That One Time I Went to Italy

It's been a few years since I took a quick trip to Italy, but every December, I'm reminded of my time there. I figured I'd share several of the photos on here since I've been diving into my albums and reliving it.

In Rome, we visited Vatican City, the Sistine Chapel, the Colosseum and Roman Forum, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain. We wandered aimlessly through the Trastevere neighborhoods near our hotel, the neighborhoods near the Trevi Fountain, and some large open air farmer's markets with produce and goods. We sampled delicious treats from neighborhood restaurants, like thick and creamy hot cocoa, gelato, food truck sandwiches, manicotti, pasta and pizza. We shopped a little as well.

In Florence, we wandered through some local museums, saw Leonardo's Da Vinci's David statue, the Duomo, a musical instrument museum, and wandered more neighborhoods and open air markets, shopped, got more gelato, and ate at a restaurant that's been in business in the same family since the 1100's. I also ate the most delicious thing I had in Italy in Florence. Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli in a Butter Sage Sauce. I still salivate when I think about it years later. We stayed in a hotel along the Arno river, that overlooked the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge with all the shops on it. In Florence, we also got to see a holiday parade. I fell in love with the city.

One of the parts that got to me the most is the sheer amount of history involved in that part of the world. The colosseum is almost 2000 years old, the Sistine Chapel is almost 600 years old, the Duomo in Florence has buildings that are 700-1000 years old. The fact that we ate at a restaurant that has been handed down through the generations for just over 900 years blows my mind. Living in Utah, most of the developed cities have only been developed for a century or less. The amount of history in Rome and Florence makes my head spin.

Both hotels we stayed at provided us free breakfast, and they were both better than almost any restaurant I've eaten at before. Bananas tasted better than they do in Utah, the ripeness was perfection. The orange juice, and bacon and everything were perfect. Maybe the novelty of being in Italy helped, but overall the food is ridiculously fresh in Italy.

It would take more than one blog post to cover everything we did there to it's entirety, so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

If you ever get the chance to go, GO. I only wish I'd had months to explore, instead of mere days. I'll be going back again someday. I fell in love with Italy, and always look back on my trip with dreamy nostalgia colored lenses.

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