Just wanted to write a quick note to say happy birthday Rome! Or, in Italian, “tanti auguri a te”.
I feel so luck to be here to celebrate.
Today marks Rome’s 2,769th birthday. Look at this photo of her in the last moments of the golden evening light. She looks good for her age, eh?
Capri, the island once home to Emperor Caesar Augustus’ summer home now inhabited by socialites in villas. It really is a special place with colors so vibrant it almost doesn’t seem real.
We visited Capri in early March, before the summer rush of tourists coming to get a glimpse of the famous Faraglioni peaks. Visiting Capri before the hoards of tourists means no lines to get onto the chairlift up to Mount Solaro and plenty of time to shoot the Mediterranean breeze with the locals.Read More »
Switzerland is stunning. If you were to hold your hands out and make frame shape with your fingers and look anywhere, you’d have yourself a postcard perfect shot.
No exaggeration.
We took a short train ride from Rome, Italy to Brig, Switzerland for the new year. This three day trip was spur of the moment and since Anthony rarely gets three days off in a row we jumped at the chance to visit someplace new. These last-minute kinds of trips are my favorite though with no itinerary or schedule to follow. This meant some of the things we saw like the Aletsch Glacier, were a delightful surprise, but some things we ran into, like a 33 dollar burrito stopped us in our tracks!
I wanted to share some of my experiences so if you are planning a trip to Switzerland you will not be as sticker shocked as I was.
Staying in Brig
Brig is a sleepy little village and one of the first large train stops in Switzerland from Italy. It was a great home base for our day trips. A few miles up the road is the Brigerbad Thermal Spa. A pass was 24 Swiss Franks for a 3 hour visit. This, for us, was just enough time to get thoroughly relaxed but not too long that we got bored. Totally worth the visit if you are passing through the area. FYI: this spa does not provide towels and you must either rent one for 5 Swiss Franks at the front desk or bring your own (something we learned after taking a dip in the pool).
I totally recommend staying in Brig if you are in Switzerland for a short time. Between the trip up to see the glacier, visiting the castle in town, and hopping on a bus to see the nearby traditional village known for its saffron, it really is a great home base for day trips.
Brig’s Castle AKA the Stockalper Palace
A huge cost saver for us was that our hotel had breakfast included. Food is ridiculously expensive in Switzerland. I had no idea how anyone could afford to live here until I read this blog post which gave me a little better idea. While most of our budget went toward eating, having a breakfast included at the hotel and bringing snacks with us on our outings helped a little.
Visiting the Aletsch Glacier
This day trip from Brig is inexpensive and full of amazing views. From Brig, we hopped on the train headed to Morel. This trip was about 20 Swiss Franks a person and included one of the two gondola rides. This was definitely the biggest gondolas I have ever been on, but I wasn’t a bit nervous because the sweeping views were all I could think about.
We spent a little time in the resort area after the gondola ride taking pictures and people watching. From here we took the Gletscherbahn Moosfluh (gazoontite!) gondola to the glacier. This was less than 10 Swiss Franks a person, roundtrip. In total we were a little over 7,000 feet above sea level! As soon as you step off the gondola the glacier is right there. We just sat on the bench and looked at this wonderment hardly able to take it all in. After a little while the fog started to roll in and it began to snow so we stopped into the little cafe next to the lift to warm up. The girl working spoke a little English and told us on clearer days you can see the Matterhorn from where we were!
Switzerland is a beautiful country and the people are so kind. Definitely put it on your bucket list, and I recommend Brig as a great stopping point.
xoxo,
Kate
I am so excited to share this with you guys! My husband, Anthony, and I are starting a new vlog series about the different adventures we take and things we learn while we are living abroad. We’ve decided to call it “Allora, Andiamo” which is Italian for “then, we go”. Although we have only been abroad for a few weeks we have heard this phrase about a thousand times and thought it was fitting for our new vlog series.
The first video we have posted is our trip west to Wyoming and the Badlands. We took this trip soon after we minimized our belongings and packed up the rest to store at my Mom’s house in Wyoming while we got ready to move to Italy. Our trip was two weeks long and we saw some amazing things. I must admit that the Badlands is one of my favorite places in the world, it is eerily quiet and the vast views are so awe inspiring. It was great to see some of my family and have some downtime before our big move. We are so excited to be starting this new vlog series so we can look back on our travels for years to come (not to mention share them with all of you)! Hopefully you enjoy watching our first allora, andiamo video as much as we enjoyed making it!
How crazy is it that both Jamie and I both moved in the same month?! Our Sweet Somewhere is really taking on a new meaning this year, that’s for sure.
xoxo,
Kate
Hello all! It’s been quite some time since I’ve been able to actually sit down and write a post on here, but there is good reason for this! A couple of months ago, my fiancé Scott got word that he would have the opportunity to receive a job promotion within his company, but this promotion would also require him to transfer to their Manhattan office. Well, long story short, the offer went through and we have officially been living here (Brooklyn to be exact) for almost two weeks now!
I can honestly say that we never even imagined living in this part of the country before, but I do believe everything happens for a reason. I’ve been able to explore some more of the city throughout this past week with my littlest brother who has been visiting us since we moved, and have found that I am loving this area more than I anticipated! My camera roll already has at least 500 more pictures on it.
Please know though that moving here wasn’t an absolute breeze. There were some ups and downs that we experienced before settling in to our Brooklyn apartment, and a large hunk of it was trying to downsize all of our things within our previous two bedroom apartment to a smaller one bedroom on short notice. Thankfully, Kate was able to give us some great advice and quick tips that she learned from downsizing her entire home before moving with her husband to Italy!
Another part to our move that proved to be quite stressful was the search to find our apartment while living in another state. We quickly learned how fast the market comes and goes out here and at one point, almost made the decision for me to stay in Virginia with my family while Scott would rent through AirBnB until we could find something! Thankfully this wasn’t the case, but I have gathered quite a bit of useful information for those who also plan on moving to NYC from another state and will be sharing more details on this in another blog post soon!
Until then, here is a quick round up (pictured above) of my most recent Instagram posts featuring some of the places and things I have experienced so far while living in this amazing city!
xo,
Jamie
Our Sweet Somewhere 