Photo Dump Wednesday: When I first fell in love with Italy.

In May 2007, my sister and I took her second and my first trip to Italy. We visited Rome, Florence and Venice. It was the trip that made me realize that I would one day love to retire in Italy if at all possible.
The people, the food and the lifestyle just truly appealed to me.

Here are pics from my trip. I love looking at these pictures. Enjoy!

Our first gondola ride.

Close to St. Mark's square

A view from the bridge.

Venice really is sinking! This is INSIDE one of the museums.

Piazza San Marco

@ Piazza San Marco

The water taxis

Ponte Di Rialto...the Rialto Bridge

I did selfies way before the Kardashians made it famous :-).

Florence...Close to the Duomo

My sister decided to embrace the Church :-). 

We climbed up Il Duomo when we were there in 2007. And when I went back in 2012 with J, we went up this one...The campanile.

At the top. Yes, we were sweating. It was a long way up.

Back down...

The Spanish steps. It didn't change much from 2007 to 2012 when I revisited.

Fontana di Trevi

In front of the Colosseum. You have to pay to take pictures with them. It isn't free.

Inside the Colosseum.

At the Vatican in Rome.

This was one of the scenes from Mission Impossible 3. Wicked cool!

Dinner with my sister on our first night there.

I looked so young in this picture. Little did I know that 4-months from then, I would meet the man I would later marry. Oh and yeah...he is part Italian!

I love going down memory lane. Its a sweet reminder of the way we were and also motivation to enjoy life and travel more!

Hope you're having an awesome week so far. For my east coast readers, be safe and stay warm!