If you’ve met me, you probably have some good indication of just how important travel is to me. The pandemic years have been the hardest of my life for many reasons - but that’s a major one. Just after our second vaccine the world seemed to open up a bit and Ian & I quietly slipped off to Italy in the summer to have one of the trips we were supposed to do in 2020. It was 16 days of sunshine, good food, amazing wine, epic views, gorgeous beaches and the best company. We spent a couple of days in Austria as well which you’ll see in here!

First stop when we landed in Rome was to get our rental car and drive to the Amalfi Coast, stopping at Pompeii along the way to Positano. I was in Pompeii in 2013, and I don’t think Ian can fully appreciate how incredible it was to have empty roads in there sometimes!

From the Amalfi coast we drove up north to Tuscany for the most magical stay in a villa outside of Volterra. We spent our days going to wineries, doing cooking classes, horseback riding in vineyards - and admiring all the cypress and olive trees.

From Tuscany we continued north still to go to Venice for a day!

From Venice we headed further north still to the Dolomites! The Italian alps were truly spectacular and very different from what you think of as a classic Italian experience.

After our stay hiking and hanging out in the mountains we headed to Austria for a couple of days to the fairytale village of Hallstatt.

We headed west back to Italy & towards Lake Como!

After Como we headed to our last stop - the eternal city. Rome, with all its history, food, culture and beauty, will forever be one my favourite cities in the world.