One of our other stops during our New England trip was in Bennington Vermont, visiting our friends Nicki and Lisa (you will remember them from our Ft. Lauderdale trip, although we all had slightly different hair at that point….). When in Bennington you must go to The Bennington Battle Monument
The monument was built in the 1880’s at the same location in 1777 during the war of independence, that the American colonists maintained a store of weapons and food, which the British knew was critical to capture in order to restock their own troops.

Besides the history the Bennington Monument is a great place to look out over Bennington and see the landscape which at this time of year included many beautifully colored trees. You get to the top of the monument by going up in an elevator. It is cold up there so be sure to bring a jacket.

Another must see outdoor monuments of sorts is the great poet, Robert Frost’s grave at The Old Bennington Cemetary. It lies in a small cemetary that houses many old and ornate tombstones and also those that are fairly plain. The cemetary goes back to the American Revolution. In 1920 Roberto Frost came to Shaftsbury, VT (one town over from Bennington) to live. His wife died suddenly 13 years later and he went to their old farm in Derry NH to scatter her ashes per her wishes, but the place was run down. He kept her ashes until he bought 2 burial plots at the Old Bennington Cemetery behind the Old First Congregational Church.

We were a little chilly after our trip to the monument, so we decided to look for some indoor activities. There is a local winery in Southern Vermont called The North River Winery. All of us having been residents of Vermont had all been to this winery in the past and had vowed to never go back. But it is just a thing you do when you are in VT - it is like a weird kind of pride for the state thing - local wine. North River Winery makes all their wines from fruits grown in Vermont – apples, raspberries, blueberries, rhubarb, etc. Sounds good right?

Well not so much…all of us really liked the IDEA of these kinds of wine, but the taste leaves something to be desired. I think it would make nice salad dressing, but drinking wine? Um no. I wish it weren’t so. As I love the idea of using local ingredients to make everything! But if you are ever in the area, do take the tasting and make up your own mind. They do stay in business so someone must be buying their wines!

Anyway, Bennington is a wonderful place for a fall getaway full of beautiful leaves, historic monuments and local products! Go Vermont!

This is a picture of me and my best friend, Jen. Notice anything? Well we are both named Jennifer, we both have dark brown hair that we both cut short this past year, we both have glasses. And for some unknown reason, we both have a thing for octopuses. It is one of those weird things in life – friend soul mates. We used to see each other every single day and it made sense back then that we would sort of rub off on each other. But now, living far apart and not seeing each other over the past year, we still on are the same wave length. We used to work together in a Doctor’s office for years and people thought we were the same person. Funny, huh?

Anyway, Jen has a baby, her name is Alina Rose and she is just adorable. Her favorite toy? An octopus.

So Jen and Alina took Roberto and I to McCray’s Farm in South Hadley, Mass.

It is full of Bunnies, Sheep, Cows, Horses, Piglets, and birds of many kinds. It is a hot spot for little ones and children of any age (I am definitely one of those people! ). McCray’s has hayrides in the fall and they also have their own creamy where you can get ice cream and pancake breakfasts during maple harvest season. It is a great place to go when you are in Western MA for a taste of real New England life!

They should really call it Italian Restaurant Row. The North End of Boston is full of Italian restaurants, specialty food shops, café’s and apartments. It is a section of town devoted to all things Italian and most of the residents, shop keepers and restaurateurs are also Italian keeping the authenticity alive. You rarely see something like this is America anymore. As I discussed here growing up, when I went to visit my grandparents in Western PA, it was a little like this, although most of the ethnic groups were kind of mixed together even though each had their cultural Mecca’s. But here in Boston’s Little Italy, it is all Italian all the time. You actually hear Italian being spoken in the streets and everywhere you go. The TVs in the cafés have Italian stations playing soccer matches, in Italian. You can really get the flavor of Italy here just walking through the streets, but when you go into the restaurants and sit at the table to eat, it gets even better.

As many of you who have kept up with this blog and my other blog The Leftover Queen,
you know that Roberto and I have been on a quest for the perfect Italian pizza. We have tried making it at home and have gotten close several times. We have also spent endless trips all over town trying each pizza joint, hoping to find a bit of pizza gold! But to no avail…yet. Until we found Pizza Regina in Boston’s Little Italy. We should have expected something good when we saw the line coming out the door and onto the sidewalk. When we got in, the place was packed and full of the hustle of a great pizza place: lots of yelling back and forth between servers and cooks, pizza dough flying in the air as a backdrop and smells of melting cheese and tomato sauce. Roberto and I shared a Napoletana - a huge pie with anchovies, capers and olives. Rachel and Gwen, Roberto’s daughters shared a half mushroom, half meatball.

As soon as Roberto picked up his slice and it held up, with no drooping he was feeling inspired, when he flipped the slice over to reveal the tell- tell sign of flour on the bottom of the crust, he got more excited, and when he took that first bite, enjoying all the flavors of a pizza cooked to perfection, he was in heaven and declared that his search for real Italian pizza in the US was over! Big accolades for Regina’s!

After eating we decided to go for a walk and check out some of the shops. We were on a search for some real Parmigiano-Reggiano and Italian Salami. We checked out the Salumeria Italiana a specialty food shop full of Italian cheeses, meats and non-perishables. There was also a table full of fresh baked bread. We picked up some Parmigiano and some assorted olives for snacking.

We then moved on to Café Graffiti where I enjoyed a deliciously bitter macchiato.

Roberto had a childhood favorite, Crodino – a bright red bitter (that matched his shirt that day!), which to Rachel, Gwen and I tasted like cough syrup (same color too)
and the girls each enjoyed a fruit nectar. Here is Racehl enjoying hers.

Refreshed we spent the next few hours walking around and enjoying the sights sounds and smells.

We stopped by the Old North Church, where on April 18, 1775 the church sexton, Robert Newman, climbed the steeple and held high two lanterns as a signal from Paul Revere that the British were marching to Lexington and Concord by sea and not by land. This fateful event ignited the American Revolution.

As well as St. Leonard’s Church, the first Roman Catholic church in new England built by Italian immigrants. All of these sights can be found in the North End.

Before leaving we had to make one more stop – we had to get Gelato, of course. I have been to The North End before and have always loved the nocciola gelato at Café Vittoria, a historical North End Café, and was dying to have it once more. Much to my dismay, they were out of Nocciola, so I settled for Coffee. Roberto had his obligatory Pistachio, Rachel went for Chocolate Chip,

and Gwen not knowing what to get opted for Spumoni after I told her my Grandfather used to get that for me when I was her age! We all enjoyed it AND our trip to little Italy!

*NOTE*: Some of these photographs were taken by Rachel Campus, Roberto’s daughter, who is a budding photographer. I guess she took after her dad on that one!

The weekend of October 21st was the HUGE Pumpkin Festival in Keene, New Hampshire. So like good New Englanders we decided to rummage the house for costumes, brave the crowds and go. –>

We left from New England FOR our New England leaf-peeping getaway on a Friday night after work. We figured it would be fun to see the same beautiful leaves from a different perspective, in New Hampshire. From MA it took about 3 hours to get to our destination:
The Spruce Moose Lodge in the village of North Conway, New Hampshire.
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