We’re back!!!  I know it seems I’ve disappeared for awhile and it’s because, well, I have.  Let’s start in June when we had the opportunity to sign a contract on our DREAM house and ended up signing another contract to sell ours a week later.  WHIRLWIND!  Who sells their house in this market?  Oh we do.  Since we weren’t totally planning on moving this summer, we had already scheduled our DREAM vacation to Italy for July 1-11th.  Even though it was crazy we had to continue with everything because we had already purchased plane tickets!

So literally this is what June 30th and July 1st looked like:  Saturday- wake up early, move boxes across the street to a POD storage unit (our buyers moved into our house on the 30th but we won’t move into our new house until July 27th), shower, drive to Richmond to second shoot a wedding for Melissa, drive back in horrid lightning storm, crash at a friends house in Newport News.  Sunday- wake up early to catch the train to NYC by 8a.m. and begin our journey towards Italy!

More on the move, our awesome house, the wonderful new owners of our old home, “etcetera, etcetera” to come!  For now, I must fill you in on our European adventure!  Disclaimer: all images taken with my cute little touristy Canon Powershot, which went with the touristy thing very well by imbedded the date into each picture!  Grrr.

We took a Red Eye from JFK to Dusseldorf, Germany.  Those Germans know how to fly!  Everything they did was SO efficient, like boarding from the back of the plane first so that there weren’t ever lines… brilliant!  We had dinner on board and slept a little, arriving in Dusseldorf around 11a.m. their time.  It must be noted that their taxi’s are Mercedes-Benz like it’s no big deal.  I think our taxi’s are Chevy, ha.  Germany- one, America- zero.  We had a beer at the World’s Largest Bar (a string of bars right next to each other overlooking the water) and of course Brats and Sauerkraut for dinner.  And then, we slept… that jet lag got to me!

The next morning we flew to Venice and took a water taxi to the front door of our hotel!  We literally stepped off the boat into the lobby!  I was impressed.  We found ONE place open during Siesta for lunch, and they served us the best Caprese salad I’ve ever had.  Complete with amazing olive oil and a glass of Prosecco of course.  We slept again for a long time (whoops!  Jet lag plus Prosecco apparently does that!) and then woke up ready for dinner!  We had pizza at Rosa Rossa’s, where Johnny Depp hung out during his time in Venice filming The Tourist.

We spent all of July 4th exploring Venice!  It’s the coolest city with crazy little alley’s and twists and turns and water everywhere!  We had a blast.  Dinner was one of our best meals of the whole trip!  We ate at A Beccafico where they provided us with amazing Bruschetta and Prosecco as we decided on our food: Spaghetti Pomodoro followed by Veal Marsala.  HEAVENLY!!  After our meal they brought us two complimentary bottles of house made Limoncello and sweet wine.  They don’t mess around with their food and spirits!

We were sad to leave Venice the next morning but excited to see Rome!  We got to ride the fast EuroTrain (which still took 4 hours) and arrived in Rome just in time for a quick peek at the Piazza Del Popollo, a late dinner and sleep!

After an amazing hotel breakfast we headed out to our guided tour of the Vatican.  We were so lucky to have a guide helping to explain everything to us.  We saw the San Pietra, Vatican Museum, and Sistine Chapel.  We got lost in the Sistine Chapel, no joke.  It was just so unbelievably beautiful.  I snuck a few pictures… don’t tell 🙂  We had lunch at a wine bar, probably our favorite restaurant in Rome that we ended up going back to for dinner one night.  We got lost trying to get home and then lost again as we headed out for dinner at Taverna Barberini but who cares if you’re lost when you’re holding hands with your best friend?!  On our way to dinner we stopped at the Spanish Steps where I was “gifted” a rose that we didn’t have money for and had to give back, but not before snapping a cute pic!!  Dinner was truffle pasta followed by pork in a wine sauce and finally! a house wine that came from their vats straight into a pitcher!!

Stay tuned for Italia Part Two where we hang out in Tuscany, travel back to Rome, see the Colosseum and yes, get lost AGAIN!