italy love.

It was dreamy and delectable and so inspiringly perfect.
We spent 16 days in Italy this summer. Our itinerary went something like this: 
Rome (3 days)→  Siena (2 days) → Florence (2 days) → Venice (1 day) → Verona (1 day) → Cinque Terre (3 days) → quick stop in Pisa to see the leaning tower → Siena (1 impromptu day because we'd fallen in love) → Amalfi (1 day) → Sorrento (1 day) → Back to Rome for our flight home.

It's over whelming to try and sum up 16 crazy days into one blog post... and I don't have the steam to devote much more time to it. So here are 16 of my most favorite pictures to hopefully give a little idea of what we did!

Climbing up to the cupola of St. Peter's Basilica. The camera is not rotated! It was so disorienting to climb in the slanted parts. It was hot and cramped and exhausting but the view from the top was incredible. We sat up there for a long time enjoying the most spectacular view of Rome.

A favorite of mine, one of the smaller dome's on St. Peter's Basilica.

In front of the 2,000 year old Colosseum. We spent a few hours exploring the interior. It's amazing to think that gladiators and lions fought there and ship battles took place where we were standing!

Duomo di Siena.
Made of dark green (so dark it looks black) and white marble. Siena was my favorite city we visited while in Italy, although all of them were a close second. It's Italy's mid evil city and it feels & looks like you stepped back in time... to the 12th century. We missed the Palio by one day but saw horse hoof prints left in the sand from the race!

Beautiful Tuscany, on our way to our B&B.

Admittedly Florence was not my favorite place. We spent 1.5 days there and after the first day I was ready to be done. A friend of Mckay's did suggest a restaurant for us to try and we had a fantastic dinner that night. Here is Mckay with his Florentine steak, a local delicacy that looked completely unappetizing to me but he seemed to enjoy. I had lobster risotto that was to die for.

Venice, the sinking city. I wish we would have spent more time here. It's crowded and touristy but the ambiance of a city on the water is so incredibly mesmerizing. We loved it! We paid a stupid amount of money to take a gondola ride, but when in Venice, right?

We stopped in to Verona to see an opera (Romeo & Juliet) in the arena that was built in 30 AD. In 1913 it was used for operas and has been used for them ever since (minus during WWI & WWII). In 1913 audience members brought candles to light the stage because there was no electricity. In the 80's the tradition was brought back to represent the significance of each member of the audience being in such a historic & ancient place. It's a neat tradition and fun to see thousands of candles lit through out the arena.
*As amazing as the arena was, seeing an opera in a foreign language gets boring fast.

I never tired of the grapes! They look so pretty & perfect all lined up and so lush & green. I took this picture in Cinque Terre, five brightly colored villages carved into the mountain side right on the Italian Riviera. Right when we arrived we took a boat to Riomaggiore and hiked back up to Monterosso al Mare. It took us 4.5 sweaty, tiring hours but I don't think I've ever seen such beautiful views.

Monterosso al Mare (Cinque Terre), enjoying the sand, sun & sea.

Vernazza (Cinque Terre)
This was part of our hike, as we were coming down into the village, so picturesque!

After Cinque Terre we made that little detour back to Siena because we couldn't get the town or our B&B out of our heads. It was so perfect and peaceful and serene. The woman we stayed with (Marie) cooked us the most incredible food we've ever had. Ever. I have no words to describe the caliber of her cooking. Or the perfection of the setting.

Then we went South. Here I am early in the morning floating in the Mediterranean ocean in Amalfi town.

This picture makes me want to go back maybe more than any other one... dreamy.

They have lemons growing everywhere! And they are HUGE! I saw some the size of mangoes. They have this icy/lemonade-y thing with shaved ice and whole cubed lemons. You just eat it right up, peels and all. It's tasty & tart, great for the smoldering hot summer days.

Sitting out on the pier at sunset looking back to Amalfi.

Our last day we were in Sorrento and we spent a good portion of it exploring Pompeii. That was fascinating. The mountain behind us is actually Mount Vesuvius which erupted in 79 AD and buried an entire civilization. It is incredibly preserved, down to the "artwork" in the brothel.