Our Trip to Italy

This post is a bit off-course from my typical posts, but I always think it’s fun to read about new places and get tips/ideas for places to go and experience. So, I hope you don’t mind the detour :)

First of all, this trip was made possible by airline points (if you want some tips about how to pay for your flights with airline points, just ask—I have some tricks up my sleeve!) and the affordability of staying in Italy. Plus, since we booked everything late last summer, a lot of the prices were lower than we are seeing now—often, booking far in advance can help the budget.

Our first stop was Rome. Everyone told us that it was a must-see—and we agree! It wasn’t my favorite city that we explored (just a little big and busy for me), but it was still beautiful and fun to see so many incredible historical sights.

Where we stayed: An Airbnb in Rome. We liked this location because it wasn’t in the super touristy area and was quite a bit quieter at night. And it was also close to public transportation (which we used to get around).

What we loved: The food! And, of course, seeing the historical sights. We also took a walking tour through an Airbnb experience. The walking tour was FOR SURE my favorite part of our short time in Rome. Our guide was so wonderful and we met other people from all over the world :) Plus, we got espresso and gelato—no need to say more ;)

What we didn’t love: The crowds. Everywhere we went it was just full of people, lines, and more people ;) In the Vatican, I felt like we were being shoved through like cattle—I hardly had time to look because it was so crowded. I’m not sure if it’s always like this, or we just hit a bad time, but it was definitely a downside for me (as I don’t love crowded places).

After two days in Rome, we got on a high speed train and went to Florence. From there, we took a bus down to a small village just out of Florence in the countryside. This was a much needed break from the crowds and sight-seeing.

Where we stayed: Our airbnb was absolutely wonderful! Plus, our host teaches a pasta making class, so we got a discount on the class—it was so fun! Our place was so peaceful, eclectic, restful, and cozy.

What we loved: We loved taking a little walk down to the village, grabbing some coffee, and purchasing a few things from the tiny grocer for lunch/dinner. Plus, it wasn’t super touristy, so it felt a little more like we were seeing people in everyday life in Italy. Even though it was a little drizzly, the weather just made it easier to slow down and enjoy the time together.

What we didn’t love: Honestly, these two days were so wonderful that I can’t think of anything we didn’t like.

After two nights there, we grabbed a bus and went into Florence. We had scheduled most of our time for Florence because we heard that it was a wonderful city to explore and more walkable than Rome. All of this was true!

Where we stayed: We stayed at the cutest Airbnb that was in a great location. It wasn’t super fancy, but it had everything (and more!) that we needed. Plus, it was super affordable!

What we loved: We loved wandering the streets, finding some yummy espresso and croissants, and finding art everywhere. We saw David, visited the Uffizi, climbed the Duomo, saw the city from the Piazza de Michelangelo at sunset, and enjoyed a lot of delicious food. My favorite was just walking the streets and taking in all the sights, sounds, and smells of a busy city. The people were so friendly and helpful :) It is truly a beautiful city with cool things around every corner.

What we didn’t love: Again, Florence was very busy and full of tourists (we found out later that it was a national holiday—so this may have impacted the amount of people). We also didn’t love that we had pay more for tickets for places because they were being bought up and sold for more money. In hindsight, we wished we would have booked tickets earlier because those added costs weren’t accounted for in our original budget.

This trip was an early anniversary trip for us (almost 15 years!), so we enjoyed the time away from our day-to-day responsibilities and loved the ability to just connect and hang out together. We also wanted to do an international trip without the kids to see how we manage it together because we want to start traveling more with our kids. It was a bit of test drive for more international travel ;)

So, we often asked: what would we do differently if we were traveling with our kids? Here’s our short-list:

• Eat out less. We mainly ate out because the food we chose was pretty affordable. But with kids, it would have added up quite a bit. We would choose to do a few treats or cheaper meals (like the sliced pizza) and then cook the rest ourselves.

• Pick a few museums to visit and skip the rest. With kids, I’d probably choose the Colosseum in Rome and the Academia in Florence (it’s affordable and smaller). We would probably skip the rest. In fact, even though so much of the art was fun to see, I think we could have skipped one or two ourselves.

• Choose our walks/destination carefully. We walked a lot (an average of 8-10+ miles a day) and often just did a lot of wandering around. With the kids, it would have been a lot more tiring to keep this up for over a week. I would definitely add in a little more down time to our itinerary.

In the end, we absolutely loved our trip to Italy and definitely want to return and explore other areas someday. And it also reminded us of our desire to keep budgeting and prioritizing traveling as a family—we love experiencing new places and seeing a tiny glimpse of life in a different place. For me, it’s just a joy too see the wonderful world God has given us to explore—and getting to meet people who live in it! I so desire to experience this with my children as well :)

Chewie likes to come with us on our adventures without the kids. The boys love seeing chewie’s travels ;)

Have you traveled anywhere recently? What place should I add to my list?