Art week in Miami is one of the most anticipated events of the year for fashionistas, art critics, and lovers alike. This year I was able to continue my tradition of going on the Friday… More
Travel
A Total Eclipse of The Heart
The total solar eclipse that occurred in 2017 was the first to pass over The United States since 1979 and people were READY.
Towns, cities, roads, and highways were at a standstill for hours as people exited their cars to stand and watch the sky regardless of their current location. I, on the other hand, trekked the 9 hours from sunny South Florida to the vast, empty fields of South Carolina. We loaded up the car and took shifts driving to my friend’s newly built house in SC (conveniently in the path of the eclipse and also in the middle of nowhere).
Not much to say about the trip except for the actual moment of the eclipse, a possibly once in a lifetime occurence. It was beautiful and weird and also lasted approximately 5 minutes max. When I look back, we drove 9 hours to SC, sat out in an empty, hot, and bug infested field for 2 hours only to see the sky get dark and then light again in 5 minutes… but i wouldn’t trade that experience for the world. I wish I could put in videos to show you what happened when it got dark but instead I’ll share these photos from a man we met in the field, he hauled his huge pro camera along with the sun cover (like the glasses everyone had) to field in order to capture this moment. The result was kinda spectacular.
xx Meg
Can you live off gelato: a scientific study
This summer I visited the many cities of Italy for 2 weeks and got in touch with my last name, possibly the most Italian last name to ever exist; I mean it’s in Cars 1, 2, and 3 for god sake! During this time my diet consisted of solely Gelato and fancy water. Our first stop on the trip was to the bustling town of Rome which is must see, regardless of the obvious tourist trap it has become.
Since we were flying all night, when we landed it was morning and we decided to go sightseeing. Our first stop, closest to the hotel, was the infamous but not very exciting Trevi fountain. There was a mob of people (as expected) with the Italian Police blowing their whistles left and right at people trying to sit on the edge of the fountain.
Naturally I started a count of how many things I see along the trip. In Rome alone, I saw 20 big buses, 7 churches, 32 dogs, 40+ gelato places (I stopped counting), 27 pizza shops, and one Colosseum.
Next stop was the Pantheon, another unexciting building but sure… historical. We looked around for a solid 10 mins, inside and out, before we ventured off to find gelato and cappuccinos. What we found was a popular, high-end chain of flashy gelato stores named Venchi. I gave this place a 6/10 because while it was fairly good quality gelato, I didn’t like the long lines I saw at every store and I prefer to support our local small businesses instead.
If you’re ever in the area, my mom and I found THE best gelato out of the 45 total gelato stores we tested. Nestled in a small alley near the Colosseum, filled with tiny shops and cafes is a gelato shop called, Gelateria Del Teatro which is owned by a nice old man and his two sons. You were able to watch the gelato being made next door through the glass wall. They had unique flavors such as red wine and brazilian rain forest chocolate??
One stop on our trip was of course to Pisa, when I say there were swarms of people that’s an understatement. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many people in one place, looking at one thing. Now the actual Tower of Pisa (you know, the leaning one) was cool and worth making the trip but it’s cool for a solid 5 mins before you get tired of trying to get a picture without people or trying to find a restaurant not fully booked for 5 hours in advance. Nevertheless, I got one cool picture of my dad doing a typical tourist pose so enjoy.
Now onto the smaller cities and islands we saw; Siena, Cinque Terre, Montepulciano, Pisa, Portovenere, Monterosso al Mare. Six of the most beautiful small towns you can see while there, Siena had the feeling of home bundled with it’s fresh gnocchi and spanning countryside views into a measly 45 square miles and the rest were wine country. The most beautiful of the places was Portovenere, Liguria seen below.
There was small alleys and seaside bridges where you could see for miles the spanning ocean and its wildlife flying above or swimming below. This particular picture is still my all time favorite vacation photos but it may be topped by some of the photos from my new post from Iceland: Home of Ice and Land. I hope you enjoyed reading about my summer trip to the many beautiful places of italy, check out some of my other travels on the travel page!
Addio, Megs
The Keys… to Happiness
The Keys! A classic Floridian birth right alongside Disney and Universal, since it took me my whole life to get there I was shamed but I made it nevertheless. I made the short two day trip along with two of my closest friends, my mom, and her friend.
Upon arrival to Key West, the furthest of the Florida Keys, we relaxed for the rest of the day at the poolside sipping smoothies like the ~queens~ we are. The next day we woke up early to get a head start on the day riding our bikes around the small island, stopping at the many must-see places on it like the southernmost point and the famous writer, Ernest Hemingway’s house with his many polydactyl (6-toed) cats. On our ride back we encountered a beautiful and old tree that had to be at least 40 feet tall.
Our next adventure of the day was a half-day catamaran snorkeling trip, I was hesitant at first but pushed through for all three of us. I don’t have any flattering pictures of us due to the combination of rough seas and Lauren’s weak stomach but enjoy the nice view I had on the blue waters!
Before heading back we tried another new thing; we rented a small sailboat and set out i hopes we could magically figure out how to sail? Well thanks summer camp, I remembered vaguely what to do from the singular sailing class I took in the summer of ’13 and steered us back to shore within 3 hours. Tiffany (my mom’s friend) stayed on shore with our phones and snapped this picture upon us reaching land after being stranded out at sea (may or not be an exaggeration).
Well if this doesn’t persuade you to go to Key West over a long weekend I don’t know what will because I had a phone-free(ish) weekend with some of my closest friends in a beautiful place that I never would have visited otherwise.
Bye for now, Megs
Megan Guido 