Italy

Jeff and I went to Italy because Jeff had some work there. Rich, another employee and his wife Mari came with us. We had an absolute blast! We spent our first two days in Jesolo and then we took a water taxi across the bay to Venice and spent two days there. It was the most amazing place! I fell in love with the entire country. Every day we would get gelatto. It was divine!

We ate the best food! Everything single thing is delicious! I loved the little restaurants. Tables would be set up right on the street. Cars and pedestrians would be all around us and I loved it!

Venice was my favorite place that we went to. It is so pretty. It looks just like I had always seen in paintings. Gorgeous little streets with canals in the middle of them. Flower pots hanging off of windows, cobblestone and brick pathways...... So pretty!!!! Our water taxi pick up spot, which was literally just outside our hotel doors was even so pretty!

There truly are not cars around. Everyone walks or takes a boat. I loved the gondolas! I had to keep asking myself if it was real! We rode in the gondolas with a man in a stripped shirt and he sang to us in Italian! It was just so pretty.

I loved all the laundry hanging out to dry. I don't know why I loved it so much. It was just so quaint!

Rich, Mari and I walked way FAR away from the main tourist part of Venice to the residential part of the city. (Jeff was in the hotel taking a nap, suffering from jet lag!) It was so pretty and quiet. I loved this doorway going into the residential area.

There was also a beautiful park over there. I loved how the trees formed an archway over the path.

Then we took the train from Venice, down through Milan an into Arona, which is just outside of Milan. It was such a beautiful area. It is 45 miles from Switzerland. You could see the Swiss Alps off in the distance. Arona is known for it's lake. It is the most beautiful lake in all of Italy. This was our view of the lake from our hotel room.

We took a boat ride out to the middle of the lake to an island where there is this restaurant and nothing else. It was really neat. There was another island across from where we were at and it had a castle on it. The castle was stunning in the dark and I could just imagine how amazing it had to be in the light. I wanted to spend a few extra days here to sight see more. It was a beautiful place.

We had the best meal.......and even better desserts!

Then we flew to Rome. We spent 3 days there. Rome was awesome! There is so much history and so many things to see. We went to the Colosseum.

Right outside the Colosseum is Constantines Victory Arch.

We went to the Trevi Fountain. We all made a wish and threw our coins in backwards like we were supposed to.

The streets were narrow and there were a million little cars and a million scooters and motorcycles.

All the cars would seriously park this close! I would watch people parallel park into a spot so tight that it seemed impossible. But they did it with no problem. It helped that their cars were itty bitty. I could just see myself trying to park my Expedition or worse yet, Jeff's monster truck. I would crash into not only cars, but also buildings and people!

I am only 5' 6" and I totally towered lots of cars. Can you just imagine Jeff and I TOGETHER at the same time in this car! It would be horrible!

People would park all over in Rome. Anywhere and everywhere! Even in the middle of crosswalks. They would park 2 and 3 cars deep too. I guess you just had to wait in order to leave if you needed to.

We went to The Pantheon. It is an amazing building.

It was built in 448 BC! It was built with a big hole in the top of the dome so that they could have light and it also helped control the temperature inside the building.

The floors were slightly built on a slant towards the middle so that when rain water came through the hole, it would all go down into these little holes in the floor and they could collect the rain water.

Every building and structure of every kind was built so beautiful. I know that I keep saying the words "amazing" and "beautiful" and "gorgeous" but it all really was!

We went to the Vatican City.

I can't even describe how big this place is.

After we left Rome and drove to a place called Fiuggi and stayed there for 2 days. It was a beautiful, mountianous place. It was a "spa town" and it was quaint and really pretty. Then we drove back to Rome for 2 more days and then we flew home. Do you remember the movie with Steve Martin and John Candy called Planes Trains and Automobiles? Well that was totally our life on that trip, only it was planes, trains, boats, and automobiles! It was so much fun but after 6 different flights to get us where we needed to be each time, I was very ready for home.