Happy Tuesday friends! This June (and the last few days of May) we were lucky enough to go on the European vacation of our dreams (you can follow our real-time journey on Instagram here: #ypinvasion, #yptakesitaly). We spent time with some sweet friends exploring the Tuscan countryside, visiting the cutest little Italian towns, indulging in (not enough) gelato and had our 10 year anniversary portraits taken in not one but two epic locations! We still can’t believe this trip actually happened. It sure is a good thing that we have more than enough pictures to prove it!
During our time in Italy we stayed at the most amazing villa, Podere Palazzo, atop a hill in the Tuscan countryside and spent most of our time exploring the tiny little towns nearby. We got to interact with the locals, some of which didn’t speak a word of English and they were all so nice. We mastered a few key Italian words (ciao, grazie, prego, si, no grazie) to help get us through the day but if all else failed, we turned to our trusty Google translate app to make sure we got it right! Our favorite part about the little towns was that we got to see what it’s like to live a normal day in Italy.
One of the first stops on our trip was the town of Bolsena in Northern Lazio, along the eastern shore of Lake Bolsena. As soon as we entered the town we were greeted by a breathtaking view of Lake Bolsena, the largest volcanic lake in all of Europe. After stopping for a few pictures we headed straight into the heart of the town. We strolled along the cobblestone streets and immediately fell in love with all the doors (we are sorry in advance for the over abundance of door photos). Our trip has inspired Troy to (one day) build us a custom front door. One thing that Ashley loved was that there was Jasmine — everywhere!
As we made our way to the lake we came across a little tiny workshop where a man worked on his beautiful clay art with his son. They said hello and we thanked them for letting us take a few photos of their amazing work. We also stumbled upon a cat that was clearly starved for attention and as hard as it was not to scoop that little guy up and take him with us, we resisted (because stray cat). By the time we made it to the lake we just couldn’t take it anymore — we needed some gelato! And the best thing about gelato in Italy is they always give you a waffle cookie on top, even if it’s in a cone! Yes, please! It was so peaceful walking by the lake, gelato in hand, in awe that we were actually in Italy.
A few days later we came back to this cute little town for part 1 of our ten year anniversary portraits. We love them so much there will be an entirely separate post for both of our portrait sessions so this little sneak peek will have to do for now!
Next up, Cortona! Unfortunately for us we had to run in and out of shops and coffee houses on our visit because of the rain. We were able to grab a couple of shots in between the downpour. One highlight was that we found a coffee shop on our way back to the car that had Americanos — TO GO. We were warned upon arrival that there are no to go cups in Italy. We are so used to stopping at our local Caribou Coffee on the weekend together and taking it with us that this was definitely something to adjust to. So you can imagine our excitement when we found a place we could order our coffee and take it with us! You better believe we saved that (tiny) coffee cup for our daily trips to nearby towns!
