Air, Landier, and Sea

Just a quick note to say that we’ve been really busy and doing incredible things in Africa, so updates are coming! We’ve been so exhausted at the end of every day that we’ve been getting to bed as early as possible. We will post again soon!

Bright and early, we headed up to Mount Etna, which is the tallest, active volcano in Europe. Although it’s an active volcano, even when it erupts, the lava moves very slowly. Apparently, there’s a video of an eruption where people have time to collect all of their things and leave and then the lava destroys…

Bongiorno from Sicily! Today was the first new stop with our Bucketlist Xperience group, so we started our morning with the very exciting and much anticipated plane reveal. Well, we didn’t exactly start the day with that, because we had to be driven to Pisa because there were fires in Florence (not near us) that…

Since we are in this incredible tour group, we got the opportunity to tour the Salvatore Ferragamo factory, museum, and store (of course). We also were honored with the privilege to eat another fantastic lunch at the original Ferragamo headquarters (which is still its headquarters today). Here’s what we learned on our Ferragamo tours: Salvatore…

Today was our first fully non-scheduled day. We enjoyed walking around in Florence, visiting shops, and returning to our favorite restaurant for more chickpea flour pancakes stuffed with prosciutto. We then transferred to our new hotel where we met up with the rest of our tour group. Posts will likely be a little more sporadic…

Today we had another early start to the day. Once again, we were scheduled to meet our tour guide at 8:45, so we thought it best to meet at 8:30. We met Christina, who was our same wonderful guide from the Academy Museum yesterday. She not only was very interesting and knowledgeable, she took much…

Today we started our day early to get to the Academy, which is part museum and part school for the arts (both music and artwork). While we initially planned to meet our guide in the lobby at 8:45 (which is what Sergio, our wonderful concierge told us), we got a call to our room at…

We finished our final morning in Rome with breakfast at our hotel and cappuccino and then took the train to Florence. Traveling by train is one of our favorite things to do in Europe. It’s so relaxing to watch the beautiful countryside pass by as we enjoy the air conditioned cabin. Once we arrived in…

We’re not allowed. First, imagine, if you will, Bryce and I taking our passeggiata (leisurely evening walk) last night down the cobblestone streets of Rome. We come across a gelato shop, order two cups of gelato (Bryce got dark chocolate and I got chocolate chip) and then we continue our stroll to the Spanish steps…

Castel Sant’ Angelo was originally constructed by the Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum. It rivaled the mausoleum of Augustus Caesar, which was constructed on the other side of the Tiber River. This was an exciting stop on our trip, as Bryce hadn’t been here on his previous trip. There are many interesting things that we…