Italia here we come!

J.'s best friend, Dan Chen (an amazing wedding photographer), is marrying the love of his life, the beautiful Sarah Krusen (who is also a filmmaker in her own right) in Florence, Italy. For two such artistic, creative, and free-spirited people, North America venues would just not do so they chose Florence. Their invitations were styled after passports, our rsvp cards were boarding passes, and they invited us to witness their vows in a beautiful ancient chapel.

For months, Jacob and I debated whether we should go or not because of our current financial state (i.e. unemployment for me). Then we decided to finally face that we could not go. We shed some tears and moped for days. But last week, after a heart-breaking phone call from Dan who offered to pay for part of J.'s ticket and go into further wedding debt, we decided to dig a little deeper and find a way to go. Lo and behold, my parents had some frequent flyer miles on hand to match up with ours and allow both of us to go.

The frequent flyer mile program ended up working out in such a way that we had to fly to London first to get the best deal then fly to Italy and come back through Rome. I am ecstatic! J. has never been to London, my favorite city, and I know he's going to think he died and went to heaven. I'm going to take him to my favorite haunts as well as Oxford, my favorite academic town. We bought guidebooks today and we're looking forward to traipsing around Venice, Florence, Tuscany, Cinque Terre, and Rome on a budget.

We'll be departing on August 24 and coming back Sept 9. I welcome your suggestions for places to eat and experience.