Arrivederci Italia

This is the blog post I never ever wanted to write!

I had to say goodbye to Italy this afternoon, but more on that later!

My mom and grandma got to Rome last Tuesday night and showed them to a great night of pizza and gelato!

Then I wore them out over the next few days :)

We went to see Pope Francis Wednesday morning and we were so lucky because there were so many babies around us and Pope Francis stopped right in front of us!

The next day we went to the catacombs and some basilicas!

After, we took a grand tour of the colosseum and the forum!

We went to Santa Croce and saw some relics of the true cross and a copy of the holy shroud!

At the catacombs, they told us about a basilica that had the body of St. Cecilia so we went because it was so close to my apartment!

Friday we went to the vatican museum and I snuck this selfie in the Sistine Chapel

 That night my roommates and I went out to try the chocolate shots and some beer from a local microbrewery!

I also HAD to get that gelato again with the chocolate at the bottom!

My last day in Rome I finally went somewhere I'd been dying to go, Frascati.

 You go to one of the markets and get food to eat and then pick a spot and have a little picnic with some great wine!

That night was my last night at work :(

I brought some beers from Belgium for us to drink and we had a wonderful last night together!

Chef Andrea and Angelo have been so great to me and I couldn't have picked a better place to work at these last few months.

I am so thankful for them!

I met my mom and grandma in Florence!

I took them to that delicious sandwich place and they loved it!!

Then we took a winery tour!

The oldest bottles they had were from 1904!!

They had three peacocks on the grounds and they were showing off their feathers for us!

 We stopped by this cute town on the way back from the castle to try some more wines!

This shop we went into had this cool new way to wine taste!

You bought a card and put it into the machine and chose your wine and how much you wanted!

So cool!!!!

That night the waiter suggested a dish that I hadn't heard of, and out comes a Texas sized steak!

Next we headed to Naples and rented a car to get to my great grandfather's hometown!

It's called Castellucio Cosentino and it is so cute and quaint! 

We met some great people there who told us there were still DiLorenzo's there!

That was so exciting and it was cool to see where I come from!

We of course had pizza in Naples before retiring for the night!

The next morning we headed to Capri and took a boat around the island before heading to our hotel.

We saw natural corals 

and we saw the Blue Grotto!

So amazing and beautiful

Our hotel was in Anacapri, the other side of the island, so we got to take a nice scenic drive and we got to see the town of Anacapri!

We had a nice dinner overlooking the sunset!

I finished my last night in Italy with a very Italian dessert, Cafe Affogato, a shot of espresso over a bit of gelato!

I will miss Italy so much, but plan on coming back as soon as possible!

I am in Greece now and can't wait to explore Athens when I wake up!

Hope all is well!

Ciao!