Italy in Spring

Excerpts from email to my mom:

I just wanted to drop you a quick line and let you know that everything is fine. I'm in Rome right now. Jeff and I stopped in an internet bar to get out of the rain and dry off a bit. Its been raining all day while we went to the Roman Forum and the Colosseum....so its been not quite as fun as it could have been but at least it kept the lines down! Yesterday we took the train down to Rome and met up with Flaminia and then went and took a tour of the vatican. She had tickets to the crypt or Scavi which are impossible to get and so we took a tour of that too. We leave this afternoon to go back to Modena and meet back with Jeff's family. Tomorrow we are going to Venice, Saturday, Florence and then Sunday we are going to San Marino. Quick trips but at least we get to see something! I've enjoyed traveling with the Nicolini's so it should be a fun time on the day trips.

We are staying at an old farmhouse while two of the kids are staying with the grandmother in Fiorano. When we got to that area on Tuesday, we were told that it had snowed recently and sure enough there were banks of snow along the side of the roads. Rome has been warmer and greener than northern Italy. The food is absolutely delicious and thankfully they have reasonable portions or I would have gained 20lbs. from this week alone!

Ok, well I need to jet so that we can get our train on time. Tell everyone that I love them and I will call as soon as I get back into the States!

Love you!

Steph

Not be lazy or anything but I thought that would be quicker and more efficient for me to do! Now to tell about the rest of the trip.

Jeff and I left Saturday morning for Houston to fly to Italy. Actually not Houston, Magnolia....so to Bella,Shasha, and Kat, sorry about not meeting up with anyone but we were out in the middle of nowhere and by the time we were done with dinner and a nap (one to many ritas!) it was so late to drive to downtown Houston! Big apologies!!!!! The next day I spent trying to get Jeff's sisters dresses for the wedding. It was only supposed to take an hour...it turned into like 5 because of a St. Patrick's day parade which caused massive traffic. But got those done. My cellie died so, sorry to anyone who tried to call and got no answer...forgot to charge it!

We left early, early Monday morning Italy and essentially flied all day long and arrived in Milan, Italy Tuesday morning. Drove 3-4 hrs (slept most of the time!) to Fiorano to the Nicolini family apt. and the farm house we stayed at. The next two days are noted above*

We got back late Thursday night from Rome and then early Friday morning, plans had changed and we went to Florence with Jeff's family. Florence was beautiful, although with 5 women/girls in the group a majority of the time was spent looking at the market that was set up along the main street. The churches were gorgeous but unfortunatley we didn't get a chance to look at too many buildings because it was only a day trip and kiddos were getting tired. So, we left around 5 and headed back to home base.

Because plans had changed, what had originally been planned as a big family trip to Venice turned into just me and Jeff. We took the train there and spent the day wondering around and getting lost. Venice is definitely a contained city, every maximum inch is used for buildings and streets. Its eerily silent because of the lack of cars. While I enjoyed Venice, I felt like I was more bombarded by tourist crap than any of the other places but maybe that was because we went on the weekend. Jeff and I left on the Intracity train which takes twice as long as the Eurostar but is half as expensive. It didn't bother us much because we purchased while in Venice a bottle of Prosecco and two personal sized bottles of wine. Four hours later we arrived back at "home" a little tipsy and very tired.

Sunday was a chill day as everyone repacked and we had lunch with the entire family clan at a restaurant up the hill. I think they beat my family record of a long lunch...four hours! Then we went to visit the mud volcanos...which is a lot cooler than it sounds! I swear.

Monday we left at 4:30am to drive back to Milan to come back to the states. We spent 3 hrs in the car, 8.5 hrs on a full plane to Newark, 3.5hrs on a full plan to Houston, 1hr in a car to Jeff's parents house, and then 2.5 hrs to Austin. I'm so tired of cars and planes and trains!!!!!!

Overall! Great trip but quick...more like wetting my appetite for more Italy! Now, back to reality. Mucho work to do for school which I am not excited about. Suckage...so I will be laying low for a couple of weeks!

Feedback

I'm gonna post some ideas for the wedding and get some feedback from people. Not that Jeff's opinion doesn't matter, its just that everything looks good to him....he's easy to please!

Floral ideas


I'm thinking off white callas and green callas...I love the reds and oranges of these bouquets but I want to keep the colors summery and try not to go too fallish..eventhough I do like those colors a lot!

Centerpiece ideas: I wanted to keep the cost down and try and only do candles for centerpieces but I'm not positive it will be that much less.




Ok, so I'm not sure about this but I thought it was kinda cool and lasts longer than a bouquet but for the bridesmaids:
Would you be pissed off if you were a BM and held a fan instead of a bouquet? And would it be weird b/c I'm not asian nor am I having an asian themed wedding?

Ok it won't let me upload any more pics...so I'll be back in a bit and upload more...