The map... Updated

Below is our current Edamame Trip map.  We are plotting our actual stops as we go while adding future destinations as we confirm them.  Visited destinations are marked with solid color markers.  Future destinations are marked with letters.

The Ricciardi Journey

Family, a blood line that gathers strangers into one feeling of belonging...

I don't know how to explain what happened here, in this tiny town, in the hills of La Spezia. So I guess I'll just tell you a story, the way I was able to collect the pieces of this puzzle.

Madrid - Jimenez de Jamuz - San Sebastian - And back to Italy!

We continued to Madrid to visit Lili's aunt, Violeta before heading back towards Italy to see more family.  Madrid is a beautiful city, and Violeta did everything to make us feel at home:

Parque El Retiro:

Plaza Mayor:

Tapas!!!!

We took a side trip to Segovia for some suckling pig!

Once we said goodbye to Madrid, we moved north for more incredible food.  First stop:  Bodega El Capricho.  We headed north  to the little village of Jimenez de Jamuz for the best steak in the world.  I saw this place on a documentary about steaks and hoped it would live up to the hype.  We had steak tartar and carpaccio to start.  For the main event, we had premium chop below.  It came from a 12 year old buey and was dry aged for three months!

The meat was salted and cooked perfectly.  It was even better than it looks and unlike any steak I have had before it.  Yum! 

I spend too much time telling people about this restaurant.  Seriously.  If you are ever nearby...

After lunch, Lili talked to Pedro who turned out to own the farm where much of this beef is raised.  He offered to take us out to meet the cows...

They were HUGE.  We hoped they could not smell their cousin on our breath,

Mimosin took to Lili.  Once pet, he followed her around like a puppy.

Next up, San Sebastian for its famous pintxos.  Maybe we were spoiled after El Capricho, but this paled in comparison.  Still, it was a beautiful selection.

We moved on across France to Domodossola, Italy.  Lili found an amazing boutique hotel on the side of the mountain.  We tried to hike a bit in preperation for Monte Blanc.  Maybe too little, too late.

From here, we got ready for our main trip through Italy.

-  Riggs

Cotê Azur - Mónaco - Barcelona - Valencia

Our road trip continued with strategic stops along theway.

Sanremo to Nimes
For Sanremo I just want to acknowledge the most amazing veal marsala I've ever tasted in my life! Thanks to the restaurant Vela d'oro for such an amazing culinary experience!

We crossed the border of Italy into Monaco and France.  I must admit that driving through Italy is a most exasperating experience.  France was a huge improvement!

On our way to Nimes we drove by Monaco and a beautiful medieval town called Ezê. We took a little walk around Ezê and found a wonderful garden.

NYC --> Europe

New York to Italy!

We left the Bahamas and it's beautiful sharks and landed in New York.

We spent Mothers day with Riggs family and used the time to reflect on the trip outcome and next steps.

The Bahamas Shark Dive

After twelve days rafting through the Grand Canyon our bags were filled with dirty clothes and sand. Awful sand sticking to everything!

Grand Canyon River Adventure

The water was crisp and green like an Emerald 

The Grand Canyon trip was more than we could ever have predicted.  Not only is this an amazing National Park, but the group we happenned to go with made the whole experience absolutely memorable.

We left the canyon inspired and in awe with our sense of adventure awaken thanks to our guides and fellow companions.

Road Trip!!! (Part 2 - Bryce Canyon, Zion Canyon, and Las Vegas)

We went on to Bryce Canyon in Utah for a couple of days.  We wish we had more time and would recommend that trip to everyone.

Road Trip!!! (Part 1 - Carlsbad Caverns, Roswell, and Colorado)

An Explanation:

OK.  So Lili has been writing posts so far, but I agreed to take on our U.S. road trip.  Unfortunately, I proved to be a bit lazy so things have lapsed, but here we start up again a few weeks late...

After San Fransisco we flew to El Paso, Texas and picked up a relatively undamaged Toyota (more on that later) for a trip that would take us through Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and Nevada.  

Our first stop was Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.  Originally put into our itinerary as a time filler before the Grand Canyon, this actually became one of our favorite parks in the U.S.  Lili's only disappointment was when the park ranger assured her that weddings are not allowed in the cavern.

California a state of mind

We've been driving for a while through the west of the US, and have decided to update our blog that has been neglected for quite some time.

This country is made for roadtrips, the highways are so well kept it can blow your mind, but I will talk more about that in another entry which we will specifically name Roadtrip.

For now, we will talk about Sunny California and the amazing National Park culture.
California has everything anyone could ever want: a beautiful coastline, wonderful weather, perfect snow and perfect conditions for the growth of ancient trees, as well as Vineyards.

Yosemite is spectacular.  You cannot help but be stunned by it's high Rock walls,  thick woods and majestic waterfalls.
We got to experience the park by car which is something very normal in the US, as a National Park should be enjoyed by every American, so the accessibility and perfect conditions are always present to experience it at your own rhythm.
Of course you can hike, walk, run or even climb but you'll soon notice that among nature there are paved trails, bathrooms and signs reminding you that everything has been groomed ahead of time.
We visited the hotel where The Shining was filmed and got to experience a few hikes.

Chile - Santiago - Patagonia

After a crazy week packing the house and finalizing almost everything in Bogota we headed for our first official stop, Chile.

Friends and family! Sometimes that's all you need.

Santiago was dedicated to Lili's family and renewing her passport and drivers license. After a failed first attempt where Lili was asked to try to read line 5 for her eye exam (she saw everything except the letters), it took a quick visit to the optometrist and 3 days to get her license, now with a brand new pair of glasses.

Chau Colombia

Bogota The Golden City  
(Literally the Golden Retriever City)

Mamá at the Gold Museum, Nov. 2015

Colombia was home for about 9 months.  Although we knew deep inside this was not going to be permanent, we never anticipated such a brief stay.  We would need years to truly explore this amazing city, but we know the timing is right to move on and see the rest of the world.

Bogota is very peculiar, the traffic is insane which is the main complaint of any resident or citizen. Every family has more than 2 cars to avoid the vehicle restriction "pico y placa" which basically means the traffic is always the same. However, Bogota has the most extensive network of bike lanes and paths you can imagine connecting all parts of the city, so you always have a choice to avoid traffic by hopping on a bike.  Just be careful to avoid the golden retrievers (as Riggs learned the hard way).

The weather is perfect.  It´s a constant spring and autumn temperature mixed together.  You can wear layers and be perfectly warm or peel them off to enjoy the occasional sunshine.

Security-wise it is just like any other big city: you have to be careful, but don´t be psycho about it. The country is still shaking off the foreign reputation of the eighties and nineties of violence and crimes related to drug cartels. Overall, it is actually a very safe city to live in as long as you don't make it too easy for someone to take advantage of a lax attitude.

Frequently Asked Questions when you quit your job for traveling

I'd love to say we've been planning this trip all our lives, but that wouldn't be true. Our current context and current situation lead us to take this amazing idea into a reality. We don't have kids, we are "young", and we have the time to do this. 

Most common question we've had since declaring our job independence and commitment to travel the world are:

How did you came up with this plan? How long did it took you to plan it?
To be honest, it took one conversation and 2 months planning. It just made so much sense that we were hands on from day one.

How do you start planning a round the world trip?
First we went into Google maps and started pining every single place we wanted to see and places where we knew we could have an experience (ie. Swim with sharks, or hike a trail, or witness the Aurora Borealis, etc.)
Then we created a "one year calendar" (that later evolved into a 14 month calendar) with every season of those places we wanted to be in; We included color coding to determine if they were the best season to be in or to be avoided. Also, we had an extra layer with activities available that month per country.
That excel sheet lead us to a kind of trail, something started shaping more clearly in terms of where we wanted to start and direction we would take.

How do you budget for such a trip?
Well a little research in Google showed a lot of blogs of couples traveling the world including daily budgets. We got an idea on prices.
Continuing expanding our nerd excel sheet and in order to ground our expectations we went deep into booking.com and airbnb and started sensing prices to stay on all these places.
Finally we defined a top gap of spending and tried to define a budget daily not to go over.
As we haven't start the trip I cannot tell you of this works or if it only looks beautiful in paper.

Why Edamame Trip?

Its a private joke between us. :)