Come with us.

Off we were on our first European trip! We traveled on ITA Airways and since it was a long flight we upgraded to Premium Economy which was totally worth it! We had wider seats, a generous recline and leg support.

We arrived in Rome around 1pm and checked into our room at the Vatican Chic B&B. Our bed and breakfast was located about 10 minutes from the historic center by car and was about a 5 minute walk to the Vatican. Our room was very nice, it included breakfast and the staff was very responsive by WhatsApp anytime we needed anything.

We were hungry when we arrived so our airport taxi driver had recommended a place called Bonci Pizzarium. After dropping off our bags at the hotel we walked to Bonci and on our way there we came across a drinking fountain known as a nasoni. They're fountains that look like fire hydrants with the spout facing the floor that provide continuous fresh cold drinking water. The cold water hit the spot because the heat was unbearable. Bonci's pizza and sandwiches were a great way to start our food journey.

After lunch we took the bus to the historic center to meet up with our tour group. On our first day we toured the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona and Spanish Steps. It's helpful to push through the first day no matter how tired you are so your body can adjust from the jetlag so that is why we hit the ground running once we landed. The tour with EcoArt which lasted about 2.5 hours was great but we realized that we would much rather visit these sites on our own next time so that we could take as little or as long as we want.

After the tour was over we walked around the historic center which was absolutely amazing. Everywhere we turned there were great little shops, gelato places and restaurants. For dinner we went to Mas Food and Coffee which had amazing Italian food. The restaurant was near the historic center, down a small alley where everything was much quieter. After dinner we kept walking around and came across the best lemon sorbet shop called Limone' where we had lemon sorbet and bought a ton of cute souvenirs.

We were exhausted from walking in the heat all day so around 9pm we headed back to our hotel for the night.

We woke up around 1pm because we were so tired so half the day was gone. We quickly got ready, stopped by a cafe for an espresso and some pastries and grabbed a cab to the historic center for our tour that day.

We toured the Colosseum, Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill with Crown Tours which lasted about 2.5 hours. The tour was great and we took tons of photos but the weather was in the mid 90s so it was hard being out and about, but when in Rome…

After we were done with the tour we headed to Trastevere which is a city known for its vibrant nightlife. The only reason we knew this was because our taxi driver recommended it to us. We were starving so we pretty much walked into the first restaurant we saw. The restaurant we went to, Casa Mia, was very good and offered beautiful outdoor seating. Little did we know that had we walked a block more we would have bumped into these amazing streets filled with people, restaurants and cafes.

After dinner we walked Trastevere for hours, got gelato, took photos and checked out shops. Late at night we headed back to our hotel to pack and get some sleep since we were off to our cruise the next day.

We woke up early and took the Trenitalia train to Civitavecchia to hop on our 7 day Mediterranean cruise aboard the MSC Grandiosa.

We checked into our ship and spent the rest of the day checking out what amenities they had to offer. There were many restaurants, pools, a water park, a theatre, a gym and a kids arcade. We had dinner that night, listened to live music and hung out by the pool.

We were at sea all day so we got up late, had breakfast, hung out by the pool for hours before we grabbed a late lunch.

The pool area was filled with people laying out, having drinks and enjoying the beautiful weather. Later we walked around the ship some more while checking out their souvenir shops and grabbing some gelato.

After dinner we enjoyed a show and stayed up late listening to live music while having a drink.

We arrived in Palma de Mallorca, Spain in the morning. We didn't do a tour but instead hopped in a taxi and asked them to take us to the historic center.

When we arrived we visited the Palma Cathedral. This cathedral was extraordinary. We took a ton of photos but they never do it justice. You have to see it for yourself.

After wandering through the cathedral we headed out and walked the narrow streets filled with shops and restaurants. They had the most beautiful cafes and shops as well as a really nice shopping area with high end stores. We had tapas and cocktails at this cute little place called S'Olivera Tapas Bar located in a very busy area where we enjoyed people watching and having our first official Spanish meal.

Afterwards we headed out, continuing to explore the center which seemed endless and grabbed a coffee at Hotel Cappuccino while our teen enjoyed a boba tea. After walking for hours under the sun we headed back to our ship which would take us to our next destination tomorrow morning.

By the way — we loved this city!

We arrived in Barcelona, Spain and once again grabbed a taxi and asked them to take us to where all the historic sites were. She dropped us off by the Columbus Monument where we made our way up the busy streets.

Besides walking by many beautiful churches we visited the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia. What can I say… just wow! Another unbelievably beautiful church.

After touring the cathedral we grabbed some pinchos and cocktails at Sagardi, the most amazing restaurant. Their pinchos were incredible as well as their summer sangria. I enjoyed every bite of that meal. Definitely one of my favorite restaurants that I would go to again.

Spain is known for their churros and hot chocolate so we visited a place called Cafés El Magnífico to try some out. I have to be honest, I wasn't impressed by the food there but the cafe was cool.

The heat once again won so we headed back to the ship and spent the rest of the evening hanging out by the pool, had dinner, watched another show and went to bed.

We arrived at Cannes, France in the morning. This time we had to take a ferry from the ship to the beach since there was no dock. The ferry trip alone was so much fun.

We hopped off the ferry and walked to Le Welcome for breakfast which consisted of a croissant, juice and an americano. It was the best coffee I've had so far.

We were enjoying walking the boardwalk when we stumbled across the cutest pastry shop called Boulangerie Pâtisserie Le St Antoine so we grabbed ourselves a St Antoine which was like a type of chocolate mousse cake that was out of this world. Now I see why France is known for their pastries.

We walked around this beautiful beach town but it was incredibly hot and since there weren't many tall buildings to provide shade we eventually found a place to cool off and grab lunch. My husband was craving a burger so we found this really cool place called Smash Club and it was pretty good.

After our meal we walked a bit more and grabbed our ferry back to the ship. We took a little nap and later went to the pool and had a drink. Later that night we had dinner, walked around and headed to the room. The heat had really worn us out so we wanted to make sure we were well rested for the next day.

We arrived in Genoa, Italy and immediately jumped on a dotto train that took us around the historic center. The dotto train looked like those trains that drive kids around the mall but this one drove us around the city for about 45 minutes giving us a mini tour of the city.

Once we hopped off the dotto train we started walking back towards the historic center and ended up in a quiet little alley where we found this cute pastry shop called Camogli. We enjoyed a coffee and croissant and then made our way to this beautiful church, Basilica della Santissima Annunziata del Vastato, where we walked around and took some photos. I can never get enough of the artwork, just unbelievable!

We kept coming across more churches just tucked away in small alleys and walked around admiring all the great shopping Genoa had to offer.

For lunch we went to Caffè Cesarea where we enjoyed a glass of wine and some pasta while taking a break from all the walking we had done. Afterwards we headed back to the ship to watch the World Cup by the pool and later have dinner.

We decided to skip the last stop at La Spezia and added a night in Florence, so we jumped on the Trenitalia train and off we were. We stayed at the Bed and Breakfast Badia Fiorentina for 3 nights. This hotel was great because it was located right in the center of EVERYTHING!

We arrived, put our stuff down and immediately headed out to discover this amazing city. Florence was by far my favorite. There were so many amazing places to visit from leather shops to live concerts everywhere, cafes, gelato shops, lots of shopping options and so much more.

The receptionist recommended we go to Antico Ristorante Paoli 1827 for lunch/dinner so we did. OMG this place was amazing inside! It was pretty much a museum with the most amazing architecture, paintings, food and history behind it; even the restrooms were cool. They even had a book where they recorded all the famous people that had been there since they opened in 1827. I highly recommend going there when visiting the historic center of Florence. You will not regret it. Again, the food was AMAZING!

After that we started venturing out to see what this city had to offer. Immediately we came across an orchestra practicing for later that night. We decided that we would come back and watch them at night and just wandered around the city. After a while we went back to our room to rest a bit.

At night we headed back out and everywhere we went, there was live music so the whole center felt so lively. We were craving gelato so we went to Venchi which was by far my favorite gelato place. We made our way back to the outdoor symphony concert which was already playing and enjoyed the beautiful music until it finished.

Afterwards we headed to Rudi's Bistro where they were showing the World Cup Colombia vs Switzerland game. Being Colombian it was exciting to watch even though we lost.

Today we grabbed a yummy croissant and espresso at Cantinetta dei Verrazzano, walked around the historic center and found a cool music store, Casa Musicale G. Ceccherini. It was really big inside and offered all sorts of instruments which my son was really into being a musician himself so we were there for a while.

For lunch we grabbed a sandwich at this popular spot, I' Girone De' Ghiotti. We waited in line for a while but it was worth it. Afterwards we walked around some more and headed back to the room to rest. It was 90–100 degrees all week so it wears you out.

Later in the day my son and I went to grab something to drink at MDB which is known for being one of the best steak houses in Florence. I mentioned to our waiter that we wanted to visit the Duomo but the lines were incredibly long to buy tickets and then more lines to enter the church, so he told us to check out the Piazzale Michelangelo which was at the very top of the hill. He told us to take a cab there and then walk back down into the historic center so we did just that.

The view from up there was amazing because you could see the whole city, and it made for great pictures during sunset. There were lots of people there taking pictures, a DJ playing music, food stands, little kiosks selling souvenirs and even a basketball tournament.

The walk back down into the city was really nice because there were streets lined with trees, little waterfalls here and there, then you were walking along the river and crossing bridges. When we reached the bridge we stopped and took pictures there because it was a perfect spot for that.

Later that night we had dinner at Il Grande Nuti since our son had always wanted to try the cheese barrel pasta and it did not disappoint. Once again we grabbed gelato at Venchi because that place was so good, and headed back to our room to get some sleep.

We had a 4 hour ebike tour through Tuscany's hills in the morning so we grabbed our usual croissant and espresso or americano and headed to We Like Tuscany tours. The sun was already beating down at 9am but nothing was stopping us.

At first we biked through the city to get to the hills and then all of a sudden there were streets lined with trees and villas spread out, and then we took a turn into a one way street overlooking the beautiful hills of Florence. Our tour guide Santiago was very personable and would have us stop every now and then to explain the city's history and take pictures of us along the way.

During our tour we stopped at Trattoria Omero, this really great local restaurant up on the hills where they served us a glass of Chianti and a charcuterie board each… delicious. Once we were done we kept riding until we got to a church at the top of the hill, San Miniato al Monte, where we explored around and took some more pictures. Once we were done there we rode back down totally exhausted but worth it.

After dropping off our ebikes we walked back to the city and grabbed a drink at Paszkowski, a very nice place that also offers live music. After taking a break we were walking around and came across this store called My Mancini where we met the owner. He was happy to take us upstairs and give us a tour of his studio where they created these really cool custom sneakers. They basically measure your feet, create your sneakers and then paint by hand any design or picture you want onto them. This was unexpected but it was so much fun.

Needless to say after all that we headed back to our hotel to take a nap. For dinner we went to Ristorante Il Paiolo where the food was once again very yummy.

Afterwards we got lost walking around and ended up outside the Uffizi Gallery. It was late and we didn't get tickets ahead of time so we just wandered around outside looking at the beautiful architecture and taking photos. After that we went back towards the bridges where we saw a wedding reception taking place with a floating piano on the river which was cool to see. Once again there was live music in the background so as I looked over the bridge I was filled with gratitude just being in such a beautiful place. I regret not booking tickets ahead of time for a lot of the must see places, but this was also really cool to experience.

As we made our way back to the hotel we came across something I had no idea existed — a Buchetta del Vino, a wine window. This one was clearly just for taking pictures, but a man standing next to it told me that there were functioning ones around the city. The way it worked is that you rang a bell or knocked on the little window, they opened it, you ordered a drink, then they handed it to you and you paid. After unsuccessfully finding a functioning Buchetta del Vino we went back to our hotel for the night.

We woke up early and hopped on our train to Venice which was about a 4–4.5 hour ride. We upgraded to Business class since it was a long ride and it was totally worth it — the seats were assigned, they were more comfortable, and they served snacks and drinks as well.

Once we arrived in Venice we immediately grabbed a water taxi to get to Hotel San Gallo where we were staying for the night. Definitely not enough time to explore Venice, but we couldn't leave Italy without having seen it. It took us about 25 minutes to get to our hotel by water taxi but it was great because it took us through the whole canal, since we were at the end of it. I knew we weren't going to do the gondola because it was too expensive, so I took all my selfies and photos of the Venice canal during our water taxi ride.

We arrived at our hotel which was super cute and even equipped with more amenities than our other hotels — they even left complimentary fruit and chocolate by our night stand.

Since we had less than a day to explore Venice we ventured out and found C & B Spaghetti where we had some delicious pizza and limoncello spritzes. Afterwards we walked around, took photos of the canal and bridges, and stumbled across the museum of music. We toured Il Museo della Musica di Venezia admiring all the beautiful string instruments, and met a worker there who told us about a concert later that night at the Church of the Pietà where the orchestra would be playing music by Antonio Vivaldi — so we attended.

After that really great concert we had dinner at Bellavista 1976 where we sat outside and enjoyed the view of the water as the sun set. We then went for a stroll when we came across Ristorante Quadri where they were playing live music so we decided to sit down and grab an espresso and some gelato. We were shocked when we got the bill for 70 Euro — but now we know to always look at the menu first.

After that we headed to our hotel to pack up, since we were leaving early in the morning for our final destination, Fiumicino.

We woke up early again to grab a train to Fiumicino, Rome, where we would relax before taking our flight back home the next day.

We stayed at Intorno al Fico Hotel where the staff offered to pick us up from the train station (for a cost, of course) but it was very helpful. The hotel was located one block from the beach so that was really cool.

We dropped our stuff off, put our bathing suits on and went to grab lunch at Tre Nodi, which the front desk recommended. I have to say, this was a great way to end our food journey. I had the most amazing poke bowl ever and my husband and son loved their food as well. The staff was great and the place had a very chic beach vibe to it.

After lunch we headed to the beach for a swim and a nap. After laying out for about an hour we headed back to the hotel to get our bags ready for our flight home tomorrow. Once we were done and showered we decided to venture out one last time for a drink at Buena Onda Focene on the beach.

This was the perfect way to end our amazing trip.

We had an early flight so we grabbed a taxi to Fiumicino airport to head back to Los Angeles on ITA Airways.

Needless to say Europe was an amazing experience — but Italy has my heart. The people, the food, the history and the architecture were absolutely amazing. I would definitely come back again and visit new cities next time.