Despite living in Portland, I’m definitely not a coffee connoisseur. I love me a mug (or eight) but once I’ve hit a fairly low bar of “good enough” taste, I’m a quantity over quality gal.

Which makes traveling in Italy a bit tough:

(What is this – a cup of coffee for ants?!)

Luckily we found a moka pot and some grounds and after a few rounds of that each morning, I was good to go.

Yesterday we took our over-caffeinated selves to Vatican City! We realized a bit late in the game that online tickets would help us skip major lines and by that time the advance tickets were sold out. So my personal concierge found me a guided “Art and Faith” tour. (He totally knows my heart.)

Good thing too, cuz there were a few people there:

So amazing! Tapestries, sculptures, paintings – a treasure trove. The Sistine Chapel was underwhelming due to the swarms, so I was very glad our guide had given us a more detailed explanation before. St. Peter’s Basilica was by far my best.

On so many levels I felt removed from the expressions of faith I saw, but it was nonetheless humbling to know that this too is part of God’s holy Catholic Church and that this Sunday we will all be saying “He is risen, indeed!” together.

Unfortunately, the Vatican and the hourlong walk home broke The Boy:

The Girl had already spent the day in bed because she was sick, so we all just napped and played on our phones before sending the grownups out to forage for food to round out the day. Oh well. We just passed the one week mark, and that’s usually when we all start to get a bit testy.

Today was another train and another city. My favorite one yet – Naples!

It is so fun here! Crazy and loud and constant near-misses with scooters and mazes of cobblestone alleyways.

And you never know what’s through an innocuous-looking doorway:

Tonight we met Alberto, our personal guide for the next three days. Our first adventure was a food tour! We started with dessert – baba and stragfiotelli (sp?).

Then over to Alberto’s favorite stop for smoked provolone to try a variety of cheeses and a special Easter treat.

Then the main event: make your own pizza!

So fun! So good! So “can I have a pizza oven for Christmas please?!”

Completely stuffed, we headed for home. Just kidding – we went for gelato (probably the best yet, even though Alberto was disappointed in us for skipping the whipped cream)

And NOW I’m home, cozy in bed being lulled to sleep by yelling Italians. It’s so great here! I almost want to tell Alberto to cancel the next two days and just let me explore, but then I’d miss the last two biggies of this trip: Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast. Wouldn’t want that!