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Rome, Italia

“I found Rome a city of brick, and left it a city of marble.”
– Augustus “Octavian” Caesar

I cannot remember the exact moment in my life that I decided I wanted to study the ancient world. My parents and I would often watch all of the documentaries on the History Channel on Egypt, Rome, and Greece. I always found myself fascinated and intrigued with how these complex societies had formed thousands of years ago, and that how many of their innovations continued to be in use.

As my studies continued, and I declared my major in Classical Civilizations during my undergrad, I came to the firm conclusion that I preferred the Roman Empire over Greece a thousandfold. By the time it came to apply to grad school, I applied with a thesis that focused solely on Rome. I have a deep passion for religion and studying the ways they change and evolve over time. I therefore chose to write my thesis about the goddess Isis (an Egyptian goddess, married to the god Osiris), and how her cult migrated from Egypt to Italy and whether or not it adapted itself to Roman standards or maintained its foreign roots. In 2015, Josh and I planned to go to Italy, partially for fun, and to research for my thesis. I was beyond ecstatic. I had been studying Rome for several years and was ready to immerse myself in the capital of it all. We wanted to be in the heart of the city and chose to stay near the Vatican. We were right across the street from a metro station, and our apartment building had a gelato shop in it.

I think Rome is the most amazing city. It is one of the few places on Earth that you can walk through a city and literally see the evolution of history. The architecture ranges from the Roman Republic to the era of Mussolini. I did a bunch of prep work before we arrived as I wanted to see as much as possible within the week. We had a couple of day trips planned, one to ancient Tivoli and the other to Ostia Antica, so we were down to about 5 days. One of the things I did not realize until we arrived is that the city seems a lot bigger on a map than it actually is. We thought we would be relying on public transit fairly often, however, we found that we could (and did) walk most places. The number one thing I wanted us to pick up when we arrived were Roma Passes. The passes give you discounts entering sites, as well as give you access to free public transit (buses and metros).

If you are looking for day trips, then I definitely recommend Tivoli and Ostia Antica, however, if you are looking to stay local, there is so much to do. Over the course of our time in Rome, we went to the Castel Sant’angelo, which has a phenomenal view of the city, we spent a whole day in the Roman Forum and the Capitoline Museum (which was our favorite in the entire city), the Pantheon, Villa Borghese, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain,
Ara Pacis, the Colosseum, Largo Di Torre Argentina, Mausoleum of Augustus, and the Vatican Museum. We walked almost everywhere and saw as much as we could. We were definitely exhausted at the end of most days, but, I felt so fulfilled to see as much as we could!

Most nights we ended up eating at the same restuarant because their food was so delicious! Italy, shockingly, is the best place to travel for gluten free eating. On the night we went to the Colosseum, we ate dinner at a Sardinian restaurant that was very good. We went to a restaurant one night near the Pantheon that definitely claimed to be gluten free (but was not), and the rest of our trip we ate at la Soffita Renovatio. Honestly, there is so much to say about Rome but I will try to summarize it here:
1. See as much as you can. It really is endless.
2. Take breaks, and breathe in the culture, the city is vibrant and breathtaking.
3. Get a Roma Pass!
4. Book your Vatican tickets online – it is 2 Euro more expensive per ticket but you will save hours in line.
5. Eat as much as you can and drink as much coffee as you can.

PotterWorld at Universal Studios

“Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”
-Albus Dumbledor,
The Prisoner of Azkaban

When I was a student, I (like many others) longed for Spring Break. It was a week of sitting and catching up on tv shows, or travelling to go see Josh or friends in the US. As a former teacher, I can honestly say that no one looks more forward to Spring Break than them.

When our friends asked us if we wanted to go to Florida over break, my immediate thought was “can we go to Potter World?”. Turns out, the answer was yes.

I have been a fan of the books since I was ten years old and when I heard that they had built the initial park of Hogesmeade years ago, I desperately wanted to go. A couple of years ago, they added the second park, Diagon Alley, and I knew at some point, that I would go, and it would be amazing.

There are two separate Harry Potter themed parks within Universal. We decided that we would get there before opening (9:00 am), without purchasing the early entry (as it is quite expensive). Our plan: we would arrive for opening, and make our way over to the telephone booth near the Night Bus. Once you find the booth, you dial “Magic”, and let your day begin. We saw Nigel, not Stan, and got on with our way.

We wanted to grab food, and avoid peak times, so we decided that we would first have a brunch at the Leaky Cauldron. Having done my research in advance, I knew that they had gluten free options available. They also have signs inside indicating that if you have any allergies to speak with a manager prior to ordering.

I was told that they had gluten free pancakes, and they do. However, they come with no syrup – their syrup has gluten in it (which is a revolting thought). They also had zero taste and were very dry. My advice would be to have some eggs and fruit! The inside is adorable though, and should not be missed. You can also dine on Butterbeer and or Pumpkin juice. For breakfast, I would highly recommend the warm Butterbeer if it is in season.

We then continued our way through Diagon Alley (after having aquired our wands from Ollivanders. We spent around 2-3 hours in Diagon Alley and it was absolutely magical.

To get to the next park, Hogesmeade, you take the Hogwarts Express. They did a wonderful job. When we disembarked from the train and saw Hogwarts for the first time, the tears began to well in my eyes. It was an amazing moment to see everything I had read about for so much of my childhood suddenly come to life.

We decided to make our way slowly through this park, as we knew when we finished here that our magical day would be over. In terms of food in Hogesmeade you are looking at Honeydukes, Boar’s Head Inn, and the Three Broomsticks.

At Honeydukes, you will find the same candy as at Sugarplum’s Sweet Candy Shop in Diagon Alley. There are fresh sweets that are made there, however, for those with severe allergies and or gluten intolerances, there is a lot of cross contamination. You can snack on chocolate frogs, and Bertie Botts’ Every Flavor Beans if you like!

The Three Broomsticks and Boar’s Head Inn are connected inside. However, you may only order food on the Broomsticks side. I once again asked to speak with a manager, and the lunch offerings were much better- I am pleased to report! It is well worth visiting all of the dining establishments simply to enjoy the decor and grab a drink if you do not trust the food, even though I myself (and I am exceedingly sensitive to any cross-contamination) had no problems.

There is a fun simulation ride at Hogwarts, however, for those who have any issues with motion sickness, you may want to avoid this one.

We picked up a last few minute trinkets, such as scarves, and decided that we had lived our best life. It was time to go, however, not without one last photo to celebrate our houses, and our day.

To conclude, Potterworld is easily doable for those who have food issues, especially gluten. It is so worthwhile if you are a fan of the books, and or just the films. Try to go at low season times, it can be pretty dicey otherwise. When in doubt, just remember to have your wand in hand and say “Accio Gluten Free!”

Vermont

This post was initially written prior to the passing of my grandmother, Adele. She lost her battle with cancer on September 29th 2018. I miss her every day.

Josh and I essentially had a destination wedding. It was a destination for everyone except us (and two of our neighbors). My entire family living in Canada, and none of our family and friends living in Richmond, meant that everyone was travelling to the wedding.

As with all destination weddings, this meant that not everyone count attend. The most important person missing (for me) was my grandmother.
She is essentially the coolest woman. She loves Game of Thrones, books and the show (yes, she has read them all multiple times, and is waiting for the next one. Get on it GRRM), she is the best baker, and she is honestly the best grandmother. Josh won the lottery of grandma’s when he married me because he now gets to share her. One of my dearest friends, James, was a total mensch the day of our wedding, For the ceremony, he sat upfront with my family (as he is family in my eyes) and held my phone with skype open so that she could be a part of our day.

So what we decided to do was take a trip to Vermont. The first few days of our trip would be what I started labelling as our “minimoon”, and the last part would be spent with my family aka grandma time.  Burlington is 2.5 hours away from Montreal, so it seemed like a pretty good meet spot.

We flew from Richmond via Philadelphia into the Burlington airport, and began our trip. We booked a rental car through National and got a pretty sweet new Nissan Altima. We decided for the first part of the day that we would drive to the capital Montpelier and have lunch, as well as look around a bit.We had lunch at an Italian restaurant called Sarducci’s. They had a gluten free menu and it was right on the water.

We wandered around Montpelier for about an hour. It has an incredibly cute main street, some awesome old mansions, nice churches, and cute cafes.

From Montpelier we made our way to Woodstock, the highlight of the minimoon. When researching places in Vermont, Josh and I both came across this town and decided independently that we needed to visit it. We decided we would stay at the Kedron Valley Inn, and it was an excellent choice. The Inn is about 10 minutes past the actual town and is nestled in a more rural area. We decided that we would have our dinner at the property that night and it was delicious. The staff working that night, a lovely lady named Laura, also assured me what was safe for me to eat, and I greatly appreciated it.

The next day, we wandered around the town which was incredibly charming. We had breakfast at the inn (which was included), and then had a coffee at Mon Vert Cafe. Historically, the Billings family ($$$) lived close by and after a marriage with the Rockafeller’s, they created a trust for the town. The town continues to use this trust for upkeep, and this has made it a little bit of a tourist destination. There is a national park right by the town where the mansion of the family and their farm are open for tours. We had lunch at the Woodstock Inn and Resort for a nice break after walking around for a few hours. All of the buildings are charming. There is a wooden covered bridge, stone churches, and wonderful stores (be sure to check out the general store!). We rounded out our day by having dinner at the Prince and the Pauper, where they tell everyone before they come in that they need to disconnect- no phones in the dining room. The restaurant was lovely, the staff was great, and the food was fantastic. The desserts were out of sight, overall, it was a perfect minimoon. We are counting days until we can go back to Woodstock. If you are ever in the area, or simply looking for somewhere to go for a few days, Woodstock is an amazing choice.  

Part 2

The minimoon part of our trip was now over. We will eventually take a honeymoon once my green card is settled, but until then, we will always have Woodstock.We made the drive from Woodstock to Burlington where we would meet with my family (yay, Grandma time), and then make the drive to the cabin that we would be staying in for the rest of our time in Vermont. The cabin was awesome. It is located on Lake Iroquois, and has a beautiful view of the water. It came fully equipped with kayaks, a canoe, and chairs if you just wanted to lounge around. The best part of the entire stay was being able to see my grandmother, who I had not seen in 5 months (the longest we have gone without seeing each other, ever). During our time at the cabin, we ventured into Shelburne and South Burlington for our dinners. Our first night we went to Folino’s, where we had wood fired pizzas (they were extra careful with mine, and the girl who took my order had celiac disease), and for our favorite dinner for part 2 of our trip, we went to Pauline’s Cafe.

We parted ways with my family on the Monday morning. We had time to kill before our 6 pm flight. We decided to hang out by the water a bit in the morning before making our way to Stowe. 
The main reason to go in this direction is because it is in close proximity to the Ben and Jerry’s headquarters. For 4$/ person, you can get a really neat tour of the factory that comes with an ice cream tasting (they had allergy menus on hand, huzzah). The site itself is pretty big, there are fun things to do. You can pretend to be Ben and Jerry as well as take a fun trip to the Flavor Graveyard. We spent the rest of our day in Burlington, where we had lunch at Leunigs (so so good) before heading to the airport.  

Prior to this trip, I had taken mini vacations to visit friends in the US, and traveled for friends’ weddings but never took a vacation where even though we saw a lot we basically just relaxed. Usually when we think of vacations we tend to think abroad, which there is nothing wrong with as the world is a magical place and we should of course aspire to see as much of it as we possibly can, but occasionally we forget what is close to us. Our own countries provide amazing backdrops, have really awesome scenery, and offer delicious food. Our entire trip was a massive success. Vermont was a green gem, and we really look forward to going back.