Anthony and Melanie

So we are really enjoying our time in Bologna and have also found it to be a really great central location to explore more of Bella Italia and other parts of Europe. Below are pictures from some of our travels from April - July, hope you enjoy!... read more

Agra was our first stop in Rajhastan. There’s really not much to the place aside from, well, one of the biggest tourist destinations in the world—the Taj Mahal! Upon entering the Taj grounds, you’re ushered through the South Gate and this is where the famous image comes into view. It was truly the most beautiful, magnificent, and lovely man-made thing we had ever seen! And so we stayed for hours, loving every detail shared by our tour guide and learned all about the famous Indian icon. Apparently, the Taj was commissioned by a former ruler of Agra as a mausoleum to hold the remains of his beloved wife that died in childbirth. It took 22 years and 4 architects and TONS of precious marble, but it turned out to be a true “monument to love” as ... read more

Chiang Mai- northern Thailand Chiang Mai, our first stop in Thailand, is known for having tons of wildlife including tigers, jaguars, and gibbons, but the main event is the Asian Elephant. So we booked a day trip to an elephant camp which turned out to be a truly awesome and special experience. Elephants are magnificent creatures to see up close, with their floppy ears, bristly hair, long trunks and really, really big bellies! We learned that the elephants eat pretty much non-stop, about 250 kilos per day! They also have really cute human-like habits like sleeping laying down (only at night) and sucking their trunks when they're babies like human babies suck their thumbs. The trainers taught us how to ride them using a bunch of commands in Thai. When you yell "yo ka!", the elephant ... read more

After Hanoi, we spent 4 days in Hoi An which is a small fishing village along Vietnam’s central coast, and our love for Vietnam grew deeper. The town of Hoi An is very small and we walked the whole thing in probably 2 hours. But it’s so quaint and charming with a very Mediterranean feel to it. Reminded us a lot of southern Italy and Croatia, but throw in a little Asian flavor with all of the silk tailor shops and silk lanterns hanging everywhere. The town was gearing up for the Chinese New Year on Feb 14 and would hang up a new set of lanterns on the main bridge every day. At first we loved popping our heads into the tailor shops just to browse but we couldn’t resist and fitted Anthony for a ... read more

Visiting Beijing, China was quite an experience, especially when coming directly from Tokyo. Gone were the really welcoming and polite Japanese people always “bowing” their thanks for everything. Gone were the immaculately clean streets . Gone were the good ole’ ramen noodle shops and sushi restaurants on every corner where you could get a great meal whenever you wished. And finally, gone were western/traditional toilets. Everything about China was sooo different from anything we’ve ever seen (or smelled)! Many parts are pretty nasty-smelling, especially when walking on a street that has a public restroom as the Chinese toilets are essentially holes in the ground without any sort of flushing mechanism. That was hard to get used to. So was hunting for good food. Many restaurants in Beijing serve only exotic dishes—fried scorpions, jellyfish soup, chicken gizzards ... read more