Cinque Terre

We spent the weekend in Cinque Terre, which may be the most beautiful place on earth. I kind of thought Italy wouldn't live up to the hype, but it definitely has. We hiked to all 5 villages, which was quite a task because several of the usual trails were closed due to flash floods last fall. A couple of the towns were still in recovery from the damage. We hiked through vineyards built vertically on terraced hills. The wine there is supposed to be the best in Italy and we brought a bottle back to celebrate!

Assisi

The last day of my parents visit was spent at Assisi. It was so beautiful, peaceful, and quaint. It was sunny with threats of rain, which made for amazing skies and views of the valley below.

Venice

What an amazing city. Of course it's a complete tourist trap, which we usually resent, but in this case we make an exception. It just can't be beat! We stayed 2 nights there before coming back to Rome. We ate amazing food on this whole trip, explored art and history museums, churches, bridges, piazzas, neighborhoods and shops. The whole weekend (5 days! including Florence) was incredible and we all had so much fun together.

Burano was an especially colorful island which we loved.

Florence

Mom and Dad came the day after Debi left. To start off the visit we took the train the next morning to Florence and stayed there until Easter Sunday afternoon.

Last few photos of our time with Debi, almost 2 weeks ago now...
Here we are at the Vatican.
This one is especially precious. Love and miss her!

and my good looking husband at work :)

Colosseum, etc...

with our wonderful friend Debi!