That's Amore

I know we haven't blogged recently so I apologize. We had a couple places with no internet or internet in the lobby only which made blogging a little difficult. We are now in France and have been since the beginning of October. So, I wanted to make sure and wrap up our time in Italy.

While in Italy we went to: Rome; Sorrento and the Almalfi Coast; Tuscany region where we stayed though we also drove to the Umbria region as well; Florence with a stop in Pisa and Lucca as well as Sienna; Cinque Terre; Lake Como; Venice. I didn't include each hill town we visited in Tuscany and Umbria since I would need to get a map and locate them all, but there were quite a few! Looking back at this list, I am amazed at how many places we were able to see!! We were very pleased with each place we stayed and for the most part found our lodging very sufficient. The exception to that was Tuscany where we stayed in a convent with a moldy shower, an overly warm room and lots of mosquitos! We also think this is where my credit card was compromised because after using it there, the bank notified me about fraudulent charges on websites and my card had to be cancelled. Unfortunate but I was very glad that it was caught before any damage was done. We have so many experiences from each place that we will always remember! In Sorrento I had a pair of leather sandals made specifically for me by a shoe maker. In Pisa we experienced a severe thunder and lightning storm on the top of the Tower of Pisa. That was fun and scary! In Florence we happened to meet up with Luke's friend Brian and his wife, Jen. It was fun to meet in a foreign country and experience Italian culture. We were also able to meet them in the Cinque Terre for dinner. In Lake Como I almost stepped on a scorpion and Luke killed it with my shoe! I hope to never repeat that experience but I know we will always remember it! And then of course there is Venice. We loved Venice and our one regret is that we should have stayed one more day there!!

While in Italy, I also got to experience driving, mostly in the country. A couple things I learned: Italians seem a bit reckless compared to our American driving. Tailgating is the norm as well as passing on curves and not signaling. I found that I was very glad that I only had to drive for a small portion of our time in Italy. We also felt that we mastered the eurail system which we read was easy but felt overwhelmed by it at first. For the most part, we found Italians to be very friendly and to not be offended by our limited Italian. Though by the time we left Italy we felt we had the basics down and were slightly disappointed to arrive in France and have to start over with a new language. It was very exciting to finally travel in Italy and to see what a beautiful country it is.

For our French experience, we will try to be more regular with our posts. Luke is also hoping to put up quite a few more pictures and we will try to include food pictures as requested :)