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Oh Sorrento, I absolutely adore you. Sorrento is definitely in my top five favorite cities of all time and I recommend if you ever go to Italy to make it a priority to spend a day/night here. With charming little alleyways lined with shops, incredible restaurants, and views like no other, it is also the limoncello capital of the world (all the more reason to visit!).

When I first arrived in Sorrento, I’ll never forget how breathtaking the views were, especially since it is like a city carved into and atop the cliffs. Overlooking the sea, our hotel room (see the video below) was like a dream.

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My sister and I immediately went to the beach and went swimming – the water was freezing since it was September, but we figured we were in Italy so we just had to do it. Later in the day we were able to rejoin our group and went to a local pizzeria where we were able to have a pizza demonstration and of course eat our body weights in pizza (when in Sorrento, right? 😉 ). Afterwards, my sister and I went strolling around, shopping at the boutiques and emptying our wallets. We strolled around Piazza Tasso, a square lined with little cafes.

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I think my favorite part was when we went to Limonoro, a candy/sweet shop that revolves around everything limoncello. I’m talking limoncello filled cookies, limoncello gummies, the list goes on. They offered us free samples of literally anything we wanted to try! I had these cookies, and honestly my taste buds have never been the same. I am seriously placing an order as soon as I finish writing this post.

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To end our stay in Sorrento, we had a feast with our Contiki group for those who wanted to participate, and the views were just breathtaking from the restaurant, Circolo dei Forestieri. The decor was beautiful, the food was unmatched. When I get married, I’d consider having destination wedding with the reception here – everything about it was above and beyond. After my meal, I was sitting there with my sister and this older gentleman came up and asked me dance! I’m normally very shy, ESPECIALLY dancing in front of other people to Italian songs doing Italian moves I have no idea how to do. I kept saying no, but that doesn’t work too well with Italians – especially the men haha! So he pulled me up and whisked me away for a solid two songs. I let him lead the way…and of course I had him dance with my sister as well. We go down we go down together, sisters are forever haha!

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Before we left for the night we stopped at a limoncello store I Giardini Di Cataldo, and stocked up on bottles on bottles on bottles of limoncello. It also made for the perfect favor. Good thing we didn’t drink too much of it since we had a boat ride to Capri the next morning.

Stay tuned for the lovely Capri!

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It is officially the first day of Fall! I seriously could not be happier. Although I’ve been sipping on my pumpkin spice coffee since it’s seasonal debut early September, today makes my order much less embarrassing as it is now officially Fall. I just wish the weather would follow suit and stop being 80 degrees! I can’t wait for hoodies, chilly mornings and nights, football Sunday, leaves, bonfires, ugh I can go on and on. What better way to ring in the most amazing season with some delicious pumpkin spice crumb cake! Crumb cake is my guilty pleasure, and during the fall, everything must be pumpkin flavored, so viola – the pumpkin spice crumb cake was born.

Ingredients:

CAKE:

2 cups floured (always spoon in the flour and level off with a butter knife, otherwise flour gets packed in and you get too much flour!)
1 tsp. salt
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 stick of butter, room temp.
2 heaping cups of sugar
2 large eggs
1 Tbsp. vanilla
1 can of pumpkin (I’ve only seen 15 oz ones)
1 cup milk (2%, whole, whichever you prefer)

CRUMB:

1 stick COLD butter (will be easier to form crumbs)
1 firmly packed cup light brown sugar
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and spray a 9×13 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside. Then beat the sugar and room temperature butter until combined. Add eggs, vanilla, and pumpkin until batter is smooth. Add the dry ingredients in the bowl you set aside slowly, alternating with the milk. Beat again until smooth and batter comes together. Pour the batter into your sprayed pan and even out with a spatula.

For the crumbs, combine all of the ingredients into one bowl. This is where it gets fun! You can either get down and dirty and use your hands to combines everything, or you can use a fork or pastry cutter. Since I like big crumbs, I always use my hands. Sprinkle your newly formed crumbs all over the poured cake batter.

Bake 45-50 minutes, until crumbs turn a light golden brown and a knife or toothpick comes out clean from the center. You can serve it with some vanilla ice cream, or as I did, with a dollop of whipped cream.