Journey Through Italy

It's always exciting to go on vacation…see new places, try new food, and not have to worry about typical daily activities.
But even with the excitement of traveling, there's nothing like coming home. At the end of a vacation, so many people say they wish it could last forever, but Taylor and I have been blessed to build a life that we love to come home to.

During the month of August Taylor and I had an extra exciting vacation. We went to Italy for two weeks with our good friends Lucas and Allison Regula. While there we traveled from the northern Tuscany area to the southern tip of the country.
Before we'd even made our first flight, Taylor and I were concerned our whole trip might get messed up because our very first flight from Denver to Atlanta was delayed 3 hours. Thankfully we were supposed to have a fairly long layover in Atlanta. However by the time we flew out of Denver, Taylor and I were running through the Atlanta airport to make our connection. We got to our gate just as they were boarding the plane. Thankfully that was the only occasion we had any problems like that.

While in the planning process, Allison got in contact with a travel agent named Jan who specialized in Italy trips. She planned everything perfectly. All of our drivers met us with a sign saying "Stabel/Regula" any time we got off a train or plane. And all of our tour guides met us in our hotel lobby, so it was very easy and there was no stress at all.

The flight to Rome from Atlanta was pretty uneventful. Taylor and I both tried to get some sleep, but we failed miserably. Thankfully we were able to go ahead and stay up for our first day in Italy so we didn't have any problems with the time change.

Upon landing in Rome, we met our driver who took us to Florence.
Florence is absolutely fabulous, and anyone wanting to go to Italy should definitely go there. My favorite thing we did there was a wine tasting. We went to a small winery where they showed us how they made their wines and balsamic vinegar. Then we went inside where they had a table made up for us with wine glasses and a plate of bread with oils tomatoes, cheeses, honey, meats, etc. for us to pair with our wines so we could experience their full flavors.
It was extremely enjoyable and Taylor and I both really liked the wines and balsamic vinegar.

The river in Florence

Wine tasting in Florence

After Florence we took the train to Rome. Business class on the train was really nice. I can see why people travel that way a lot. The trains go over 100 mph and it's a smooth ride (plus you don't have to worry about other drivers - a lot of them drive like absolute maniacs).

The bidets in Italy freaked us out. It seemed very much in the way and I was afraid I was going to accidentally drop things in there.

Rome was neat because of all the history. We toured the Vatican, Castel Sant'Angelo, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon and the Colosseum.
A reserved tour with a guide is the only advisable way to do these things. The line to get into the Vatican was at least 1/2 a mile long. People had to wait in line for hours upon hours. But because we had a tour guide we were able to go right in.

The ornateness of their churches, especially St. Peter's Basilica, was absolutely breathtaking. You couldn't help but feel close to God as you walked into that sanctuary. It was kind of unreal to think that we were able to stand right next to the tomb of Saint Peter, Christ's very own disciple; a man who ate with, walked with, and learned from God in human form.

I think the thing I found the saddest about our whole trip was that even though every city was filled with cathedrals and places of worship, there seemed to be very few believers. One of our tour guides guessed that maybe 30% of Italians were actually practicing Christians.

The history in Rome was great, but mostly it was just a city. Not being big fans of big cities, Taylor and I weren't sad to go to our next stop.
We took the train to Naples and then met with our driver who was going to take us to Positano, and along the way we stopped for a tour of Pompeii.

Pompeii was a much bigger city than I realized and it was extremely neat to see such an old place that was still so whole. Most of Pompeii was covered with ash so they were easily able to excavate it compared to other towns that were covered by lava.
One very interesting thing was that some of the people who died were covered by lava which then cooled so when they uncovered the city, even though the flesh and muscle of these people had decayed away completely, they were able to pour plaster into the holes in the lava which then took the form of the body that had been there.

A plaster shape of a body

After Pompeii we went to our hotel in Positano. This was a great place to unwind.The whole town was built into the side of a cliff and our hotel was near the top so we could look down on it all. It was beautiful. Here we spent most of our time here just checking out the town and relaxing.

Positano

Being on the  side of a cliff, to walk anywhere your options were pretty much limited to going up some stairs, or going down some stairs.
At one point we wanted to go down to a more secluded beach. Our concierge at the hotel said it was 700 steps down and another 700 to come back up. We decided to make the trek. I figured going down would be easy but apparently that downward movement uses completely different muscles and by the time we got down to the beach, my legs were shaking. Honestly going up was easier for me.

I still want to get a shirt that say "Stair-Master" Positano, Italy. :)
Sadly we weren't impressed with the beaches. They were overcrowded and rocky so we opted to go back up the steps to our hotel and the pool.

View looking down from our hotel in Position

The food on the trip was wonderful, although neither Taylor nor I were big fans of their seafood. They tended to serve you the whole fish, eyeballs and all, which isn't much our style. Personally I like my fish filleted and well seasoned. Taylor and I ate a lot of veal instead.

The noodles were awesome, and I was wishing we hadn't waited until the end of trip to be at the place where we would need our bathing suites. :)
Not many hotels had good workout rooms, so my ability to hold off the effects of the pastas and bread was minimal. (Truthfully I didn't do too bad and sometimes at lunch I would just order a side of veggies because I was missing green foods).

After Positano, Lucas & Allison had to go back home, but Taylor and I went on to Sicily. Sicily was neat, although I think all the Italians were on vacation there. Not many of the ancient structures were whole either because the different countries that ruled over the years, especially Spain tore buildings down and recycled the materials.

My favorite day in Sicily was our last day when we went to the Volcano, Mt. Etna, and then afterward we went to a winery further down the side of the volcano for a wine tasting. To end the day, Taylor and I had massages at the spa in our hotel.

On Mt. Etna

Wine tasting in Sicily

We sat outside while trying the wines and enjoyed this view over the vineyard

Last night/meal in Taormina, Sicily

Then, finally, it was time to come home. It was the trip of a lifetime.

Over Labor Day weekend my sister, Katie, and her family came to visit us for a couple days. It was so wonderful to have them in our home and to get to show them what we do out here, especially our new growyard.
This past week Taylor and I spent a lot of time up at the growyard because of silage harvest. We had arranged with a neighbor to chop 3 fields of corn for silage to use for cattle feed. Taylor was on the tractor packing the silage, and I was in the scale house weighing the trucks. We finished up on Friday, and we ended up with a whole pit of really good feed for our animals.

After our vacation there was a scripture that really spoke to me:
You have only one master, the Christ. Matthew 23:10.
The lesson that went with this Scripture, spoke of not allowing anything to come between you and God, not teachers, not parents, not even church leaders. We all need to seek God for ourselves. I heard several Italians talk about corruption in the Roman Catholic church, and I think they allow that to be a reason not to know God. But we all need to have a personal relationship with Him, not just with the church. I pray one day all those people who do not have that relationship will have their hearts opened and know the joy, peace and hope of our Father.

I hope your upcoming week is a wonderful one!
Lyndee