A Personal Journal | Our Trip to Italy

February 7, 2020

For our five year anniversary, Brandon and I decided we really wanted to take a special trip. We landed on Italy, since it was on my bucket list, and Brandon having been, knew I would love it. I began doing research of what to book the trip through. Wether we should do a travel website where it bundled everything or to book everything individually. We settled on Costco, and the deal we got was a steal. We chose 12 days split up in Venice, Florence and Rome and it included the airfare, hotels, transportation from the airport to the hotel and the train rides between each city. Check out their deals here: https://www.costcotravel.com/

We started in Venice and I was blown away by the architecture and beauty of it all. The city has no cars so we pretty much got around everywhere by foot or boat. The city is complied of tiny allies that open into plazas so getting lost is really easy, and….recommended.

There truly is no other city like it in the world.

We took a boat ride over to the colorful town of Burano. They are known for their lace so it was full of tiny shops with beautiful intricate lace clothing and tablecloths.

We also visited neighboring Murano which has some of the most beautiful hand blown glass you have ever seen. I of course brought home wine glasses.

Venice and night was something straight out of a movie. So picturesque.

Florence

On to Florence! Florence was my favorite city. Built along a river, it had so many beautiful bridges and the mountains in the distance just added to its charm. The history and art in this city was also astounding. Not just the famous David statue by Michelango, but all of the intricate designs in the churches and buildings. Also, we seemed to always catch the sunset every night from a rooftop or overlook. That was just the icing on the cake in this beautiful city.

The iconic Duomo.

This was the view from our balcony. Our room was magnificent!

The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore was green and pink. I was obsessed, I have never seen a church like it.

Our anniversary dinner overlooking the city. On our wedding day, Brandon and I wrote our vows down and sealed them in a wine box with a bottle of wine to open and drink 5 years later on our 5th anniversary. At dinner I gasped and said “oh no! we forgot about our wine box!” Brandon said he couldn’t bring the wine, but he then pulled from his pocket our letters we had written on our wedding day. I instantly started crying and this was the sweetest and most gracious gift my husband has ever given me.

We booked a wine tour through Tuscany and I couldn’t get over the fact that the countryside looked exactly as I had seen it in calendars and movies. From the rolling hills of grape vines to the tall Italian cyprus trees and the old crumbling farm houses and cellars, it was perfect. The tour we booked was through: https://www.tuscan-wine-tours.com/

This winery is where Gucci does all its photoshoots!

The tour concluded with a lunch at the last winery. It was the best meal we had in Italy.

Our last night we took a bottle of wine to Piazzale Michelangelo and watched the sunset.

Rome

We finished our tour of Italy in historic Rome. It was almost overwhelming trying to fit in everything we wanted to do in Rome in to the 3 days we were there. We visited the Vatican, The Colosseum, and of course the Trevi Fountain. We had amazing pizza and wine and went shopping for gifts to bring home. We finished the trip with a early morning photoshoot in honor of our anniversary.

The beautiful Trevi Fountain

The Pantheon

The Colosseum

Vatican City

Wow was the Sistine Chapel breathtaking. You of course can not photograph Michelango’s artwork on the ceiling. The room was PACKED and guards were yelling the entire time to be quiet. It was quite comical.

Our photoshoot!

I was so lucky to be able to find a photographer in Italy to capture our anniversary photos. Irina no longer lives in Italy, so we were so lucky to get photos done before she moved!

Photos by: Irina ODoardi Photography