Southeast Italy...

Tom and I headed off to Southern Italy a couple of weeks ago for a weekend away!  It was great, as always, to be back in one of our favorite countries - the place that inspired our passion for travel!  This time we went to the Puglia region which is located in the "boot" part, aka. the Southeast region.  The best part of being there is that this is not an area frequented by most tourists...so it was mainly Tom and I and the locals.  We stayed in a charming little village called Conversano and our hotel was built in a 16th century building...incredible!  Of course we had to indulge in delicious food...wine and gelato.  We spent our first day exploring the little village we were staying in and relaxing in the main piazza over some delicious wine.  The next day we were taken to a 14th century farm house outside the city for a horse and carriage ride through the countryside.  Later that evening we were treated to our very own Italian cooking class.  It was a ton of work...but well worth it.  After hours of making everything from scratch we feasted on delicious antipasti, homemade pasta with pesto and fresh fish!  The following day we drove through a couple of the small villages in the area.  Our favorite one was Alberobella, which is famous for its cone shaped houses built centuries ago to keep the spaces cool.  It was fantastic to be back in Italy and great to see a new area!

Our charming hotel in Conversano

Our room

The village church outside our hotel

Loving the Italian Life!

When in Italy...

Exploring Conversano

The charming countryside farm where we went for our carriage ride

That evening, we had a private cooking class!

Tom is hard at work

The beautiful patio where we enjoyed dinner

Nearly ready...

Exploring the village of Alberobella - famous for its cone shaped houses

Exploring more of Southeast Italy

A Special Day

Today is a very special day in Warsaw.  It is the 69th Anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising.  69 years ago the Warsaw people gathered together to fight back and resist the German occupation.  They fought for 63 days and during this time over 200,000 civilians and 20,000 soldiers died.  At 5:00pm every year there is a moment of silence to honor those that lost their lives in this brave fight.  Its incredibly powerful!  Take a look here since you can't witness it live.  A great tribute to the Polish fighters!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejd2rsXoQSI

And, here's a clip from the Polish news on this day last year:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GM-vw9NdoU

His and Hers Poland Trips

Last week Tom and I spent the weekend in the same area, the Northern part of Poland, but we were doing very different things!  Tom was off on a six day intensive Polish language retreat.  They had 8 hours of Polish classes each day and in addition had a three hour cultural activity every night that was only in Polish.  Like Tom always does, he made the most of the trip and really enjoyed exploring the small town where he was staying.  And, he did a super job studying his Polish!  

Tom's bedroom window at the top of the building

The grounds of the hotel

All of the students for the week

A cultural visit to a Jewish cemetery

He learned a lot and had some fun doing it too!

While Tom was off studying Polish....I was at the spa on a girls trip!  A group of us had been wanting to head to the spa for awhile now and finally got around to getting the trip organized.  We had a blast drinking too much wine and relaxing at the spa - what a treat!  It was also a super special trip since some of these friends will be leaving Warsaw this summer to move on to new assignments.  So, we had one final hurrah together!

Our villa for the stay

So nice and relaxing

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Relaxing by the pool

Its not a girls trip without some champagne!

My sweet husband surprised me with flowers!

So much fun ladies!

Great scenery