Italy, My Future Home!

For Rich's job, he was asked if he could go to Italy to help with a couple conventions and selling some inventory that he created. The CEO Jeff and his adorable wife Abbie also invited me to come along! I was sooooooo excited.
Italy is truly amazing, I know I say that about a lot of things, but there are not even words to describe my love for that place. This post is going to be long. We left Utah on Thursday morning and our first flight took us to JFK. There were a ton of planes that needed to land, so we were stuck in the air for 20 extra minutes and I was actually happy about it. We got to see an amazing view of the city and from a girl that has never been to NYC it was breathtaking. Just seeing it out of the airplane window was absolutely spectacular. We then flew to Italy. The first city we went to was Jesolo where the first convention was for Rich's work. The same day we flew in, we had a black tie dinner than night. We were exhausted to say the least, but I was still so pumped because this was going to be my first Italian experience. we went to this nice restaurant with a bunch of Italians. They are seriously so nice! There were a couple of people that gave small speeches in Italian of course, we don't speak Italian. At the end of one of their speeches, everyone stood up and started clapping and all the women went to the front of the room to cut the cake. Kiara, an Italian girl that works for the company my husband works for, grabbed me and said, "all the women cut the cake, c'mon!" so me and Abbie, the confused Americans, went up and helped cut the cake. After, I asked Kiara why they do that and she said so simply, "because women are very respected in our culture; the women bring the life." I loved that. In a literal sense, women do bring life with bearing children but I think in most homes, the women actually bring the life to the home. On Saturday, we were still in Jesolo and had the conference all day long. We wore headphones that relayed a translator so that we could understand what they were saying. A lot of times the translator wasn't talking or just saying "ummmmm...so...ummmm." she must have been new or something. Because of that, we had a true "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" experience. when they clapped, we clapped, when they stood up, we stood up. After a long day at the conference, Abby, Jeff, Rich and I went out to get pizza. The restaurant owner didn't speak much English and we didn't speak any Italian so when we ordered pepperoni pizza, this is what we got.


The conference in Jesolo ended Sunday. Right when it was over, Abbie, Rich and I headed to the beach, took a couple pictures, met up with Jeff, got in a taxi and headed to the dock. We then took a private boat out to Venice.




I can honeslty say, veince is the most magical place I have ever been. I loved every minute of being there. It was a wonderful experience. Our hotel was one street away from Saint Marks Square so we went there the first night we were there. It was such a pretty place.





The next morning we went on a gondola ride around the Grand Canal. It was probably the most gorgeous thing I have seen. It took us into little ally ways and by the famous Rialto bridge.







Our gondola driver sang to us in Italian. It was sooo pretty!



Later that day, we spent our time wandering around Venice. It was so fun. Every turn held something new and exciting to see. We walked through Saint Marks Basilica, it was also very pretty. After, we took a walk to a park just outside the city. We saw all these cute little neighborhoods. I seriously could live there.







Everything there was just so amazing. Even our water taxi pickup was so pretty.



We were all sad to leave Venice. We took a boat to the train station and a train to Milan, switched trains and went to Arona. I wasn't super excited to go to Arona, I had never really heard of it before but it turned out to be one of my favorite places in the world. It was absolutely gorgeous. It's a small town that sits on a lake. This was our view from our hotel balcony.



The night we got in Adele, the Italian GM for the company my husband works for, took us to the nicest dinner. Arona is her home town so she knew all of the history behind everything. We took a little boat out to a private island where we had dinner. the island where we ate dinner was directly across from an Italian prince's castle. Apparently all the royalty gets married at the castle.



The next day, we spent the day having Adele show us around arona. I dont have any pictures of it, but you could see the Swiss Alps from the lake. The lake was gorgeous.



This is Rich, Jeff and Adele. We are so thankful for her, she did so much for us while we were there. This trip wouldn't have been half of what is was without her.



I know we have Smart Cars in the U.S. but every car there was as small, or smaller than a smart car. If I had to drive one of these, my knees would be up to my shoulders!



That night, we took a flight into Rome. Rome is an awesome city, and it is huge! There is so much to see. I could have been there 5 months and still not see everything. Our hotel in Rome was gorgeous. I am pretty sure it was the nicest hotel that has every existed.



This is a view from Jeff and Abbie's balcony.



The day after we got in, we toured all day! Our first stop was the Spanish steps.



Then we went to the Trevi fountain. It was huge and beautiful. We threw our coins in over our shoulders so that we would be able to come back someday. (Someone told us that this fountain makes about 1000 Euros a week!)





After the fountain, we passed the forum



and then we went to none other than the COLOSSEUM! It was built in 70 AD. I love almost two thousand year old buildings! It makes the oldest U.S. history look like it happened 2 weeks ago.



I loved every second of being there and I took a million pictures.







Right outside the colosseum is Constantines Victory Arch. It was awesome.





We then went to the Pantheon. It was built in 448 BC. It was amazing to see something that old still maintaining such great structure. It is by far the oldest thing I have ever seen.





The next day we went to the Vatican, which is on the opposite side of rome as the Colosseum and Pantheon. It was pretty amazing. The enormity of these buildings cannot be captured in pictures!







Our last stop was Fuiggi. It was so pretty. It had kind of a Park City feel to it. It was a smaller city and the temperature was a little chilly. I was only in Fuiggi for a day and we were in the conference all day so I didnt see much. This is a pic from our balcony.



I was so sad when I had to leave but so thankful I got to go. It was the trip of a lifetime and I feel very blessed to have been able to see Italy. It was such a beautiful country. Rich and I were talking about how we feel like we really saw and experienced Italy. We saw the mountains, the vineyards, Rome, Venice, lakes and the mediterranean sea. We feel like we had the best traveling companions. Abbie and Jeff were so fun. I feel like we spent the entire trip laughing and having such a great time. Everyone should go to Italy. You will LOVE it!