Ciao Bella - Italian Shoes in Italy

Well folks its been a while I know and I'm terribly sorry to have left you hanging in anticipation of my latest shoe entry but I've unfortunately been ill for a few months and am just now on a course of treatment that's getting me good as new :) No worries, nothing serious, just a pain in the rear dealing with it but all is good and I'm on the mend...That said I have wonderful news to share with you all...No I still have not gotten my Louboutins and I'm still on the prowl. My Louboutin fund is growing slowly but surely; you'll never find them on sale and you need a good $600-$700 to buy one of those beauties...But what I have to share is just as great if not better!

My wonderful family treated me to a trip to Rome for my upcoming birthday. April 16th dear readers if you must know the exact date (Side note: I'm a size 6.5/7 just in case you were wondering)...Anyway, Rome???!!!! What in the world would a gal like me be fantasizing about as soon as she heard the news? People were saying:

Oh you're so lucky the food is amazing - Whatever

Oh you're so lucky the men are gorgeous - Who cares

Oh you're so lucky the art is magnificent - Big deal

NO people!!! I'm so lucky b/c NO ONE makes shoes like the Italians...It's no accident that the darn country is shaped like a freaking SHOE!!!!! All I could think about for weeks when I was laying in bed with a Thyroid the size of a football and unable to swallow was that in a few weeks I would be putting my feet into REAL ITALIAN LEATHER SHOES!!!!!!! But my concern was how am I going to go to Rome when I have zero energy, a massively ill Thyroid, and unbelievable fatigue and lethargy....I was being tested for all sorts of auto-immune diseases that affect the Thyroid and luckily everything was coming back negative....I learned that I have a virus that really can't be treated and needs to take its course - a minimum duration of 3 months!!! AAAAAAArrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! So, when my Thyroid swelled to the point where it began obstructing essentials like eating and breathing, my doctor put me on a course of steroids...

So thank God for modern medicine...3 weeks of Steroids, still going strong, Thyroid is no longer making me look like the elephant woman, I have a little more energy, and I was cleared for travel...Italian shoes here I come!

The trip to Italy was long! I'm not talking about like the normal 9 - 10 hours of flying time I'm talking about the slight 6 hour delay we had as we were about to fly across the Atlantic Ocean and our pilot realized we were having "technical difficulties". Yeah, totally freaky and it could not be resolved in the air...So just as I'm getting closer to the land of beautifully hand crafted leather, our plane does a 180 and we land back in Philly....Of course I'd rather a 6 hour delay to my shoe shopping spree than end up in the middle of the Ocean so I was still happy and optimistic about my future addition to my shoe collection...

This is a blog about shoes so I will not tell you how gorgeous Italy really is...I will not tell you how the food really is amazing, that not only the men are beautiful but the people of Rome are super friendly and welcoming. I won't tell you how I was amazed every day at the beauty all around us in the fountains, the art work, the architecture, etc....but I will tell you how AMAZING the shopping was!!!!

Of course everything was super expensive but b/c of my Lebanese heritage its in my blood to barter and "when in Rome"....that's what you're supposed to do :)

One day we're walking down one of the picturesque cobble stoned streets on our way to what is the Rodeo Drive of Rome down Via Veneta approaching the Spanish Steps that would take us to Designer heaven...on the way my shoe radar went berserk and I made my sisters and mom take a slight detour into a little store by the name of Moonlight on one of our newly learned shortcuts.

Immediately I saw what I had been dreaming about lying sick in bed for weeks...Silver ruffles, the perfect heel, feminine to a tee, dainty, satiny, and all around lovely Gianni Marra shoes! The Gods were on my side b/c these super pricey beauties were on sale!!!! We were destined to be together b/c they were the last ones in stock in my size, they were in my budget, and I'd been looking for a ruffled shoe and a platform shoe and these were BOTH in ONE!!!! AAAAAhhhhhhhh so excited....but then I was like hmmm I'm in Italy maybe I can barter them down a bit on the price. People believe it or not they ended up giving me another 20% off b/c I found a teeny tiny naked to the normal-non-anal-shoe-lover-eye defaux...AND it gets better...in Italy shopping is tax free for foreigners so I got another 12% knocked off b/c of taxes! So not only did I get a unique authentic ITALIAN designer shoe that I absolutely adore, I got them at a bargain!!!! This was like day 2 of our week long trip so I was elated for the rest of the trip....Thyroid what? Well that and spending time with my wonderful family of course :) Ah Italia, Bellisima!