I Heart Italy!

Well, we're back. Italy was fantastic. Being home without Todd again is blah. I'm married to a dreamboat and it stinks being on the opposite side of the globe from him. It was great fun meeting in the middle, and I miss my man so much now.

Aaw, the three of us together again.

Hazel did much better than expected on the looong plane trips, and was awesome for our whole vacation.

She did a lot of this:

and this:

and this:

She loved being outside all day and having so many new things to look at and think about.

The Italians loved her. There were always people cooing at her, snapping their fingers in her face and trying to make her smile. It was exciting at first, but by the end I was wishing they'd give me and my baby a little more personal space. ;)

Too much happens in a two-week vacation to make it into a blog post, but I will give you the top highlights. Other than that, just know that Todd and I were ecstatic to be together, that he was fabulous with Hazel, and that we would do the whole thing over again a million times if we could.

The Colosseum was absolutely mind-blowing. You just can't fathom it's magnitude until you're standing inside it. How incredible. You all must go and see it sometime in your life.

I loved seeing all the ruins (they're scattered throughout the whole country, just jutting up on a hillside here and next to a farmhouse there). We also went to Pompey, and it's just so cool to think you're walking on stones and looking at remnants of buildings that are 2000 years old.

It was very exciting to see art in person that you've read and heard about for years, super famous stuff like the Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo's David.

Cinque Terra was breathtakingly beautiful. We went on hikes and admired the coastline, marveled at the farms being built on the terraced land and impressed by the houses all stacked on top of each other, all of it right on the cliff edges.

Todd took this picture himself. He's good, huh? He should go pro.

Venice was romantic, especially at night.
One of the coolest things we learned about Venice was that a lot of the main floors of the buildings there used to be second or third floors. The city is slowly sinking into the water, so they keep building new layers of road, and now the old main floors are underwater. So interesting!

We traveled mostly by train, and stayed at little bed and breakfasts. Most of the places had pack and plays for Hazel to sleep in, but we did have to get creative in Venice. Check her out sleeping in a drawer!

We only liked two Italian deserts. Most of them were too dry for our liking. However, we had gelato nearly every day, and we discovered that we love canoles. Mmm, mmm, good!

Holy Canole!

I'm so glad we went and had this trip together as a little family. It was so exciting to finally get to Italy - I've dreamed about it since I was a kid. But most of all, it was just so comforting to be with Todd again. He's doing well and has been safe so far, so thank you all for your prayers for him.

Man, I miss you, babe.