Rome

One of my favorite places in Italy was Rome - it was amazing - its new meets old. I loved how there were skyscrapers next to the colosseum and shoe stores next to ruins. I thought it was amazing that everything was preserved, nothing knocked down, they just build around everything! Besides all of the beauty in Rome the people were so friendly, the shopping was great and the food was...well, interesting.

It was interesting to see what Italians thought American's ate like. The burgers all had fries on top of the burgers - this was pretty tasty actually but it was really the pizza that got my attention: mushroom and mayonnaise pizza and nutella and artichoke pizza...I didn't manage to try these!

The view inside of the colosseum - it was pretty amazing.

Construction outside of the colosseum.

Besides shoppings and eating you really could spend all of your time taking pictures and taking in all of the beauty that was just all around you.

A gladiator stabbing me - I look like I was in a ton of pain no?!

ruins

beautiful buildings

Euro Trip

When I was 16 my mother retired from teaching and took me on the trip of a lifetime to celebrate! We took a tour of Northern Italy, the Vatican (the Vatican is it's own country!), Monacco, France, and London. We saw so much and it was such an amazing experience.

Starting with the Vatican:

I found the Vatican to be beautiful but when you visit the vatican and all the other churches in Italy you wonder how the church could have used their money on marble and gold plating everything inside of their church while their parishioners were starving to death.

Inside of the vatican you can't use flash in any of the buildings as they don't want the artwork affected so some of the pictures are a bit blurry:

The view outside of the vatican window.

There were pidgons everywhere!

Me outside the sistine chapel recording everything.

New Jersey

When you live in NY the place to go on vacation is New Jersey. When I was a child my parents had a summer home in Manahawkin - by Cherryhill. This is in very south Jersey but not far from the shore. I don't really remember much about the area except our home and our neighbors. Back then there really wasn't much in Manahawkin except a WaWa...and what an amazing WaWa it was! If you haven't been to Jersey - WaWa is a convience store similar to 7 eleven but cleaner and it has so much more! I am a big fan of WaWa's.

When I got a little older my mother's best friend had a home on Long Beach Island (not to be confused with Long Island) that we used to visit every summer. To this day I only have the fondest memories of LBI and that home. The house was just down the street from the beach...at night we would open the windows and be lulled to sleep by the waves and the smell of the salty ocean air. Everyone was so friendly there and it was such a safe place. People would leave their front doors unlocked and not worry about it...neighbors would watch out for each other. It was so quiet and relaxing. There was also the most amazing little place that made the best fried mushrooms and fried zucchini that I have ever eaten! The beach itself was clean and had the most powerful waves!

Out of curiosity I looked up homes in Manahawkin and Long Beach Island to see how much they were going for...and wow I couldnt believe it...the cheapest home by far in Manahawkin was going for $300,000 and the cheapest home on LBI was $500,000 but the typical price was in the millions.

My whole family : grandparents, my aunt, uncle, cousins, my mom and I would all go to Wild Wood for a family vacation during the summer. The boardwalk there was so much fun - I loved playing all of the games! And cotton candy of course! The beach was also really nice there - it was fun building sand castles with my cousins. I dug up a few family pictures from the beach in Wild Wood.

My cousin trying to teach me how to ride the waves in.

The board walk in Wild Wood has ruined me for all other board walks - I haven't found anything like it in Florida. Whenever I hear there is a boardwalk at a beach I go expecting all the fun and games and snacking that WW had to offer and I'm always dissappointed!

I don't know if you have ever been to the beach in Jersey but there are several things to know:

a) there are jellyfish so watch out

b) the waves are killer which are great for surfing and skin boarding but will easily pull you under

c) the water is brown! not so pretty!

Compared to the beach in Florida:

a) we dont have jellyfish but we have sea lice - jellyfish eggs that can bite and cause a rash (lovely)

b) the waves suck here - the water is mostly still (well compared to NJ anyway)

c) the water is beautiful! blue and green...like a tropical paradise

A place to start: Rockland County

Thinking of a place to start is a little hard...I guess I will start with the first place I remember being and that I have photo's of. I have travelled to many places as a child but I don't have many pictures and my memory is a bit scratchy. I grew up in Rockland County, lived there until I was 18, I moved to Florida 3 days after I graduated high school (Clarkstown North baby!) I moved around a lot in Rockland: when I was born we lived in Spring Valley but there was a lot of crime there (even in the the 1980's) so my parents moved the family to the Village of Haverstraw - right by the little league field. When I was 9 years old my mother and I moved to West Haverstraw - right on 9w by the bowling alley. And finally when I was 13 my mother and I and our two cats moved to New City. Things changed so much in Rockland over the years but a lot of the basic things stayed the same. Spring Valley is still not a safe place, the little league field is still in Haverstaw and so is the bowling alley.

When I was 16 I was looking for colleges and I had family living in Wellington, FL - I thought Florida would be a good idea. I would go to Wellington almost every winter to visit my cousins. I came to really enjoy the area: the people seemed so hospitable, the weather was amazing, and the area was so pretty. When I decided on going to Florida Atlantic University my mother decided since she was retired she would move to Florida. Since then I have felt a little "stuck" in the area. I am not so sure that moving to Florida was the best idea anymore.

Since I have lived in NY and in FL for my entire life I am sure that I will explore places in both of these states as well as positives/negatives of both. First: Weather/Seasons in Rockland:

Fall: I love fall in NY...there is nothing more beautiful then the changing of the leaves...

It's definitely something I miss about NY...we even have a little mini maple tree in our back yard here but the leaves never really change color...they just die and fall off:( I recommend visiting NY, especially upstate NY during the fall...

The one season that I don't miss a bit is winter time in NY. That biting cold, the gray dismal skies, the dead foliage...bleh, gross...

I don't find this beautiful...I will say that NYC is the place to be Christmas/New Years. The lights and decorations are beautiful, there really is nothing like it!

Spring is also beautiful in NY...we have a spring of sorts here in Florida but it's really not the same - we have flowers here all year round.

The one thing I never got was when people told me I was so crazy for moving to Florida because it's so hot here during the summer. NY can get into the 90's and low 100's during the summer but the difference is that in FL there is AC everywhere. In NY when it gets that hot everyone turns on their AC's and Orange and Rockland Utilities can't handle the surge and they have temporary brown outs throughout the county. Plus a lot of small business's and schools don't have AC, they just have fans.

Hello World:)

My name is Paulette and I am from Rockland County, NY - it's about 30 miles north of NYC and across the Hudson from Westchester. I am currently living in West Palm Beach, FL. I have a few things that I absolutely love: cooking and traveling are two of them. I already have a food blog - www.homeiswherethefoodis.com so I thought it would be great to start a travel blog to share some of my experiences: my favorite places and places I would never go again!