Venezia

Saturday we checked out of our hotel in Milan and took a train to Venice for the day. The hotel was awesome and let us keep our luggage in a locked room for the day but we brought all our most valuables with us of course.

Venice was BY FAR my favorite city. When we go back to Italy, I would spend much more time here!  It was clean, not a ton of tourists, GREAT food, romantic, inspiring and just relaxing. We were so scared it would be freezing cold and even flood that we were planning on buying rain boots after our train arrived, but we stepped off and it was gorgeous.  Bright & beautiful!

We took a boat through the grand canal to Basilica di San Marco to see the square and tour the Cathedral. The boat ride was nice but after sitting on a train you just want to explore, not sit and wait more.  We wished we had just walked to the church, seen more, and saved money. It probably would have taken the same amount of time. Although, romantically appealing, gondola rides are super expensive and I think I would rather walk the city!

The Cathedral and square were both gorgeous and the line to view the church was pretty manageable. You can’t bring in book bags or purses and there is a place to check them but Cameron wasn’t to thrilled with the idea. The ceiling is all gold and just breathtaking. Afterwards, we ate the BEST panini of our lives, then walked around, got lost and embraced the city.  We poked our heads in and out of  some small stores, ate a huge chocolate cookie with white chocolate chips and topped the day off with our first of many gelato stops! Do you see how important eating is yet? :)

Here are some of my favorite moments.

Milano

My next few posts will be from our world wind crazy trip to Italy! We started and ended our Italy trip and Milan.  It was gorgeous, full of history, fashion, and architecture!

Even before we got married, Cameron and I talked about traveling the world.  He said that when we got married I could visit a country every year. Selling point, am I right!?  We talked a lot about visiting Italy since Cameron had served his two year mission for the church there.  We floated around with the idea of traveling back with his family or taking an adventure on our own.  With the announcement of the Rome Temple, we also thought of visiting for the dedication.  We had purchased a lot of flight in the past and joined every skymiles program out there to get points and around October we realized I had enough for a free round trip ticket and he had enough for half.  Well, his brain went into what I call ‘Italian Mode’ and one night I came home from work and he had been looking at tickets all evening and found some great deals, I half jokingly said, “well book them already!” and he did! After jumping up and down on the bed we went into making plans and finding contacts to stay with and making our ITALY BUCKET LIST!  I loved the spontaneity of the trip and the adventure in our lives.  I am pretty type a and like to have a plan set but I was okay with just diving in headfirst. It was liberating!

We left during Cameron’s semester break and flew from Phoenix to New York and then on to Rome. We tried to get on a good sleeping schedule on the plane and luckily had entire rows each to ourselves to spread out and sleep. We flew Delta, had amazing food and great flight staff.  I was rather impressed! We woke up in Milan Friday morning and after going through customs and all that jazz we walked out to a cold brisk air. We exchanged some money -p.s. do this in the U.S. first to avoid fees- and grabbed a bus to the main train station. From there we researched a hotel for the night and thank heavens that boy speaks fluent Italian.  I never would have made it on looks alone ;) Just kidding, but really having my own personal tour guide was pretty sweet! We grabbed some -too pretty to eat pastries- at Pasticceria Caffetteria for breakfast, can you say food porn?! Cameron was so excited by the fresh water fountains that are everywhere and I am pretty sure it was the first thing he did after stepping foot outside the station!

We stayed at a pretty nice hotel we found online and we thought we weren’t even that tired but would shut our eyes for a little bit and then hit some sights. FAIL! We woke up at 7:00pm that night hungry as ever and ready to go! We grabbed some delicious pizza in a plaza and toured the Duomo di Milano. Absolutely gorgeous and HUGE! You aren’t suppose to take pictures inside and there I was the ignorant American snapping away. Whoops! Just FYI some cathedrals do allow photos but most don’t out of respect. Makes sense to me. We walked around the rest of the night and one of my favorite moments was this tiny little bookstore that I wanted to spend the rest of my life in. Just look below, so quaint!