Food of Italy

Pizza, gelato, expressos, open-air markets and fancy antipasti… What more could a girl need?

Last summer I spent a month in Italy with my family, and one of my biggest regrets, blog-wise, was that I didn’t post more about the food. Sure, the sights were amazing and the country side gorgeous, but what really made the trip was sinking your teeth into a messy bite of lasagna, or feeling melted gelato ooze down your chin. Letting your eyes wander the vast outdoor produce markets, asking yourself what that odd, pointy vegetable could be. Tasting the sweet, fresh taste of a cherry tomato on pizza, wondering why the tomatoes

Venice: A Photo Diary

I do realize that this post is long overdue since we returned home exactly a month ago, but here it is, finally. Venice was the last stop on our trip.  Although we stayed only a few nights, it was enough to soak up Venice’s most stunning sights. Life revolved around the canals, but surprisingly, they were lined with sidewalks. It also came as a shock that most people that lived there actually had their own boats to use on the canals and didn’t really ride on the gondolas to get around; the gondolas were used by tourists.

Umbria and Tuscany: A Photo Diary

We spent about a week in Umbria, where we enjoyed Umbria’s beautiful landscapes and had a great deal of relaxing. Not to mention the couple of trips we took into nearby Tuscany to visit Florence and experience Tuscany’s splendor.

A Typical Day in Umbria

We’ve been in Umbria for a week now and it’s been amazing. We’re just about to leave for Venice but I want to share a little bit more about Umbria first. Our days have fallen into something of routine, at least the days we aren’t trekking off to Florence or Rome for the day (yes, we did take a train back to Rome for a day this week).

Unwinding in Umbria

After a week in Rome, some time in the countryside is just what I needed. Not that I didn’t absolutely love Rome, but after so much time in the city, it’s so refreshing to open your shutters each morning to the smell of morning dew, the sound of the birds and the warmth of the sun. The next leg of our Italy trip has taken me to Umbria, a region neighboring Tuscany, with landscapes very similar to Tuscany’s rolling hills. The past two days have been filled with hikes through Umbria’s forests, books in lawn chairs and visits to small towns glued to the hills as if by magic. The pictures below sum it up pretty well.

I’m really thankful that we were able to add this little piece of nature to our trip because there’s something about nature that’s so grounding. Being surrounded by nature here in

Rome – Photo Diary

Rome is a city meant to be photographed, at least I think so. This past week in Rome has been amazing, and I’ve made sure to capture as much of it as I could on camera. Here are just a few little snippets of my week in Rome.

Rome: A Photo Diary

Rome is a city meant to be photographed, at least I think so. This past week in Rome has been amazing, and I’ve made sure to capture as much of it as I could on camera. Here are just a few little snippets of my week in Rome.

Rome off the Beaten Path

We’d planned to see the sights, the Colosseum, the Vatican, the Forum, the Pantheon, but the best part of Rome was discovering its hidden gems, where no one goes, or at least where few tourists go. Many of these places we discovered by chance after taking a wrong turn, or getting lost in Rome’s abundant streets. These were some of my favorite places in Rome because they showed not the Rome that’s expected by tourists, but Rome as it really is.

Shopping Rome

One of my favorite parts of any trip, is shopping. Not just shopping major clothing stores, but visiting local markets, stopping in for snacks at bakeries or coffee shops, and finding new and exciting shops! So being in Rome, of course a morning spent shopping was in order. We decided to group together places we had found interesting while we had been researching Rome beforehand, and drew out a long route that would hit as many as possible. We wound through St. Peter’s Square and crossed the Tiber river to get the Campo de’ Fiori, Rome’s most popular outdoor market, and stopped at the most amazing pastry shop along the way, Il Fornaio. Then we crossed through the center of town and made our way to Zara, and on the way stopped at Danielle, a cute little Italian leather shoe store, and found a lovely little chocolate shop. On our way home, we walked down Via dei

Sicily Photo Diary

These are some of my favorite pictures from Sicily last week! Sicily was a beautiful island filled with gorgeous beaches and lots of culture! I am so very excited to share these pictures! Needless to say, Sicily was absolutely amazing, and a very necessary leg of our Italy trip.