I am so excited to share our weekend in Paris! We met our friends on Friday afternoon in the City of Light and all stayed in Kevin’s apartment. We toured the major sights and enjoyed so many great experiences. My favorite things were climbing the stairs up the Eiffel Tower on Friday night and getting a beautiful view of Paris from the second level. I also loved doing a river cruise along the Seine River and getting to see the sights all lit up at night. We enjoyed buttery French pastries, fresh baguettes and delicious meals. I even got to pose my beautiful friend, Stephanie, for some quick photos in a beautifully lit Parisian park. This was our fifth, and final, weekend traveling with our co-worker friends in Europe. I have truly loved exploring Brussels, Dublin, London, Milan, and Paris with this crew!
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At the end of May, David and I went off on our most exciting adventure yet! We flew from Milan to Marrakech, Morocco on Sunday morning. We were immediately greeted by the heat, fast-paced hectic driving, and camels on the side of the road. Marrakech is fast. It’s demanding and exhausting. But it’s such a unique place. It is really hard to describe this North African city. There is so much to see, smell, and do. We spent three days in Marrakech and had such a memorable experience! I’m going to write a commentary on our trip throughout the blog post. Scroll down for more pictures and details on our trip to Morocco!
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When David and I were living in NYC, we walked into the Eataly store and found some flyers about the upcoming World’s Fair in Milan from May through October 2015. We did some more research online and learned that our future temporary home was really going to be hosting the World’s Fair (Expo) while we were there! We were so excited! We have seen a huge increase in tourist groups in Milan since the start of the Expo. The number of people around Duomo and the Castello have drastically increased. But we are thankful that we are experiencing life in Milan during one of the most exciting times. We visited the Expo on Sunday with our Stoker family and it was SO cool! The theme is food sustainability and feeding the world. Countries uniquely represented themselves through their own pavilions with information, displays, videos, technology, and food! Expo felt a lot like Epcot and the Olympics combined. There was so much to see, experience, and eat. We explored Expo for almost 15 hours and still did not see everything. My favorite sites were Morocco, Israel, Azerbaijan, South Korea, Holland, and the Tree of Life. We devoured Columbian and Brazilian coffee, Chilean empanadas, Dutch pancakes, Swiss chocolate, a French baguette, Chinese noodles, and German beer. It was all sooo good. Here’s a glimpse into our day at the Milan Expo 2015. VIEW POST

We are so happy that family is visiting us in Milan! David’s mom, dad, and two younger sisters arrived on Thursday morning and are enjoying an 11-day Italian adventure! Our first day trip took us to Cinque Terre on Saturday. The beautiful colorful houses on the mountainous coast was such a sight. Unfortunately, most of the trail was closed due to poor conditions but we were able to hike from Corniglia to Vernazza and then took a regional train to Monterosso. We were able to experience 3 of the 5 villages and they were all lovely. I am so happy that we were able to explore this part of the world but I definitely think we could have enjoyed at least a full weekend here… there’s so much to see! The next day, we took a 1 hour train to Como and took the funicular up to Brunate. We took another hike to get a beautiful view over the lake. It was a wonderful travel weekend but my favorite part was exploring new parts of Italy with family!

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Rome… how do I describe this ancient, historical, cultured, beautiful city? The 2,000+ year old structures, the amazing architecture, the insanely thorough details. It’s all so grand. My Dad, who I call Daddio, packed a suitcase and took an overnight flight to Milan on Monday. Our first visitor from home! We enjoyed a few days in Milan and then took a day trip to Roma on Wednesday! Here’s our 9 hour day in Rome (not including the 6 hour train ride… or the 90 minute train delay. #travelproblems). The day started at the Colosseum, then the Roman Forum, the Trevi Fountain (sadly, under construction), the Pantheon, Castel Sant’Angelo, Vatican City, and St. Peter’s Basilica. I really loved this once in a lifetime Roman adventure with my Daddio.

*Reminder – Our European adventure will end mid-July. We will be back in Florida and available for photography sessions in August!

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Living in Milan feels like living in a big, busy city. It is unreal that beautiful, quiet Tuscany is only a 2 hour train ride away. On Saturday, David and I took a high-speed train from Milan to Florence and then met up with our tour group. We took a short drive to the beautiful hills of Tuscany with the Taste of Chianti tour through Viator. So green with so many olive trees and grape vines. Such a beautiful place. Our day trip in Tuscany included multiple wine and olive oil tastings (their fresh olive oil tastes nothing like what we eat in the States!), a delicious lunch at a restaurant tucked away in the hills, and exploring the Chianti region. Our tour guide was so knowledgable and our new friends in the group made the day so much more fun. After the tour ended, we arrived back in Florence for a quick walk around the city before catching our 9pm train back to Milano. This Saturday was pretty perfect.

*Reminder – Our European adventure will end mid-July. We will be back in Florida and available for photography sessions in August!

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Our most recent weekend travels took us to London, where our friend Steph is living! I was kinda hoping that Kate and William would have baby #2 while we were there… or maybe run into the Queen. A girl can dream. 😉 We started and ended our backpacking trip in 2012 in London and were excited to get back to explore this large, royal city. We flew in late Thursday night, explored the Borough Market (loved it!!), ate tacos for dinner, and then saw Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theater on Friday. Saturday started with a full English breakfast, checking out the new Apple watch, and a walking tour around London. Favorite part was seeing the changing of the guards! Then, a delicious picnic lunch outside in the beautiful gardens in front of the Natural History Museum. The museum was huge! So cool to see giant whales and dinosaur bones. We walked through West End and found dinner at a local pub. Yum! Sunday, David and I took the train to Isle of Dogs to watch the London Marathon! I love watching and cheering on runners while they are racing. It’s such an accomplishment! It was so fun to see the elite men run so fast past us, to see Paula Radcliffe run her final competitive London marathon, and to see all the interesting costumes (yes, a man wore a Borat thong to run the race!). We also visited the nearby Mudchute Farm to see some adorable farm animals. It was funny to be at this huge green farm right inside the city of London. Later, we met back up with our friends at Camden Market (huge, crowded, so hipster) for lunch. Overall, this trip to London felt so different compared to our 2012 trip. London is so huge, there is always something new to discover!
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Last weekend’s adventure took us to the beautiful Hamburg, Germany. If you look on a map, Hamburg is located near the northern tip of Germany. I honestly hadn’t heard of Hamburg before my friend Natalie moved there last year (to be with her sweet German boyfriend, Adrian). But I am so glad that she did because it gave us a reason to explore this great city! David and I met Natalie in Hamburg on Saturday and explored with her and Noah, the cutie 8-year old that she au pairs for. We saw the city sights, walked through a gorgeous park, drank gigantic German beers at the Hofbrauhaus, visited the Hamburg Dom (carnival), and the amazing Miniature Wonderland. That place is unreal – miniature replicas of towns in Germany, Switzerland, USA (they even had replicas of Port Canaveral and Seaworld!), a realistic tiny airport, and so much more. Those artists are extremely talented and patient. On Sunday, we explored the lively Fish Market, not even sure how to describe this place. A rock concert, partiers from the night before enjoying the sunrise, fish being auctioned off, beautiful baskets full of fruit for 10€, beer sold right next to a coffee cart. It was a party… on a Sunday morning. Then, we did a great walking tour to learn more about the city (fun fact: Hamburg has more bridges than Venice and Amsterdam combined! So much water!), followed by lunch, and a fast elevator ride up the beautiful St. Michel church tower, then a quick PHOTO SHOOT with Natalie and Adrian, and a harbor cruise around Hamburg. It was a great weekend exploring Hamburg.

First up, a quick mini session with my beautiful friend Natalie and that guy she randomly met at a bar in Tallahassee two years ago…who happened to become the love of her life. Now they are enjoying life together in Germany with their sweet dog, Dexter, aka: Tiny!

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Ireland has been on my Bucket List of places to visit for a while. I love the thought of lush green countryside, roaming farm animals, fresh local food, and their adorable accents. This past weekend, we got to visit this gorgeous country and experience its magic. On Saturday, we took a day tour all the way across the country. We started in Eastern Ireland (Dublin) and took a bus across the country to the Cliffs of Moher. This landscape is so breathtakingly beautiful. The tall cliffs drop drastically into the rolling waves of the Atlantic Ocean. The weather is constantly changing, too. While at the cliffs, we experienced warm sun, very extreme wind, freezing temperatures and rain. We walked along the cliffs and took in all of the beautiful views. Our bus tour allowed us to see the vast difference between the lush green countryside of Eastern Ireland to the rocky, lunar-like side of Western Ireland. That evening, we had a delicious dinner at Murray’s Pub with Irish music and dancing! On Sunday, we woke up to rain. Cold rain. But we still adventured out and joined a Sandeman’s walking tour of Dublin with our guide Conor. It was so fun! We saw all of the beautiful sites and historical monuments of Dublin. Later that day, David and I went to the Jameson Whiskey Distillery for a tour and tasting. We even got a whiskey ginger with a lime at the end of the tour…my favorite! On Monday, we went to the gorgeous Malahide Castle and then to the quaint fishing village, Howth. It was all so lovely. Ireland, I kinda love ya.

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I still can’t believe that in this stage of life, we are able to hop on a train to Portofino for a quick day trip. This beautiful piece of the world is only 2 hours away by train! On Monday morning, we woke up early and left Milan towards Santa Margherita Ligure train station. We arrived at 10:00 and took a 20 minute, crowded, bumpy bus ride down to Portofino. It was gorgeous and so tiny! We walked along those colorful buildings in about five minutes. We ate pizza next to the water, bought some water bottles and started our hike UP the mountain. Oh my goodness, it was such an uphill climb for the first mile. We stopped every few minutes to admire the view. The water was so blue and sparkly in the sunshine. Our hike from Portofino to San Fruttuoso was about two hours. We really love hiking and this was an incredible experience. San Fruttuoso is a tiny village with a huge, gorgeous monastery that was built in the mid-tenth century by Greek monks. Now, it has been converted into a museum with a very popular beach and restaurants. Later in the afternoon, we took a ferry over to gorgeous Camogli. We enjoyed the beach, we ate delicious focaccia, and soaked up the sunshine. Everything about the day was perfect until our train ride home which was 30 minutes delayed and insanely crowded. No seats for us. I think all of Italy decided to go back to Milan on Monday evening. 🙂 

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