Since there are so many photos I want to share with you all, I am going to break this down into two blog posts 🙂 So, here is part one! Out of all the photos I took, I narrowed it down to 530 of my favorites, and I’ve narrowed it down even further for these blog posts! In the next couple of weeks I am just going to upload some albums to my facebook, haha.

Tuscany

– where we stayed for our first few nights! We didn’t fully realize that we’d be staying in Tuscany, but we were pretty excited about it. I always found it a little funny to find signs written in English!

Our hotel was just a few blocks away from the beach, so our first night there Maureen and I went to check it out because I really wanted to catch the sunset before dinner. This was when it REALLY started to sink in that I was in Europe! So unbelievably beautiful, especially with the gorgeous Mediterranean on one side, and the gorgeous mountains on the other. 

Cinque Terre – Monterosso

Cinque Terre means “Five Villages,” and we visited three out of the five villages on Easter Sunday. Monterosso was by far my favorite out of the three, I think mainly because there was a lot to see and do, and we had three hours there. 

This was where they were holding their Easter Sunday Service. So neat! And I loved the gorgeous flowers. I always take a lot of photos of the flowers for my mom 🙂

I went off on my own for a little bit, and I “hiked” up to see the statue of Saint Francisco, I believe, and just stood there for ten or fifteen minutes with my jacket off and just stared out into the sea and felt this incredible peace wash over me. It was amazing. Then I realized you could go up further, so I did! The most beautiful cemetery I have ever seen was at the top of this hill overlooking Monterosso. 

Cinque Terre- Vernazza

Vernazza was recently ravaged by a flood, three years ago, and you can see on the buildings that they still haven’t fully recovered from it. Such a quaint little village. This was where I went into a little shop with Luca (he translated for me) and purchased three bottles of locally made dessert wine for me, my mom, and Amy! I had them shipped back home so that I wouldn’t have to worry about breaking them in my suitcase. I can’t wait to see how it tastes!

I also had this really amazing, positive, experience with a little shop owner who happened to be from Texas! Because of the connection we made from her friendly and awesome personality, I walked out with gorgeous handmade earrings and a beautiful handmade bag! And, of course, you can’t go to Italy without eating Gelato 😉 Such a yummy snack! 

Cinque Terre- Manarola

; Our final stop for the day! Such a beautiful village to see! It’s no wonder that they put it on postcards!

Nice!

Oh my word, the yachts we saw! I decided that I just want to sell my belongings and live on a yacht – you couldn’t possibly need anything else! We also saw many, many nice cars 🙂 We also went out to eat in Cannes, where the film festival is held! 

We had the morning to explore Nice on our own before heading off to an optional excursion to St. Paul de Vence. I could NOT get over how breathtakingly beautiful and blue everything was!

We saw the most amazing market with lots of fruit, flowers, art, and so much more! After two more super positive experiences (free samples of chocolate filled cookies, and great samples of olive oil and truffle oil – who knew there were so many types of olive oil!) I walked away with some edible treats! I’m excited to try out my peppery olive oil, but also want to save it for as long as I can! haha 🙂

Check back in next week for part two of European adventures!

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