Twenty Five Things To Love About Italy

25) Spaces like this are EVERYWHERE.

24) Never getting lost, because...
All Roads Lead to Rome!! (sorry I couldn't resist)
Travelers' caveat...Rome is NOT for the faint of ankle.
23) Big doors.
22) Land of a thousand churches, each one more beautiful than the next.
21) It's got Venice.
20) Small dogs in sweaters.

19) The colors!!
It's all ochres and umbers, reds and russets, goldens, tangerines, tomatoes, siennas and ambers.....

18) Traveling with my lovely Hub.

17) The Area Sacra in Rome: home to remains of four ancient temples AND a cat sanctuary!! Roughly the size of a city block and sitting about 15 feet below street level...we must have seen at least 20 cats there, popping out of nooks and crannies, lounging on the grass, perched on the remains of two thousand year old walls. All fed, neutered and with shots.
What a happy happy place.

16) The ceilings!

15) Morning markets.
14) Life-sized Pinocchios.

13) Getting lost in the details.


12) Finally finding proof that break dancing was around long before the eighties.

Little Known Historical Fact:
It's a common misconception that all the white architecture and statuary were actually intended to be seen that way. Most building and statues were brightly colored with paint. For example, homeboy's parachute pants were originally painted on, though time has long since worn them away.

11) Sweets! Sweets! Sweets!

10) Tiny little three wheeled trucks zipping hell-bent-for-leather all over the place.
9) Architectural delights (even when it's just the remnants.)

8) Vespas!!

7) Lots of old marble bits and pieces laying about for the taking. They'll look so lovely in your garden at home - you can just grab one and take it with you!! Lot's of other people have done it.
6) The Bidet. Civilization at it's finest?

5) Shunning gypsies.

4) Traveling around with this tough guy, making my shunning redundant (but still quality entertainment.)

3) Public fountains running fresh water all over Rome (but also spotted in lesser concentrations in Venice and Florence.) Even better, but not captured on film, was seeing several city residents using them to slake their thirst, tame unruly hair, refresh the face, wash an apple, water the dog...

2) Marble Columns!

And the number one thing to love about Italy?
(drumroll please...also you might want to pause the music near top right)

Wait, wait, wait....I just have to make one more point before the grand finale. The ordering of this list, with the possible exception of Numero Uno below, is entirely arbitrary and was determined simply by the order I stumbled across each picture whilst scrolling amongst the thousands we took. For example, I definitely do NOT love traveling with my husband less than I love life-sized Pinocchio.

Okay, you can resume your drumroll.....
The Number One Thing To Love About Italy.....

-k.

p.s. Happy Birthday Daddy.