"Do you want a great story or not?"

9 days till we "set sail" (ok..we are just flying)!


On Thursday at a Bible study I am doing at my house with friends...the question was raised in the session "Do you want a great story or not?"  (Side Note: Beth Moore's James study...HIGHLY recommend.) 


Now, this thought could go deep into life and choosing the outcome in your life that will allow you to have a great story and not the perfect story and so on.


However, since my brain is tuned in to Italy right now and I dont feel like unpacking again everything that happened at Bible study, I will stick to Italy. I think this was a special word for me in regards to our trip to Italy. For those of you that know me, some would say I lean towards the side of anxious more than easy going. :) So, when I heard these words Thursday it made me want to stop and prepare my anxious self that it is not going to win! No matter if our hotel loses our reservation or if we don't know how to get a bus ticket or we cant seem to remember the address to where we are supposed to be, or I forgot to pack socks..."Do I want a great story or not?" I am prepared that Italy is not going to be perfect. It's going to be fun and its not always going to go according to the "Amanda plan"...and I am OK with that. This is a big step everyone! :)


Last night at a friend's birthday party we were laughing so hard about some of the most awkward situations that some have been through (the topic that brought the most laughs cannot be discussed publicly...ask me personally and I will tell you). In the moment, when those situations were happening, we wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. Now when you tell those stories to a group of people, its a great story! It is a fond, hilarious memory that you are so glad to tell.


Back to Italy, so we heard its going to be raining in Rome the 6 days we are there...wah wah! To make this a great story, we are bringing rain ponchos and going to make the best of it...no matter what! As long as pizza and hot chocolate is still being made...we are good! :)

Photo: Rivoire Chocolate

Planning Part #4 - Excited...check!

So I have decided to keep this post simple. I am excited!!


I am so happy to have a break from "day to day routine". I love my life and I am passionate about a lot of things that go on in my day to day routine...however I am excited about that changing temporarily. I am ready to make decisions as serious as, "Should I eat gelato for lunch or pizza?" "Should I choose Cappuccino or Caffè con panna?" You know, the real serious stuff! :)


I am also excited about going to Italy to gain a historical appreciation for "old things". I have read in blogs and books about how your view of ancient times changes because of the sculptures, art, and buildings you visit in Italy. #Soexcited


Is it weird to say that I (me!!) am excited about living at a farm that makes olive oil in the countryside of Assisi for 3 days? This big city girl is ready!


Finally, I couldn't be more excited about my travel partner. Seriously, I am so ready to spend 26 special days with Christopher and just cherish this phase of our lives. God has truly blessed us greatly and with that blessing we have worked REALLY hard...so I am thankful that God's blessings and some pretty hard work have paid off to make this exciting trip happen.

Oh and just so that everyone knows we are getting in full spirit, we made these! 

Planning Part #3 - Packing and The Bag!

Post #3...here we go!

We are now in the "teens" countdown to our trip....16 days!

http://www.itlooksgoodtome.com/

That means we have to start packing and preparing for the trip. Packing can be very stressful. You hear all the experts say to pack for 7 days...hello...we are gone for 26 days. Being gone this long though, you really don't have a choice. So we are definitely sticking to the staples and that's it. Plus we want to have room in our luggage to bring Italian treasures/memorabilia back with us.

http://www.underconsideration.com/

I also have begun preparing for the trip in another way...expectations. I know we are blessed to be able to even go on this trip and I want to get the most out of our time away. I expect to not return the same way. I expect to gain knowledge and history and appreciation for things I may have once considered "a bunch of old things". I expect to spiritually feel something that I have never before. Pastor Dan has encouraged us to ponder a few questions while we are gone as well: 1) What can we learn from Italy 2) What can Italy learn from us, and 3) What is a post-Christian culture like?

Ok so back to packing in the literal sense. We love our luggage that we have traveled with since 2010. They have a great lifetime guaranty (which we have put to good use for this trip with Christopher's bag). His new piece is on the way! We are each carrying one piece of luggage and a backpack! We are not the "all you need is a carry-on" kind of people. :)

www.eddiebauer.com

www.eddiebauer.com

pinterest.com Visual Packing List

Any tips you have for long trips...please send them our way!!! 

Planning Part #2 - The Itinerary and Evernote

3 weeks from today we leave!

So below is the gist of the itinerary that Christopher and I will be using for our trip to Italy. Before, I give you the itinerary...some have asked how we decided on these cities. For those of you who know us well, lets just say we are both the opposite of passive (that's a kinder way of saying we are strong willed). :) However, when it came to choosing these cities, we both agreed on all of them. Amazing! 

• 1st - Rome. This is where we we will fly in on the 10th and stay till the 15th of April. Self explanatory.

http://wikitravel.org/

• 2nd - Assisi. Christopher read a book called Chasing Francis and since then he has wanted to go experience this city for himself. We will stay here from the 15th to the 17th of April.

http://www.travelitalytravel.com/

• 3rd - Florence. Everyone has told us this is their favorite city in Italy. We of course wanted to experience Tuscany...so we settled on this as our city of choice. We will stay here the 17th to the 22nd of April.

http://www.destination360.com/

• 4th - Bolgona. This is the city of food. So with us both being pretty big foodies...we had to make plans to stay here a few nights. We will stay here the 22nd to the 25th of April.

http://www.worldfoodieguide.com/

• 5th - Milan. This is the city of my choice. This is where fashion and art meet for the most finest experience. Side note - I am just in love with the little cottage/b&b we are staying at here. Check it out http://www.cocoonbb.com/. We will be staying here the 25th to the 29th of April.

http://www.flickr.com/

• 6th (and final city) - Venice. I am very excited about this city as well. We are staying on the island of Lido during this leg of our trip. We will be here from April 29th to May 4th. We are also going to visit Burano and Murano while we are so close.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bcnbits/2987495994/

So Evernote.

Its a great tool (that works amazing on Apple products...allowing you to sync notes from your iphone, ipad, and MacBook). The reason I really like it is because I can lay out all of the random thoughts in my head (...and trust me there are a lot of them) related to a topic (I.e. Italy). It can be pictures, attachments from my email, weblinks I need to go back to, images of google maps, etc.

Ok thats it for tonight... what else should I write about before the trip? hmmm...we shall see?


Ciao!

Planning Part #1 - The Pilgrimage

Pastor Dan has really encouraged me to blog about our trip to Italy. I think so that he can live vicariously through the pictures and stories, but also that I can keep these memories alive many months and years after we get back from Italy.

Christopher has said that he is going MIA when it comes to email in Italy. I am going to follow that plan as well I think. :) Blogging doesn't count for email right?

The picture of our travel books below is definitely the first important part of this pilgrimage.

Why am I using the term pilgrim and not tourist you may ask? I don't know just yet...I think a pilgrim is on a journey and looking for something more than maybe a tourist. I think we are definitely both thinking as this trip as a pilgrimage. Also that term came up over breakfast this morning with a couple from our church...so I think I am going with it.







So back to the books. I highly recommend getting different perspectives from all types of books. I am a planner so I definitely like to do as much research as I can before we go. Rick Steve's travel guides and Fodors and Lonely Planet books have definitely stood out to me so far.

I think in my next "planning post" I am going to show how I have been using Evernote to break down the planning of our trip even more. Also I will explain the cities and key places we will be going.

I am so excited about this trip!

Ciao!


-Post by AP

Italy

So I am thinking of working on a blog series where I share about the planning of our trip to Italy and then blog when we actually get there. I don't know. It may not happen but I definitely want to put in writing some of our trip plans and excitement!! It's going to be so much fun. T-minus 34 days till our trip!




This was an interesting book we checked out from the library. Yes, that has been our go to place for resources on Italy...and it's free!! Somehow the origin of this blog years ago still rings loud throughout even today (shop smarter, play harder).