Naples Submarine Ball 2016

I started going to submarine balls with Mike before we were married.  The year that we were engaged, we went to sub ball in Hawaii and then the next year, when we were married and in Arlington, we went to the ball in Washington, D.C.  While they were very different experiences, both were fun in their own way and we knew that we wanted to make an effort to attend the European one this year in Naples, Italy.  Coincidentally, it happened to be while Karen was visiting, which made it even easier to justify!  Thanks Kare Bear!

So, after two days in Rome, Karen and I boarded a train from Rome to Naples.  It's about an hour ride and it's extremely easy. Mike usually does most of the travel planning, so I was super proud of myself for navigating us around Rome and getting us from Rome to Naples. It wasn't that hard, but definitely required some planning.  Anyways, we made it to Naples without a hitch and I was glad to hand off the tour guide reigns to Mike for a few days.  

The train ride through Italy

Views like this make the train ride go faster.

Speaking of Mike, did I mention how happy I was to see him?  Because I was.  I know it had only been two weeks, but man did I miss him.  We spent all of our dating relationship and engagement apart, but spending the past year and half with him by my side every day made those two weeks so much harder.  My heart hurt for him and I was so glad to see him walking through the doors at the train station Saturday morning.  

He's my fave

Even though he's the worst :)

After a long-awaited reunion, Karen, Mike, Mike's friend Scott who is stationed at Naples, and I headed out to drop our stuff off at the AirBnB we were staying at and do a little sight seeing before getting all dazzled up for the ball that night. I hadn't heard great things about Naples, so my expectations were pretty low. People had told me that it was a pretty dirty city and nothing that spectacular to see.  While it did seem like there was a lot of trash around, we all walked away realizing that there are a few pretty cool things about Naples.

Including the world's best pizza!! Apparently, Naples is the place of origin of pizza! WHAT?!?!?! That's awesome! It only took about 30 minutes from the time we dropped off our bags to the time we had pizza in our mouth.  Scott took us to L'Antica Pizzeria Da Michele which is one of the oldest pizzerias in Naples.  They only have two kinds of pizza, the Marinara and the Margherita, but the line was out the door when we arrived.  Luckily, that was to get a table to sit at.  Scott barged in and was able to get carry out pizza for all of us within 15 minutes and we were all thankful that we didn't have to wait long.  We found a piazza to eat our pizza (hahahah piazza...pizza...get it?) in and DEVOURED all of the pizza. I wouldn't have been surprised if people had been watching in amazement as the four of us sat on a curb shoveling pizza in our mouths.  The fact that we remembered to breathe is actually a miracle.  I was starving, so almost anything would have tasted great, but that pizza was delicious.   While I did miss having toppings, it was one of the best Margherita pizzas I've ever had. 

We needed to walk off our pizza, so we did some sight seeing. 

Inside of the shopping mall...

Man, did I miss this guy.

Getting to travel with one of your best friends is truly an amazing experience.

We went inside the local duomo, not to be confused with THE Duomo in Florence.

And then walked through town a little bit more

After we had walked off our pizza and seen the basics of the city, it was time to head to the AirBnB to shower and get ready for the ball.  Karen and I quickly showered, did our hair and makeup and got dressed in time to head to Scott's so the boys could get ready.  While the boys gave us a hard time about how long it took for us to get ready, I was quite impressed with our speediness.  45 minutes is not a long time!

Our brave driver navigating the Italian highways!

Limoncello before the ball!

We clean up nice

Sadly, I think I'm standing on my tip toes in this picture. 

Two of Scott's friends have this AMAZING house in Pozzouli, which is outside of the city.  The house is huge and overlooks the water.  Karen and I were in awe and probably would have spent the night just hanging out on the balcony because the view was THAT good.  Give us a glass of Italian wine and we're all set. 

Is this real life? When can I move in?  I'm currently homeless...

After our little photo shoot, it was time to head to the ball.  While we didn't know a ton of people, there were plenty of people who had heard about us thanks to the evacuation and were curious to hear about how everything was going.  Admiral Foggo, who is the Commander of the 6th Fleet at Naples, is a former Olmsted Scholar.  We met him last fall when we went to the reunion in Germany and he helped Mike navigate the Navy aspects of an evacuation, so we were eager to thank him for all of his support.  We also were looking forward to dancing and eating good food and celebrating the Submarine Force's birthday.

Birthday cake!

By the end of the night, we were happy and tired and ready to sleep.  Our AirBnB had interesting decorations, but was the perfect set up for Mike, Karen and myself.  

We didn't get a picture of Mike and my room, but imagine Minnie and Mickey and possibly Daffy Duck. 

Sub Ball is always a good time and being able to enjoy it with friends such as Karen and Scott, as well as some of Mike's fellow officers from the Jacksonville was a ton of fun.  Happy birthday Submarine Force!  Fair Winds and Following Seas!

Vatican City

Day Two of our Italian adventure was spent exploring Vatican City.  Technically, not really Italy, but Karen and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go all Catholic fan girl. I went to Vatican City with the Russo clan when I was 11, but Mike and I didn't venture there last time we were in Rome, so I was excited to go again.  

We got up and got to Vatican City early (9:00amish) and I'm glad we did. There were a lot of people there, but it didn't feel crowded and the lines to get in to St. Peter's Square and the Basilica were short for a Friday, which was so nice and refreshing after the crowded streets of Rome.

Hello, St Peter's Basilica.  Nice to see you!

Our first stop was St. Peter's Basilica.  I didn't remember anything from this, so it was like both Karen and I were experiencing it for the first time. I always get emotional going to places like this, and St. Peter's Basilica was no different.  Sp many people, especially Catholics, dream of coming to St. Peter's and consider it as an important part of their religious journey.  I became overwhelmed thinking about how lucky I am to go to SO many significant places, religious and secular.  This is when Karen turned to me and said "Hi. Karen Stefanski.  Catholic. Nice to meet you."  Getting to experience something like this with her was incredible.

When you walk in, to your right is the Pieta.  It's hard to miss because it's as stunning as you think it's going to be.

After checking the Pieta, we wandered around the cathedral.  It was incredible.

After taking in the cathedral, we decided to head up.  Up the cupola.  We paid 6 euros instead of 8 to walk instead of take the elevator.  If you take the elevator, you bypass 100 some stairs, but you still have to climb 320 stairs afterwards.  By the time we got to the top, I thought Karen might die, but it was totally worth it.  You can look down into the cathedral, which gives a cool perspective of the dynamic in the cathedral. 

Then, keep climbing and you'll be able to go outside. This makes every single stair you climbed worth it.  The view of Saint Peter's is breathtaking. 

I mean, really?!?!?!

Afterwards, we headed over to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel.  We had made reservations online, which is almost necessary if you want to get in.  You can spend days in the Vatican Museum, but our main priority was the Sistine Chapel, so we only wandered around for a little while in the museum.

We did see this guy, though!

After we wandered the museum, we headed down the hall to the Sistine Chapel.  I was impressed, to say the least.  The ceiling is incredible.  You have to remind yourself to look forward sometimes because otherwise you just walk down the entire hall staring up at the ceiling and the potential for collision with others and/or walls is increased significantly.

When you walk into the Sistine Chapel, the room is wide open (it's only one room, don't make that mistake like some people did..ie Karen and I). There are benches along the wall, but you'll be hard pressed to find one.  Most people stand in the middle and stare upwards (your neck really gets a workout). The paintings are impressive and it's hard to imagine how Michaelangelo painted all of it lying on his back and looking up.  Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take pictures in the Sistine Chapel, although plenty of people did.  I'm a too afraid of the wrath of God (#catholicguilt) and the Vatican to try that, but I'm sure if you Google pictures, you can see some that people took. We did end up finding a bench and it made the experience so much better.  I was tired after the museum and being able to sit and take everything in while resting and relaxed made it a better experience.  Totally worth stalking people for.

In order to leave, you have to go through the gift shop (insert snarky comment about how the church wants all your money).  Karen picked up a few things and I searched for various items with Russo on them.

RUSSO! Pretty sure it means Russian, but I'll take it!

Once we were out, we headed back to Saint Peter's Square to take a few photos of things from the movie Angels and Demons, which Karen had seen.  I had never watched it, so  I had no idea what she was tlaking about, but she knew exactly where to go.

One of the places in the movie is the Castle Saint Angelo, which is actually in Rome.  We bought the Roma Passes the day before, which got us in to two sights for free, but also gave us discounts on the other museums and sights.  Since we had already used our two free sights the day before, we only received a discount, but it ended up being 5euros instead of 10.  After going through the castle, we agreed that it was definitely worth the 5 euros, but not 10.

Anyways, wandering through the castle was fun.

You can see a lot of Rome from the top and you don't need to climb nearly as many stairs as the cupola.

There is a cafe up there that you can sit and have a drink at, although we didn't stay.  We headed back out of the castle and got gelato, instead. Sorry not sorry.

By the time we finished Vatican City, it was almost dinner time.  A couple of weeks before our trip, my mom emailed me to say that one of her client's nieces had a restaurant in Rome near the Colosseum.  We made reservations and ended up spending our last night in Rome eating dinner there.  Unlike most of the restaurants in Rome, which feel very small and Roman, this restaurant felt very modern and open, which took us by surprise.  It looked like somewhere I would grab lunch to-go, which wasn't what we were hoping for, but our dinner turned out to be great! We started with an artichoke appetizer because we had heard that artichoke was in season.  I had never had artichoke that, but it was delicious.  For our first course, I had lasagna and Karen had gnocci.  We split lamb chops as our second course because that's what you do in Italy. All of it was really good and we definitely recommend Terre e Domus!

Since this was our last night in Rome, we wanted to savor our last evening by taking in the city at night.  It's totally worth it because you see things in a completely different light...literally!

And just like that, our two days in Rome was up.  It was a blast, but we had to head south to Naples to meet up with Mike!  Caio Roma!