Three Henrys & a Mohr....An Italian Adventure

Italy….the only place where you can drink a bottle of wine every day and not feel like an alcoholic.  What an amazing week.  Katie and I have just returned from an amazing week in Italy, but what we are most grateful for was the opportunity to spend it with my parents who came to visit for 12 days.

Overall, it was so nice having our first guests and getting to show them around this beautiful part of the country where we live.  Of course they had to have fish and chips, cream tea and real Cornish pasties while they were here, but that goes for anyone who comes to visit us : ) 

Before I forget to write this, can I just say that we could NOT have asked for any better weather during the entire time my parents were in Cornwall or the entire week we were in Italy.  Lots of sun and temps in the 60’s and 70’s.  Not bad at all.

After a busy few days in Truro we all spent Saturday night preparing for our week in Rome and Venice.  Sunday morning came bright and early and we were off for Italy!!!  We hired a private car whose driver (Basil Jelly…yes this is his real name) drove us throughout the English countryside, past Stonehenge and directly to Gatwick airport.  All travel was smooth, we arrived safely in Rome and before you knew it we were sitting in a restaurant for what would be the first of a week filled with meals of pasta, bread, wine, etc.  

First gelato in front of The Trevi Fountain

We filled our Monday with the Roman Colosseum, the Forum and the Pantheon.  Katie and I took some time to ourselves in the afternoon to check out the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps even though we knew we would be back to both later that night with my parents.  As we did every day of the week, we all took a much needed nap and spent another great evening out having an Italian dinner to cap off another great day.  After dinner, we all had our first Gelato (first of many) and spent some time at the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps before heading back to our hotel. 

Sistine Chapel

Tuesday was filled with a full day in the world’s smallest country—the Vatican.  Since the Pope didn’t return any of my e-mails we weren’t able to meet up as we had hoped, so instead we decided to take in the Vatican museum (which was huge), the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica by ourselves.  All were just as beautiful as I imagined them to be and were great reminders of how incredibly talented artists of that time, like Michelangelo, really were.  My parents stayed in the Basilica for the daily mass as Katie and I headed back through the rest of Rome for some exploring.  Our last night in Rome was spent around a table filled with more amazing Italian food as the next morning we would board a train which would take us straight to Venice. 

First night in Venice 

One of my favorite aspects of our time in Rome was witnessing my Dad experience Rome for the first time.  I grew up hearing him talk about places like the Roman Colosseum, ancient ruins and the Vatican as if they were something out of reach, that most people never get to see for themselves. So getting to share this with him and to see just how excited he really was to be there is something I will always remember.  The history of these places truly is difficult to grasp.  However, being there to see them with your own eyes does help you to imagine what life may have been like for these whole civilizations of people who walked the same earth that we were now strolling along.  Needless to say, it was really something to remember.    

On Wednesday, all travels to Venice went smoothly.  We had roughly a 4-hour train ride to Venice and we arrived by mid-afternoon. In researching Venice prior to our trip, I remember reading a quote that said, “Venice is not just a city to see, it’s a place that you have to experience.”  Truer words have never been written.  For those of you who have been to Venice, you know that this is a city that not only has no cars, but also has no roads.  In fact the only way to even get to the island is by boat.  All of this just added to the atmosphere and the amazing experience that was Venice.

Date night at Rialto Bridge

After a short Vaporetto ride we hopped off at our stop a few blocks from our hotel.  As you may know, Venice is a labyrinth of canals, bridges, alleys and passageways making it incredibly easy to get lost (more on that later).  As a result we were so grateful to have met a very nice Venetian man on our boat who knew exactly where our hotel was and offered to show us the way as it was in the direction he was headed.  These are the kind of small things that set a tone for an entire day so it was great to start off a new city on such a positive note.

One of many cappuccinos 

Our hotel was great and after we checked into our rooms we decided to start our time in Venice with a gondola ride at sunset (it’s a rough life).   One of the greatest things about our hotel was that it had a private landing for water taxi’s and gondolas so we literally walked right out of our hotel and onto a gondola.  As the sun set over the Grand Canal we floated along the canals in and out of back passageways observing a mixture of tourists struck with the beauty their eyes were seeing and locals living their lives—strolling home from work or hanging laundry on the line.  Witnessing this from a gondola sitting next to people that you love was the quintessential Venice experience.  It was touristy but worth every penny and a great welcome to the city.  Our gondola dropped us off along the Grand Canal so we were able to stroll along the waterfront as small shops and local artists closed up and packed away their things for the night and as restaurants set up tables and wrote dinner specials on outdoor menu boards as an invitation to those who passed by.  We strolled along a few back canal passages, found a restaurant and had another amazing meal.  As usual, we all had bread, wine and a variety of pastas to end another day.  The walk back to our hotel was a bit more complicated than intended as we ALL forgot to bring a map that EACH of us was given by our hotel.  Needless to say that this added a little stress (and a lot of time) to the night, but in my opinion getting lost in Venice is better than knowing your way around any other city in the world : )

Rainbow and ALF along the Grand Canal

The next morning, we took a private water taxi to the island of Murano, most famously known for its glass-making.  Venetians have been known for artistic glass-making for centuries and Murano is a small island just north of Venice.  We were able to take a tour of one of the factories and see some of the glassmakers/artists first hand.  Again, the artistry is amazing and we all agreed that we will never look at glass the same again.  Murano is a very small island, but like Venice is filled with charm and winding walkways that parallel the canals.  However, unlike Venice, there are more locals than tourists, so we spent the morning strolling along the “streets” and walking in and out of shops as Katie and my Mom attempted to satisfy their shopping needs.  We took a vaporetto back to Venice and after some lunch headed back to the hotel.  One great thing about life in Italy is that most people don’t go out for dinner until 8 or 9 o’clock so it was great to wake up a little later, have breakfast (usually croissants, pastries and cappuccino) spend the day exploring, take a nap, and go out for dinner.  Definitely a lifestyle I can get on board with. 

Earlier in the night, we decided that Thursday would be “date night” so Katie and I decided to literally wander around and get lost in Venice.  We ate gelato and strolled along the Rialto Bridge, had dinner at a small restaurant off of the canal and had dessert (tiramisu and cappuccino) at another restaurant before heading back to our hotel.  What a great way to spend a night together in Venice. 

The perfect end to a great week!

Friday, our last day in Italy, snuck up on all of us.  We all knew that we had to make the most of it so we decided to adopt a “no-plans” mindset and set out for the day with nothing specific in mind that we wanted to accomplish.  This can be difficult for four people traveling together, but I think by then, we all realized that this was truly the best way to take in a city like Venice.   I think it helped us to all truly relax and really appreciate every moment of our last day together.  We ate more gelato, did more shopping, and had lunch sitting in the sun at a canal-side restaurant just under the Rialto Bridge.  We had another late afternoon nap and spent the last night in Venice enjoying another great dinner together.  By the end of the week, dinner almost became like a ritual, but one that we were all very comfortable with and a ritual that I think we could all carry out every day for the rest of our lives.  Even the worst meal you have in Italy would be the best meal you would have anywhere else.  The standard is set high and I think we all did a good job of savoring every bite and every moment talking and laughing across the table.  Like a lot of things during the week, they weren’t just events—they were moments and experiences that we would each carry with us forever.    

Awesome!

As we said goodbye to my parent in the airport I found myself thinking about how time is a funny thing.  We spent the months leading up to my parents visiting feeling like time was dragging on until they arrived.  It couldn’t get here soon enough.  But once they were here, I found myself wishing for nothing more than for the time to slow down, so we could enjoy every second of it together. 

There is nothing like being an ocean away from your family that makes you appreciate spending time with them more.  I love that I have the kind of parents that would choose to do something like this with us.  I love that they began planning their trip to visit us the second we told them we were moving over here.  After all they are the ones who instilled in me the confidence to do something like this and the gratitude to appreciate every moment of it.  In that way, sharing this kind of experience with them was very fitting. 

Hanging out on Rialto Bridge

It was an amazing week filled with a lot of memories, and yet we will look to our next trip and our next guests to remind us of how precious our time here really is.