Ciao

We have been in Italy for 10 days now and tonight is our last in this beautiful country, tomorrow we will be making the trek to London! I love Italy and am a bit sad to leave, but I do feel that in the time we had we  got to experience a ton of what it has to offer. We started off in Rome for four days and then headed up to Florence and the Tuscan countryside and finally ended up in Venice, each city all beautiful and unique in their own right. I think overall Italy is at the top of my list for the places we have visited thus far. It has always been somewhere I wanted to visit and it lived up to all my expectations, I hope that we will be able to make it back someday and explore more areas.

I wanted to give a quick overview of the highlights of this trip so I don't end up having to write a ridiculously long blog once these 6 weeks are over. I am hoping I can give short updates along the way with a few pictures and stories (dependant upon internet access) so you can follow along as we go.

Italy in a nutshell

Rome
We were amazed by this city. The history, architecture and culture were really something. Seeing things like the Colosseum and Pantheon in pictures is really nothing compared to their beauty in real life. We stood in front of these thousand year old remains and constantly were saying to one another "I can't believe we are really here!" We walked by the Colosseum everyday just because we could. We visited the Trevi Fountain and Spanish steps (I was especially stoked as these are featured in various romantic travel themed movies that I love, haha)

Vatican City was another place that we were blown away by. Seeing the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica were huge highlights. Everything there is so massive, old and full of history it was really overwhelming at times, a really cool experience.

Florence & Tuscany
A much quieter and smaller city than Rome, very scenic countryside and easy to get around. We visited the leaning tower of Pisa and had great weather that day allowing us to soak up the sun on the grass in front of the tower. Explored the city of Florence, visiting the daily market that runs through the city, churches and the Duomo a massive church in the middle of the city made from marble with a huge domed roof. On our last day we went on a Tuscan wine tour that took us through the Chianti region to visit some small towns such as the Montereggioni fortress and ending with a wine, cheese, olive oil and balsamic vinegar tasting at a winery estate. All very tasty, but I have to say it was the best balsamic vinegar I have ever tasted, wish we had room for it!

Venice
A totally unique city that runs completely on water roadways. No cars, no bikes, just walking, bridges and lots of boats/gondolas. It makes for a very quiet and serene atmosphere. The streets and roads here are the most narrow I have seen on our trip so far and this city is literally a maze of small streets going everywhere, its crazy but awesome! Luckily Joel is an expert at directions and remembers everywhere we go, so we have managed to avoid getting lost. St. Marks square is also something to be seen, a beautiful square that opens up onto the ocean, which a huge church and palace on it. We have had a lot of fun navigating the tiny streets and steep bridges exploring this neat city. The one thing we did not do was a gondola ride because they were 60-150 euros, ridiculous and sad!! We stuck to the vaporetto which is basically the public transport bus and it still offered great views for way less.

Today we visited the Island of Burano which is the cutest place ever! All the houses are these amazing bright colours all lined up along canals, it is so great (unfortunately I don't have photos uploaded from today yet)! It was a really relaxing way to spend our last day in Italy, just strolling the island in the sun, eating lunch on a patio and gelato along the canal.

Our diet has pretty much consisted of pizza, pasta, gelato and wine so it is a good thing we have been doing so much walking!

So there you have it, a few highlights and pictures from our time here in Italy. We will be training back to Rome tomorrow to catch our flight to London where the rest of our adventure will continue.

Ciao!

Paris: Ville des Lumières

Bonjour mes amis et famille!

Our most recent adventure took us to the land of beautiful architecture, french wine, delicious pastries (yumm macaroons!), the eiffel tower and sparkly lights, to name a few highlights. Paris is amazing, it was my second time there and Joel's first and we loved it. It was different for me seeing Paris on our own terms instead of with a tour group, which was how I saw it the first time I went.

However this time around Paris and I had a smashing start with one another (quite literally), when on our way to our hotel I fell up the stairs of the metro and hit my nose on the stairs, starting quite the nose bleed. Falling up stairs is a genetic disorder that I have inherited from my mom's side of the family, that and general klutziness which follows me wherever I go, Paris included. It did not help matters that I had a heavy backpack on that essentially weighed me down, preventing me from catching myself as I fell. Lucky enough there was a pharmacy right by the stairs, where some very kind women helped me get things under control! An embarrassing but memorable moment to say the least.

Paris is a well known city with many tourist "must visit" places and in the eight days that we were there we managed to see the majority of these sights. despite the rather frigid weather that we experienced while we were there (nothing like Canada, but colder weather than we have had all winter & snow!), we walked around a lot, allowing a local perspective on the city. Most of these places need no explanation as to what they are, but they were all highlights, so here is the list:

The Louvre- having been here before I knew it was HUGE, but seriously what a building, you could go 10+ times and still not see everything that is held there.
Notre Dame
Versailles- a chilly day! fantastic gardens and castles:)
Champs Elysees
Arc de Triomphe
Eiffel Tower-we walked up the two first levels approx 600 stairs!
Musee D'orsay
The Pantheon

In between these places we spent a lot of time walking around the Latin Quarter where we stayed, St Michael's, St Germain and various other areas of Paris just exploring the streets, stopping for wine, tasting french pastries and spending time together. The apartment in the Latin Quarter were we stayed was right above the mouffetard market, where there were all kinds of food stalls, cute restaurants and stores to explore. An altogether exciting but relaxing trip.

We are now back at our place in Scheveningen from the next 2 weeks (also our last 2 weeks), before we move out to leave on the last leg of this adventure. This weekend we will be going down south again to Weert, to join our friends in celebrating Carnaval, a crazy festival that includes a parade, everyone dressing up crazy and lots of partying, should be a good time:)

This is what our timeline looks like up until the time we fly home:
March 3-14 Italy trip, we are starting in Rome and hoping travel through the country up to Venice stopping in Florence, Tuscany etc along the way

March 14-April 2 Caravan trip through the UK (London-Edinburgh) we rented a camper van that we will be driving through the UK-very excited for this!

April 2-11 Planning on heading back to Ireland for a few days before heading back to the Netherlands for a few days before we head back to Canada on April 17. We are flying into Calgary for a week to celebrate my mom's birthday and then will fly to Vancouver before we leave for Hawaii on April 28th for two weeks of fun in the sun with the Van Huizen clan! So a lot to look forward to!! Pretty spoiled, we know.

Cheers!
Megan&Joel

Photos: Prague&Barcelona

Prague

Barcelona