian motorcycles since 1921 in the same factory.

Oh boy.

Is right there on Lake Como. Because that's what I really want to do. Like an Italian motorcycle tour of Italy.

So our next Italy trip, if we do it would be. I would imagine we would probably go there and we would do. Probably go from there. Like Switzerland. We both want to see Switzerland. I did that years ago. So I. I think we would like that. So a couple recommendations. One, if you don't like to travel solo or you don't want to plan your travel, look at ybl. I'll link them up here because that's pretty cool. Now they're more than just a travel group. They have like a mastermind around it too. They do three really cool trips a year and they do all the planning for you. So I thought that was really cool. I'm sure I'll be on another YBL trip. I'm sure I'll do at least one of them a year because I really enjoy their process. I enjoy their group, I enjoy how they plan. I think that's pretty cool. I think we're Europed out for a little while now that we did two trips back to back back. But I, I could see once a year doing a Europe trip once a year. I can see it. That's my thoughts. Anything else? Any final words? Brooks, what'd you learn from the trip?

What I learned from the trip. I mean I enjoyed it. But I also think for me, like, like we look at the United States. The United States is basically the same size as Europe and there's just, I mean that's why I have my truck too. Like there's so much inside of our own country that I mean there's so much beauty here. So I don't know, I just, I can find beauty and cool stuff anywhere. I mean I definitely enjoyed the trip. Italy was awesome. I really liked the people. Yeah, I really loved talking to some of the, the Vespa guys. The motorcycle stuff, it was very cool. And the thing is too over there, you understand like there things that we laugh at in the United States just by the size of the roads there. I mean you pretty much have to have a smart car or they don't drive SUVs. Like a mini Cooper in those cities looks like a limousine. I mean they've got some cars there that are so tiny. Like literally two people sit in. Like your back is literally at the back window because parking there is. I mean you'll literally find places where there'll be 100 to 200 scooters lined up. Scooters and motorcycles. Because it's literally the best way to get around in some of those old big cities. But I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I absolutely, I loved it. I liked our first trip a little bit better, but just all the reasons that I shared. But I definitely can see myself going back and exploring those other areas. I do think it's funny how we as Americans perceive ourselves versus how we perceive ourselves. We're in Europe. I think I can, I don't, I don't know this as fact, but I feel that a lot of Americans think That everyone wants to be American. And that is not the case. Like Europeans are not wanting to be American at all. In fact, we can be viewed out as sloppy, as loud as. There's a lot of differences. Just even how, how people dress in Europe versus how they dress here in the United States is very different. Like, especially with women, guys might be the same, but with women, like we live in leggings and activewear. They don't do that over there. You stand out like such an American doing that. Women dress up, they dress nice every day. Men aren't wearing T shirts and baseball caps over there. They dress nice. And I think we've got this whole thing in America of this. More is better, bigger is better. Consumption. Consumption, consumption. Where in European culture they want fewer things but nicer quality things. So they'll get a nice quality leather jacket versus ten fast fashion jackets or nice fitted linen shirts versus a hundred fast fashion ones. So it's just a little bit of a different take. Also. Smaller is good there. Bigger is always better here. Like people want these big cars here, big houses. That's not what you see in European culture. It's smaller. And then taking more time at meals. Like meals didn't feel rushed there like that. You take your time like we were waiting a long time sometimes to get the server to come over to get the check. Like, it's just a much different experience with that. I also really noticed tipping culture is different. Like in America, we're so tip happy. Like everything's tip, tip, tip. Like you get a cup of coffee, people expect a tip there. They pay them well in their wages. So tipping is not expected. And if you do tip, it's not the same percentage. So I think they kind of like Americans going to restaurants there because they know that they're going to give them some big tip because they don't know any different there. I also think the water thing is funny. Like we carry these big things of water here. I mean, I'm always carrying a big water. Me and Brooks. People do not do that in Europe. And when you go to eat and you ask for water, they pour like this much.

I was thirsty, feel like half. And I think it was the other big thing. I noticed that every single hotel that we went to, all of the shampoo, conditioner, body wash was in metal. Yeah, like, you know, if we get. I don't. I mean, yeah, they were all, they were all in metal. But you know, like in America, when you get a, a tube of some ointment that comes in that metal tube where you take the lid off, you have to poke the seal to get it out. That's what all the shampoos, conditioners and that stuff came in. Because they don't have plastic everything there.

That's right.

And it's like even a lot of their bottled water came in metal versus it was usually metal or glass. Just a lot less plastic bottles, which.

Is another, you know, they don't allow. EU does not let in thousands of chemicals that us lets into our food and our products. And that's part of that reason there. So you can't get, you won't see plastic bottles, even water bottles when you get them. They're either in like this metal container or glass. Very, very rarely in plastic. They're very. You can get plastic. It's just much more, much more rare there. Anyways, if you have not been to Europe, highly recommend just to get outside of our own culture and learn the way different ways of living and just know you can do this without spending a lot. By the way, there's different ways to travel Europe. I mean, you. You can use airline miles, you can use your Amex points, you can find tour groups. There's different ways to do it. But I do highly recommend, especially your midlife conversations listener here, if you've never been or experienced other cultures, highly recommend doing it just to learn different ways outside of the U.S. that's what I think. Doesn't mean you're not a proud American, but just to. Just to see other cultures and how they live. And don't bring your leggings because you will look like an American. I didn't wear any leggings. Nope. Unless I was working out. No leggings. Thank you all. If you loved this episode with me and Brooks, please let us know so I can invite him back on. He's done a few with me because of your requests. So if you want to hear more from Brooks, more topics of us together, please let us know. Thanks everyone.

Bye bye. It.