Dingle

Our next stop in Ireland was the tiny town of Dingle on the Atlantic Ocean side of the island. There are more sheep than people in this little harbor town and most people speak Gaelic. Even though it was pouring rain and incredibly windy when we arrived we still could not believe the amazing views. We stayed in a cute bed and breakfast right outside of town. The next morning we were so excited to wake up to clear blue skies! We quickly rented bikes for the main reason we came to Dingle- the Slea Head Drive. This thirty mile loop takes you around the Dingle Peninsula with all kinds of stops along the way. We had read so many wonderful things about this and it did not disappoint! Every few minutes we had to stop and take pictures. They really were some of the most breathtakingly beautiful views I have ever seen!

Along the way we stopped at all the different sights. Monks came to this part of Ireland during the middle ages and this is where they kept the written language alive. There were also old ruins that date back older than the pyramids in Egypt! This picture below shows a the stone walls that are left from one of the monk towns.

This is Dingle Harbor. We loved all the brightly painted houses here. They started painting their houses this way to show their independence from England. Now Ireland has a Tidy Town competition every year to encourage communities to be better places to live- something Nick the city planner loved! There is even a friendly dolphin that lives in the harbor named Fungi.

I have to say, this bike ride ended up being one of our favorite parts of our whole trip! It combined so many things we love. We highly recommend it! We ended our day with much deserved Shepard's Pie and a Guinness at a pub. Later we visited a few other pubs for some traditional Irish music- so much fun! The next day we headed back to Dublin to catch our flight back to London for the final leg of our journey.

Dublin

From Rome, Nick and I flew to Dublin where we were meeting up with my sister Laurie and her boyfriend Patrick. It was the end of an era- we had been traveling alone for three weeks at this point. As we landed in Dublin there was so much to be excited about- seeing Laurie and Pat and being back to an English speaking country! As we stepped off the plane, it was so refreshing to feel the much cooler temperatures- probably about 60 degrees, whereas it had been about 90 when we left Rome. We only stayed in Dublin for one night, but we really enjoyed our time there. The Irish are so friendly! They really are like southerners with a different accent and by far the friendliest people we encountered on our whole trip. Every time we spoke to a local, whether it was to ask for directions, or just say hello, we ended up having a wonderful conversation.

We loved wandering around the city. This is Grafton Street- a pedestrian only street filled with shops, restaurants, and street performers. We enjoyed a picnic lunch in St. Stevens Green- a huge park in the center of the city.

Later in the afternoon we picked up our rental car for the second part of our Irish adventure. The rental car place was in the city and Nick was our brave driver. As you can see in the picture below, the Irish drive one the "wrong" side of the road. It was a little scary at first navigating the city streets, but Nick quickly got the hang of it and we quickly headed out of the city! We drove through the most beautiful countryside and quaint towns and headed to the other side of the island.

Rome

Rome was our last stop in Italy. While we were really excited about seeing Rome, we were also pretty weary of traveling at this point, especially in huge cities that spoke languages that we couldn't understand. By now, we had become experts at using the train and figuring out the bus and metro and we were able to find our way to our hotel with no problems (finally!). Once we got our first glimpse from the bus of all the famous Roman sights, we were once again ready to explore. Our first night in Rome, we just relaxed and had pizza (of course) for dinner. Have I mentioned how much pizza we ate in Italy? No? Well, we certainly had our fair share- we even had it 3 days in a row for lunch and dinner because it was a guaranteed cheap meal.

Rome was amazing to explore because everywhere we went we were reminded of the history that has taken place and how old the city actually is. Everywhere you look they are excavating more ancient ruins. The city has been built up in layers so that the ancient ruins are actually several feet below the present day street level. We loved seeing the Roman Forum and the Colosseum.

We also went to the Vatican City where we saw St. Peter's Basilica.

One night in Rome we took a "Night Walk Through Rome" from our Rick Steves guide book, of course. This ended up being one of our favorite nights of our whole trip. We started in one of the city squares, meandering through cobblestone streets and street performers. It is amazing what people will do for a euro. Our walk took us past the Pantheon (which we had toured earlier) and we stopped and had dinner at a little pasta place that faced the back of the Pantheon. We enjoyed some of the best pasta we have ever had- we would have licked our plates had we not been in public I think. This place was so good that we went back the very next night! After our dinner we continued our walk to the Trevi Fountain which was magical at night. We enjoyed sitting with a drink and watching the water with hundreds of other tourists and Romans. We ended our night at the famous Spanish Steps and then quickly rushed to catch the metro before it stopped running for the night.

Home Sweet Home

We finally made it back to Blacksburg and I have to say, it is almost heavenly to be back at home, in our own house after traveling for so long! We made it back to the US about a week and a half ago, spent one quick night at home and then headed down to South Carolina for a week at the beach with Nick's side of the family. It has been wonderful soaking in all the comforts of home that we missed while we were out of the country- driving our cars, southern accents and the ease of life that comes with living in America to name a few.

The beach was wonderful and relaxing and Nick and I loved just being around family and having a little more of a normal life! I know, I know vacation is not "normal" but just being able to eat at home and not travel everyday feels like it! We enjoyed riding our bikes everyday, swimming in the ocean, playing with our nieces and enjoying some wonderful cooking! What more could you ask for?

Now that we are back in VA, we are looking forward to spending our days enjoying the beautiful mountains and this cute town we live in. Nick has his internship from last year that he will be starting back up soon and I will be tutoring a bit, but other than that we will have lots of time on our hands! We are planning to soak in this time in life, we know how rare it is!

Oh, and I will finish writing about our trip too :)

Tuscany

Our next stop after Cinque Terre was Tuscany. We headed to a B&B in a small town, Pistoia, that Diane had recommended. I had been emailing with the owner Laura about our arrival. She explained that she spoke very little English and that her husband did not speak any, and she hoped this wouldn't be a problem. She said that her husband (Vlady) would be happy to pick up up at the train station. After an awkward start to our stay, we quickly grew to love our time there.

Each day after breakfast, Vlady would take us to the train station so we could explore the region by day trips. Each evening he would come and pick us back up when we arrived. Every time we would have the same conversation, with our limited understanding of the other language. It went something like this- "Ciao! Florence?" "Si, Florence was beautiful!" "Ah, okay" then when we got home, "Grazie!" "Prego!" (thank you, your welcome). Laura and Vlady were so sweet and treated us so well. We felt taken care of and started referring to then as our "Italian parents". It was so wonderful to get to know people from the culture in which we were staying. We actually stayed a day longer than we had planned and when we left we were sad to go. Laura told us that we were "beautiful people" and she said that we "stayed well with them."

On our day trips we went to Florence, Lucca and then spent a day exploring Pistoia and laying by the pool. Florence was beautiful and we loved exploring the small town of Lucca. We rented bikes and rode all over town and around the old city wall. Here are some pictures from our time-

Florence (thank goodness it didn't rain even though it looks like its about to pour!)

We walked up to Piazza de Michelangelo and were able to take in this amazing view of the city.

After leaving Tuscany, we headed out on the train to Rome. We decided to stop and see one more town, Orvieto. Orvieto was built high on a hill and then walled for extra protection from its enemies. We loved our short stop here.

We of course had pizza for lunch. Here is Nick at our sweet picnic spot high on the wall.