Italia - where the charm (and carbs) just might keep you from leaving

To get us back up to speed we'll keep this post short and sweet by summarizing all of Italy in one fell swoop. Apologies in advance for how brief the post is (especially for Kyle's favorite country from his past travels). We added a lot more pictures to make up for it!

We landed in Rome to kick off our 10ish days in Italy. We navigated to our "hotel" which ended up being a small room with a shared bathroom just outside the city center, but one that lacked AC. While we didn't plan to spend much time in the room anyhow, the stagnant heat of Rome in the dead of August prompted us quickly to buy a small, portable fan (which, might I add, has come in handy many nights, although Kyle has started to become it's exclusive user). We spent our time in Rome wandering the city, visiting the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Vatican City (and climbing to the top of St. Peter's Basilica), the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon, and of course, the best gelato spots throughout Rome (it was the only way to stay cool). We also began our indulgence in days full of pizza/pasta/wine at this point, which we were able to maintain for significantly longer than our workout streak (big surprise, I know).

Quick COVID interlogue: In Rome, the importance of our vaccination became immediately relevant as all of the EU is on their "green pass" system in order to enter indoors spaces, tourist areas, museums, restaurants, and similar locations. The pass, essentially, is a QR code that shows that the person has either been vaccinated, recovered from COVID, or tested negative within the last 72 hours. We were a bit nervous at first when we started seeing all of the signs stating "Green Pass Required" but, luckily, our CDC vaccine card has proven to be equivalent. During our time spent in Italy, thus far, we've probably shown our vaccine cards about 10x as much as our passports, which has been unique for sure. It's still relatively new in Italy (requirements implemented August 6th), so it's often hard to know what will or won't work/pass for documentation. Masks have been mandatory at every indoor area we've gone to - but as we all have learned with COVID, this seems to be a part of life everywhere!

From Rome, we headed south to Naples by train. We spent a day visiting Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius, attending a pizza making class, and enjoying the vibrant nightlife and feel of a seemingly busier city than what we had in Rome. The pizza making class ended up being a big highlight (you get to eat your pizza at the end, so what's not to love?), but it did not come without issues. After having one class booking canceled on us, we were informed at the next that we would actually need to wait 2 more hours, which caused us to choose either attending the class, or making the last train back to our not-so-well-located hotel. We decided on pizza (always the right choice). Plus, our instructor was ADAMANT that we not miss going out our last night in Naples, so he arranged for an "unofficial taxi" to pick us up at 1am. We did, indeed, enjoy our last night in Naples by finding some cool drinking spots near to coast. Our "unofficial" taxi driver was no younger than 80, offered Kyle at least 5 cigarettes, and ran, at a minimum, 3 red lights. Naples was an adventure to say the least and might just be Nicole's favorite city in Italy.

Our next stop was Florence. Kyle had visited Florence multiple times in the past and thinks it may be his favorite city in the world (we'll see if any city in the next 11 months dethrones it for the top spot!). Think back to times you've watched a movie for the first time at the suggestion of someone who has seen that same movie 100 times, and won't stop staring at you to see your reaction to dramatic scenes, funny lines etc.....this should help paint a picture of the Kyle/Nicole dynamic in Florence.

Backtracking a little: once we hopped off the train in Florence, we actually immediately took the Metro rail to the Airport to pick up a rental car to leave the city. We had decided to rent a car for a day 1) because it was cheaper than a hotel room (yes, we slept in it that night) and 2) because we wanted to drive through Tuscany, stop at Pisa, and to visit - Nicole's favorite thing - HOT SPRINGS (the half a dozen springs in Iceland weren't quite enough for her yet)! We immediately drove to the Terme di Saturnia springs and arrived in the evening, just in time to catch sunset as we hopped in the thermal pools., We enjoyed them so much we were there yet again at sunrise. This was also our first time renting an electric car which provided us the challenge of finding electric chargers, where we would park the car to charge/nap/shop. A whirlwind of 24 hours brought us back to the Florence city center. We returned the car and headed to our hostel to check in, which happened to be 2 blocks from the Duomo. Kyle became the unofficial tour guide, much to Nicole's dismay (and sometimes, annoyance when we got lost). Much to Nicole's delight, on the other hand, was getting to spend multiple nights at Piazzale Michelangelo watching the sunset over the city. We brought our own bottles of wine and beer as we passed the time listening to street musicians and hanging out with the other tourists and locals doing the same. During the days, we wandered the peaceful, clean streets of Florence, passing the Basilica of Santa Croce, Punta Vecchio, Palazzo Vecchio, and Santa Maria Novella.

From Florence, we booked a bicycle/wine tour through the Chianti region in Tuscany. Luckily for us (or maybe it was our stupidity) - no one else had booked the bicycle tour in the 90+ degree heat in the middle of the day - so we got upgraded to Vespas at no extra charge to join a small group tour for the day. We drove about 45 minutes up to a local wine producer's farm, where 2 of our group stayed for their wine tour while the other 4 of us went with our guide and Vespas. Cruising around the Tuscan countryside, through vineyards and olive trees, was about as spectacular as we imagined, and even better when we returned for lunch at the vineyard and to sample wines produced there, as well as learn about the history and their process of making wine. After a few hours, and a few more drinks, we were fast friends with the other 4 - 2 guys from France and 2 girls from Lichtenstein. Upon our return to the city, we reflected on what a wonderful day again and, of course, made the nightly trek up the hill to watch the sunset on our last night in Florence.

We woke early to catch a train to Venice, at which point we stashed our luggage in storage lockers to explore the winding streets and canals of Venice. We passed over the Grand Canal, had a crab and egg sandwich (it was better than it sounds) and of course wandered the streets with a new cafe around every corner and constantly crossing bridges to get around.

When it came time to leave, we got our luggage to meet our shuttle driver who would take us across multiple borders to drop us in Croatia. While we were nervous as to what was expected (if they'd accept our vaccine cards, or need a negative test which we hadn't gotten) we found it was quite simple to cross the Slovene and Croatian border with just our vaccination cards. These things change day by day, so we are just waiting for the border we can't cross and figuring out those obstacles as they arise. As you may know, the EU is again engaging in talks of not allowing US citizens to travel due to our continued growth of infection rates - we are hopeful that if we are able to show that we've been here for some time it will not be as much of an issue - but where one door shuts, another always opens ;)

For now, ciao bella!