Jordan and I just got back from our trip to Italy, and holy cow. I'm still in a giant bubble of happiness! It felt like a dream--and we both just feel so LUCKY that we got to experience such a beautiful part of the world with each other. Our kiddos were in the very best of hands back home (thanks Mom, Dad, and Jayden!), so we were able to just soak everything in and enjoy every bit of Italy.
We have such a special bond over our love for travel, and it was so fun to see those parts of us come out from under the masks of "mom" and "dad" again. We felt young and invigorated wandering the streets of Italy, and I never want to forget it.
I'm going to break down our trip into several posts, because you'd better believe I took approximately seven billion photos. But I mean HOW COULD YOU NOT. It was just amazing!!
Hope you enjoy this little recap of our trip. I know I will be dreaming about it until the day we can go back (and hopefully bring the boys!). It really was a perfect vacation.
******
Pompeii.
What a city!! We literally got off the plane (after fifteen hours of travel. yee!), and hopped on the first train we saw to Naples. From there we met up with our driver, Luigi, who took us to Pompeii. (I'll tell you more about Luigi in a minute, but basically he MADE this leg of our trip. He was the best.)
He dropped us off at the ruins to explore, and holy cow. First of all, we didn't expect it to be so massive!! Second, man it was overwhelming, but incredible. If you're not familiar with Pompeii, here it is in a nutshell:
Pompeii was a thriving city that was covered by 20 feet of volcanic ash in 79 AD. The nearby volcano, Mount Vesuvius, had erupted suddenly and buried pretty much everything within range. Houses, streets, markets, people, animals...all of it was covered. The city has since been majorly excavated, and what they've been able to uncover is pretty amazing (and really kind of eerie).
I'm so glad we came during the off-season. The weather was perfect, and we felt like we pretty much had the place to ourselves.
(Which is why we could stop and make out whenever we wanted)
We have such a special bond over our love for travel, and it was so fun to see those parts of us come out from under the masks of "mom" and "dad" again. We felt young and invigorated wandering the streets of Italy, and I never want to forget it.
I'm going to break down our trip into several posts, because you'd better believe I took approximately seven billion photos. But I mean HOW COULD YOU NOT. It was just amazing!!
Hope you enjoy this little recap of our trip. I know I will be dreaming about it until the day we can go back (and hopefully bring the boys!). It really was a perfect vacation.
******
What a city!! We literally got off the plane (after fifteen hours of travel. yee!), and hopped on the first train we saw to Naples. From there we met up with our driver, Luigi, who took us to Pompeii. (I'll tell you more about Luigi in a minute, but basically he MADE this leg of our trip. He was the best.)
He dropped us off at the ruins to explore, and holy cow. First of all, we didn't expect it to be so massive!! Second, man it was overwhelming, but incredible. If you're not familiar with Pompeii, here it is in a nutshell:
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| ^ancient tunnel selfie. also how long was that in my teeth??^ |
We shared some headphones and listened to our boy Rick Steves talk about ancient Pompeii as we held hands and walked the cobblestone streets...just soaking it all in. (If you're going to Europe, get the Rick Steves travel app. We love him!) We kept looking at each other saying, "Did we forget something?" (Nope, just the kids. And they were in America eating Happy Meals with Grandma.)
It was a weird feeling-- walking down streets and knowing that people had walked them 2,000 years ago. I could imagine it busy and bustling with horses and vendors, but it was so quiet.
I think the eeriest things for me to see in all of ancient Pompeii were the bodies.
Human and and animal bodies were entombed in the ash, and they eventually decayed. But the ash remained hollowed out where the bodies had been, so excavators poured plaster into the cavities to reveal the figures of people in their last moments. There were hundreds of these (even ones of children). So, so sad.
On a lighter note, one of my favorite things was seeing all of the beautifully colored fresco paintings on the walls.
It gave us a more colorful glimpse of what life looked like at that time, and it was amazing to me how well the art held up after being buried and recovered.
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| ^also how handsome is he??^ |
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| ^storefronts!^ |
(Which is why we could stop and make out whenever we wanted)
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| ^A guy from BYU took this photo. True story!^ |
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| ^The giant baths were so amazing. The technology they used to create steam in these was so advanced. It just blows my mind that it was all buried in ash.^ |
The amphitheater was SO BIG and beautiful!
The arches on the outside...can I get some of those for my house please? And the inside was just as good. Steep, overgrown with green vines and grass, and gorgeous.
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| ^He's thinking about pizza here^ |
After we explored the ruins for the afternoon, we headed out into the city for some dinner. Our bff Luigi (the driver and guide) recommended his favorite local pizza place (and gelato shop for dessert!), so you'd better believe we walked straight there. I'm telling you, if you're going to Italy anytime soon, you need Luigi. He made our trip!!
And holy cow...the pizza place he recommended had some GOOD PIZZA.
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| ^about to go in and dive headfirst into a pizza pie^ |
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| ^YUM^ |
Also, we ordered some Montanarines for our appetizer...and oh my gosh. Literally could have died from happiness right then and there. Imagine a hot, pillowy scone/fry bread, topped with fresh marinara, parm, & basil.
SO FREAKING GOOD.
I could not have loved him more in that moment.
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| ^Go to Italy and order these ASAP.^ |
Then we walked over to Pasticceria De Vivo for some gelato (our first of the trip!). Jord opted for creamy berry cheesecake, and I got pistachio + hazelnut.
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| ^swoon^ |
As we ate our gelato, we walked over to a beautiful church and piazza to sit and enjoy the sun.
It was definitely one of those moments when everything felt right in the world, and we just couldn't believe we were there. We were one hundred percent jet lagged and exhausted, but we didn't even mind.
It was just too perfect to care about anything else.
These photos I snapped of Jordan are some of my very favorites.
I could not have loved him more in that moment.
What a good, good day to be alive (and in Italy!).
Pompeii was incredible.
I hope you're ready for about a trillion more photos of this trip, because this is only the beginning.
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