New York Day 1: Xi'an Famous Foods, Momofuku Ma Peche, and Midtown Madness

After saying goodbye to Italy, we hopped onto a plane and arrived at JFK in the early afternoon. We weren't in a rush and our bags were relatively light, so we took the Airtrain and subway to Bryan's Upper East Side apartment. We fought the temptation to nap and headed out for lunch at Xi'an Famous Foods in midtown. We got two bowls of spicy, tingly beef hand torn noodles and a mild cucumber salad. I love super spicy Asian foods and chewy noodles so this was heaven for me! Just a warning though - if you're unaccustomed to very spicy Asian cuisine, your stomach might not enjoy the food here as much as I do.

Afterwards, we took a walk through midtown, snapping some pictures as we passed by Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick's cathedral, and Grand Central Station. We had a lot of fun relaying silly messages to each other at the Whispering Ach in Grand Central. We also stopped by Tiffany's for a ring cleaning. Tiffany's now charges $50/item for polishing now...yikes! We got the complimentary cleaning for our rings and opted out of the polishing, convincing ourselves that it was better that our rings remain scuffed but retain more platinum. :)

(photo credit: Tiffany & Co.)

I grew up in New York City so every time I come back, I take it all in with a wistful nostalgia. I definitely took all these iconic New York attractions for granted when I was young! Unfortunately those happy nostalgic feelings quickly faded when we had an unfortunate incident in front of the Plaza hotel. Some crazy woman accosted me, started screaming at me for "getting into her space", and jabbed me hard in my collarbone with her elbow. To be fair, this is my first time getting violently attacked in New York so this isn't a common occurrence. As a New Yorker, you never want to aggravate the situation by fighting back, so we quickly sprinted "out of her space" and into safety at the next block.

We had dinner with Bryan at Momofuku Ma Peche. I was excited that Ma Peche takes reservations so that we could try some of the Momofuku favorites without waiting in line. Ma Peche is supposed to be dimsum style but the carts don't come around very often and the service is extremely slow (but friendly). I  didn't love their famous pork buns or jalapeno fried chicken but I was a big fan of the lobster fried rice and broccoli salad. We also tried some crack pie, a compost cookie, and a blueberry cookie from Milk Bar. Interesting but nothing super unique or out of this world. I love sweets but I don't think my palette for cookies and pies is that discerning, so I'm probably the wrong person to judge!

 After a day of aimless wandering and delicious eats, we treated ourselves to long, hot showers and some long-awaited sleep. Thank goodness the Upper East Side is pretty quiet. It's funny to think that you can have some relative peace and quiet in Manhattan. Crazy lady incident aside, I do love the culture, diversity, and uniqueness in every corner of New York. It's definitely a change of pace from the suburbs of Silicon Valley!

Italy Day 5: Naples

On our fifth day, we bid farewell to our beloved Sorrento and took the ferry over to Naples. The port in Naples was  a 15 minute walk to the Palazzo Decumani hotel, which felt longer because we were dragging our suitcases across cobblestone pavement while dodging dog poop. Needless to say, by the time we got to the Palazzo Decumani, we were cranky, tired, and a bit sweaty.

Since we only had 18 hours in Naples, our only plan was to do some shopping at La Reggia designer outlet and eat some delicious pizza. Unfortunately, getting to the outlet was more challenging than it should have been. According to the website, there are shuttles leaving Naples from 9:30am - 3:30pm everyday. I thought that meant there would be several shuttles running throughout the day in between those times so we arrived at the stop at 12:00pm. Turns out that there are only 2 shuttles - one at 9:30am and one at 3:30pm. Doh! We ended up wasting a lot of time and money taking a train and cab to get to La Reggia. Even though the shuttles are still 10 euros a person, it's still the best way to go.

The only stores I was really interested in checking out were Prada and Valentino, as I was looking to add to my Italian designer handbag collection. I wouldn't recommend designer outlet shopping for fashionistas that like to be on-trend. I can't pull off most trends anyway, so I don't worry about having the latest fashion. At these price points, I want to pick classic styles that I know I'll love for years to come.

As a point of reference for you global outlet shoppers - the Prada outlet at La Reggia was a lot smaller than the ginormous one in Arezzo but bigger than the one in Hong Kong. Back in 2011, a lot of the large leather Prada and Miu Miu totes at the outlet in Arezzo were 500-600 euros. This time around in La Reggia, I saw similar styles (and in some cases, the exact same styles) for approximately 50-100 euros more. I didn't find one that was right for me, as they were all large and slouchy and I was looking for a medium-sized structured bag like the Saffiano tote or satchel. They did have plenty of Saffiano wallets in a variety of colors. I got a blush colored saffiano wallet back in 2011 but it started peeling at the corners after 18 months so I decided not to get another one. I'm really careful with my luxury leather goods, so I was disappointed that the construction was so shoddy. So in retrospect, maybe it was better that I didn't find a Saffiano tote.

Luckily, I found a lovely Valentino tote for a great deal. It's an old style from a few years ago but I think the duffle bag style is simple and classic enough to be fairly timeless. At least I think it is, I can't guarantee people won't see me with this bag and think "omg she is so 2010!" Ah well, I never claimed to be on trend. :)

I typically only buy leather bags that can be worn on the shoulder and this duffle bag breaks both of those rules - but for 180 euros (marked down from 600 euros), I'm okay with that! I love that the black lace is different from anything else I own (not that I own very many bags to begin with) but is still practical (waterproof!) and easy to match. It's a little slouchy, which I normally dislike but somehow in this style, it works. I checked the label to confirm that it was made in Italy. After all, what's the fun of a European designer handbag if it's not actually made in Europe?

I don't really follow Valentino fashion so I'm not quite up to speed on their latest styles. I've seen lots of bloggers with Rockstud heels and bags in the last few seasons, which I didn't see at the outlet, but I did see some Rockstud sunglasses at Valentino. Ultimately, I decided to pass, as I knew that I couldn't pull them off. I would have liked to buy a few more things at La Reggia, given the steep discounts but I wasn't going to buy something just because it was a really good deal. Plus, my idea of good deal is not always the same as Jeff's! But even he agreed that the Valentino bag was a very reasonable price. 

We got back to Naples at 6pm, feeling hungry and ready for some delicious pizza. We decided to walk by the pizza place Elizabeth Gilbert raved about in Eay Pray Love, L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele. We had heard about the infamous long lines and resolved to skip it if the wait was more than a few minutes. After all, there had to be more than one delicious pizza place in Naples, the birthplace of pizza. Luckily for us, no one in Italy eats dinner at the ridiculous hour of 6pm so there was no line at all!

We ordered two normal margherita pizzas, as we love cheesy pizza. Looking back at these pictures, we probably should have tried a double mozzarella. But normal was still good! The dough was salty, which Jeff complained about. But he was in a bad mood from shopping and from all our transportation mishaps of the day so I think it skewed his perspective of our meal. He feels like I should know better than to fall for luxury branding and ridiculous price markups - after all, I work in marketing! A conversation for another day...:)

After a long day, we went back to the hotel and redeemed our free drinks at the bar. The staff was also gracious enough to serve us complimentary sfogliatelles - they were delicious! And with that, we made our way up the winding staircase to our room and concluded our final night in Italy. While I'm not typically big on old world charm, I thought this was a really cool view.

This trip to Italy was pretty short but still awesome. I can only hope that we're lucky enough to return to Italy one day!

Italy Day 4: Herculaneum and shopping in Sorrento

Unfortunately, Jeff started feeling sick on our fourth day so we scrapped our plans to hike up Mount Vesuvius. That was just fine with me since I'm not a fan of hiking. We decided to take it easy so we took the Circumvesuviana train to Ercolano Scavi to visit Herculaneum, a resort town for the wealthy Romans that was also destroyed by Vesuvius' eruption in 79 AD. Herculaneum is much smaller and better preserved than Pompei.

We found the audio tour very hard to follow in Pompei (there was too much to see and the audio guide didn't help us focus in on the key sites) so we opted for an actual human guide this time around. She really helped to make Herculaneum more enjoyable for us. There were lots of online travel forums that suggested visiting Herculaneum over Pompei. While I found Herculaneum a lot more manageable, I think I would still prioritize Pompei. But I would suggest doing research or going with a guide who can focus in on the must-see highlights of Pompei so that it doesn't feel like hours of exhausting, aimless walking. Anyway I digress - back to Herculaneum...

Here are some of the colorful mosaics they had as home decor in Herculaneum. It was so posh there, they even had plumbing and sewers.

There were even skeletal remains in Herculaneum. We couldn't get a good picture of that area, since it was fenced off so they were only viewable from a distance. Still, that gives you an idea of just how well-preserved Herculaneum was.

Afterwards, we headed back to Sorrento and did some shopping in the old town area. Here's what we picked up:

- 2 pairs of adorable flats (the ones in the picture below were only 10 euros)
- a glass oil dispenser bottle with handmade designs
- a set of espresso cups and saucers (which we'll use for tea)
- a cute jacket from Benetton (who-hoo, excited that I only paid $89)
- spice and seasoning packets for pasta sauce from the Inn Bufalito store to give to friends (we also got two for ourselves)

I really wanted to buy more but I knew that our luggage space was limited, since we were still aiming to have carry-on luggage only. Jeff and I are extremely vigilant about not checking in any luggage if we can help it. We hate how long it takes to claim luggage from the baggage carousel and I've had the airline lose my check-in luggage before so we know it's not worth the hassle if we can help it!

Italy Day 3: Capri

Despite feeling a bit woozy from all the boat rides, this was one of my favorite days on the trip. We used this itinerary as a starting point and then improvised where we saw fit. While there was the beautiful scenery everywhere in Capri, the Blue Grotto was a truly unique experience.

There are ferries from Sorrento to Capri every 10-20 minutes so it's pretty easy to get there. Once we arrived, we signed up for a boat tour of the island. The tour guide didn't provide much commentary so we just sat back and enjoyed the view. My favorite was of the Green Grotto.

We concluded at the Blue Grotto, where there were tons of boats waiting to get in. There wasn't really a line so I don't know how they decided who got to go next. We waited about 45 minutes before it was our turn. I'm not complaining though - the day we went was the first time the Blue Grotto had been open in 6 days! Depending on weather and water conditions, it's not always open to visitors so we got extremely lucky. Admissions into the Blue Grotto are not included with the boat tours and the boaters are not shy about demanding a hefty tip, so we ended up paying almost 40 euros total for a 5 minute boat ride! It was worth it though. The blue glow is completely natural, gorgeous, and surreal.

When the tour concluded, we grabbed a quick lunch and then took multiple forms of transportation to get around and explore the views from various parts of the island - bus, chairlift, and funicular. The bus up to Anacapri was the most unpleasant one - the wait was very long and the ride was crowded, uncomfortable, and unventilated. Still, the beautiful views all around were worth it.

Italy Day 2: Amalfi Coast

I didn't realize until I started doing research for this trip that Sorrento isn't technically part of the Amalfi Coast. It's a great and beautiful city in its own right though, and very much worth visiting! It's also ideally located right in between a major city/airport (Naples) and the Amalfi coast. Some of the Amalfi coast towns were a bit too quiet for me so I knew I would want to stay somewhere a bit more lively - what can I say, I'm a city girl at heart. I had explored a few different options for getting from Sorrento to the three Amalfi towns (Positano, Amalfi, and Ravello):

• Public transportation (bus and ferries) - This would have probably been the most cost-effective but I had heard that the buses and ferries aren't timed in such a way to allow for easy, fast travel between the cities. 
• Bus tour - I was hoping to find a bus tour through Viator or other travel sites to get the best of both comfort and price. Unfortunately, they were really hard to come by. The one bus tour I found wasn't able to stop in Positano due to lack of parking, so we would only be able to experience Positano through a drive-by window view. 
• Rental car - We had read that the roads are extremely narrow, windy, and difficult to drive so we didn't really consider this option. 
• Private driver -  Our friend Nicolr recommended Guemar Travel, who quoted us 250 euros for a 9 hour day with a personal driver.

I really wasn't looking to shell out the money for a private driver but in the end, I felt like the splurge was worth it. While I am a pretty budget savvy traveler, I also believe in paying the premium for convenience, time, and the best experience possible! I got quotes from a few other car companies but they were all much higher, so that helped to justify the cost too.

After a quick and delicious breakfast at Bar Veneruso (chocolate croissants for 1 euro!), we met our driver and the Mercedes in front of our apartment at 9am. We didn't specifically seek out a Mercedes; most of the companies in Sorrento and Amalfi offer luxury vehicles with their services.

First stop: Amalfi

Second stop: Ravello

Third stop: Positano

Keep in mind, these are all just iPhone pictures so they definitely don't do the views justice. I have yet to start sorting through our SLR pictures...I'm sure one of us will get to it at some point! I'm just not sure we'll find the time to do so anytime soon. :P

In between the major cities, we also made a few other stops:
- We stopped at a delightful lemonade stand for a refreshing drink. It was smartly situated at a scenic point with a beautiful view, so of course we took tons of pictures.
- We visited one of many ceramic stores that featured home goods and furniture made of volcanic stone with a glaze finish. While the goods were lovely, it doesn't quite fit into our home decor so we didn't take anything home with us. Our style is more modern and classic a la Crate and Barrel / Room and Board.
- Our driver recommended a lunch spot in Positano with a lovely view (as seen in the last picture). The food was pretty average for Italy so I didn't take particular note of their name or location.What can I say, we were spoiled by some pretty high quality food in Italy!

After a long day on the road, we made it back to Sorrento and wandered into a supermarket. After admiring the mouthwatering, fresh produce, pastas, and mozzarella, we scooped them all up and took them home with us to make dinner. It sounds crazy to waste a meal in Italy with our own mediocre cooking but honestly, the ingredients are so delicious there that even our cooking tasted better. Plus, our apartment was well-equipped with most of what we needed to put a meal together so it was nice to give our wallets a little break. Another plus for Airbnb!