My husband, Josh, and I were in the habit of not taking real vacations, for a while. Oh, I’m not complaining. We do short trips that are very enjoyable. But, a vacation is supposed to give you enough time to relax and get refreshed, right? Perhaps a chance to really get a new perspective—to have new experiences. At least that’s my humble opinion. Well, Josh and I have now officially broken our vacation-challenged streak. We did some saving and planning, and finally made a much anticipated trip to Europe.

If you’ve been to Europe, you’ll understand how amazing it is. This was our first trip there, and I still get as excited as a little kid when I talk about it. Josh and I were very nervous about communicating with people and about getting around. But much to our relief, those fears were unfounded. The people were incredibly nice and very eager to help. Getting around was no problem either. It was easy to hop on public transportation any time you wanted; but we found it was more fun to walk every place we went. I think we must have walked 10 miles a day! It gave us a chance to see some additional sights we had not planned to see.  

Our first stop was Florence, Italy, where we climbed to the top of the Duomo. In Rome, we saw the Colosseum and the Pantheon which were amazing. Every place we went, we were amazed by the fact that you could walk down almost any street, turn a corner, and be face to face with magnificent ancient architecture that had survived for two thousand years or so. And seeing the Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo’s David in person were indescribable. It was kind of surreal because you see pictures of Italy streets, city landscapes, and these landmarks and they look just as you picture it. It is incredible to be there in person experiencing it for yourself.

One of the things that impressed us is that Italians have a more relaxed way of spending their day than we do. They enjoy long, leisurely lunches and they generally eat dinner a lot later than we do in the United States. So on our first day in Rome, Josh and I had done some sightseeing and had come back to the room after lunch and took a little cat nap. We were out later in the evening having dinner at one of the little sidewalk cafes, and decided to make it an early night and head back to our room.  While we were strolling around enjoying the evening, we realized we could not find a landmark we recognized, and our hotel was nowhere in sight. About the same time, we noticed the streets were filled with people, although it was very late! We kept walking and were actually getting a little tired when we finally found our hotel. We looked up and saw that right across the street was a building, with a large neon blue sign “The Messenger.” All of a sudden it dawned on me that we had literally been sitting across from this building when we were having dinner. So, an hour and a half later we realize we had been right across the street. On our walk, we had just started down the street the wrong way, and it caused us to get lost. The next day we learned that the night before Rome had celebrated free museum night for the first time. Common in other European countries, the museums open their doors to the public until two in the morning. So that explained all the people out so late!

I’ll have to talk about seeing Greece next time. I’m all out of space! Although vacations are wonderful, it’s always good to come home. And the best part is, we’re just in time for the 4th of July. Bring on the cookouts and fireworks! Whatever your plans are for July, have fun and be safe.

Special Notes

Studio 27 Aesthetic Care will be opening on July 1st in Old Colorado City. Receive 20% off all products and services. Check out their ad on page 37, to schedule an appointment. — A Total New You Salon & Day Spa would like to welcome Kim Correll, RN BSN. Join them Thursday evening, July 16th for an Open House. They are offering $25 Off your first treatment of Botox-Dermafiller injections. See their ad on page 1, and reserve a spot.

Positive thought of the month

“The really happy man is one who
can enjoy the scenery on a detour.”
—Anonymous