italia

I've been waiting to post about one of the best times of my life. And, the time has come! Exactly a year ago, Brian and I decided to take a trip to the beautiful, magical country of Italy. We wanted to take one last big trip before trying to have kids. Kind of like our last "hoorah." Italy is such a beautiful place. The food is to die for, the people friendly, the culture unprecedented to any other country, the art, the museums, the country side......the tiramisu.
We started in Venice. I've dreamed about going to Venice since I was 15. I have no idea why, probably because of World History class in high school. It seriously looks like what you see in movies and in pictures:

This was the view from our hotel room. It's really a crazy city when you think about it. I mean, the whole thing is seriously built on water. We left our window open all night long and you would hear the gondoliers glide by talking to each other.

Speaking of gondolas....









After Venice, we rented a car and drove to Cinque Terre. I love this place. It's quaint, quiet, pure Italy. Untouched by time. It was here, on our 4th day in Italy that I took a pregnancy test and that little square turned red with a positive sign.

This was the view from our "hotel." Which in Italy usually means our version of a bed and breakfast. On the right side of this picture (the green hill) is where they grow their own grapes and make their own wine and grappa. Once I told Brian that we were going to be parents A LOT sooner than expected, he threw open the doors to our balcony and yelled "I'm going to be a daddy!" The little town didn't seem to mind the disturbance.


I celebrated my 25th birthday while in Italy. On that day we spent our last day in Cinque Terre, then drove to Pisa and saw the leaning tower (except all I could think about was from the Goofy Movie where they call it the leaning tower of pizza), and then went to the beautiful city of Florence. I loved Florence. The art, the history, the museums....the gelato. Oh heavens the gelato. I want to go back to Florence just for the gelato.

I don't take pictures of my food. ever. it's stupid. What's the point? BUT gelato, it deserves its own picture. This gelato was organic gelato. The creamiest, smoothest, sweetest gelato we had on our whole trip. I think we went there 4 or 5 times and we were in Florence for only 4 days. We were a tad obsessed with it. A guy from Colorado took our picture here. Us Americans gotta stick together. It was always refreshing to be able to carry on a conversation with someone and not have to use hand gestures.




After Florence, we drove to Tuscany. Amazing. The Italian countryside is absolutely breathtaking. We were in Tuscany just a couple weeks before they were going to harvest the grapes to make their wine. Everywhere you turned there was vineyards. We stayed at the southern tip of the Chianti wine region. We stayed in a castle. It was amazing. The countryside in Italy is God's country.....our version of God's country is flat wide open spaces. I prefer Italy. :)


After Tuscany we drove to our final destination: Rome. Ah, Rome. After taking the train into Rome we were walking on the cobblestone streets and we looked up one street and there peeking at us was the magnificent Colosseum. Rome is amazing. I know I keep using that word, but to be in a place with such rich history.....there are no words to describe it. I mean, to be standing in the Colosseum and to realize the history there. To see the Arch of Constantine and to know that because of him, the Roman Empire went from a God-less nation to a God centered nation. amazing. To see the Vatican, to see St. Peter's Cathedral....the magnitude of it all.....awe inspiring.

I leave my blog with one final picture. I took this picture while we were driving from Tuscany to Rome and I must admit, one of the only things I wanted to see while in Italy was the fields of sunflowers. You know, like the fields of sunflowers that you see in the movie Under the Tuscan Sun? But, we missed the sunflowers. They had all been harvested. Who knew? The sunflowers actually have a purpose.


This was the beginning of our journey of parenthood. I've changed from a year ago. I'm in a place of contentment, true happiness, joy, love and a willingness to change and to challenge myself deeper than I ever thought I could do. I am trying to live by the beautiful saying that the Italians live by: l'arte d'arrangiarsi~the art of making something out of nothing.