we'll be in italy!! southern italy that is. i have been super busy planning this trip... for 2 years now! yep, hoping we could scrape this huge trip together and so far it looks like a go! i became enamored with italy many years ago when i went on a trip with my parents, husband and emily when she was about a year and half old. we went to venice and the tuscany area, renting houses in each spot for a week and exploring on our own. italy has a similar landscape to california but with way less people. it was definitely the best trip of my life and still remains so today. when i returned i dusted off the "under the tuscan sun" book i had started a decade before and read it cover to cover (and a second time too) wondering why had i not gone to cortona!! we had been so close! it sent me dreaming of another trip someday... which has been more than 10 years now. emily will be 12 when we hit rome and start our adventure through puglia, basilicata and up through naples back to tuscany and YES cortona!!!
researching this trip has been a blast and i went from two to three weeks and now a little more than that as i added city after city...
puglia is not as touristy as other italian regions so i am hoping our june/july dates won't be too crowded. i am sure rome will be a challenge but the kids really can't miss school right now
inspirations for choosing puglia came from here and here and here
funny how once on the trail i stumbled onto many italian blogs written by americans... even becoming "friends" with many on Facebook and adding even more places to our list of cities to visit. one very special person turned us on to basilicata and another fellow so cal gal has the b and b in tuscany we will be staying at. last, our trulli in puglia was found by another ex pat from laguna beach (just down the street from us) crazy! here are some of the links, in case you are curious:
tuscany
puglia
basilicata
basilicata really has become a major player for me now with it's rugged coast and hilltop villages, visit my pinterest board on it if you really want to be wowed! like i said, it reminds me of growing up here in southern california before it got so miserably crowded and smoggy... stay tuned for more on italy!!
No comments:
Post a Comment