Italy

On June 14, 2013, Andrew and I will have been married for 10 years. An entire decade.

To celebrate, we are going to Italy! I could not be more excited about this. Aside from our honeymoon, we've only gone on one trip, just the 2 of us, that does not involve family. It was a 3-day weekend trip to the Outer Banks, NC for our 5th anniversary. I am not complaining, we are truly blessed and have no regrets - but this is, undoubtedly, going to be a once in a lifetime adventure for us!

We began planning in February. It was Italy or England. What a tough choice! On one hand, England might be easier as first time travelers to Europe, as they speak the language. However, Italy seems far more exotic!

First step - we called Sandy Harrison, one of my mom's oldest friends. She has been a travel agent for approximately 1,000 years. We told her our meager budget, and our dreams. Her response was very kind, but not what I wanted to hear. She was encouraging us to try a Caribbean cruise, as it was more suited to our budget.  We looked at a few, but felt like we really wanted to do something much more memorable. After careful planning, on her part, she figured out how we could spend 10 days in Italy on a teachers' salary.

So - we're going to Italy on July 1st! We'll visit Rome, Naples/Sorrento, Florence & Venice. I have absolutely no idea what to expect, but am so completely thrilled to get to see another part of the world. I'm very, very excited to see the Vatican City, the Trevi fountain and David - the Sistene Chapel! I'm also pumped about visiting the Amalfi Coast, and the Island of Capri, and all of the natural wonders Italy has going on. Our hotel in Sorrento has a view of Mt. Vesuvius! Are you kidding me?!

Then there's the food...Naples boasts having the best pizza on the planet (and if you've met me, this is a major ordeal for me - I love pizza) and if you've met Andrew, you know that pasta is his favorite thing in the world. We are going to be in heaven. We may come back 20 pounds heavier...but we recently joined a gym...so here's hoping that it works itself out!

Not only that, but we'll be celebrating a marriage that has been through the fire and has come out refined by it.

I already can't write about what our trip ended up being like. The sights, the people, the food...