roma e firenze

We ended our European vacation in Rome. Here is us the night we arrived in front of the Colosseum. We stayed with Jadyn and Sean McGrath, dear friends of mine from school. 

Our first full day in Rome was spent touring the incredible Vatican City. Despite being surrounded by gorgeous art and religious relics, the most shocking thing to me was the number of people who apparently don't have access to the internet and waited in line for hours!!! Honestly, it takes one Google search to get the suggestion to book tickets ahead of time, but we still found ourselves walking ahead of hundreds of people waiting in the morning heat for tickets. I don't get it. 

We did a guided tour through the Vatican and had a great guide. Here is a not so sneaky and poor quality picture of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Wow! I still can't believe this work of art. It might have been the most amazing thing I saw during our trip.

We also climbed to the top of St. Peter's Basilica. 

We took a train and spent a night and day in Florence. Here we are in the Accademia Gallery marveling at the David. And sadly, there were hundreds of people waiting in line for this and the Uffizi, which we went to after the Accademia.

I am embarrassed I didn't know about the Gucci Museum! It was a small little collection close to Il Duomo, but worth all 7 euros. Fashion is my favorite art form so I was in heaven seeing pieces from the early start of the Gucci brand to gowns worn by Jessica Chastain and Blake Lively at awards shows a few years ago.

This was the evening gown room where my eyes watered over how beautiful the dresses were.

Another fantastic museum I stumbled upon was the Salvatore Ferragamo museum. I thought like the Gucci Museum it would be a history of the Ferragamo house and memorable pieces which defined the brand. There was a lovely Ferragamo display (including a collection of shoe molds and one of them was Audrey Hepburn's!!!) but also an "Across Art and Fashion" exhibit which featured work by Rei Kawakubo, Alexander McQueen, Martin Margiela and Miuccia Prada just to name a few. 

Florence was such a gorgeous city and I wish we were able to spend more time. Probably my biggest regret was not getting tickets to tour Il Duomo, so we took as many opportunities as possible to experience its grandeur from the outside.

Here's a few from Piazzale Michelangelo after sunset.

Here's me perched by the Ponte Vecchio which was not as impressive as Trip Advisor/Instagram/the internet made it out to be... but still lovely in its own way.

We returned to Rome where I took a cooking class! When we first started planning our trip, a cooking class was high on my must-do list. I ended up going by myself to this class (Cook With Us in Rome is the name of the company). I took the class with an Australian family of five and another couple from South Carolina. It was one of my favorite experiences in Italy and I'm so excited to try the recipes we learned.

Here is me with the instructor Gianni. He was a great teacher and incredibly patient (I got lost and was a little late to the market). If you enjoy cooking, I highly recommend taking a class! Especially one that includes a portion where you actually buy your ingredients. 

Here's us with the best hosts in Rome. I didn't take enough pictures of it but the best pasta and gelato I had was in Rome. Jadyn shared her specific gelato requirements with us and they took us to their favorite places, which were all fantastic. Spaghetti carbonara is my favorite pasta dish and I ordered it everywhere we went and I never had one that was less than excellent. My favorite gelato was Come Il Latte. We had such a great time spending a week with friends, especially after two weeks of hanging out with only each other and strangers :-P Rome was a great end to an even better trip. I will never forget our summer 2016 of unemployment and world travels.

naples and the amalfi coast

We flew from Santorini to Naples and spent a day and a half eating as much Neapolitan pizza as possible. I also wanted to spend a day in Naples because I recently finished Elena Ferrante's My Briliant Friend series which takes place in the countryside of Naples. This series is fantastic and I highly recommend it!!

In the above picture we are getting pizza to go from a place close our Airbnb. This was our second time and I think I looked so thrilled while watching them make the pizza that the employees invited us to take a picture in front of the oven.

(Fun fact: One time I worked at The Awful Waffle in Provo during my senior year at BYU. The Awful Waffle tried to serve every type of food imaginable including Neapolitan pizzas so I learned how to make them and use those fancy ovens. I don't think I'll ever be able to eat an American version of a Neapolitan pizza ever again).

Here's a picture from probably the most incredible Airbnb we've ever stayed at. This was right in the heart of Naples at the Palazzo dello Spagnolo. Our host was an amazing artist and a lot of the work throughout the apartment was hers. She also had an incredible book and musical instrument collection. Besides eating pizza, we did a lot of street watching. The traffic and driving are crazy in Naples but everyone manages to survive and I didn't see a single accident or fender bender.

After Naples we went to Agerola for a few days and beach hopped. This photo was taken our first day on the Amalfi Coast.

After one of the days we spent at the beach, we went to Villa Cimbrone in Ravello and toured the gardens. 

One day we hiked from Agerola to Amalfi via the Path of the Gods. The hike had gorgeous views like the one above and halfway there was a fresh juice stand which I think more hikes should incorporate.

One of the many little beaches sprinkled throughout the Amalfi coast. This is Spiaggia Duoglie. This beach you could get to by walking but a lot of them are only accessible via boat. We rented an umbrella, chairs and ate caprese sandwiches in between swimming.

We spent the other half of our time on the Amalfi Coast staying in Positano in the most darling bed and breakfast that was 13 stories above the street so I didn't feel too bad about not working out during those days. Above is me before dinner in Positano wearing the dress I bought specifically for Positano :-P 

We did two boat trips in Amalfi- one just along different beaches on the coast and one to Capri. I highly recommend booking a boat tour when you're in the area. It's so much fun sailing to the little islands and jumping off the boat to swim in the water. And no sand! It's like all the best parts of going to the beach without the worst part.

Our boat trip to the ultra glam island of Capri.

Little swim break in between sailing.

Capri was gorgeous and totally felt like a Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue ad. We spent a day on the island and took a chair lift to the top of Monte Solaro.

The Amalfi Coast was gorgeous and perfect for us beach babies. I couldn't get enough of the colorful buildings and gelato on the beach. 

ancient athens and dreamy santorini

Me being dumb at the Acropolis.

We flew from Vancouver to Toronto to Rome to Athens and spent a day marveling at the ancient wonders around every corner. We climbed the Acropolis and sweated it out with a bunch of tourists. In sixth grade I made a model of the Parthenon for a social studies project. We drew numbers and I remember I got first pick and out of all the famous buildings and structures in Europe, I picked the Parthenon. It is truly amazing to think of these thousand years old structures in their heyday and then to marvel at what is impressively still standing. If you don't want to pay for a guided tour we downloaded a bunch of Rick Steves audio tours and played them on our phones. The Acropolis one was pretty good.

Greece!

After Athens we took a ferry to SANTORINI!!! This was my absolute favorite part of our trip for many reasons and one of the top reasons is my dream of going to Santorini after seeing Alexis Bledel play Lena Kaligaris in the underrated cinematic masterpiece, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. 

Oia at sunset.

We heard all about the legendary Santorini sunsets and especially the hype around seeing the sunset at Oia. Santorini tip #1: The sunset is beautiful from all the cities in Santorini!! It gets super crowded in Oia as you can see from the pic and people literally perch on the roof and stairs to get good view but I think it's even more enjoyable from the less crowded spots.

Our first two nights we stayed in a gorgeous little cottage in Imerovigli. We took buses between Imerovigli, Fira and Oia. Imerovigli was the least crowded but didn't have as many shops and restaurants or the iconic blue domes. Fira is where the night life is and probably the most crowded. Oia is home to the blue domes and is definitely more touristy, but my favorite of the three cities.

One day we hiked to Ammoudi Bay which is a great little fishing town and you can jump off the rocks and swim. It was the perfect end to a dusty and sweaty hike. We also had an amazing freshly caught seafood lunch here.

I never got sick of the blue and white. 

There are a lot of great restaurants in Santorini but honestly my favorite meals were the 4 euro gyros. So cheap and so delicious. I highly recommend grabbing a few and finding some roof or stairs and taking in the perfect views. My favorite gyro was at Lucky's Souvlaki if you're ever in the area ;)

Oh beautiful Santorini. I love you and I will be back for your white houses and blue roofs someday.

tofino and vancouver, b.c.

My first time surfing. Tofino had great beginner beaches. Nobody ever talks about how heavy surfboards are!! Or maybe I'm just a pipsqueak. I dream of being an effortlessly cool surf chick that gets featured on Madewell's Instagram but judging from my first two surfing experiences and my poor swimming skills, it might just remain a dream.

Beach hikes that were much less strenuous than our Banff and Yoho hikes. Ynna Hiking Scale 1/10 difficulty, 6/10 reward.

One of two lovely Tofino sunsets. 

We came back to Burnaby to enjoy one more week of Preston's hometown. I could not get over the perfect summer weather especially after recently escaping the beginnings of what looks like another awful Dallas summer.

One of two local hikes. This is the top of Dog Mountain.

Another evening we went to Theater Under the Stars and saw Beauty and the Beast! Before the show we biked around Stanley Park.

Canada was great and another summer trip was just what I needed to soften my heart towards our neighbors up north hehe. Preston is always trying to convince me we should live in Canada and I always have the same reasons why I don't want to live in Vancouver and the #1 reason is the dreary weather 90% of the year. Every time we go back his family and friends are super honest with me and straight up say that it always rains. Meanwhile Preston felt the need to point out the lovely 75 degree and sunny weather the one week we visited every chance he got. Vancouver is a great city and everyone should visit :)

to banff and yoho we go

July 8 we flew to Vancouver to spend time with the Kutneys and see what British Columbia had to offer in terms of hiking, camping and nature in general. Spoiler alert: BC has a hell of a lot to offer in the nature department and everyone needs to experience it!!

First we drove to Banff National Park. We arrived the night of July 10, saw Lake Louise and slept in a hostel. On the morning of the 11th we rented helmets and began the Sentinel Pass hike starting at Moraine Lake. I got a glimpse of the unreal turquoise water at Lake Louise the night before and Moraine Lake further increased my amazement of the incredible blue water. 

Sentinel Pass was a series of steep switchbacks to the Valley of Ten Peaks (literally you could see all ten peaks it was gorgeous) which was a nice break before more switchbacks to the actual Sentinel Pass. We took a little break and proceeded to scramble up Mount Temple (enter hiking helmets) and got about a quarter of the way up before turning around. I was too cold and scared and there was snow at the top. According to the Ynna Hiking Scale and based on my fairly active lifestyle at the time, I would rate this hike a 6.5/10 for difficulty and 9.5/10 for reward. Elevation gain was pretty big and the first series of switchbacks was the hardest part for me. Views were really gorgeous though and worth the struggle.

Light scrambling up to Mount Temple before I got too cold.

Sometimes you need a mid-hike nap.

We camped in the Lake Louise campground the night of the 11th and 12th. On the morning of the 12th we took a shuttle to Lake O'Hara and began the Alpine Circuit hike. We had to reserve our spot three months before because the number of hikers is limited for this area. The terrain varied from straight up rock and boulder piles, grassy valleys and lots of little streams we had to hop across. Ynna Hiking Scale gives this a 5/10 for difficulty and 10/10 for reward. Truly incredible unobstructed views the entire hike. I got annoyed at how many times Preston had me stop so he could take panoramas.

I'm definitely not a hiking expert but my biggest tips are kind of no-duh but important:

1) Wear layers and avoid cotton. My biggest mistake was having a cotton tshirt/tank as my thinnest layer and the one closest to my skin. I sweat a lot and the temperatures on these hikes vary. Luckily when we went it stayed a pleasant 50-60 degrees but I'd sweat a lot going up steep inclines then cool down again and be stuck shivering with a damp base layer at a high elevation. Best piece of clothing I brought was my Outdoor Voices Catch-Me-If-You-Can hoodie. Perfect weight, great to wear alone or as an extra layer for more warmth.

2) Bring a raincoat! Check the forecast. We were lucky and only got some drizzles on the first day and got caught in the rain for about an hour the second day even though both days called for nonstop rain.

3) Bring snacks and water. Duh. I'm very obsessed with salty/sweet ratios so I had to have granola bars, gummies, pop tarts AND beef jerky, chips, nuts. I know there are fancy REI hiker snacks you can get too but these are just my faves.

Banff and Yoho were so beautiful and I recommend anyone who loves the outdoors to visit these parks as they are some of the most scenic places in North America.