ITALY WITH EMILIE & BUDDY

Saturday, January 24th

Nick and I picked Emilie and Buddy up from the Venice Marco Polo bright and early! Buddy had taken his first commercial flight in his life to Italy. Not many people can say that!

On our way back home, we stopped at Venice Treviso airport and picked up our friend Heather who was back in town for a baby shower. With 5 people and lots of luggage we headed back to Sacile. For the past two and a half years, I've been so excited to show them our neck of the woods! 

To keep Emilie and Buddy awake, we drove them around our area to the usual places we show guests.

We started with Gorgazzo.

We drove them up the winding road to Piancavallo. Susan and I had paraglided from this spot a year and a half ago!

We drove down the backside of the mountain to our favorite mountain town- Barcis. The water level is so low!

It hardly looks like the same lake!

Since Emilie and Buddy are recently engaged we did a small engagement photo shoot.

This is one of my favs:)

Make-out city!

Emilie and Buddy did a great job staying awake the whole day after not having any sleep on their travels to Italy.

Sunday, January 25th

We didn't give Emilie and Buddy much of a break. We all woke up early to drive to Slovenia for the day. We'd try and hit Lake Bled and Ljubljana. 

First, there was a little antique market set up in the square in Sacile, so we took 5 minutes to look at all the fun treasures before our drive.

..and then we were off...

Within 3 hours we made it to Lake Bled! I've only been here one other time, and it was also during the winter. Ha! Maybe one day I'll see it during the warmer months. :)

The top attractions on lake Bled are the castle, the island, and eating the delicious Bled cake. We started with the castle. 

The museum in the castle isn't worth writing about, but the castle has great views! 

Can you spot Buddy, Emilie and Nick?

We drove to the other side of the lake for our cake and lunch at Hotel Park Restavracija Rikli.

Nick was convinced that a restaurant we walked by was the one we had been to before. I told him it that I didn't think it was and kept walking. He kept talking and I just kept walking. He was SO convinced! AND...what do you know?! I found the restaurant we'd eaten at before! 

The lunch was good, but the cake was better! :) It's much better than it looks!

The last time Nick and I were here, we took a covered boat to the island. This time we were going to try paddling. 

The man that rented us the boat said that the lake is usually frozen over this time of year!

Can you guess what Nick just did to make himself laugh so hard? I bet you can!

There's an old tradition of a groom carrying his bride up these 99 steps to prove their marriage will be strong. 

Did Buddy do it?!

He sure did! And with ease!

Nick on the other hand... :):):) Haha! We made it!

We also got to climb the steps to the top of the bell tower on the island. This wasn't an option the first time we came here because they only opened this a year ago.

Buddy and Emilie paddled us back to shore. Buddy went first. We gave him a hard time because he was going all over the place. Emilie asked him to switch. She definitely directed toward the shore! I think she'd say that she won. :)

After Buddy and Emilie paddled us back to shore, we quickly jumped back in the car to head to Ljubljana.

We visited the castle on top of the hill first. It was a bit breezy!

We strolled around the main area downtown... 

We debated eating in Ljubljana, but we weren't hungry enough yet, so we started walking back to the car. 

This is random: We saw a cat-sized rat underneath this bridge. At least that's what we thought it was. It was big, furry and had a long skinny tail. It was a strange way to end our trip to Slovenia. We still are trying to figure out what exactly we saw underneath that bridge.:)

Monday, January 26th

Nick had to go back to work, but Emilie, Buddy and I got to play for the day down in Venice. It was a perfect spot to do some engagement photos!

We took our time wandering through the back alleys. Italy was having their big sales, so we stopped in a few stores. I found this cute hat for Emilie. It was only 8 Euro!

Buddy found a nice looking button-up shirt for 20 Euro.

We found St. Mark's Square! There was a photo shoot with 2 brides and grooms, so we tried to copy some of their modeling shots. 

I found out very quickly that Buddy is a pigeon wrangler. With a few bread crumbs, and some very tame pigeons, it was a synch. Buddy did it easy and gracefully. Then Emilie tried it! It took her a few tries, but she got it. It kind of looked like she was going to kill them. :) 

The pigeon whisperer. 

Usually when you try to run through a flock of birds, they will take off. Not these birds! They just slightly move out of the way. :) 

We tried to get "lost," but ended up in the square where my brother and sister-in-law stayed last October. :)

We stopped for a quick pizza break, and another photo shoot. NOW the lighting was exactly what I was hoping for. :) I think we have a winning shot for the engagement shoot. :)

We somehow made it back to the Bridge of Sighs from the backside. 

AND we found St. Mark's square again. :)

By this point, we were trying to hurry and find the train station. We'd taken a few wrong turns that wound us up in dead ends. 

 But we found it just in time...and we had a few minutes to take last minute photos. 

Venice is a pretty sweet place to take engagement photos! ;)

Tuesday, January 27th

The next day we had a nice relaxed morning hanging around Sacile. 

In the afternoon, we met up with Stephanie, and Liz. I call them Nick's other twins. Stephanie is part French like Nick and they have similar coloring. Liz shares the same birthday with Nick. I told them they had to fight it out for best twin. :) 

Emilie is baby crazy right now, and wanted to hold Henley, Liz's baby. I had to get a photo. This could be in their near future!

Wednesday, January 28th

We packed up and headed out to Florence! It's a 3 hour drive from our town through farmlands and then mountains.

We drove right through the city to find our parking garage. I was so proud that we did it so effortlessly. Our first time, 2 years ago, was a nightmare. 

After walking in circles, we finally found our hotel with the help of the concierge. 

Wednesday would be our only sunny day, so we set out for mostly outdoor activities. We bought tickets for the Duomo, Baptistery, Duomo dome, and catacombs. 

On our walk through the church, Emilie realized she'd lost a glove. We didn't spot it in the church so we walked outside. We started retracing our steps. She didn't see anything. We decided to move on and check out the Baptistery. We were about 30 feet away from the Duomo when she turned around and spotted her glove resting on the side of the Duomo! She ran over and grabbed it!

Success!

The baptistery took about 5 minutes to view. 

We walked over to the Duomo again to climb the 464 steps to the top of the dome.

It was really cold and windy walking next to the church. Brrr.

Nick asked why all the books painted on the inside of the dome had holes in them. I told him because they were Holy Bibles! Hahah! I got a few laughs from tourists behind us.

We made it! We should have timed it! We practically flew up the stairs. There were so few people in Florence at this time we didn't have anyone else to compete with or slow us down hardly.

Nick hates this photo because of his hair, but it's one of the few pictures where we're all together. 

Nick found a sandwich shop, Dal Barone, near the Duomo for us to try. They were slow, but really good!

After our lunch, we toured some of the main outdoor sites in Florence. 

We HAD to see Ponte Vecchio!

Enjoying our only sunny day...

We wandered over to the Pitti Palace to enquire about the Boboli Gardens. We got there pretty late in the day, so we wouldn't have enough time to really enjoy them by this point. We decided we might try later. 

The pigeon whisperer at it again!

Nick was so happy to hold a bird. :)

We kept wandering down the street past the palace. This sweet old man thought I was taking a picture of his shop as he was closing. I had to get a photo of him. He was just rambling on in Italian as I was taking photos. It was definitely entertaining. :)

We arrived at a large, old gate and turned back around to grab a coffee before we headed to dinner.

There were really cute, artsy stores with tons of fun toys.

Emilie had read about Florentine steak on our drive down. She asked if we could try some out. We put a reservation in for Il Cantinone on our walk back. Even though we reserved for 8pm, we showed up right when they opened at 6:30. There was only one other couple in the restaurant, so it was okay. We ordered two of these ginormous steaks, and ate them all! It was so yummy!

Florence was just as pretty at night as it was during the day.

Thursday, January 29th

Thursday was cold and rainy. We started off our breakfast at our B & B, and then braved the cold by walking over to the Uffizi Gallery. There was NO line at all to enter the Uffizi. (Note to self: January traveling = no waiting in long lines.) 

We walked through at a fairly quick pace. There was a group of 1st graders on a field trip. They were all very quiet and well-behaved. They kept their arms behind their backs, so they wouldn't be tempted to touch anything. It was so cute. 

We found Botticelli's Birth of Venus painting. Nick liked it. :)

Across the hall was this hysterical painting. All he's missing is a gold chain around his neck.

Our view of Ponte Vecchio from the Uffizi.

We stood outside and listened to the 1st grade teacher explain about the dome on the duomo. The children were more impressed by the plane flying over head. 

While I was standing there I realized that I had lost my Duomo ticket we'd purchased the day before. The ticket was valid for 24 hours and  we were still hoping to see the Catacombs at some point. When I looked down I saw a Duomo ticket that was still valid! I was sure I'd left mine back at the hotel in the trash can. 

While we grabbed a crappy cup of coffee at the Uffizi, I told Buddy, Emilie and Nick about my ticket I'd found. Emilie reached into her pocket and realized that it was hers. Haha! She had pulled her gloves out of her pocket while she was standing outside, and hadn't realized that she'd dropped the ticket. Doh! I was glad to have found Emilie's ticket, but that still meant we were one ticket short. 

I had to take a quick picture of the (replica) David in Piazza Signora. This guard happened to be walking by. I really think he was trying to pose for my picture. Haha!

On our way back, we stopped in Zara for their big January sale. It was worth the stop. Both guys loaded up on some great finds. I found a cheetah print jacket and a hat to stay a little warmer. I had forgotten my warmer weather items back at home. Doh! While we were inside, it started to snow in Florence! I was just as shocked as the locals.

By the time we finished, it started to rain. I was glad I had my warmer gear on. We walked across Ponte Vecchio to eat at a small sandwich shop: Amici di Ponte Vecchio da Stefano. They were known for their sandwiches. They make their own bread, and the meat they serve is pretty phenomenal. It was still raining outside, so we crowded around the tiny serving area to eat. We ordered our food, ate, and then ordered more food. It was so yummy!

We walked through the rain to the other side of Florence to see David.

Once again, there was NO line to get into the museum. AMAZING!

This was one of my favorite photos. Nick was drawing his interpretation of David on his phone. (It's a stick figure with a penis.) :) 

There were actual artists sitting around drawing beautiful charcoal drawings not seen in this photo.

We walked through the leather market after visiting the Accademia. It was pouring rain by this point. I should have taken a picture of my shoes. My leather boots were soaked. I sat inside a shoe store to warm up while Emilie and Buddy picked out a few groomsmen ties. 

We all scurried back to our hotel to warm up and play games. 

For dinner, we had spotted a pasta restaurant earlier in the day that we wanted to return to. The Club House was ranked #766 out of 2000 restaurants, but it was much better than I expected. Their food was delicious and homemade. 

Friday, January 30th

Our last morning in Florence started off rainy and cold. We walked over to a leather shop that a friend of Susan and Chester owns. They weren't open for another 30 minutes, so we just took a picture in front of it.

Doesn't Nick look pretty?

I REALLY wanted to see the Boboli Gardens because it's the ONE thing I haven't done/seen in Florence. As we approached the ticket booth we heard thunder in the distance. I asked the woman working the ticket booth if she would go see the gardens on a day like that day. She said, "no." Haha! All hope I had went out the door. I put on a sad face and walked away. Nick and Buddy were delighted that we didn't have to be outside. Nick kept saying it was going to start pouring. I got the idea. Boboli Gardens were not going to happen this trip. I pretended like I was pouting. 

Here's Nick mad at me because he thinks I'm pouting. Haha!

Here's Nick smiling but confused at how I just immediately turned it off. Haha! Poor guy! He doesn't know what's happening.

Our car was delivered to our hotel door! We packed our bags, and we were off to Pisa.

We were all hungry by the time we arrived, but we tried to find a restaurant off the beaten path. Emilie spotted a pizza place. We were seated and ordered. When our food arrived, Emilie's pizza had a meal worm on top! (They didn't charge extra for that. ) She sent it back. I could not eat my pizza after that! Somehow, Buddy continued to eat and finish his calzone. 

I went across the street to a highly recommended sandwich shop. It was the highest ranking restaurant in Pisa. They served fresh bread with cheese and raw meat. After having seen the meal worm, I would normally say no, but the server said it was his favorite. It was delicious! Everyone else gave me a hard time for eating raw meat after we'd just seen the meal worm. :)

We walked back outside to be greeted with high winds. I would normally stop and take our time to take photos, but it was SO dang cold!

The last picture I took before running to the car!

Saturday, January 31st

For Emilie and Buddy's last full day in Italy, we went sledding. We started off the morning slow: I curled Emilie's hair, we got breakfast, we went through emails. 

Nick had the brilliant idea of tubing in Piancavallo. We rented tubes and headed up the mountain. We were surprised by how SLOW the tubes were. The snow was so strange. We couldn't even build a snowman because the snow wouldn't stick together. 

We noticed a restricted area that was designated to sledding. Jackpot! 

We paid 4 Euro each to sled for a few hours with a bunch of little kids. We found out after paying that we weren't allowed to use the tubes in the park, but the nice workers let us borrow some sleds. They were so kind! They even told us we could come back the next day for free!

We grabbed a quick hot chocolate before heading back down to Sacile. 

For their last dinner, we took them to La Piola in the center of Sacile. Nick and Buddy ordered ribs. Emilie and Buddy decided it was their favorite meal while here in Italy. Those ribs are pretty good!

Sledding was such a fun way to end our trip! We loved having them out here! The next time we'll see Emilie and Buddy will be for their wedding! Holy moly!