After my recent trip to Africa, New Adventures buddies told me they were going this year and I should join them. I was in! As fate would have it, my next contract ended the Friday before the tour started. I was excited! I was due to arrive in Rio a few days early to decompress and have some beach time before all the partying began.

Having attended a few Mardi Gras celebrations in the past, in New Orleans and Carnevale in Venice, this was my first Rio Carnaval and the first time I set foot in South America. Hearing stories of the amazing traveling Blocos (Blocos are street parties or neighborhood parties) from previous travelers filled my head over the years, as well as crossing off another continent had me nervously excited for the adventure.

While Rio is not the first Carnaval in the world. It is the BIGGEST party in the world. An estimated 7 million people attend Carnaval with the parade and Blocos each year. Since a large number of attendees are locals they support some top Samba schools in the region.

As safety in numbers, I joined a G Adventure Group. The first day was spent exploring the popular tourist spots of Rio, Christ Redeemer before he disappeared behind the clouds, a quick trip up to Sugar Loaf to catch the view of the city and later that night a private Purple Party.

Come rain or shine the party was out on the beach and it looked like rain. Discarding the dress i was going to wear then opted for a bathing suit since It was going to be wet anyway. The night started on the roof for some more added glitter (if you did not have enough on already) a welcome drink, Caipirinhas and of course the endless selfies and groupies.

Short wet walk down Copacabana beach and the party begins.

Please, what happens at the Purple Party stays at the Purple Party. But here is one more image from the night. The night was fantastic. The party went well into the morning. Luckily only a short walk back to the hotel.

Parties happen at all hours of the day at Carnaval. Blocos or neighborhood parties pop up all over Rio and beyond. Some are moving with a band on a truck and driving along the neighborhood or some resembling music festivals or other block parties. Some Blocos are more popular than others, like the Beatles Bloco.

In a large muddy field, we arrived early to grab a spot close to the stage. It had been raining on and off for the last few days and soon we were all going to be covered in mud again.

Being a hot day and fortunately for us under all those umbrellas were vendors selling cold beverages from beer to gin and tonic and water to keep us hydrated. Other vendors walked around with the famous Caipirinha Cocktail that consists of a shot of Cachaça, half a lime and sugar. Depending on the vendor or who makes them, they can be quite potent. We rocked out all afternoon to the famous Beatles jams.

Stumbling upon a drum circle Bloco in Copacabana Beach was a lot of fun with a touch of drama. One woman who Samba’d her way to the front of the band was disruptive with her dancing. When she was asked to stop. She proceeded to get herself in a fight with several members.

Then comes the highlight of Carnaval. The parade…..Sambadrome

Planned and executed all year by the top Samba schools in the Region, the performers practiced their moves. They created and learned new songs, while obsessively placed each bead of the float, down to the last button on each of the hundreds of costumes they made to perfection.

This is a competition, you know. Only the top six schools get a coveted spot. Losing your spot is a big deal. Firece competion! When one school’s float broke down, Judges ruled, they had to make an extra float for several years. It is that tough. and costs a lot of money. Some of the money comes from the government but can run out fairly quickly and the schools spend most of the year trying to secure private donors.

Be prepared the parade is an all nighter! The parade starts around 9pm and finishes sometime after 4am. It is all outdoors, if it rains, you are getting wet.

Each school has about an hour to get through Sambadrome. The whole place is singing along with the school. Some of the schools handed out flags to the crowd. The locals learned the Samba school song throughout the year at various events to promote, compete for the school.

Each school has 5 different floats and the themes vary each year and are picked by the schools.

I had purchased a carnival experience which includes a tour where I was able to go behind the scenes of one of the Samba schools. I observed the floats up-close and witnessed the intricate detail and the intense work that goes into each float and each costume. They have to make hundreds of costumes for the band and the dancers and everyone on the float. Hundreds and hundreds. While I was not able to take pictures then (I had taken the tour prior to the start of Carnaval) since the Samba school did not want us spoiling their surprise. They did dress us up in last year’s costumes with tons of selfies and a samba lesson. Which was a lot of fun.

The Samba schools are judged on their floats, costumes, dance and song. Competition is fierce and it is a big deal to stay on top. The top six are given space to make their floats and costumes. Carnaval is a big deal and provides hundreds of jobs each year.

The parade goes on for several nights. All night long. It is quite an experience. I went Sunday night. We lasted until 3 am where our transportation took us back to the hotel. I did not want to leave the stadium during the parade and was starving afterwards and made it just in time to grab something quick before the vendors closed up for the evening. Luckily it did not end up raining like they predicted. We all went back to the hotels and crashed. We recovered on the beach the next morning with more Caipirinhas and awaited more Blocos.

Despite the amazing trip to South Africa, this was a rough year. Losing some dear people made it hard. Now for some cliches which I did not imagine would be in this post. But I digress. Regardless, when life throws you those curve balls, it causes you to reevaluate most everything in your life. It is only natural, human and real life. The great and terrible thing about life is that it is short and time flies.

Adding new galleries to the site, I will now feature more images besides travel. Because, well, I am All in the Journey and it does not just stop when I get home from a trip.

I have passion and obsession for more than one area of photography. While some grasp at one interest like fashion, portrait, wedding or travel photography, I will be focusing on several, starting with travel. That zeal for exploration will never go away but only grows.

I am adding a Fine Arts section. I find myself diversifying my work and this is scratching that itch. This past year I have been learning a lot about “off camera flash” which intensified my creativity.

With travel comes the passion for food which goes hand in hand with traveling, as you well know. In fact, it is one of the major reasons I do the wandering, the amazing food!

As some of you know, I bake, cook and love taking cooking classes. I will be sharing my experiences with you.

In short, change is inevitable whether you like it or not. I am changing again. Not too drastically but I am changing a little. The site you see is a whole new design and a fresh logo. What do you think? I would love to hear from you. Drop a few comments or send me an email. I would really love some feedback on all this hard work I spent months creating.

in short, I will be sharing more of me with you in the coming months. I wish you all joy!

It has been a long dream of mine to visit Venice during Carnevale. Not to attend the balls, but to photograph the people and magic of the city. Arriving in Venice on my two month tour through Italy with only one week in Venice, I was elated upon arrival, late one night in the train station.

I jumped up and down and did the happy dance even with my heavy bags as I made my way to the hotel for the night. I had always loved Venice, the history and the romance of it all. I hoped it lived up to my expectations. I wanted to be up well before sunrise. I was too excited to sleep and slept for a few hours before the crack of dawn when the alarm went off. I made my way downstairs.

Fortunately, my hotel was only a five minute walk from San Marco’s Square. I Hurried to take what I thought were mere cityscape photos. I was pleasantly surprised to see many people in full costume posing already for photographers. I hurried into the mix and let me tell you, it was a mix.

Photographers were throwing elbows and tripod legs to get that one special shot. Luckily, there were plenty of people in costume to go around, and as the morning passed more and more people in costume arrived. The majority of the morning, the cloudy, light layer of fog and cool feeling added some pleasing drama to the background. 

I had much respect for the people in costumes.  Their costumes were beautiful and highly detailed. They were not cheap, they were heavy fabrics with other heavy pieces. They were highly detailed down to the smallest button or thread. They are also fully committed to their characters. They worked the camera, and knew how to pose and worked their costume. Many I had seen dressed well before sunrise and then also spotted late into the night, still deep into character.

Photographers, bring your business cards to handout to your models. 

The tiny streets of Venice are packed full during Carnevale. Like sardines tight at times. Locals hate this time and tend to avoid it.  People in elaborate costumes, that they have been working on since the year before, are wandering all over the city with photographers in toe. Most will happily pose for you if asked. This is my first time to Venice and I am quickly falling in love with this city. The small tiny streets. I had a few days in the city before Carnevale started as I wanted to experience the city before the chaos arrived. The architecture is beautiful, ornate and historic. The food is delicious, nona made, that makes your heart sing.. The city is unlike anywhere in the world. There is a reason it is so popular. Why Venice has made it to the top cities on my list.

Today I did something that scared the living daylgihts out of me. Well it will scare the you know what out of a lot of people. Today I jumped out of a plane. Pinch me as I still do not believe I jumped out of the plane. Ok, I will be honest here, pushed out of a plane. As I let my tandem partner push me out of the  plane. 

Since my friend Tiffany from work agreed to do this earlier in the week while we chatted during break time, I decided it was time to take it seriously. We talked about this over the last few months but never pulled the trigger. She wanted to go right before I went to South Africa. Then time ran out.

As we were sitting in the break room I said, “Well if we don’t book it now we will never do it.” A few minutes later she booked us for Thursday as we were both off that day.

As luck would have it for Northern California particularly on the coast, the weather was beautiful for Monterey. Partly cloudy, not too chilly, we drove the hour plus down the coast from Santa Clara and were the first to arrive. We looked at each other and said, “I guess we are doing this?” We joked as we were both nervous. Forms followed by a few videos and they were gearing us up to go up. 

Yes I was nervous. I never let myself think of what was about to happen. I just focused on other thoughts like my travel. Even though, I met my tandem partner and even though he introduced himself, I cannot remember his name but only that he was from Brazil. He explained that he has been jumping for a while and welcomed me to his office. 

Here we went, it was time! We headed for the plane, no backing out now. My excited partner went first. A plane full of skydivers and Tiffany and I were some of the few jumping for the first time. The electric excitement, their energy was felt. It gave me little comfort because really, I’m getting ready to jump out of a plane. Granted this is something I have wanted to do for a while, it is just something I never thought I would actually do. 

His accent was beautiful as my partner pointed out different landmarks, Here is Santa Cruz, there is Campbell. The sun was out, it was getting warmer. 

Ten minutes into it, we reached altitude and the door opened. Up in the air, in the plane and the door opened! Even more excited the energy builds as the other skydivers high five each other and whoo hoos are shouted! 

Tiffany headed to the door first. Oh God! Here we go! There was really no way to back out at that point. (technically you still could, at that point) I was really doing this! I saw Tiffany hit the door and seconds later out the airplane. Then I thought O ok! A few thoughts of panic slipped in and I quickly pushed them out as I neared the door. They say you should not look down and look up when you exit the plane. Not me, I looked straight down. I saw my feet hit the edge and how tiny and small the ground looked below. Probably one of those images I would never forget.

Falling. Everyone claims they like this part, the falling at 120 mph towards earth. Even typing that makes my stomach turn a bit. I may be An Adventure Chic but not Xena the Warrior Princess. Free falling is not my thing. It was all of 90 seconds mostly because it was hard to breath. 

When the chute opened it was beautiful. Finally a sense of release came and started screaming that I could not believe I just jumped out of an airplane. The view was spectacular. The ocean and green landscape below could not be beat.

The landing was uneventful.

In my exit interview, they asked if I would do it again. I said yes in the video, but now, that I had some time, it would depend on several things. I am not sure if I will do it again but glad I got to check it off my list.

Ancestry kits have made it to the top of the Christmas gifts lists this year. Have you ever wondered about your roots? Where you came from? I have been thinking about this since high school. I dreamed to trace our roots back to our hometown back in Sicily.  I knew we had  more family out there. My dad is one of six kids, my grandpa one of six and it goes up from there. Could they be living right next door to you?

I remember a conversation I had with my father when I was in high school about our Italian roots and the history of our family. I was intrigued by our Italian culture and wanted to know more about our family’s history. Why did we come to America? My Father’s side of the family is Sicilian and originate from Corleone (yes that Corleone, the one from the Godfather’s Movies.) My Father is from a large Italian family, He was one of 6 siblings, my Grandpa one of twelve, and it goes up from there. When I was growing up, I only knew about my Grandfather’s family, his six children, my cousins. I knew of distant family back on the east coast, but that was all. I had many questions.  For starters, Is there any family still living in Sicily?

Years went by and I had put it on the back burner, for life responsibilities, but the desire remained. The dream was to take this trip with my Dad. I believed this would be an epic trip. Going to Italy with my Dad to research our family tree. I dreamed that we would be like private investigators and travel around Italy like a treasure hunt. I began the research. My Dad had told me My Aunt Lucy had started a tree and I could go from there.  I needed to get that tree but she had passed away years ago. I did not know if I could find where it had gone.

Fast forward to a few years ago, I found the tree. I began to compared to what I had found. The tree I had started had massive holes in it, particularly in the upper branches. Higher branches than my Grandpa and His Siblings. My tree was pretty bare up there, hardly any branches, no leaves. The package that my aunt sent, contained My Aunt Lucy’s tree and various pictures of My Great-Grandparents that were photocopied.  My Aunt’s tree was much more complete and had plenty more dates then my Dad could remember.


From there I went to Ancestry website to try and fill the remaining holes. I found some of my Grandpa’s and his Brother’s military records. All the brothers had been in the war. I filled up most of the branches and leaves all the way up to my Great-Great-Great Grandparents. Not bad, right?


Catania We arrived in Catania one a beautiful sunny afternoon. Catania is one of Sicily’s big cities which would be our home base for week one. Sicily is beautiful and the afternoon we arrived the town square was alive with activity. A large square with buildings all around. Locals and tourists filled the square with music and cleaning up the days busy fish market. I was beyond nervous and excited at this point. Years of research, we were finally here! This is my culture, where my ancestors came from. Now I am standing here in the middle of it.

After exploring busy Catania for the day. That evening, after a beautiful dinner, we walked around town. We observed this red glow in the sky. Tourists were more excited than the locals. The night before we were to go to Nicolosi, Mt Etna decided she was excited and starting giving us a show that could be seen in Catania an hour away. Mt Etna started to erupt or throw lava into the dark sky.  I thought, Oh no! I came all this way! Would Etna stop me in my tracks? We would see what it would be like in the morning. The locals seemed calm, we would see what it is like in the morning. That next day, We got up, Etna was a large smoke stack, all seem well. Life continued in the city.  No warnings. Let us go! We drove out to Nicolosi about an hour away from busy Catania. (Driving is interesting in Sicily, but that is a whole other blog post.) The drive out of the city was chaotic but then as you left the city in the background. Mount Etna filling up the view in your windshield as a lush green landscape took over for city streets.
I planned this trip to include Carnevale in February, which is a busy time in Venice, not so much the case for the rest of Italy. In fact it's off season. I love traveling in the off season. You often obtain a more local experience, it is not crowded, and it is a little more budget friendly. The one possible downside is that not everything is open as it is during the season. Especially in the smaller towns. Restaurants and hotels maybe closed or under construction. Most of the time I find  it to be touristy things anyways and I am not bothered by that. As I come to crave a more local experience.

I enjoyed this search and researching my tree. Coming to this town had been a dream of mine for some time.

This made the town of Nicolosi noticeably sleepy. It's not a town that has a high tourism rate anyway. Nicolosi’s claim to fame is that it is the gateway to Etna. Most of the tourism of Nicolosi is people seeking an adventure  to explore Etna. It's one of those small towns you can drive through in a minute. Upon arrival, I went straight to the tourist office, it had been raining off and on that day. I hoped it would provide a good start.

Nicolosi is not a tourist town. There was not a lot of information online. The office on the corner of a square. There were only two people in the office. For a tourist office they seemed surprised that we were there. They were less than friendly when we asked about the history of the town. They didn’t offer any history or know of where we could go. I was discouraged, especially after hearing stories of how friendly and welcoming this town was. Most of the towns in Sicily that have last names were because of a resident being a mayor or priest. In my family he was a priest. This is my family's hometown, I was here and could find nothing. Feeling defeated, I explored the town, in which the majority was closed and locked up, except the tourism office, a cafe and few stores. We left the town of Nicolosi, with only a few photographs, and no new information. I hoped we would find more information in Palermo and Corleone. The other cities that came up in my research.

I made it! My family is from is Corleone. Yes,  that one, the one made famous from The Godfather's movies. Corleone is located on the north east side of the island an hour drive from Palermo, the capital of Sicily, and the home base for week two.  My excitement returns, we have to find something here. Palermo was not as busy as Catania. Our Hotel was right in the middle of the city. I had renewed faith that we would find something here. Palermo is Sicily other big city and the capital.  
In exploring the town of Palermo,  I booked us a food tour around Palermo. If you know me at all you know I live to eat around the world. As soon as I drop off the bags, I hit the ground to a great local restaurant or a food tour, and probably a cooking class or two. I booked a Streaty tour of Palermo and Meet a Bubbly excited passionate tour guide named Marco, in front of one of the most beautiful theaters. Seriously take a tour! We were lucky enough to witness a practice with the orchestra.  

Steaty tour with Marc
During the tour, Marc had ask the group where we were all from? Why were we in Italy? Standard group discussion. I begin to explain that we are looking for family, and have not had any luck. Marc asks if we brought our info with us and asks us to send it to him. As he picks up his phone and calls his friend, who lives in Corleone. The friend then  tells Marc, that he helps a couple with some errands that have the same last name. Could they be the family we were looking for? Wow! Just wow! Are you kidding me?  Then asks us to email the information. and he will see if it is a match! We finished the tour and I hurried back to the hotel to send him all the information we had. The tour was amazing. I highly recommend Steaty tours. Not only did Marc help me find family. The tour was delicious!
Clues That next morning, I received an email saying Marc's friend was in contact with the couple. I responded that we would head to Corleone. As we had already planned to go to Corleone that day. I was stoked! The hour long drive was filled with lush green rolling hills, the green, green kind. So vibrantly green that you think, it might not be real. Again, it was raining on and off the past few days. When we arrived in the tiny town,it started to sprinkle. The town is small with a main road. I still was unsure, if we would find our family that day. We drove around in circles looking for anything that was open, again being off season and raining, it looked as if it was a ghost town. I drove around the town for anything that would pop up. I was looking for open churches. I found two street signs with my family’s last names. One with my Grandma’s maiden name.
By this time we were hungry, by that time so I found a place to park near a square and there was one pizza restaurant open. The smell of pizza filled the square mixed with the smell of fresh rain. We walked in,to a lady was standing at the tall counter, we ordered our pizza and began explaining our journey. Hoping she help us or send us in a direction, heck, it's a small town, maybe she knows them.
Oh! She says excitedly,  "There is a church right up the road, and they probably could help you, but they close rather quickly. I will save your pizza, run up there and check." She hurries us out of the restaurant and up the street. Okay, here we go!

As we exit the square, a small white European car is coming down the hill towards us, a woman stops right by me, rolls down her window and says “You Nicolosi?" In English. Shocked, anyone would know me in this town. Ok, maybe I do look like a tourist. I said yes, yes I am! She says in English I am too! Points at us to get in her car. Marc’s friend had called her to tell her we were coming.  I had no way of knowing. I did not have any cell service. Can you see the resemblance? Mission complete! We get in and she drives us to her house. Francesca is my Great-Grandfather’s Brother’s daughter. In other words, my Great-Aunt. My Aunt’s Aunt. You can tell by the picture, there is no denying they are family. Now Francesca, My Great-Aunt doesn't speak English and I had completed my immersion classes, two weeks prior. I  was far from full fluency, but I was comprehending well and conversing where she could at least understand and I could understand her. Like a true Italian she started feeding us, as soon as we walked in the door. She made homemade biscotti and was pouring lemoncello to go with the biscotti. It was a amazing afternoon reconnecting with family, with promises of a return and a longer stay. We have been in contact ever since. It was an amazing adventure. 


Mission complete! I plan on trying this with my Mom's side. I have already started the process. Have you found family? Tell me your story below in the comments.