gluten-free rome, pt. one: pasta in piazza della rotonda.

so, by now you probably all know that i'm a bit of a travel addict. i am obsessed with experiencing culture, and for me, half of experiencing culture is experiencing new foods! but being a gluten-free eater, it's always significantly harder to find food i can actually eat while i'm traveling. i often find myself eating nothing but ice cream (not complaining, but some real food is nice on occasion!) fortunately, the whole celiac and gluten-intolerant movement is growing, so it's becoming even easier (remember how hard it was to eat last time i was in italy?) 

that being said, it's still not easy. especially in carb-heavy italy. though i read blog post after blog post reassuring me that it wouldn't be hard to find gluten-free food in italy-- that a lot of italians are gluten intolerant-- i wouldn't say that was really the case. although all of the restaurant owners were aware of celiac, it was actually pretty difficult to find restaurants that sold any sort of gluten-free pasta or pizza (anything different than just a salad or risotto or meat dish). 

and i mean, when you're in italy, you want pizza and pasta. am i right? 

so i'm going to share a few travel secrets from you guys of my favorite gluten-free tips and stops whilst on my around-the-world trip. and i'm starting with the most pleasant of lunches i shared with my lovely friend hannah in rome!

after wandering from restaurant to restaurant, searching for gluten-free pasta, we stumbled upon piazza della rotonda, which just so happens to be the home to the stunning pantheon. a charming italian waiter tried to sell us on the idea of eating at his patio in the piazza (directly facing the pantheon, might i add), but we were hesitant. as a rule, eating anywhere near a big tourist site in any european city is costly and often of low quality. 

but signore waiter showed us the menu (bruschetta + pizza or pasta + drink for ten euro), and we looked at the view, and we couldn't turn it down. 

so we found ourselves at restaurante neopoli, and i found myself eating gluten-free pasta in rome. 

really delicious gluten-free pasta in rome, might i add. 

the sauce was fresh and full of herby, tomato-y goodness. and the pasta was cooked perfectly. hannah had a delicious-looking (and she will back me up on this) bruschetta and margherita pizza (to be pictured on another post!) 

the warm march sun surrounded us as we enjoyed our food, the surroundings, and each other's good company. it really felt just idyllically roman, in the most touristy of senses. it was just simply pleasant. 

want to know a funny little detail? aforementioned charming waiter came over when we asked for the bill and said, "you don't have to pay." we said that we wanted to pay, and so he responded, "okay, you come back and pay tomorrow?" although he was pretty insistent on the idea of us returning the following day to pay (we weren't sure if he was part of the mafia and trying to trap us or just didn't really know how to flirt), we paid our bill and made our way to explore the inside of the pantheon. 

which, for the record, was incredible. 

moral of the story?: when in rome, do as the (celiaca) romans do. eat at neopoli's and visit the pantheon. 

more gluten-free eats abroad to come... next gluten-free friday! XO. 

six reasons to be happy.

i think back to a few months ago, when i was traveling europe. i don't exactly know why, but i just have the most vivid memory of a precise moment in which i felt so alive, so young, and so, so happy. 

we were exploring stockholm, sweden, and paused for a second to photograph the ships and buildings along the sea. as i looked out on the baltic and munched on swedish candy, sun shining down on my face in the twenty-something-degree weather, i felt like i couldn't be happier. 

like life couldn't be better.

fast forward a few months, and i'm here in provo, utah... readjusting to life in the states, life beyond college, and a few new life stages.
 i'm having the hardest time reconciling my many worlds-- my life in utah with my life/experiences in peru. even though it's been over a month since i've been back, my brain just can't seem to wrap itself around the grand disparities, and i can't really bridge the gap between who i was before i moved to peru and who i am now, away from peru. i don't really know where i fit in, and i'm soon moving to a city i've never visited and will be attending a university in which i've never step foot. i also have absolutely no idea how i am going to pay for said university.

to say i am a little bit anxiety ridden would be an understatement.

so i'm trying really, really hard to choose to be happy. 

and today, here are six reasons why: 

1. every day, we're given the chance to start over. to begin again, and to create something new of ourselves. 

2.  we are more loved than we think-- more loved than we'll ever know.

3. no matter how much we experience, there's always more to see, more to learn, and more adventures to be had. 

4. we are better off than we think. 

5. we are and always will be beloved children of god.

6. street tacos will always make everything better, even if it's just for a second.

smitten with stockholm.

as part of our european tour,
my dear friend hannah and i stopped by the land of the vikings for a few days to explore the territory of my ancestors,
and we instantly fell in love with stockholm.

there's something {or a lot of things, really} inexplicable about stockholm that i am so drawn to.
maybe it's the cleanliness or the unique architecture
 or just that very distinct scandinavian vibe oozing out of every street corner. 

or maybe it's the well-dressed, tall, handsome people {and the fact that half of the people looked just like me, or like they could be my first cousin twice-removed or something}
 or the waterfronts at the end of nearly every street and all of the bridges and water ferries and boats. 

or maybe it's the ultra-high-tech metro system,
 or the swedish meatballs, or the bilar.
yeah, the bilar definitely has something to do with it {as attested to by the fact that we finished our first bag of this delicious little candy a mere twenty minutes after stepping foot in scandinavia}. 

no matter what it was that made me fall so hard {and so fast!} for stockholm,
 i couldn't get enough of this city. even amidst well-below-freezing temperatures.
and that's saying something!

don't you worry!
if you think this is the end of my stockholm photos/stories/adoration,
you're quite mistaken.
you can expect a few {thousand} more stockholm photos very soon! 

but until then, i'm headed to the nearest ikea to pick up another bag of bilar...

gran via{je}.

so i'm sitting here in the riga, lativa airport, trying to navigate blogger in latvian {which is in fact much harder than one might expect}, and reflecting a bit on my most recent european adventure that is nearing its end.

it was such a whirlwind... it kind of feels as if it was all a dream. 

it was wonderful and spontaneous and stressful at times, 

but i saw so many new ways of life and had some beautiful, cultural experiences--

made new friends and became closer with my darling american friend.

and i think it'll take a few months of reflecting to totally comprehend how awesome it has been!

during the first leg of our trip, we revisited my beloved españa. 

our first afternoon, we stumbled upon gran via and spent a good hour just exploring and marveling and checking out all of the shopping. 

i love the gran via because it has this definite metropolitan vibe that you can't quite get in any other part of madrid.

also, did i mention the shopping?

oh, europe.
i can't really get enough of you. 

this time around has really been another gran viaje. 

summer in the city.

summertime always gets me in the mood for exploring.

and big cities? they're my favorite to explore.

today, that got me thinking of past explorations...

parisian explorations, to be exact. 

and what i wouldn't give to be back on the streets of paris,

with my camera in hand, 

with jumbled attempts at french escaping my lips,

and with a heart so full of happiness.

i can't wait to go back someday. 

un jour.

post title {via}

alcalá dreams.

i'm currently watching a movie about the pilgrimage of santiago de compostela, 

and my heart is aching for spain. 

i really cannot believe that it has been almost a full year since i lived there. 

thinking about my little city of alcalá de henares, my heart hurts. 

the people, the sights, the tastes...

living there changed my perspective and my life. 

someday, maybe i'll move there again?
until then, i'll just keep remembering all of the beauty and all of the little moments.
luckily, i have thousands of photos and a handful of videos to do just this.

cobblestone dreams.

i used to live in a fairytale.

a charmed life.

i walked the most beautiful, cobblestone streets daily. 

i soaked in the rich culture.

my life was bliss.

in my dreams, i walk those streets again and again.

lake como, italy.

ávila.

okay, so i'm back to blogging about my european life (pathetic, i know). 

but really.... europe > utah. any day. 

and i still have so many little european goodies to share with you! 

soooo without further ado, i give you... ávila! 

on our way to salamanca back in may, we stopped in this amazing, mountainous (for spain) city in castilla y leon. 

and oh my. it was such a sight!

the entire city is surrounded by those classic, medieval city walls.

i'd never before seen them in real life nor realized the enormity of them.

they're massive and so expansive. 

and inside the walls is church after cathedral after church... after cathedral.

so much cool romanesque and gothic architecture! 

we were only in ávila for a few hours, but we loved exploring the churches and city walls!

and the views were unbelievable! 

don't believe me? take a look for yourself...

me encanta mucho españa. muuuucho.

lovely traditions.

because my life currently consists of library sessions lasting until midnight, i thought i'd tell you about something a little bit cooler.

something czech.

while  in prague, we came across this little bridge.

tradition holds that right after wedding, the two lovers lock up their love on a bridge and toss the key into the river below. 

that way, their love will last forever...

eternal love, if you will. 

i think this idea is really, really romantic (and you know i'm not huge on romance.)

and i'm thinking that someday i'll lock up my love in europe with some handsome man.

juuust give it a few years/decades.

what do you think?

sueños de españa.

where is your favorite place in the world?

i have a lot of "favorites." 

but one place i've been missing a lot lately (especially because of the whole video contest situation) is, of course, españa. 

right about now, i just want to get lost in the prado

and have an elevator dance party with devaun.

i want to go running in the parque

and eat a giant spanish tortilla with a mcfit helado for dessert.

i want to walk the cobblestone streets of alcalá 

and have endless, hilarious lunch-time conversations with blanca.
i want to be in spain...
and maybe bring my family along this time.

really, though. is that too much to ask?

photo taken in ávila, spain ® anna gleave photography 2011.

mercado en madrid.

the longer i am here in the united states, the more i dream about my days in europe.

funny how that works, huh?

while reminiscing about mi amor, españa, i came across some photos from an adventure in madrid.

one evening, after visiting the palacio real and trying to stay out of the rain, we stumbled upon the coolest little mercado right in the heart of madrid.

it was much different than the market in valencia... this market was modern & posh.

i felt so out of place in my toms and tee shirt... everyone there was dressed in blazers and heels, sipping on wine and munching on tapas and desserts.

we didn't end up buying anything (posh=expensive), but we enjoyed people watching and gazing at the many, mouth-watering food options.

why we were never actually fed food that looked like this (you know how i feel about spanish food-- not my thing)... the world may never know.

post script: aren't those gingerbread men darling? i kind of wanted to snatch them all up... gluten-filled and everything.