We spent Thanksgiving in Italy with Hudson’s family and had SUCH a special time there, so today I wanted to share about our trip as well as talk about the best things to experience in Italy! We were there for 2.5 weeks and had such an incredible time traveling around the country.
VICENZA
Hudson’s brother Ryan is serving our country in the Army (thank you so much Ryan for your service!) and is currently stationed in Italy with his beautiful wife Sarah and precious daughter Peyton, so the whole purpose for the trip was to visit with them and meet our newborn niece! Oh my goodness she is just the most precious baby and it was so special to get to meet her.
We loved spending time as a family and seeing Ryan & Sarah’s beautiful town they live in! It’s about 45 minutes from Venice and literally felt like walking in a postcard; it is so quaint, family-friendly, and full of gelaterias. :) I am so excited for them getting to live their dreams of living in Europe and experience on a regular basis what was a once-in-a-lifetime trip for us!
VENICE
We spent two days in Venice and really packed a lot in. We stayed at the Relais Venezia, which was right in between Saint Mark’s Square and the Rialto Bridge.
We had the opportunity to see both of those, tour Saint Mark’s Basilica, climb the clock tower, and take a gondola ride down the grand canal. It felt like a dream being able to do that!
We also did a boat tour to the islands of Murano, Burano, and Torcello, and got to see a glassblowing seminar.
MILAN
After going back to Vicenza for Thanksgiving, we traveled as a family to Milan. The Milan Cathedral was my favorite of the entire trip – it was so ornate, and huge too!
We started with a tour of Duomo di Milano, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, and Teatro alla Scala, which then ended at Da Vinci’s The Last Supper. It was incredible to see and picture Jesus with his disciples. Something I will never forget!
The next day, we toured the Sforza Castle and then climbed to the top of the cathedral! This is where our joy of climbing things in Italy truly began – it was such an amazing experience being up that high!
CINQUE TERRE
Both of my sisters had recommend we visit Cinque Terre, but I had read that it can be rainy/cold in late November, when we were going. We decided to still go for it, and wow am I ever glad we did. The weather was absolutely perfect and I’m not sure I’ll ever see a more beautiful sunset in my entire life!
We stayed in Manarola, and found a condo with Arbaspaa which we absolutely loved. If you ever have the chance to go to Cinque Terre, get the train pass – I believe it is 16 euros per person (and 6 of those go to the National Park for restorations) – and you can visit each of the five towns. Even better is to join one of the park’s walking, train, or ferry tours .As soon as we arrived, we met up with a tour guide for a train/walking tour of the National Park of Cinque Terre to learn about the culture and tradition of each of the villages.
We went to Riomaggiore and Vernazza, and loved experiencing the unique differences of each one. We then rushed back to Manarola for sunset on the point near Nessun Dorma restaurant. Wow is all I can say…God is an incredible artist! It was a night I will never forget.
The next morning, Hudson and I hiked Manarola a bit before taking off for the busiest day of our trip – Cinque Terre, Pisa, and Florence all in one day! And it was Hud’s birthday, too, so it made for a really exciting time.
PISA
One thing I really loved about Pisa is that so many historical buildings are all in one area: Piazza dei Miracoli. This made it nice for us to experience them all in a short amount of time.
Our favorite experience was definitely climbing the Leaning Tower of Pisa – it felt like a dream to be there and see it, let alone to climb it! It was a windy day and you could actually feel the lean as you were climbing it, so Hud was laughing at me holding onto the columns for dear life, ha, but that was a really neat way to celebrate his birthday!
FLORENCE
We arrived fairly late in Florence and found our AirBnB to be right near the Duomo! The next day, we ate lunch in the Piazza della Signoria and then toured the Uffizi Gallery. Florence is the cutest little quaint town with streets that you can just stroll along on for hours, so after visiting the Uffizi Gallery we did just that with gelato in hand – and of all the places we got gelato, Florence gelato was definitely the best!
The next day, we did the Walks of Italy Best of Florence Tour, which was absolutely incredible because we got to skip the line to see Michelangelo’s David statue right when it opened. I am not even a huge art fanatic, but it was truly incredible to see – as were the other pieces in that gallery.
We then toured the Duomo, which was neat to have an official tour of since the Florence Duomo is probably the most well-known one. We then ended our tour on the Ponte Vecchio bridge, which we could have spent hours taking pictures on! Walks of Italy provides an array of walking tours (we also did one with them in Rome!) that give great historical background of the country.
We had gelato again that night, and climbed the bell tower and Duomo. Funny story about the bell tower climb: somehow I thought our guide said the climb was “40” stairs, so we sprinted up the first 40 to see the sunset – only to find out she had really said “414.” May or may not have been crawling up the stairs by the end, ha!
Then it was off to Rome the next day!!
ROME
We stayed near the Pantheon in Rome, which was a really great way to be in walking or easy bus location of everything!
As soon as we arrived, we were picked up by Avventure Bellissime (Tours-Italy) for a Private Best of Rome Tour! Having been in business for 18 years, they really knew how to make us feel like celebrities. They created a custom experience for us to tour the Pantheon, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona, and Trastevere – we even had Italian hot chocolate at the end!
Our tour guide, Francesca, was probably the best tour guide we’ve ever had! She provided a very positive and personal experience – as did our driver, who while he was waiting bought for us a beautiful piece from a local artist! It’s a great reminder of the incredible experience we had, thanks to Avventure Bellissime organizing everything for us. They specialize in private and small group tours of Italy and we really loved our experience.
The next day, we did Walks of Italy’s VIP Ancient Rome Tour. We got to see inside Caesars Palace, which was so interesting for me to think back to what life must have been like in biblical times. We then toured the Roman Forum, where Paul and other apostles supposedly preached. The Colosseum was huge and felt like we were looking at a postcard! We learned so much about the history of that time.
The below picture overlooks the Roman Forum, where the apostle Paul shared about boldly following Jesus – and we took it just steps away from the Mamertine Prison, where he was imprisoned (as was Peter) before being beheaded for his faith. 2 Timothy 1:8-9, which Paul wrote while in chains there, now is so much more real to me: “So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God. He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time…” Standing in that tiny, dark, and cold dungeon at The Mamertime Prison, I felt so much comfort in knowing that, no matter our circumstances in this ever-changing world, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8) and He is so worth living (and dying) for. I highly recommend visiting the Mamertime Prison if you have the opportunity!
The next day, we went to the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, where Paul is buried. And then the following day, we went to the Vatican! We did the “Privileged Entrance” Vatican & Sistine Chapel Tour with The Roman Guy, and wow were we ever glad we did because the line without having an early morning tour was longgggg. Thankfully we were able to see the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel without a whole lot of people there, and wow I could write a whole week of posts about how spectacular the Vatican was! Our tour guide was so knowledgable and packed a lot of information into the tour.
We then climbed to the top of the Vatican, and it was an amazing final experience in Italy. Looking out over Vatican City, I just felt so grateful for the opportunity to have experienced such a beautiful as Italy. The people we met were so friendly, the views so spectacular, the food so delicious, and the memories so wonderful.
