Italia

Trent and I just got home late last night from spending 10 days in Italy. We went with Trent's parents, his younger brother and his fiance. We could go on and on about our trip, so instead we decided to give you the highlights of each day.

Wednesday June 9- We boarded the plane in Dallas, flew to Chicago and then headed to Rome.

Thursday June 10- We arrived in Rome around 9 am. We were exhausted because we did not sleep at all on the plane. It was absolutely miserable! After we checked into the hotel we walked over to the Trevi Fountain and ate lunch.

Our first lunch in Italy!!

Friday June 11- We toured Rome with our fabulous guide Caitlin. (Who I would highly recommend to anyone. It can be pricey, but you can skip lines into places and you learn so much.) We saw the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the sculpture of Moses (by Michelangelo), Pantheon, Circus Maximus and the Vatican. This was one of our favorite days, because it was amazing to see the buildings and walk the same streets that Peter or Paul would have seen and walked. It's one thing to see these things in books, but to see it in person is indescribable.

Outside the Vatican (the column behind us was taken from the Circus Maximus supposedly one of the last things Peter saw as he hung on the cross in front 250,000 spectators)

Inside the Colosseum

The Spanish Steps

Saturday June 12- You might think we are crazy... we rented cars and drove from Rome up to Tuscany. This was an experience I will never forget. The family went in a van and Trent and I were in a tiny Ford Fiesta, oh did I mention it was a standard? Trent had only driven a standard once in a parking lot. Rome has terrible traffic. There are no lanes, people drive wherever they want, however fast they want and most people drive scooters and cut in between cars. This was not the place for Trent to have on the job training! We stalled out a few times in the middle of traffic and I had the whitest knuckles you have ever seen. Once we got on the highway and there wasn't as much traffic he did great!

Trent's dad had a hard time figuring out how to put the van into reverse

(he's gunna die when he sees this)!

Sunday June 13- We decided to all jump in the van and drive around Tuscany. We ventured to San Gimignano, an old medieval town up on a hill. There we had lunch and went shopping. Then we drove over to Pisa. We had been told that it really wasn't worth going there, but we decided to go anyway. It was really incredible to see the tower. They began building it and realized it was sinking into the ground making it lopsided. The builders stopped building and then decided to try and build it going back the other way to even it out. It was amazing to see and we were glad we went. On the way home we got into traffic and decided to get off the highway... thank goodness we had GPS on the iPhones!!! We had lots of laughs driving on winding roads (sometimes dirt roads) through the countryside. Around dinner time we came upon the city Volterra (for you Twilight readers you will recognize the name). It was by far one of the prettiest places we visited! All and all this day was very adventurous!!

San Gimignano's square

The famous tower in Pisa.

Did you know it's actually a bell tower for a church?

Monday June 14- We met our guide, Danielle, in Florence. She took us to all of the cathedrals and churches in the city. We learned about Florence's history and saw the famous Ponte Vecchio.

Florence's Duomo

Tuesday June 15- Danielle took us to the Academia and there we saw the David and some of Michelangelo's unfinished works. Then we went to the Uffizi and saw beautiful pieces by Leonardo Da Vinci, Donatello, Bontticelli and many other famous artist. After lunch we visited the Palazzo Vecchio.

The view from the top of the Palazzo Vecchio.

Wednesday June 16- We drove to Siena, ate lunch and shopped. This day was kind of rainy so we didn't stay too long.

The beautiful church in Sienna.

Thursday June 17- At 8:30 am we boarded a train and went to Venice. There we went shopping and just hung out for the day. Venice was neat, however there were lots of tourists!

Venice!!

Our view of the Adriatic Sea during lunch.

Friday June 18- We packed up from the villa and drove along the Mediterranean Sea back to Rome. I have never seen water that is such a rich blue color. It was absolutely beautiful! This night we had a HUGE 3 course dinner and shared funny stories from the trip.

I love the beach, I could have stayed there all day!

Saturday June 19- Our flight was delayed 3 hours due to volcanic ash... who would have guessed! We were lucky enough to change our connecting flight in Chicago in order to make it back to Dallas by 11:30 pm.

Overall this was an amazing trip! Thanks to Trent's parents for taking us and sharing their love of Italy. We had such a great time and can't wait to go back again some day :)