Loving Married Life in Cleveland

I got another night to feel at home.  I took Ronnie down to Little Italy for the Feast of the Assumption.  Having lived down there 20 years ago, it does feel like home when I go down.  Ronnie and I walked around on the street and he got some clams.   We then went back to my friends bar.  We got to hang out with old friends who live right next door to the bar.  Ironically, the one guy is dating Ronnie's step cousin.  Small world!  These are guys I knew over 20 years ago.  Then as we were at the bar I got to see the guys in the band who I knew from over 20 years ago.  It was so great to see Philly and her family.  I got to spend time talking to John and catch up with him.  The meatballs and pizza were just as good as I remember from the past.  Ronnie was happy as anything as he got his Tripe (yuck from me).  Listening to Top Dog play brought me back over 20 years and I got to enjoy the music and company.  As w...

 It is a fitting day for me to write this blog, today would have been my mom's 81st birthday.  This past weekend Ronnie and I had a great time.  Saturday we went down to the Brier Hill Fest in Youngstown and today we went to a Guardians game.  Both activities would have been Anita approved.   Let's start with Saturday night.  Ronnie and I drove down to Youngstown- our first stop was the cemetery- where all the flowers my cousin and Aunt put on the graves are gone except for my parents.  Seriously, who steals flowers off a grave.  We then went to St. Anthony to park and walked down the hill.  Our first stop- the St. Anthony Pizza booth.  We saw some parishioners and I got a half hot half mild pizza.  Being down there is such a warm feeling for me.  As we walked around, Ronnie remarked on the many food trucks- Pepper and Egg sandwiches, Rimedio's Desserts, Fried Calamari, Steak Sandwiches, Wedding soup sandwiches (this is a ...

 We now have to leave the happiest place on earth (for us).  We were picked up in the morning for our flight to Rome.  Poppy is an awesome driver.  He told us stories, he was so much fun  Well worth the money.  We got the airport in plenty of time.  Spent the rest of our Euros on duty free items and gifts.  And had our worst meal ever in Italy.  :-(.This is the only picture from Italy where I am not smiling.  We then were off for Toronto.  Landed in Toronto, went to the hotel, which had no food, but let had free snacks and went to bed.  We were still on Italian time.  So we were up early.  We checked out and decided to drive to Niagara Falls on the Canadian side.  It was gorgeous but disappointingly, nothing was really open.   After we left the falls, we went to the Fallsview Casino.  With our rewards card and the free money we got for being new members, I won the equivalent of $80 US.  Woohoo...

  We started our day with a trip to Pompeii.  We took the train and walked down.  We decided to just do the walking tour.  It was the hottest freaking day.  But it was really cool to walk around.  This blog post is going to be very very picture heavy.  I am pretty much doing a Pompeii picture dump.  Until I get to lunch, snacks and late night dinner.   The were doing a dig while we were there.   The shire to a woman After a hot day of walking around, we were starving.  So we went to the Hotel Vittoria.  They were so busy, they had a wedding inside.  I had these beautiful scampi on my pasta and Ronnie had his favorite mussels and clams etc.  The meal was delicious.  When we were done we walked around the markets in Pompeii before getting the train back to Sorrento and spending our last night in the city we grew to love over the last few days.   We also stopped at a little place right across fro...