My Trip to Italy

It all started with us overloading the power in our room and my mom breaking the shower door….. oh wait let me back up.

It actually started a long time ago, when my mom was in High School. She loved art and fell in love with the renaissance masters, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, and no, not the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That love of art stayed with her all these years and longed to visit those art masters one day. She always envisioned herself going with my dad one day until it became evident that would not be the case.

This past Christmas, when my mom turned 70, we decided it was time for her dream to become reality. My sister and I planned the whole trip with a few must do’s from my mom, and we had a lot of fun doing it! Navigating foreign websites, in foreign languages was tricky, booking museum tours, trains, hotels, and even a few restaurant reservations, but we did it! 

The day to leave felt like it would never arrive until it was upon us and we all felt the rush and panic of it being here. But we’d done our homework and had made our plans so we knew we would be ok. The day was here to leave on our adventure and it was exhilarating and emotional.

We waved tearful goodbyes and left Corpus Christi, Texas, America. The flight was long with barely any sleep and we landed in Frankfurt where we had to go through customs, bleary eyed and exhausted, then was rushed to our plane to Florence. We landed with no issues and then immediately began our trek with our luggage en-tow a few miles down the old, cramped cobblestone streets of Florence.

Our first day is a bit of a blur but here are a few memories. Trying to stay awake was difficult. We landed around 2pm, Florence time, and we were determined to make it to at least 8pm. We walked around town, a bit overwhelmed with the crowds of people and the larger than life statues and buildings we’d only seen in photos. After what we deemed an appropriate time, we went to our first “Italian” restaurant. 

We were promised homemade pasta and a charming environment. We were delirious with exhaustion and wine. I had the best pasta of my life, so far, and enjoyed our meal immensely! I was on a mission to find the best tiramisu and had to order it, it was a let down but it didn’t matter, it was still a lovely dinner. 

Finally, it was 8pm, we could go back to our room, wash up, and go to bed! My mom and I have lots of aches and pains and had brought heating pads with us and while my mom showered, my sister plugged my mom’s heating pad in (yes using the proper European plug adapter) and we immediately lost all power! My mom in the shower, tried to get out in the dark only to have slipped and broke the shower door (thankfully it didn’t shatter and was easily put back in place), but it was a scare! We cried, and then laughed. 

Eventually everything was put back to order and we finally got our much needed sleep. My mom called her bed a cot, which immediately made my sister and I laugh! It was simply a twin sized mattress whereas Kaela and I shared a full mattress. We teased my mom saying she was going to tell everyone at home that her daughters made her sleep on a cot the whole trip! Hahaha

The next couple of days were chaotic with rain, museum visits, “wine holes” as my mom put it, and other silliness. We had a few wonderful meals, and some let downs. The coffee wasn’t up to my high standards but we found a few good ones. Our last night in Florence, we didn’t know what to do, so we just wandered around. We ended up going into a Burberry store, because my sister mentioned loving their classic look and wanted a scarf there, not realizing the exorbitant prices. We quickly realized this was not the store for us but still lingered a bit and ended up meeting an American sales lady and had a delightful conversation with her, named Chelsey. We asked her for restaurant recommendations which she quickly whipped out her phone and called and made us a reservation to and wow it did not disappoint! It was easily the best meal for me of the whole trip! My sister’s meal was even more incredible! Our waiter was so fun and enjoyable and treated us to lemoncello on the house. 

We left the restaurant full of joy and wonderful memories!

The next day we got up early to catch our train to Rome, our longest and busiest leg of our whole trip! We barely made it to our train and lumbered on with all our luggage. It was my first experience on a train and I had romantically idealized how it would be. I imagined a quiet experience, of gazing out the windows overlooking a dreamy Tuscany landscape while we enjoyed a relaxing and quiet ride before we had a busy day in Rome. Unfortunately, it was nothing like that. It was crazy and chaotic with a gaggle of older ladies all standing up around their seats, laughing and chattering away in Italian. I tried to enjoy it for what it was but it was loud and I was getting a headache. Also, I was not prepared for the bathroom experiences on trains. You may call me a dandy or a germaphobe and you would be correct. Anyways, I was not gonna have it, and I held myself together the whole trip.

Finally in Rome, we quickly got outside to hail a taxi, and I think the Lord provided us with the best one possible. The driver was so sweet, barely spoke English but did her best, and told us to beware of pickpockets. We had already been on high alert this whole trip clutching our bags tightly to our chests and knew Rome would be just as bad if not worse. She drove us directly to our room, which was so wonderful. So quiet and clean and the lady let us store our bags before check in so that we could go off exploring Rome. 

I’d mentioned Rome was our busiest leg of our trip and boy howdy was it! It was a last minute add on so we only had 24 hours to spend in Rome and tried to Jam Pack it in! From our hotel room we walked straight to a pizza place Kaela and I had already picked out, it was scrumptious and easily my favorite pizza of the whole trip. We ate our pizza as we walked to the Colosseum and walked right past the area where Caesar was assassinated, passed some gigantic buildings that I have no idea what they were, my mom got pooped on by a bird, and then walked right past the Roman Forum, the ancient city of Rome. I was so looking forward to walking around the Forum but the line to get in was so long that we instead looked for a restroom for my mom to clean herself up at and then get in line to get into the Colosseum. 

The sky was beginning to get dark and the wind kicked up a bit. It felt like a storm coming. We got into the structure of the colosseum right as it began to rain. Now, a bit of backstory. A month before our trip, I was to buy our tickets for the Colosseum and it was tricky to get them. Long story short, I basically stayed up all night to get the colosseum tickets, as they sell out quickly! I was trying to buy special tickets for the basement, as I’ve heard its really cool, but they were selling out before I could grab any tickets so my next goal was to get tickets for the attic. After a few frustrating hours, I finally snagged us three tickets! So back to the colosseum, the stadium was jam packed with visitors, and just the three of us took an elevator up to the attic to get a unique view of the colosseum from above! And most of it was covered! We were alone, out of the cold rain for the heaviest part of the storm! 

After the rainstorm let up a bit we decided to go to other parts of the colosseum but we ended up getting split up and it was tricky to navigate with all the other people packed in that stadium, and it was almost time for us to make our way to the Vatican, as was my mom’s request. So we said goodbye to the coliseum and took the subway to the Vatican. It took us a few unsuccessful tries but we finally got on the right subway. The Vatican was truly overwhelmed with people and confusion. It wasn’t what I was expecting at all. Just to get in took us over an hour of waiting in a long line. And the Vatican isn’t like normal museums, it is a very guided roped off type of experience where you walk in a heard of people from room to room, with barely any free will. It was overwhelming and exhausting and we only wanted to see the Sistine chapel, which was of course at the very end of the rat race, er I mean museum experience. But we got there after several hours. 

By the time we exited, we had, what we thought was just a mere 15 mins to get to St. Peter’s Basilica to see the famous Pieta. Turns out, we had an hour and 15 mins but no matter, we dashed our way across Vatican City to St. Peter’s basilica and got in! Excuse me while I say, this was the most extravagant, overly large, crazy church I’d ever been in, it was wild with paintings, statues, carvings, just too much for the eyes to take it all in! And in a far corner, almost in the most unassuming corner, was the Pieta. Now until this moment, I hadn’t really had a moment with any of the art that just really took my breath away or made me have an emotional moment. But that all changed when I saw Michaelangelo’s Pieta. Here is a masterfully chiseled statue of Mary, holding Jesus’ broken body after being crucified. The heartache she most definitely felt after raising and loving Jesus His whole life to now be holding him beaten and bruised. He sacrificed Himself for her, for me, for us all.

We were now even more emotional, more exhausted than we had been this whole trip. We had walked a whopping 12 miles that day! Kaela and I had picked out a restaurant next door to our hotel room knowing we would be exhausted. I’m grateful for that but the food and experience wasn’t our favorite unfortunately. It was overly fancy, overly expensive, for not that great of food. In all my research, Rome has four traditional pastas and I was determined to have them in Rome, so we ordered 3 out of 4 of those pastas and shared. The Amatriciana was clearly the winner but I had my very first carbonara. We had another disappointing tiramisu and then went off to bed.

We had planned an early morning excursion to see all that we could fit in before leaving Rome. We saw the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps and even squished in there to get a coffee and a pastry, and then it was a race to the Train Station to head to our next location, Riva Del Garda, a quaint town in the Alps. We took a taxi to the train, where the first train was exactly the idyllic train ride of my imagination, quiet and peaceful but we had to hop off and take a second, and slower train to our next stop. This train was anything but peaceful where it brought us to a small town where it was raining and we had to catch a bus. It was all so confusing but met a sweet young lady who was going to the same town as us, so we followed her lead and got on the right bus and she told us where to get off. We then dragged our luggage in the rain, again across cobblestone roads to our next stay. Only this time, no one was there to greet us. We were in the cold, dark rain standing outside with no one answering doors or phone calls. We had just had the most difficult part of our journey the day before, and a tiring day taking trains and buses only to be left without a place to stay. So we found a neighborhood bar to get out of the rain and figure out what to do next.

I ordered us some wine and Kaela got on the phone to try to find us a new place to stay. I searched with her but as it was a small town and because it was the off season, many of the places were closed or full already. We had a family friend back in the States help us locate a trustworthy hotel and we made another long haul to this new location. hallelujah! It was clean and quiet and basically ready for us and it had a restaurant attached so we sat down to a meal while they got our room ready for us!

The next morning was drizzly and raining and I was a bit disheartened since every day of the trip we had experience rain. It was raining off and on but there were moments where the sun would filter through the clouds so majestically! We took a ferry ride to a close by town called Limone, where it was sunny and gorgeous! We lazily walked along their cobblestone pathways enjoying the quaint town and decided to stop at a pizzeria before taking a ferry back to our town. Here we had shared a wonderful pizza and the best tiramisu on the trip so far! As we were inside, the weather totally shifted and the wind and rain came. We got back to our little town safely and with views of the alps every direction and very few people, this was easily my favorite place. So quiet and peaceful and I didn’t have to fear that I would be robbed at any moment!

The next day, my sister rented a car and goodness gracious, it was anything but peaceful. She struggled to get back to our hotel because in Italy, you can’t just drive anywhere, lots of areas are restricted! She got hassled by a police officer and finally got back to us where we plugged in our coordinates for an adventurous day only to be sent on a side quest because I don’t know how to work Google Maps! We got turned around but found our way only to be pulled over by another police officer! He asked for all of our passports and other paperwork and after what felt like forever came back and said we did nothing wrong, he just pulls people over randomly… excuse me? He randomly pulled us over after my sister was already harassed and was already in a fragile state of mind? But I digress.

Finally, we were free to go on our way, it was an absolutely gorgeous day! The only sunny day we had on our whole trip! We drove to a nearby waterfall where I just lingered and sang to myself, thanking the Lord for such magnificent beauty! It reminded me of a book I’ve read called Hinds Feet on High Places. At one point, the main character asks what the waterfall is singing and she is given ears to hear their song.

“Come, oh come! let us away--

Lower, lower every day, 

Oh, what joy it is to race

Down to find the lowest place. 

This the dearest law we know--

"It is happy to go low."

Sweetest urge and sweetest will,

"Let us go down lower still."

Hear the summons night and day

Calling us to come away.

From the heights we leap and flow

To the valleys down below.

Always answering to the call,

To the lowest place of all.

Sweetest urge and sweetest pain,

To go low and rise again.”

We piled back in the car to our next excursion, following windy narrow roads to an ancient medieval town where we explored what felt like a ghost town. I imagined what it would have been like in medieval times, the hustle and bustle of the village people, wondering what they were like, if I would have been friends with them. We easily found the only restaurant, and I was a little leery but was pleasantly surprised to enjoy one of my absolute favorite meals of the whole trip! My mom, sister and I shared a medieval charcuterie board full of paper thin sliced meats, chucks of delectable cheeses, and big hunks of bread! Yum! 

We then walked in a lovely meadow with a path that led to a small lake nestled in the crevice of the mountains where I met two lovely ducks that I befriended. I named them Luca and Anna. Sitting peacefully along the shore talking to my new duck friends, I just thanked the Lord for such a beautiful moment, in a beautiful place. All too soon, the sun sunk behind the mountains and it began to grow dark and chilly and my mom and sister had already made their way back to our vehicle. So begrudgingly, I said goodbye to my feathered friends and went back to the car where we drove around for a bit before getting back to our town. We went to bed early that night and got up early the next morning where we perused the small shops around town and then grabbed sandwiches to go to catch our bus to catch our train to get to Venice, our last stop.

Our trip to Venice was easy enough, the train ride was mostly quiet but once we arrived in Venice, it was a mass of confusion trying to find the right boat to take to get to our hotel. I’d been away from the busy-ness of Italy that it felt a bit of a shock coming back to the loud and busy streets. Masses of people moved through the streets and it was a bit difficult to not get caught up in it all and move through them to get where we needed to go. It was pretty neat though to see a place I’ve seen so many times in photos and videos.

Our agenda in Venice was pretty slow and easy, we wanted to go to the oldest coffee shop (older than our country) and see some of the sites. We didn’t have a restaurant picked out but we asked the lady at the front desk of our hotel and she gave us some wonderful recommendations! We went to the smallest, hole in the wall restaurant, ran by old men who prepared and served fish right here in front of the restaurant. My sister and I shared a seafood risotto and my mom had the most amazing fish soup. There was fresh seafood all around us and we wanted to come back the second night but they were closed the next day. Our next day was filled with going to the oldest coffee shop (mentioned above) and the oldest church and just walking around and having a lovely time together.

Ended the day and the trip at a tiny little place Kaela found that served the traditional Venetian cicchetti, appetizers of sorts, and one last pasta dish. We had to get up the next morning by 4am so we knew we needed to go to bed early. So as the Venetians were just starting their night, we ended ours, saying goodnight to a starry sky. 

The next day was greeted groggily, as we packed our bags and loaded them in a water taxi to head to the airport, where my sister lost her phone at the gate and never to be seen again. We flew back over the majestic alps, to Germany, to Houston, and finally, to home where my husband and my sister’s husband waited for us! I hadn’t slept on the flight at all and ended up binging Ted Lasso and was dead tired, and almost fell asleep in the car. 

It’s a crazy thing to go off on an adventure that you dream about for months or even years, and to come back to reality when it’s over and be expected to just jump back into the river of life. Sometimes I feel like I’m drowning a bit and sometimes I like to daydream about walking along the small lake talking to my darling duck friends and then the next I’m hugging my beloved family. I can honestly say, I’m privileged to have gotten to take such an amazing trip with my mom and sister and have these cherished memories I can think back on from time to time. So if anyone asks me what my favorite thing was about the trip it’s that, being with my mom and sister!

If anyone ever goes and wants honest recommendations and not the trendy ones you see on ticktock let me know, I’ll hook ya up!