I started this Tiny Flourishes series to document and pay attention to the little things that make everyday life better.
This time though, a lot of my flourishes are about our trip to Italy – definitely not the everyday and not tiny either!
Jim and I traveled for fourteen days. That’s the longest I’ve ever been away from home.
The trip was fantastic! How could it not be?! We loved everything about it.
Here are 10 (not-so) Tiny Flourishes from this past month:
The Italy Trip
We went to Rome, Florence, and Venice. I loved the ancient history of Rome, the art in Florence and everything about Venice.
Savoring Italian Food
We at plenty of pizza and pasta, indulged in afternoon Aperol spritz, and drank more espressos than we can count. We also loved the artichokes in Rome. Yum!
The Sights
We took guided tours of the Colosseum and the Vatican in Rome. We toured the museum that houses the David statue in Florence. The tour guides were fantastic and really helped us understand what we were seeing.
Vespa tour!
While we were in Florence, we took a Vespa tour in Tuscany. They taught us how to ride a Vespa. I wasn’t good at that and opted to ride with one of the guides.
We rode about thirty minutes out to a small village, then went to a vineyard where we learned about wine making and how they make olive oil. We had one of the best meals of the trip at the vineyard. Such a great day!
The concert
In Venice we wandered past a church that was having a concert that night. We bought tickets and heard four violins, a viola, a cello, a bass and a harpsichord play Vivaldi Four Seasons and a few other pieces. They played one of my favorite pieces, Paganini’s 24 Caprices. It was the first time I’d heard it played live and it was amazing.
Walking 120 miles
Jim tracked our steps and we walked about 120 miles over the course of the two weeks! No wonder we needed so many espressos!
Jim being off work for a month
Jim was able to take a sabbatical for the month of May. It was a really nice break for him and a change of pace for me as well.
Garden planted
My goal was to get the garden planted out before we left and that did happen. Everything grew really well while we were gone. Our son took care of the watering.
The trees all leafed out
There was such a change in how things looked from the time we left until we got back. The trees are fully leafed out now. We have a lot of trees on our property and things look so different in the summer.
Two last minute clothing purchases for the trip
These yoga pants that pass as regular pants were fantastic. They were perfect for our long travel days.
I also bought this light-weight cardigan sweater and wore it a lot on the trip.
Share your tiny flourishes
I’d love to hear what’s making your life better. Share in the comments below.