Spaghetti Western (Fly Fish Chick)

Is it me or does this pasta look a lot like fly line?

While I typically race in a million different directions, I am literally preparing to head in two very opposite directions (both geographically and culturally) as we are traveling west to Montana and then east to Italy…in all of its pastalicious carbohydrate glory. I am wildly excited about both trips but it’s a bit heady trying to get ready for my first fishing trip of the season out west as well as my first trip to Italy in over a decade. I feel so lucky but want to be as prepped as possible to make the most of each special vacation! My mind is a water bug making list upon list and jumping between spaghetti, fly line, trout, pasta, rivers, ruins, mountains, museums, cowboy boots, and comfortable walking shoes.

Where the hell is my passport?

Total Panic! (Don’t tell my internationally well-traveled mother this is happening yet again.)

There is a very good chance I could head west with an entire plate of steaming spaghetti wound onto my reel in place of fly line. As you can see it’s all starting to make me a little loopy.

And speaking of tight loops…so the Professor and I are going to spend a few days in Sheridan MT over Memorial Day. I have been madly pulling down gear, clothing, trying to remember what I have here in Austin and what I left at the Troutshack last August. It’s the same fire drill every year, I’m not sure why I don’t make this easier on myself.

Where the hell did I leave my Scott 5-wt?

Total Panic! (Don’t tell my uber-organized husband this is happening yet again.)

If I have in fact learned anything from history, it’s that mother nature on the Big Hole River over Memorial Day weekend will likely dump snow, sleet and rain on us. So yesterday I madly contacted friends at FLY SOUTH in Nashville to redeem a 2011 Christmas gift certificate that I have been sitting on. Figuratively, not literally, as I have long since lost the paper gift certificate. After much computer sleuthing they found my credit and I am now the proud owner of a heavy duty bombproof Patagonia rain jacket sure to keep the sleet and snow away, to the point I can personally guarantee 85 degree sunny skies in Melrose MT over Memorial Day Weekend. Your welcome.

Simultaneously I was in a delightful but fervent email exchange yesterday with my new BFF in Tuscany, Serena, who is helping me secure a tour/tasting at a local olive oil mill. After molto back and fortho we finally have this mill booked. Delicioso!

Then I also had to scramble to come up with a new lunch spot in Siena because I have poo-pooed the original choice on the itinerary. I was actually the one to suggest, nay push, for the first place. But since I last dined there in the 1990’s they have adopted a medieval theme and waitresses clad in peasant costumes serve drinks in giant goblets. Gag. I cannot handle the Medieval Times gimmick when I’m in Italy for just one week (or ever) so now we are going to try this restaurant which is highly endorsed:

And of course I had to compulsively obsess over finding a place in our super-tight schedule to drag my entire family (largely against their will) to my favorite place in all of Rome, The Crypt of the Capuchin Monks. For some reason all the members of my travel party are inordinately preoccupied with visiting utterly predictable things in Rome like St Peter’s and Bernini sculptures and the Coliseum, but I am here to tell you, this is happening: