The lesser known beauty of Northern Italy...

Northern Italy was absolutely amazing. I know we say that about a lot of the places we have been, but really, Northern Italy is incredible. We spent a few days on Lake Como, playing in the small Italian towns and of course on the lake,

Sometimes we had a little too much fun on the boat we rented for the day. Justin is just too funny, I can't help it.

and then we spent a week in the Dolomites. We spent a few nights in one of the central towns there called Cortina where we did our first Via Ferrata (roping in to a cable and climbing up huge rock peaks),

Here we are at the top, after the Via Ferrata (for more pics, click below on the link to the album)

and a 40 mile bike ride (don't worry, half was downhill) and then we did some backpacking. We hiked in for two nights to two different mountain huts or "rifugios." If we thought Nepal trekking was cush with all the tea houses, this blows that level of cushness out of the water. The so called huts were unbelievable, complete with full-staffed restaurants, bedrooms with small flat screens, Italian food, Italian coffee, and Italian wine! We had such a great time and we feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to do itl. If Northern Italy weren't so far away, we'd suggest going every year with all our friends and family :-).

We took lots of pics as usual and this time Justin even wrote captions for the Dolomite Album. He took that location on as his own little baby and planned most of our time there. It was great!

Click HERE for the Lake Como pics!

Click HERE for the pics of the super cool Dolomites!

There is more to Switzerland than cheese and chocolate....

After leaving Chamonix, we wondered how things could get any prettier......well, going deep into the Swiss Alps is as pretty as the edge of them in Chamonix, if not more stunning! Switzerland as a whole is a super cool country. The cities are crazy clean and there are tons of free things to do for the public. We biked, swam, saw bears, and hung out in parks all for FREE. Now there are lots of things that cost an arm and a leg too, but let's not dwell on the negative. And then, to add to its cool cities, Switzerland has.....well duh.....the Swiss Alps.

For the majority of our Alp exploring, we met up with one of my best friends from college, Maggie, and her husband Brett. They are an absolutely amazing couple on staff with Campus Outreach in Indiana. It was such an incredible blessing to see them (I hadn't seen Maggie since our wedding) and we all had a blast.

Brett, Maggie, me and Justin in the Alps!

After saying goodbye to Maggie and Brett :-(, Justin and I headed down to Zermatt, Switzerland for a couple of days, and then to the east via some scenic trains before going back into Italy where we are now.

So, all together we were in Switzerland for a week and a half this time around. We'll be going back with my parents when they come over in September. We took lots of pictures of our week and a half, so when you have a few minutes or need a break, take a look at the Alps!

Click HERE to see the Switzerland Album complete with captions :-).

A Little Slice of Heaven....

...in the town of Chamonix.

We absolutely LOVED Chamonix. Really, we have loved everywhere we've been, but for some reason, Chamonix will always hold a special place in our hearts (cue in cheesy music here). Here are a few reasons why and some pics to prove it....

1. Beautiful Mountains (e.g. Mt. Blanc....who wants to go back some day and climb it w/us?)

2. A great train and gondola system to take you to the starting point of any amazing hike.

3. French speaking people (we love the French.....they totally get a bad rap, but they're amazing)

4. French Bakeries!

5. Crepes

6. Great mountain biking trails

7. A river that goes right through town

8. Economical lodging!

9. Getting to Chamonix via three gondola rides up and over mountains from Italy!

10. Our THREE year anniversary!

So, needless to say, we miss it a little bit, but don't feel too bad for us (I know you don't), because we move on to new amazing places everyday. To see some pics of God's amazing creation (mountains and crepes!) in Chamonix click HERE

The Coast with the Most!

After Rome, we hoped on the train and headed south to the town of Sorrento which is right at the start of the most beautiful stretch of the Amalfi Coast. On our way down, we made one stop in the town of Pompei where we saw Mt. Vesuvius (the volcano that erupted and preserved the town of Pompei back in the day). It was pretty cool!!

Once in Sorrento, thanks to Justin's traveling he did for work early on in our marriage, we were able to stay at a sweet Hilton Resort overlooking Sorrento and the Mediterranean Sea for FREE! It was awesome and we took full advantage! We spent one whole day just hanging out at the cool pool.

Another day, we rented a scooter and lived on the edge as we drove the hairpin turned road down to the town of Amalfi through Positano on the Amalfi Coast. It was so awesome (as it always is) getting to see some of the places that we've always heard about or seen in movies. We loved the Amalfi Coast and tried to think of reasons why we'd HAVE to get back there someday......like maybe we have to fly through here on our way to Nepal or something :-). It's totally on the way, right?

We had great weather and an absolutely fabulous time!! Check out some of the gorgeous sights that we were so blessed to see by clicking HERE.

When in Rome....

Here are some highlights and pics of our three days in the "Eternal City" of Rome.

The HIGHS:

• The History!!
• Tons of sweet sights, such as the Colosseum (with guided tour!), the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, the Trevi Fountain, and Bernini's Sculptures.
• Drinking ice cold water out of all the fountains in the city (those Romans we're clever).
• Our favorite meal in Italy thus far.

The LOWS:

• Trying to drive into Rome to return our rental car.....not really Rome's fault.
• Justin didn't see what the fuss was all about with the Spanish Steps (feel free to enlighten him).
• Nothing else, Rome is Rome!

For Pictures of the eventful three days click HERE

Under the Tuscan Sun!

It was such a perfect place to spend three days.....sandwiched between Florence and Rome, Tuscany was like a small peace of Heaven, well at least it was cooler in temperature :-). And Justin would like to go on record to say it wasn't that bad in Florence. He would! :-)

After leaving Florence, we rented a car and took to the Tuscan roads. We purposefully drove on some scenic routes, which turned out to be well worth it. We made a couple of stops along the way, Monticino (for lunch), and Montipulciano (just to see it and grab some coffee), which were really fun. We even learned that a scene from a certain popular movie was filmed in Montipulciano (you'll have to see if you can figure out which one). We finally arrived in Cortona, where we stayed for three nights. Cortona was amazing.....it was beautiful, cool, and had great food and gelato! We even saw Francis May's house (and maybe Fran herself, funny story, ask us later), the author who wrote Under the Tuscan Sun which the movie was based off of. And we also made it to Assisi (home of Francis of Assisi) and to a vineyard to learn all about how they make true Italian wine.

In short, we loved seeing the beautiful Italian countryside and were blessed by God's creation immensely.

Check out all the pics from Tuscany HERE.

Florence, the good, the bad, and the HOT

We're a little behind in our picture posting and my (Krista) mother is dying for some of Italy to get up here, so here we go....and instead of trying to give a detailed account of our first three days in Italy in the lovely city of Florence, here are our top three highs and lows and some pics for your enjoyment (well at least I know my mom will enjoy them :-))

Florence:

The Pics: Click HERE

The HIGHS:

Michelangelo's David - it doesn't disappoint

The Gelato - our first experience of the true Italian treasure

A cool river with lots of good views on it, especially at sunset

The LOWS:

It was HOT, like sweating walking at night hot.

We don't know Italian, and the locals we came into contact with there were less than thrilled about this.

Although the gelato was amazing, it was a little pricey.