Elsie: You are listening to The Beautiful Mess Podcast, your cozy comfort.

Listen, this week we're sharing all the details of our recent trip to Italy, specifically Florence and Venice.

If you're planning to travel to one of those places or if you're in the mood to just travel vicariously through our stories, it's going to be a big story time episode today.

We are also going to share our new book reports, so we're glad you're here.

Thank you for listening.

Yeah, it totally, it totally.

I know.

So do you want to tell them a little bit about the origin of the trip and Yes.

Emma: Yes.

Okay.

So longtime listeners, you've heard part of this, but basically I'm turning 40 in January.

It's a big one, and Elsie gave me the advice that I should do something big for my 40th because she didn't really do anything big for hers.

Let's be real.

It's kind of hard to plan parties for yourself or buy yourself something really big or epic or, you know what I mean?

It just feels kind of weird.

There is an age in life though, where it's like if you don't do it for yourself, probably no one else will do it for you either.

And you kind of have to take that control if you want the thing.

Yeah, and you always give me great gifts.

I know you'd give me something wonderful.

My partner knows I want to go out to eat pasta.

I feel like everyone, it's not that no one around me would celebrate me, just, I don't usually do anything big for my birthday.

It's not my mode, and I'm usually happy with that.

But anyway, pasta is big, is big.

I don't have any issue with that.

But I also will say I am at a place in my life and I feel like I have been for a long time in a way, I don't know.

But where I think when someone gives you advice and you can tell it's good.

Don't overthink it.

Just take it.

Yeah.

So I could tell Elsie had just gone through this and she was just, and this isn't like going to change your life, it's just land a party for yourself or whatever it is you want.

Do something big.

You're turning 40, do something big.

You won't regret it.

You might regret not doing it.

That's the advice.

So I was like, I'm just going to take it.

That's that.

Elsie: So the year I turned 40, we had just gone, do you remember C's 40th birthday party?

Yes.

We had just gone to C's 40th birthday party.

She did it right, was like a princess ball.

It was the best, most amazing, just amazing party.

There was dinner, there was dancing.

It was like a wedding.

It was better than a wedding.

It was better than many weddings I've been to.

So I think that I got a little bit overwhelmed by, that was the only 40th birthday party I had in my head, and I was like, I just can't.

I definitely can't live up to that.

I couldn't.

But at the same time, I wish that I would've would've planned a trip or just something.

And then when my birthday came around, it was memorable.

It wasn't that it was a bad birthday in any way, but I just kind of regretted it because I was like, well, that was my big birthday for the decade, and now I'm not going to have another big birthday for 10 more years.

So for the rest of my life, all the big birthdays are going to be big though.

I do think I'm never going to do a one again.

That's the lesson.

Emma: And so mine's coming up in January, so I was brainstorming with our friends and we were like, let's go on a big trip together.

These are our friends, Sherry and Elise, who we travel with from time to time and just like every month.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's the dream.

So anyway, we originally kind of talked about Paris.

We were talking about trips where we could do maybe some shopping, vintage shopping, see some art.

And also in my mind, a trip that I don't really want to do with my kids or my partner, at least right now.

Some of that's more of a girl's trip.

You have different interests with different friend groups and different people.

So anyway, so we had talked about Paris, we talked about Italy, we talked about Florence, and got to a place where we're like, we should go to just one area, because traveling internationally takes a while.

This was the longest I've ever been away from my kids since they were born travel.

It was like, you can't go to Paris and Florence in one trip and do it right.

So pay, she was like, if you'll be gone for two weeks, you can do it.

But if you're really only willing to be gone for a week, which was how long I was willing to be gone again, that's until this trip, the longest I'd been away from Oscar was four nights.

So this was the longest I've been away for my kids.

So two weeks was just not going to do it for me.

That was too long for me.

So anyway, so we were like, okay, we're just going to go to one country.

So we picked Italy, and specifically we were in Florence, and then we did a day trip by train to Venice, and we saw a lot of museums.

We did some shopping.

I ate a lot of pasta, and we just talked with our friends and had a lot of fun.

But that was the origin of it, was doing something for my 40th.

And we go in October and not January when my actual birthday is, because we wanted to walk and we wanted the weather to be nice.

We wanted that beautiful crispy weather.

So we just searched what's the best weather time to go to Italy?

And we just went at that time.

I think sadly, Europe and the United States kind of have the same good and bad seasons.

Elsie: You have to leave here during our good season to go there during their good season.

You know what I mean?

I wish it was flip flopped a little bit more, but it's just not.

Yeah, maybe Australia's like that.

I don't know which.

I'd love to go there.

Let us know longer flight, let, what places in the world are good to visit during United States?

Summer when I don't know where to go, I really don't know where to go during the summer because a lot of my favorite places are also boiling hot.

I still have kids that have a lot of needs.

They're not going to walk through the boiling heat.

Oh yeah, they're not going to get answer about that.

I have to give them a reasonable amount of not too much walking, not too much any kind of discomfort.

Yeah.

I mean, yeah, same a little bit.

Emma: But yeah, and I hadn't been to Europe since before I had kids.

I think the last time I went somewhere like that, I don't know if Iceland counts as Europe.

Does it?

No.

Yeah, I don't think.

Don't does.

But as an American, I'm over there.

That was the last time I was somewhere near Europe was Iceland.

Yeah, yeah.

Anyway, so that was it.

We went to Italy and it was for my birthday, which actually kind of stressed me out leading up to it a little bit.

I was like, what if it's not fun?

What if my friends don't have a lot of fun?

I mean, my friends are super fun.

They'd have fun doing anything, but it's just like this is for me, I just felt kind of like it's a crazy thing to stress about because of course we were going to have fun.

I never stressed about that for one single moment.

Oh yeah.

No, we had fun.

It was great.

And we also used a travel agent, as Elsie mentioned, because I guess I was kind of in charge of planning it.

And I'm not great at planning trips anyway.

And I also have really low capacity right now.

I'm just home with my kids a lot right now, and they're very little.

And so I just have really small amount of time where I can be on a computer thinking I just don't have a lot of facts in my life.

No, that's okay.

She's living.

So I was like, I got to use a travel agent for the foreseeable future a little bit.

So I used a travel agent that was great and super helpful.

Definitely wouldn't have happened without them.

So anyway, yeah, I just put out on the origin.

Elsie: Okay.

No, that's a great origin recap.

Okay, so we're going to talk about Florence and we're going to share all our recommendations and favorite things and funny memories and stories, and then we'll talk about Venice a little, because like we said, we were in Florence for the whole week, and then we were in Venice for a few hours, so it was much shorter and get ready for some poorly pronounced Italian places.

And thanks to our Italian listeners, we are sorry.

I'm sorry.

And we love you, but I love you and I'm jealous of you.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh yeah, yeah.

Okay.

So let's just go what we did in Florence.

So the thing that brought us initially to the city attracted us was the Zi Gallery.

So did you say Zi or Zi?

I don't know.

Zi.

I already said sorry that we can't pronounce things, so we're just going to go.

So that gallery, it's more of a museum.

I think it's technically galleries in the title, but it's definitely a museum.

It is very, very large and spacious.

It takes several hours to get through the whole space.

So Florence, if you don't know, is kind of the renaissance capital of the world.

It was a renaissance city, one of the top cities in the world at that time.

So it is a renaissance art museum mainly.

And not that they don't have other art, they had one piece of modern art that was kind of awkward and funny, but mainly it's a lot of your Renaissance art.

So there's the Leonardo, all the Nin, Cheryls, all the Ninja Turtles, everything with that.

But we were very there for the Botticelli room.

And I don't think Elise and Sherry fully know this yet, and they probably will find out from listening to this, or maybe we told them, but I kind of feel like when everyone reads my book, they're going to understand how much the trip was about me because I knew because read it, she knew because it was like, is this a vacation for a group of friends or is this a research trip for your book?

It was like everything.

It was both and a birthday trip for me, multitasking.

So anyway, the book could change.

Who knows?

But there's part of it.

There's definitely a big boda jelly homage.

And then there's also definitely the stuff we do in Venice is also, so anyway, that was fun for me.

It was like a treat of all treats.

Sarah.

I wanted to see the birth of Venus when my top paintings in the entire world.

So I wanted to see that.

And it's gorgeous.

And then he also has a couple other bangers.

It's like a two room, a giant, two rooms of just this one artist, which was extremely special.

That's pretty rare in any museum.

It's pretty rare to have two whole rooms designated to an artist.

And since that was his hometown, I think it's really special.

And anyone who goes to Florence, I want you to know that that's kind of the center of, don't you think it's kind of the most important thing you can do in Florence?

In my opinion, I think so.

It's also, Florence has a lot of things very centrally located, so you can really go to a lot of museums, cathedrals.

You can even just do a walking tour and see lots of interesting architecture, and it's all just really, really old compared to our country that we live in.

So it's just fun to learn about it and to think how long some of these buildings have been standing there.

It's wild how much technology has changed since it was built.

It's just quite incredible.

Ancient cities are very hard to comprehend for Americans.

My mind always blown saying the dates and stuff.

You're like, okay.

So in context, the United States didn't exist.

Not at all.

Not in this, obviously the Native Americans were here, but no, nothing.

Americans idea of history is like the house I live in from 1904.

That's what Americans think is historic And it's, it's just a different category altogether.

So I think it's such an amazing experience.

I just visually, all my senses are overwhelmed when I'm in Europe because you're just walking through a city where everything is old, everything is beautiful, every detail, there's some kind of little story and you want to stop.

And I don't know, it's overwhelming, but in the best possible way it is.

Emma: And then for me, another thing I wanted to see, aside from all the beautiful arts that we saw and so much beautiful art, was really, this was just on my bucket list.

I really wanted to go to this.

It's a combination bookstore and movie theater.

I believe it's called Odin.

And I'd just seen it on Pinterest, and it just looked so beautiful.

And I love bookstores and I love movies, and I just had always wanted to go there.

And then I realized as we were planning this trip that it's in Florence.

And so I was like, oh, wonderful.

So we went there.

I think we actually went there twice.

And it was so much fun.

It was beautiful.

And people were just sitting up.

They didn't have a movie playing while we were there.

We were there during the day, and the movies are more in the evening, but people were sitting up in the movie seats with their laptops just as if you know how you go work at a coffee shop, a little something playing on the screen, but there was no sound.

Yeah, the vibe was kind working at a coffee shop, and I was like, this would be the most beautiful, crazy coffee shop to work in, to just be typing emails anyway.

And that was really fun.

And I love to go to bookstores and grocery stores whenever I'm traveling foreign countries.

I just think it's fun to see kind of everyday things.

Those are two things I do a lot in my real life.

Go to bookstores, go to grocery stores especially.

And so I just like doing that.

I think it's really fun.

And we did both those things we're in Florence, and it was a blast.

Elsie: That bookstore is definitely a must see.

And as far as the selection, it was, I would say it was around half Italian titles and half English titles.

So that was really fun to just compare and just browse.

And they had a heavy amount of art books and travel books and things like that.

And then also just really cool selection of classics.

And I always talk about how the UK covers are more gorgeous, more exciting.

They kind of are a lot.

So it's just very exciting to go in any bookstore.

Even the airport when you're in another country is the most exciting thing in the world.

It's fun.

Okay.

Anything else that we did that we want to talk about?

Okay.

Shopping.

We got tiny tattoos.

Oh yeah.

And everyone's here about the tiny tattoos.

So we ended up choosing, I can't remember the name of the place, but I will say it's a Japanese word.

So if you're just looking on the map of Florence, Florence is really small by the way.

You can pretty much walk everywhere.

We take an Uber or a cab the entire time, and I feel like we saw everything.

We wanted to see a lot of it twice.

It is a very walkable, small area.

So anyway, if you see one with a Japanese word, that is what we did.

We were mostly looking for small fine line tattoos, And it looked really good.

And then they ended up being amazing.

We had, both of us had female tattoo artists, which is kind of our preference.

And we just have really good luck with having a female tattoo artist.

And I always feel really excited and lucky when I get to have one.

What did you chose?

This was my very first flash tattoo, which means just the poster on the wall where they put ideas is called the Flash.

And I've never just gone to a tattoo shop and chosen from that.

I always come with my own idea, but this time I was like, if I can, I'm going to try to do that.

And they had this, also this little gumball machine that said, it was like, get a surprise tattoo, be brave, is what it said on that.

But I was too scared.

I was like, oh, what if I get a flame there?

Emma: There were a lot of cute ones on the flash wall.

There was little tea bags and just kind of a lot of cute things.

But then, yeah, there'd be an eyeball with a dagger in it.

And I was like, oh, if I get that from the gumball, I'll be like, I don't want the eyeball with a dagger or something like that.

Yeah, definitely.

It would've been good.

I kind of regret, I regret it 25% that I didn't do the gumball machine, but I like what I got.

So I got kind of a little folk art looking flower, and it's just all, it is just like a flower and a stem, and it is kind of in the same location as the one I got when Sherry and I went to Paris.

It was from Scottsburg actually, but on the opposite arm.

So I felt like I got my symmetry and it was a very painless, quick tattoo experience.

It is a little bit tiny bit of a dumb idea to get a fresh tattoo on your first day of a trip, but whatever, we did it.

Elsie: I mean, if we were going to go swimming the whole time, I would've been like, guys, let's get it the last day.

But we were just walking around.

I don't know, I think it was fine.

And then fun, funny story.

The other night when I was struggling with our 7-year-old, she pulled the scab off.

My tattoo was without my knowing, so now I need to go in for a touch.

I was like, ah, what'd you do?

She was like, what?

She was feeling around down there.

So that happened.

Emma: Okay, so tell about your tattoo.

So I got a book.

So it's like a book that's see opening and the pages are kind of, it feels really good.

Yeah, it did.

The pages are flipping open and then it has almost kind of little sparkles coming out of it.

So it's just about reading, I guess.

It's not really about anything.

I was just getting a tattoo that I liked last there, but it's in between my pineapple and my love.

So I feel like my forearms are getting really filled up at this point.

I have space over here on the other side anyway, but yeah.

Oh yeah, I really like it.

Turned out really lovely.

Yeah, no, I think that getting a really small tattoo in a new location is always worth it if you have time and if more than one person's interested, obviously.

But we had this perfect situation where only three of us wanted a tattoo, and the person that hadn't arrived yet, we got it before she arrived.

So she didn't even have to wait.

She didn't wait around on us.

Was great.

Yeah, it was excellent.

Yes.

Okay.

So as far as what we ate, okay, here's my bad pronunciation.

So the pasta cacio e pepe, I have no idea how to say it.

Pepe, that was the one I felt like it was the one.

And it was also just something that I don't really see on menus in the US or I haven't come across it much.

So it was very exciting.

So we got that twice and that was very amazing.

I loved it.

Is there any other, I remember we had this squash blossom that was really good, was very beautiful and special.

It was kind of filled with cheese.

Elsie: Was there anything else that was a food moment you can think of?

I liked when we ordered the three different nochi and we're just having them.

It was delicious.

Yes.

I also just trying a bunch of different things.

I think that's fun.

Yeah, a lot of restaurants went to turned out to be great.

We ended up meeting a local, he owns a leather store and he kept giving us recommendations.

I think we met a real friendly local.

He was very friendly.

Think he just likes he was hopping out behind every corner, hanging out with us the entire time.

He really was.

And he gave us a bunch of great recommendations.

We went to three of the restaurants he recommended, and they were all great.

So great service, great food.

Yeah, it was delicious.

But yeah, I ate pasta every meal or nochi, and we pizza a little bit and it's certainly not the only Italian food, but it's just what I wanted to eat the whole time.

Emma: I was on a mission to only eat pasta.

I kind of was too.

And I didn't really try to eat a vegetable the entire time.

I had a little salad one day I did when I got home.

Let's not worry about it.

Yeah, I wasn't worried.

I wasn't worried about it.

The food was definitely a 10.

It was very fun what we bought.

So souvenirs.

Okay, my souvenirs for myself, because I bought my kids a few things too, but I got a silk scarf.

It was at an outdoor market the first day we were there, just random.

We were just walking through it and it's kind of a lavender color and it has horses all over it.

And it's just kind of a vintage silk scarf that I just thought was cute.

And it's like one of my colors.

It's her colors.

And then I also bought a necklace that's has a charm that's like a stove top espresso maker, And you can open it up and it's just cute.

And it was just like, again, it's some kind of little outdoor market that we were walking through and I just thought it was cute.

So I got those in my tattoo and that's all I really bought for myself.

I did not get a ton of, I set them all out when I got home and I was like, I should make a video for Instagram about my souvenirs.

And then I just didn't feel like it.

I was like, I don't want to wash my hair, actually.

And I just didn't do it.

Elsie: So I'll just tell you most exciting thing I got that was a house thing was this big platter that is red.

The red twa, historical looking like China.

It looks kind of hand painted.

It looks kind of like that, but it has moths and butterflies all over it.

So that was really pretty.

And I feel like I can put it on a plate wall and I will really use it.

So that feels good.

And I brought it in my suitcase.

I was really proud.

I put it in my suitcase and it didn't break.

It was a little scary because it's pretty big.

It's kind of the biggest platter plate size you could fit into a suitcase.

I got an Italian translation of the secret history to put on my nightstand.

And it's actually, I mean, I am not planning to learn Italian ever.

So you might be wondering why did you buy a book that you'll never be able to read?

Because it's cool.

Yeah, because it's cool.

Basically.

I was just like, this is too cool.

I looked at it the first time I went in the store and the second time I was like, I have to have it.

I have to.

And then I was like, I'm going to put it, I have this little manifesting ritual on my nightstand and it's like, I'm not going to describe it in detail too embarrassing, but it has to do with think career goals for my future.

Little symbols embarrassing, but it's personal and it's fine for you to keep your secret, but it's not embarrassing.

It's very cool actually.

It's very specific.

So this book is at the bottom of my stack now, and it is manifesting that someday I would love to have a foreign translation of one of my books.

And that's definitely, I can't wait.

Whenever I see a writer that has a shelf of their own books in different languages, really that would be a dream come true.

And then I got three things for oscar's advent.

So I just kind of got lucky in a kid's toy store for little osce things.

And then I got my children these little tiny marbled books.

So we went into this paper store.

I feel like the translation was kind of paper, the title, the Italian word for paper, whatever that is, is the name of the store.

But I saw a couple of marbled paper stores in Florence, and they did say it was a signature for, yeah, I said it was a Florence thing.

So I got a marbled journal for myself and just a regular size.

And then I got these little tiny, tiny doll sized books.

And honestly, the real reason is because I know that the Bronte sisters had this thing where they made tiny storybooks together and it's so cute.

So I was hoping my kids would make tiny storybooks and be little.

Is that too much to ask?

No, let's try.

And then I think that's everything.

Yeah.

So we can go on to funny stories.

Now we did not really have antiquing luck.

No, we did not.

Tell them about our little journey, our little trek to the quote best antique outdoor.

Emma: Yeah.

So we were trying to go to this outdoor antiquing place, 45 minute walk sini.

It was a 45 minute walk, which we could have Ubered, but we just walked because I like walking and the weather was nice, but so it was a bit of walk and it only happens one Tuesday a month or two Tuesdays a month or something like that.

So we had kind of planned to be there in Florence during this.

So we get there and it takes a little bit to find it because just sort of an outdoor popup market.

So it's not exactly on a map, and it's also just down a whole street.

So you just sort of have to find where you go in.

So anyway, we get there and we are kind of walking through and we're like, okay, so this first part looks more like it had cheap kitchen things like strainers for one Euro, things like that.

A lot more plastic kitchen utensils and old jeans, old jeans, underwear for two euros hanging up, old sweater.

It just felt very thrifty.

Like swap.

Yeah, swap meat would be the right word.

And it was cute, and it was clearly very popular for locals.

It didn't feel very touristy compared to, we'd been to a lot of tourist places.

So it just felt different.

And we got to the end of it and we were kind of like, okay, is there a second part?

That's where the antiques are.

And there was not.

And that was all.

There was not, there was actually one tiny little card table that had three crystal dishes and this one painting that was not appealing to any of us.

And just so it was like a tease it were like, okay, maybe we're getting to the antique part.

Here's what the antiques would've been kind of thing.

And we were all just like, okay, well should we walk back?

And no one thought anything.

And it was just like, all right, well that was a nice walk.

It was like, oh, okay.

Yeah, no, it was fine.

Paris is a legit antiquing city and we learned that Florence is not that.

It's just not the place to go for antiques.

We did end up going to a couple of antique stores that had high-end stuff, and we did the best with what we had.

It's just not the kind of place you go if you want to come home with a suitcase full of antiques.

So good to know.

Not a big deal.

Not big deal.

We still had a lot of fun, but yeah, that was funny.

Elsie: Yeah.

Then, okay, so we have three funny stories.

That was number one.

That was number one.

So at the end of the tour, there's kind of this add-on new right now, and it's this corridor, I think it's called Vastly.

Sorry, sorry.

It's what we knew of it was, it's a private tour and it's a part of the museum that has only just been opened It's kind of exclusive and you have to wait in the certain room at this exact time, or they'll leave without me.

They only let so many people in at a time because a corridor or you walk through it.

But we didn't know what it was going to be.

We didn't really know what was going to be in there, but our travel agent had told us about it.

And so I thought, okay, that sounds interesting.

Cool, neat.

It hasn't been open before fun.

So anyway, we go through the Zi and we finish up at a time so that we can be in the spot where we are ready to go through the corridor.

And we're with a group of other people.

There's probably like 15 people in the whole group or 20 people, something like that.

And so we start walking through it, and at first there's a hallway, so it's a few hallways.

It kind of goes above the city.

It's like what the family used to use to go to different places but not have to be among other people who might want to kill them because they're royalty type people.

If you've ever seen the tunnels that connect to hospital where you can walk over a road, that's what made me think of from one to the other.

It was the Bridges, the Connect Hospitals, an ancient version of that.

So we walked down it, and at first there's literally nothing.

It's just a plain hallway with drywall, smell with drywall, fresh drywall smell, which was strange.

We'd been in Florence for a couple of days and everything's old, everything.

And we had just been through the whole huge museum, just packed.

So our minds were just spinning.

There's rooms where the ceilings are painted, they're a piece of art, and they have kind of art on the ground and art above it.

It's just packed.

It's one of those museums where it's very difficult to feel like you're taking it all in.

And so then we're in this corridor that has literally nothing down one hallway.

And then we turned down another because I was like, is there nothing?

Is it just the idea that you're in it?

Yeah, we were extremely confused.

What is this tour of?

Because there were a few windows where you could see maybe a slightly different view from what you see down below everywhere, but it wasn't really a view, and there was no art the entire time.

There was not one painting.

Well then there was no paintings.

There was an area that had some bust, some marble bust.

So there's one hallway.

So that was neat with a line of marble busts and we were like, you were like, okay.

But we just kept going forward.

When is it going to really felt like we were being pranked?

Yeah, it really did.

I was just like, I'm very confused and everyone around me kind of seems to be confused too, and it feels like we're getting pranked right now.

And so then we got to the end and it kind of leads out.

It does have an interesting view towards the end where you can see how the family saw into the church.

So they kind of had their own little private area where they could be during a church service.

And that was a very interesting view that you could not get any other way neat.

And then you go past that and then you're into the gardens and they just kind of like, okay, see you later.

And you can't even really tell where the exit is.

Well, okay, first we got scolded for trying to leave.

Once we got into, it wasn't really a garden, it was just an empty courtyard with gravel.

There was nothing.

There was not anything to see.

And so I was like, okay, well let's leave.

I was like, hungry?

Yeah.

I was like, okay, I guess it's time to go.

And then they were like, ladies, ladies, ladies.

Come back.

And we were like, okay.

And we came back and then five minutes later people just started leaving.

And so we just left.

So we left again and we were like, I'm not sure why they didn't want to sleep.

It was so confusing.

We still don't know what we were supposed to get from that part of the tour.

And the lady who did the tour guide part, also, she just held a distinctly mumbly voice and just maybe hated her job a little.

And so just a little bit, she was giving nothing.

She was like, we had a tour guide during the museum who is wonderful.

Emma: We actually had her twice and she was amazing and really sweet and helpful and gave suggestions for other things and was like, what are you most interested in with the art?

And she would drill into that.

So it was just a really different experience to have this.

It felt more like she was there to make sure we didn't do anything wrong, which I don't know what we would even do.

There was no art to harm.

Not that we would stealing a marble bust, I guess.

Yes, I couldn't pick that up, but I don't know, I guess touching it would be bad, but why would anyone do that?

I dunno.

Wouldn't do it.

So we kept calling it the Bora door because we were like, this didn't make sense.

I looked it up afterwards.

I think you were saying this maybe, but it did have a bunch of portraits in it.

But then they had just moved them, I guess, right before the week that we were there.

They just should have not sold a tour.

It was like tour of what?

It was very empty anyway.

And just fresh drywall.

It was strange.

It was very strange.

Elsie: So anyway, Uzi amazing corridor.

Maybe it'll be better later, maybe they'll change it.

But for us it was very not worth it.

It was just confusing.

Whatever it was fine.

Third funny story.

So we had these little cute courtyards in our hotel on, we were on maybe the top floor.

Yeah, the fourth floor.

Sherry and I.

And then Emma and Elise were down on the bottom floor and they had their own little courtyard.

So yeah, we were like, let's go sit in the courtyard and we can do our watercolor painting.

And I think it was probably about nine in the morning, would you say?

Yeah, it was after breakfast.

Yeah.

So we were sitting in there doing watercolor painting, talking definitely very loudly.

Yeah, we were laughing, we were telling stories, having, yeah, we're very laughy people.

And so anyway, this man popped out of his window.

He had no shirt on, no shirt on.

And he clearly just woke up, kind of had a Danny DeVito vibe.

Yes.

And he just screamed at us.

I dunno what he said though.

Exactly.

I think it could have been Italian, but we dunno.

Yeah.

Telling us to be quiet.

So after that, I think we just left.

We were just like, let's vacate this premises.

And we did feel bad that time because spoiler, there was more than one that time I was like, okay, he's just a person who sleeps in.

And we disturbed his sleep and I can understand why he was upset.

And I was like, I felt bad.

I did feel bad.

We were having fun.

I mean we weren't, were in a public area where we were allowed to be.

And I don't know, I don't really feel that bad.

I mean, well felt a little trying to disturb, but let's tell the second one that happened was on the train ride from Florence to Venice.

And it was not an early morning train.

I think we got on at nine, eight or nine.

Yeah.

It wasn't the first train, but it was in the morning.

It was early.

It was eight or nine, eight or 9:00 AM It was early, but it wasn't like there weren't people sleeping.

And also we saw when we walked on that we walked through the quiet car that had the many European trains, if you don't know, have sections that are quiet areas.

So you really aren't supposed to talk in those areas.

You should be quiet.

That's the whole point.

People book them for that reason.

So we were not in that section.

We wanted to talk.

Yeah, we were in the regular, we thought talking section of the train.

We were in the regular talking section.

We were sitting altogether and talking, not even as loud as we're talking now, just regular as if we were at a restaurant.

Yes.

And not a loud one, just a regular restaurant where everyone's quiet.

And our train ride was two hours long.

So after probably more than a whole hour, the lady who was sitting next to us, who was, by the way, she was probably seven feet away from me, and we were directly in eye contact with each other the entire trip.

So she came over and said, you have been extremely loud the entire time.

Could you just not, I don't know.

Could you please be quiet?

Emma: Yeah.

Basically just in a long way said, I hate your talking, please just stop.

And so we were like, okay, sorry.

But we were really confused because we were like, okay, first of all is talking aloud on here or not?

Because I could see that she wasn't talking, but she was sitting by her, probably her husband, likely.

I get that.

I get that.

My husband's not going to talk to me for two hours.

Maybe we, we don't on a train ride like that.

But if I was sitting next to a group of friends and they were talking, I would never be mad.

And I was just thinking all the times in my life when I've even been around actual obnoxious drunk people or really loud people, or those people in movies who you hate to sit by or whatever.

All of those times in life, even in those times in my life, I never went up to someone and told them to be quiet in a public space.

So at that time, we were basically like, we did nothing wrong.

Elsie: We did nothing wrong.

We just were all, and then it was just very awkward because we still had to ride the rest of the entire train.

And I was kind looking at her, are you all right?

And she was like, I'm not going to look you in the eyes ever again.

And I'm like, okay, fine.

Well, that's fine.

Yeah, these were not the only times we got shushed.

These are just the two stories we're choosing to tell.

I know.

Yeah.

So I did, do you think we were a rowdy group or something?

But I'm like, honestly, we don't even really drink and we're really not that rowdy.

So I'm like, I dunno.

We were sober moms who were watercolor, painting and giggling a little bit.

Yeah, I know.

Okay.

Anyway, we had the best time.

Emma: Loud Americans.

That's what we are.

And I do get it.

I do get it.

If you just hate Americans, I do.

That's fine.

That's fine.

That's understandable.

We can own that, but we can't help it.

We can't help it.

Who we're, yeah, I'm an American.

I don't know.

Elsie: Anyway, okay, so I feel like we've segued into the train ride to Venice.

Okay, so let's talk about what we did in Venice.

So we arrived in Venice, and I was immediately crying as soon as we saw the canals.

And this is gorgeous.

It is.

It made me understand what Walt Disney saw before he made Disneyland.

And that probably sounds stupid.

It's stupid in some ways it's inspiring, but I also think it's so unreal.

It's a breathtaking city.

Can't leave a place that really exists in our mortal world.

So I can't wait, take my kids there.

I don't think my kids are old enough to go to Florence right now and enjoy it.

I think they would definitely enjoy Venice because of the boat rides and because it's just a little more, it's very compact.

It seems kind of quite small.

And also it was just a surreal feeling because there was no sounds of cars.

Emma: So there aren't cars in Venice.

The streets just don't have room for that.

So there might be some motor vehicles.

I didn't see any really.

So I assume it's some kind of rule.

So in a way you don't notice it.

It's like we got there and I was like, it feels more peaceful here and just slower.

And then when we got back to Florence later, I was like, oh, it's the cars.

It's like going back all of a sudden made me feel it like, oh, that's what it is.

They just felt cleaner, quieter, and kind of less scary in a way.

Because when you're a pedestrian, you're always trying to make sure that cars can see you and that you're only crossing when you should, because cars need to go too.

And it's just sort of this hazardous thing.

And in Venice, there wasn't that because it's just small streets and canals.

So everyone's walking around or on a boat.

So anyways, beautiful and very breathtaking city, very fun to be in.

I feel like if I had to go somewhere and just be there for a couple months riding or working, that would be a lovely place to be.

Just so charming.

I loved it.

It was very fun to wander.

And it had just a very quiet feeling to it.

I think to some people it might be like there's no party that feeling it would be too quiet maybe to some people, but to me it felt like very, very good.

Very good.

Elsie: There's no party in a good way.

It was just chill.

If you're wanting a chill time.

It was chill.

It felt very chill.

It was nice.

So why do we go to Venice?

Obviously it's beautiful.

It's worth going to no matter what.

But we were in particular, very interested to see Peggy Guggenheim's collection, which is housed in her former home.

So that was our first stop when we got there.

We wandered in, got some breakfast, and then we walked over to Peggy Guggenheim's collection home.

And it is definitely the most unique museum I've ever been to.

So I've never been to the Monet house.

I've never been to any kind of museum that was made out of someone's house.

And I know there are many, especially in Europe, but I've never been to the little women house.

Maybe this is just a thing that is cool.

But this was our first time.

So her house was on, they call it, I think the Grand Canal.

Is that right?

The big It's on the big canal.

Main highway Canal, yeah.

They were calling it like a highway, and her house was decorated extremely.

It had all terrazzo floors everywhere.

A lot of them were pink.

It was just delightful.

And then you couldn't really see the house in it anymore because there was no, well, there was very little furniture.

It was pretty much a museum set up as a museum.

But it was kind of just an interesting, imagine touring.

An empty house is turned into a museum with paintings on every wall, but the rooms are still just normal, a bedroom, a dining room, a pretty much just a normal house size.

So it felt very small and intimate, and the amount of modern art just smashed into that space.

It is as good as being in the Museum of Modern Art.

It's incredible.

It's an amazing collection.

And it's just so compacted.

So if you love modern art, the Picasso era, the surrealist, all of those artists, you will love this museum.

You will love it.

I've never seen anything.

It was just absolutely stunning.

And it had the feeling.

Have you ever felt so close to a Picasso?

You know what I mean?

Yeah, it was because it felt like you just got to be closer to every, there's no ropes, there's no glass almost at all.

It's just very intimate.

And you're in a bedroom with a Picasso, and they really had almost every single, just so many artists that I recognized.

And it was just overwhelming in the best possible way.

And the perfect pairing since we had just gone to the Renaissance Museum, this was showing us a completely different era, but in a very rich way also.

And I think too, I love seeing art in a museum, but it was really fun to see it in a house, even though there wasn't furniture, there was a dining room table, but the kitchen didn't have a stove in it.

It was just a room.

It wasn't a functioning house anymore.

But just the spaces being the size of a home.

I don't personally have any rich friends who have a Picasso in their home.

I know some people do in the world, but I've never met those people yet.

Emma: But I'd love to see that.

I just think it's fun to see art in people's home.

I do love to see friends as art in their home.

It's fun.

And that kind of is what this vibed, even though it was also a museum, obviously, and, and also Peggy Guggenheim's just a really interesting person historically, and she's actually buried there.

We got to see where she's buried.

She's buried alongside many, many, many of her dogs, which was very cute.

They had a little plaque for all of them, and it was just a very special place.

It felt very cool and empowering in a way.

And I love modern art.

I think it's very fun.

And it was very different from what we had seen.

So it was excellent.

I loved it.

Highly recommend.

Yeah, it was a spiritual experience for me.

Just like the tour the lady was talking about all the artists who I've researched for my book, and it was just very, and she was giving a little bit of gossip and it was just great.

Elsie: So yeah, if you go to Venice, you just have to go to this museum.

I feel like it is just a once in a lifetime experience.

It is excellent.

And then what else did we do?

So I know we had pizza for lunch.

Yes.

And more pasta.

More pasta and pizza.

And that was magical.

And then we had a pre-scheduled, were going on a gondola gondola tour, so we knew we were going to ride, and we were kind of walking around seeing all these people riding on, it seems like there's a couple different kinds of boats.

So there are some motorboats that seem more like a regular usual motorboat you would see at the lake small.

And then there were these very ornate looking ones with gold hardware and stuff.

And then they had the men with the black and white stripe shirts and the red scarf on almost every single one of them.

Emma: It was a very, and I'm curious about that.

I want to know more about, is this a costume, is this a tourist thing?

Is this any way part of a tradition or history?

Yeah.

Is it wearing a orange vest, a crossing, gar?

I'm curious.

Supposed to.

I just was like, what is the, yeah, so that was what we were hoping for is we were thinking we would, we'd all brought our painting sets, we would sit in the boat together, and then we knew there was going to be snacks.

And then we knew we all brought our painting stuff and our bags, and that was kind of like what we were into was just like, we just want to talk and paint and drink half a glass of wine and be cool, just kind of chill.

So as soon as we were approaching the meeting area, one of the people we were with was like, this isn't right.

This isn't right.

This isn't right.

And she was just panicking.

And I was like, no, it's fine.

It's going to be good.

It's going to be good.

We were getting to the docks, so we were like, okay, it's a weird area.

There were a lot of motorboats around.

So we were like, okay, we're not seeing the black and white stripes people all over.

So we meet this woman and she young, very young.

She's her twenties.

Yeah.

Yep.

She seemed fit and was like, okay, she was wearing yoga pants, nice to meet you.

Hello.

And I was wearing a dress and one person was wearing heels, and we were just heels.

We were just dressed the way you dress to go to a fancy art gallery to walk around.

And so she was like, alright, we're going to do your rowing lesson.

How much rowing experience do you have?

And we were like, what?

We were lesson, what do you mean lesson?

What do you mean?

What do you mean do you so high?

We were like, everyone was, and we were like, obviously we didn't want to be a bad sport.

We didn't want to complain, but we were terrified.

We were like, are.

So it was clear to me there had been a miscommunication between me and the travel agent on what we were looking for with this gondola experience.

We were not looking for a lesson, but I was like, okay, well we're here and this is booked, so let's see how, what's the level on this?

At first, three out of four of us were at least willing to step onto the boat and try.

She showed us how to row and you have to stand while you row.

And so we did it in place.

The boat wasn't moving yet, and she's just showing us how to hold the ore and how to do it.

And as soon as I did it, I was like, oh my God, it's hard.

It was actually, it's harder than it looks.

And I was like, okay.

And we were trying to be very polite, but then we were like, well, what is this going to be like?

Yeah.

I was like, okay.

So I was kind of like, okay, is it 10 minutes of us rowing?

And then the whole rest of the time she does it and we just sit there and eat snacks.

Cute.

And Oh, you're getting a lesson, but you're not really doing anything.

It's just sort of this novel thing.

So I was like, is that the vibe or is it something else?

Because I think that's the only level at which we're going to want to do it.

And she was like, well, so we practice, and then I'm at the rudder and you all row it and we row it all the way down this 30 minutes.

And then we stop at a bar and I get you snacks and I bring them to the boat, and then we row another 30 minutes, and then we stop at another bar and I get you snacks.

And then we get back in the boat and then you row it back into this area and the whole thing takes, I want to say she was an hour 45 minutes.

Elsie: And most of it we would be rowing.

No one else is rowing but us.

She's obviously doing a lot, but especially with us, she would've been so we were like, oh, we're not going to do this.

Yeah.

There's no chance that we'll make it.

We're going to be out to sea.

It's not going to work.

So we're like, no.

Well, yeah.

First we were like, well, is there any way we could make it 45 minutes?

So we were trying to be a good sport and not just leave, but we were like, I know because it's her job.

It's not her fault.

She didn't do anything wrong.

And I did.

I truly did want to prove to myself that I was not a baby, but so she was like, Nope, nope.

Then we wouldn't have time to go to the two bars.

And we were like, yeah, okay.

We were all uncomfortable.

It was like, okay, it's warm, and we can imagine we're doing this very physical activity and the only thing you have to do is drink wine and watch each other suffer.

And it was like one person rowing at a time.

You don't really get any help.

It puts that person on the spot anyway.

And I knew she was like, people drop them in the water all the time.

She was saying she had a second one.

Yeah.

She was giving us a lot of safety lessons that seemed very specific that were scary.

So anyway, we just told her we were sorry and we didn't want to do it.

And we left.

I'm sorry.

It was so sad.

We felt so, I still feel bad about it, but when I got home, I told the story to Jeremy.

He was looking at me all serious, and I thought he was going to be like, you should have at least tried.

And he was like, you did the right thing.

They do this on the amazing race and you couldn't have done it.

They do.

Yeah.

I try to be athletic in a trying way, in a trying way.

I love hiking.

No, I hate hiking.

No, I just wasn't dressed to go hiking though.

I had my watercolor set with me.

It a different thing.

Emma: It was just a miscommunication.

So whoopsie.

Anyway, so then we changed our train tickets and went back a little bit earlier.

We were going to be on the very last train out so that we could do this rowing thing.

And we were like, oh, well.

So we went a little shopping.

We did some things, but then we did some more watercolor painting.

We changed our ticket and we went back before it was super, super late because we were leaving the next day anyway, so it gave us more time to pack.

It really worked out.

It was fine, but it was kind of hilarious.

Yeah, we like, no, for sure.

I mean, it was maybe next time we'll pay more attention.

There had to have been something we didn't read.

Oh, there's definitely something I didn't read.

Definitely.

Yeah.

Maybe my friends will be like, oh, Emma should not be in charge of planning the trip.

No, she clearly messed up.

No, I thought I did.

Sorry.

I thought it was amazing.

Elsie: Yeah, whenever we were leaving, Sherry was like, this will be so funny on your podcast.

And I was like, nobody's talking about this on the podcast.

And then five minutes later I was like, yeah, fine.

We'll talk about it on the podcast.

Doesn't matter.

I was like, oh, we'll definitely talk about this on the podcast.

Whatever.

It's hilarious.

Whatever, whatever, whatever.

It's just us being morons, me not reading emails and then us being like, oh, we can't do this.

We're sorry.

We're not strong enough to do this rowing thing.

No, wait.

Lovely city.

Yep.

So we went back strong enough to row, had some more pasta, and then the next day we had our traveling day and yeah, we had a beautiful time.

I thought it was a wonderful trip.

The museums are incredible.

I also want to say in Florence there was this perfume shop, just search oldest perfume shop, and that was really cool.

It was like a little museum itself.

Yeah, it was incredible.

Send us, if you have any places in Europe that you think we would enjoy going where it's a mixture of artsy and friendly and bookish, then we would love to hear from you.

You can email us anytime at podcast@abeautifulmust.com.

Emma: It's our favorite thing.

We get little so many recommendations from podcast listeners for the East coast, which has been incredible.

Saved all of them.

And that's kind of next on my list of where I'd like our friend group to go.

So many cute little towns that just feel like the vibes are off the charts.

And I'm like, oh, that would be incredible.

We've got to do that.

Elsie: So before we do our book report, I do want to give a shout out to our friend Elise, because we've been talking about her throughout the episode.

So she just launched her own newsletter, and if you go to elisejoy.com, you can sign up for it.

And it is just the most delightful newsletter in the world.

So she has two versions, a free version and a paid version.

I recommend both.

If you're not sure, obviously start with the free version, but I have both and they're so incredible and so worth it.

And it feels like if you liked blogs back in the day, that's kind of what this is, but without any filler, without any, it's just very inspiring and very random and really fun.

Yeah, she pep talked us into our newsletters, so we both know we want to launch a newsletter in the near future, and she really pumped us up about it.

And I feel like there are, with Substack and everything, I've had mixed feelings.

I've had some where I'm just, it feels like everyone is launching a version of the same thing.

That's not something I want in my inbox, but this is a very unique version of a newsletter that I just haven't seen anywhere else.

So yeah, check it out.

And I know if you like our podcast, you'll probably love it.

You want to talk about Booker Report time?

Emma: Yes.

Elsie: I read this book called Perfection.

It was nominated, I think for the shortlist of the Translated Booker prize for last year, the one that was last spring.

So when we were in London, my friend Kate talked me into it and I was like, okay, yes.

So I knew was going to be, it was very short.

It's a very small book, I think the audio book.

I listened to the audiobook actually, and it was I think three hours long, which that is extremely short for a novel, but I think it's the perfect length for this concept.

So on the airplane ride home from that trip, I was like, I'm going to read this short little book, and I started it and it was the most triggering opening sequence I've ever read in my entire life.

This whole book is 10 out of 10 Atmospheric and triggering.

So the concept of it is it follows a millennial couple, a man and a woman who are moving to Berlin and setting up their aesthetic life in what seemed to be around 2010, and then it kind of follows them for 10 years of their life after that.

And it definitely gets very granular on if you want to relive the insufferable millennial early Instagram culture where it was just hos of rooms with plants and just this kind of thing.

She really, really got it perfect, nice, but in a way that made me kind of sick.

It was just very hard to read.

So recently, I'm really behind on my reading goal for the year, so I was like, okay.

I promised my friend I was going to read this book.

It's a short little book.

I should be able to read it.

I know the beginning made me this skin crawling kind of feeling, but I was like, I'm just going to finish it.

So I finished it in a day.

I don't even know how to describe it.

I want a few people to read it just so you can tell me your opinions.

You could also read the reviews on Good Reads.

I feel like you'd get a feel for it, but I am still upset about it.

It was extremely upsetting for me to read beginning, middle, end.

Yeah, the couple just never really transforms or evolves.

They just start insufferable and they end insufferable, and so it's just very sad.

There were many parts of the book where I felt like I was looking into a mirror of my own past or maybe present behavior, things that I definitely did at the time that seemed normal, that now I'm like, well, why did I do that?

That's so funny.

And kind of cringey or whatever.

It had a lot of that, but it also, I don't know, by the end of it, I was also just kind of enraged that they never changed.

I still can't let it go.

This was last week when I read it, and I'm still upset right now.

Yeah.

But I definitely recommend it just as far as the strength of the writing, 10 out of 10 for sure.

Enjoyable is, I don't know if it's meant to be enjoyable.

So I hope that was a good review.

Whoa.

Emma: Speaking of insufferable characters who don't change, I finally finished Secret History.

I did it.

She did it else.

I was begging her for two years.

Yes.

And I've been talking about how I would do a book report when I finished it and I finished it the night before we left on our trip.

And if you don't know Secret Histories by Donna Tartt, it's pretty famous, I want to say.

But she also did Goldfinch.

It's famous, if you are interested in dark academia, this is it.

This is the Bible for it.

It is.

It's the blueprint.

The writing is incredible.

She can write.

No surprises there.

She's surprised.

Winner.

But also it is, it's worth reading even if you have no interest in the subject, just sentence structure style, it's just excellent.

It's also kind of a masterclass on nuanced conversations between two people that have a lot of meaning, but not a lot is said, and you can feel it as the reader and it's really, really good.

So really, really good in that way.

Plot, I'd give it a two out of 10.

It felt like nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing.

Something crazy.

Nothing, nothing, nothing.

Something crazy.

The end.

It's just kind of like if you were going to boil it down and not talk about how amazing the writing is, then you would probably just say, this is a crime novel about college students.

So there's two murders in the book.

The first chapter, they tell you that one of the main characters is going to be murdered.

It's the opening line.

Yeah.

So that's what this book is going to be about.

And then you have a long time leading up to it where you don't really know why you don't know how, and you're just watching these characters develop relationships with one another.

And it's a little bit of a kind of fish out of water story in that there's one character, Richard, who sort of joins a group.

And so as the reader, we're sort of seeing everything through his lens.

So we're also observing this group as a newcomer to it.

I liked it.

The journey's fantastic.

The ending is whatever the storyline to me is, whatever.

It's okay.

I mean, I like crime.

I listen to true crime stuff.

I dunno, I like crime fine, but it's just such a strange coupling.

Well, I would just say I wouldn't recommend it to someone who's like, my favorite genre is thriller.

It's not really that kind of thing.

It's like that's a part of it, but that's more like the mechanics of it.

It's not The art is definitely the writing.

And I think that you just have to know that going into it.

And it's a very long book.

It is very focused on details.

It was fun to read.

It was a fun journey.

Great writing plots, kind of whatever.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I love it so much, and I'm so glad you read it.

It me.

Oh yeah.

I'm very glad I read it too.

It makes me so happy.

Now we can talk about it forever.

Now it's time for a joke or a fact, or a meditation with Nova.

Elsie: Hey Nova, what do you have for us this week?

Nova: A joke.

Elsie: A joke?

Okay, I'm ready.

Nova: What did the big flower say to Little Flower?

Elsie: What did it say?

Nova: What's up, bud?

Elsie: Oh, nice.

I love it.

Nova: Happy week and I hope you had a great Halloween.

Elsie: Thanks so much for listening.

We love answering your questions and basing new episodes off of your request.

So email us anytime, any day, anytime, anywhere.

podcast@abeautifulmess.com and we'll be back next week.