Hi Love Bugs! I am blogging to you from TrentItalia, a fast track train to Venice. This trip has been a complete whirlwind. It has been absolutely amazing at times, yet frustrating at other times as most travels, especially long term, tend to be. Up until our arrival in Florence, everything went perfectly and according to plan. If you know me, you know I am a serious planner, so that was fantastic. However, when we arrived in Florence, Vueling airlines lost our luggage. You would probably think to yourself, why yes that is incredibly annoying, but when you are traveling for 32 days you almost have to expect something like that to happen. While yes, this is true (I guess); however, Vueling airlines not only lost our luggage (2 suitcases), but they lost 75% of the plane’s luggage as well! Let’s do some simple math here…you board 150 passengers, and only 20ish suitcases? Hmm. I think you have a problem, better check your clipboard stat! We eventually got our luggage the next evening with ZERO help from the Florence airport or Vueling airlines because their telecommunication systems are completely shot to hell! Each automated message in Italian stated they were still searching for our luggage (ugh no comprendo?). Anyways, Sean and I went on a whim, drove to the airport, and retrieved our wonderful suitcases! If you saw my face when I laid eyes on my beautiful suitcase, it lit up like a child on Christmas. I could finally have my hair products, underwear, chargers, and clothes back! Oh my goodness, heaven! 🙂

After getting back to the hotel, we got ready for the evening, and that is when I started to feel sick. I caught a 24 hour flu bug. It was horrible. Anything and everything associated with the flu you can think of, I got. Let’s not go into details here because it was quite disgusting, but it was not pretty. I felt weak, had no appetite, and was completely miserable. It gets better, the day I got sick (yesterday), was Sean’s birthday and we had a beautiful day planned in Tuscany, Siena, and Pisa. 😦 We unfortunately did not make it to any of those wonderful places, and made the bus driver pull over so I could get off the bus, sick. I felt horrible. We had been looking forward to this forever, and the flu bug had to ruin it for us. I am finally feeling better after forcing myself to eat Saltines and stay hydrated. We will continue the birthday celebrations today in Venice, and as we board our cruise around the Mediterranean. A good friend/mentor once told me bad things happen in 3s, so (1)getting our luggage lost, (2)me getting sick, and (3)canceling our Tuscany trip should be enough. Let’s hope the next 15 days go wonderfully as we are now in the middle of our Eurotrip. Here’s to another great half of the trip.

Now don’t think I was only going to rant and rave on this post, Europe has been amazing. Since last posting Sean and I have had a great time in Nice where we took day trips to Eze and Monte Carlo, went to Barcelona with a day trip to the mountains of Montserrat, and ate our way through Florence, EATaly (before my getting sick of course). Eze is an amazing mid-evil village perched up on top of the mountains overlooking the sea. It is absolutely gorgeous, and I am completely in love with this little town. Eze is about 29 minutes by bus from Nice. Read more →