11 Weeks Till Italy!!

I turned in all the stuff for my passport today and I'm soooo excited! It feels real now =) Spending $120 on a little book with your picture in it will do that for ya. I think we've finally got our trip planned out destination-wise, now we just have to plan the actual things we want to go see and do while we're there. We decided on Florence for 5 days, then Cinque Terre, Italy for 1 day, Rome, Italy for 2 days, a big pretty train ride up through Switzerland (Jeff told me it's gorgeous), then 2 days in Munich, Germany. I am SO PUMPED! If any of you have been to any of those places please fill me in on any "must-see's".

We're staying at a GORGEOUS house in Florence I talked about before so there will be plenty of cool things to do there. Including outlet shopping...think not so much The Gap and Banana Republic...this is more Prada, Gucci, Chanel, Versace, etc. Yeah, can you tell that's going to be one of the biggest highlights of the whole trip for me!? I'm already planning on shipping a huge box back to the States before we go backpacking through the rest of our trip. Around our little villa we can go hiking, horseback riding, wine tasting (it's on a vineyard), swimming, bike riding and all kinds of other fun outdoor things.

Here is where we'll be swimming!

Here is where we'll be watching the sunsets...
Here is where we'll be enjoying yummy breakfasts!

I also found an Italian cooking class and wine tasting night online that I thought would be cool. Lots of sightseeing as well, I'm so glad we have 5 days to fit all of this in. We've had several friends tell us that when they went to Europe, Florence was their favorite.

When we're in Cinque Terre, we'll probably just do a lot of relaxing and a little bit of sightseeing since it's pretty small.

In Rome I definitely want to go to Vatican City. I love historical things so I'm sure I'll love all the museums and landmarks.

I'm going to order a better zoom lens for my camera next month especially for this trip! And especially for the train ride through Switzerland. The lens I'm getting has a stabilization feature on it and it zooms in way farther than the lens that came with my camera.

Munich, Germany was one of Jeff's highlights of the last time he went to Europe so we wanted to designate 2 days there. We're going to be spending a LOT of time at the Hauf Brau Haus!! He said there are a TON of Americans that hang out there and it's really fun to find people. I also want to see a lot of landmarks while we're there like some Holocaust stuff (I told you I'm a history buff, depressing or not). Oh and we're going to do the Mike's Bike Tour!!

Sooo excited, 11 weeks can't get here soon enough!