I'm baaaaaaaaaaaack!

Yep, I'm back... Safe and sound in my cozy little beach house in Sicily!

(even if I now have a hip/knee issue going on from getting old past sports injuries flaring up after walking soooo much while touring London and Dublin... eek!) 

You know you missed me.

And to be honest, I'm a bit overwhelmed...

In a good way, I guess. 

I have 1000+ unread blogs in my Google Reader 

and I just replied to TONS of emails and comments...

Boy do I feel LOVED!

But on top of that... I'm not even finished telling you about our LAST adventure and now we have ANOTHER one to discuss! Geeeeezus!

I'm one blessed little lady :) 

So... in order to get to the London/Dublin trip as quickly as possible...

today I'm going to give you a quick overview of the Hubs' Friends visit that I had not quite gotten to telling you about before I left for my trip and coincidentally took a bloggy vacay... :) 

Here goes, Lady Friends....

Our lovely friends... Alyssa & Mike at Aci Castello

Mike was one of Aaron's groomsmen in our wedding (Alyssa is his GF!) and we loved having them visit and being able to show them around our island :)

We went out to supper in Capomulini...

Somehow I ended up with 3 glasses of wine of my very own...

But I wasn't complaining ;)

Mike & Alyssa at supper in Capomulini

We brought along Nick & Jess to meet our friends...

Nick thought this pic needed some "hang loose" apparently... 

Mario & Claudia!

Of course, we wanted Mike & Alyssa to meet some true Sicilians :)

Mike & Alyssa... they were fun house guests!

My 3 glasses of wine... DELICIOUS!

Red House Wine, and 2 White House Wines... 

If you like wines, seriously... come to Sicily! 

I finished all three and felt pretty good about it.... bahaha :)

See... told you I was feeling pretty good ;)

I needed a pic with my food lol

I had a plate of spaghetti in red sauce with eggplant and ricotta cheese...

SO YUM!

A pic of my food without my face to distract you... hehehe

Claudia ordered it for me so I don't know the Italian name... oopsie!

Aaron got his favorite dish... AGAIN!

Zuppa di Cozze

aka Soup with Mussels (ew... but it smells yummy!) 

Apparently Nick & I were having fun creeping on each other...

I blame the wine.

Jess caught me creepin' and was not happy.... lol

 The next day we took our guests, Mike & Alyssa, to Taormina!

Taormina is famous for:

a) being built way up on top of a mountain

b) having an ancient Greek Theatre (which was closed because of the weather boo!)

c) the amazing views!! 

Hubs and I bundled up... 

it just so happened to be one of the coldest rainiest weekends Sicily has seen all year...

Bummer for Mike & Alyssa :( 

Me and my lovey!

Me & more amazing views from Taormina!

Taormina's square & clock tower... on top of the mountain :)

Taormina's Duomo & town square :)

We were freezing and starving... so we stopped in a restaurant to eat...

this is the amazing Gnocchi in a cheesy red sauce that I had :) YUMMY!

I seriously love Sicily's food.... It doesn't get much better!

Alyssa, Mike, Me, & Aaron at supper in Taormina :)

We had fun and I'm so glad I got to spend time getting to know Mike (a life-long friend of Aaron's) and meeting Alyssa! Such wonderful new friends!!

For Mike & Alyssa's last day, we headed into Catania! Catania is the largest city on our side of the island... We stopped in to a cafe for quick lunch... Look at this spread!

YUMMY!

Europeans don't do cokes from a machine... but they love to dress 'em up!

We all had great lunches, but I think mine topped them all... I had this wonderful alfredo ham raviloi with a side of roasted potatoes :) SOOOO GOOD! 

My fancy glass of Coke :) 

There was a slice of lemon and a twirly orange peel in it!

Smelled amazing and tasted even better. 

I've always loved putting lemon or lime juice in my coke... but this mix was a new one and was very yummy. 

 After lunch we did a quick tour around Catania...

and then stopped in at the Catania Castle to look around :)

Me at the Catania Castle (now a museum inside)

Me and My LOVE!

We also did a little shopping...

Ever heard of COIN dept. store?

I just loveeee it.

I snagged me a hairbow (love you, Alana!)

and these pretty gloves for our upcoming trip to London & Dublin... 

No worries, they both got LOTS of use...

You'll see them both in TONS of pics very soon!! :) 

After our little shopping trip, we whisked our guests off to the airport and said our goodbyes!

It was bittersweet because.... I love my privacy and space (we have a one bedroom house... 4 people is A LOT!) but I also lovelovelove spending time with friends and playing tour-guide for them!!!! 

We had a ton of fun and I'm so glad they came! 

Stay tuned for pictures from our London and Dublin vacay!

Ciao Bellas!

xoxo