Travel & Fashion – Italy (Rome, Florence & Venice)

I love Italy. The food, the culture, the way of life. I was fortunate enough to spend two weeks traveling through Rome, Florence & Venice with my mom.

First up: Rome

*my mom in front of the Trevi Fountain*

*mum and I eating our favo Gelato at the Trevi Fountain*

Not suprisingly, I can’t possibly talk about Rome without talking about two key things: food & fashion. First, the food. The food in Rome was UNREAL. Fun fact- I am allergic to gluten (..and yes, it is a real allergy that was diagnosed long before this gluten free fad). So to be honest, I was worried about how I would fare in the land of pasta. I was SO pleasantly surprised to find gluten free pasta EVERYWHERE! I had no idea, but apparently a really high percentage of Italian school children have allergies or sensitivities to gluten, so the gluten-free menu has taken over! 

Next up, FASHION! I love the way Roman women dress – their style is all about playing up femininity and curves but still being modest. Wrap dresses (think Diane Von Furstenburg in the 70s) were everywhere and they looked fabulous! See the ticker below for some ones I have found that remind me of Rome!

Next up: Florence

 *Three of the Local Wines we Tried*

                             *Me hanging out at one of the vineyards*

For
my mom and I, Florence was all about WINE & COOKING. We went on a
couple different wine tasting tours through local vineyards and took a
Italian cooking class that was held in the most amazing Italian
castle-looking building in the heart of wine country. The above pictures
are from one of the winery tours. The below are from our cooking class. 

*Me picking the fresh herbs for our recipes*

 *mom adding the final touches to the dessert we made* 

*Mom and I enjoying a well-deserved glass of wine with our chef instructor after a full day of cooking*


The cool thing about Florentine fashion & style, in my opinion, was how much they loved colour and pattern. As you can see from the skirt I am wearing while wine tasting seeing entire “scenes” on clothing was totally normal and, in my opinion, incredibly beautiful. The ticker below has some skirts I think are “Florentine” in this regard.

Finally, Venice:

Venice was so cool!! Definitely one of the most unique places I have ever been. I knew that the entire city was on the canal & only really accessible by gondola/water taxi but I don’t think I got a full appreciation of just what that would mean until I was there. I love, love, love being on the water so to get to travel by water taxi and gondola everywhere was such a thrill for me! I was really surprised by how narrow many of the waterways were.. and more importantly, how low!! As you can see from that first picture we BARELY fit under some of the bridges we had to cross under. I found Venice to be WAY too crowded (that would be my only complaint) but otherwise it was a great experience.

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