Remembering Italy

Happy Valentine's day to everyone!  Today is exactly 3 months until our one year anniversary and the past 9 months have certainly flown by.  A lot has happened in the past 9 months, but not the typical 9 month event that you all might be thinking of or hoping for. : )  We spent the 10 days after our wedding touring Italy and I often flip back through the pictures and dream of going back and seeing the beautiful scenery, architecture and all the history.  Italy really was an unbelievable place to visit and it is hard to pick one favorite place or thing that we saw.  Joe and I wanted to share some of the pictures we took with you, so we picked out a couple photos from each city we traveled to; Milan, Venice, Florence, Pisa, and Rome.  I hope you enjoy them and maybe they'll give you a little mental vacation to a sunny, beautiful place!

First up, Milan!

We found this park in Milan by accident and it ended up being one of our favorite spots.  There was even castle there!  

I thought this was a cool spot in Milan because it shows a mix of the newer city and the much older side.  Plus, we got some free juice there from a lady giving out samples.

 Venice!

This picture is just quintessential Venice.  This was definitely one of our favorite places.  Everything there was just beautiful, and exactly what you would imagine Venice to be like. 

The view from the Campanille (Bell Tower) in St. Marks Square.  You could see the entire island from this spot.

 Florence!

Twilight on the river in Florence.  This picture was taken from the famous Ponte Vecchio Bridge.

View of Florence from the Piazzale De Michaelangelo.  If you ever go to Florence, you absolutely have to hike up there at sunset.  When I first saw this skyline, it reminded me of a scene from Mary Poppins, which led to me singing "Feed the Birds" every time I saw some pigeons... which was a lot.

Pisa!

This is just funny because there are a total of 3 people "holding up" the tower.   We climbed up the tower and the view from the top was fantastic.

Rome!

The Trevi Fountain.  We only saw it at night, but I've decided that's the best time to see it : )

Inside the Colosseum.  You can really get an idea of the size of this structure by finding the people standing around the edges.  The Colosseum was definitely a sight to see.

By far my favorite thing in Rome was all the "ruins" everywhere.  I think Joe got tired of me pointing them out every time I saw a crumbling building.  It's just so cool that they're a couple thousand years old!

This building is not ancient (it was built in the 1920s), but it is still pretty awesome, and  enormous!  We took an elevator ride to the top and got some amazing views of all of Rome.

Last but not least is Joe's favorite picture from the trip.  We call this one, "The Sighting of Big Foot".   I'm not sure if you can tell, but it's a picture of me lurking through some ruins to get a picture near them.  He thinks it's funny for some reason.

Tomorrow I'll share the dessert I made for Valentine's day.  It was the polar opposite of the easy, 2 ingredient fudge I posted on Sunday.  This cake was definitely a labor of love!