Countdown to Italy!

We leave for Italy in two weeks - and I for one cannot wait!

We leave for Italy in two weeks and I one-thousand percent cannot believe this trip is finally here. Initially we had planned for a mid-summer retreat to the Amalfi Coast, and then my niece was accepted into a study abroad program for a semester in Florence this fall (I’m only mildly insanely jealous of excited for her), and so we switched up our plans.

But the best part of this trip is that we are going with our besties, whom we will travel with for the first full week spent relaxing and exploring the Amalfi Coast from our home base of Positano. Yeah, life is good.

Our last trip to Italy was spent in Rome, Florence and Venice with a heavy dose of checking the boxes on the touristy must-do items – and trust me, it did not disappoint. However, with this trip, we are excited to immerse ourselves in the culture (ahem, eat all the pasta and drink all the limoncello) and spend time soaking up the beauty that is everywhere you turn in Italy.

After months of careful planning and copious amounts of research, we are now 14 days away from what is certain to be the trip of a lifetime. Here’s what I am most looking forward to:

1. Traveling with our friends

We are going with our friends who might rival us when it comes to loving Italy. They love to travel and we get along famously, and we absolutely cannot wait for dining al fresco, sipping good wine and good conversation.

2. Spending a day in Rome and stopping for wine at Osteria Margutta

Our first day has us arriving in Rome, where we will take an underground tour of the Colosseum that I highly recommend – and the walking around will help stave off jet lag. And to cap off the quick stay in Rome, we will grab a seat on the patio and enjoy a big glass of wine at Osteria Margutta, which I am still convinced is on a street built as a movie set.

3. Grabbing a panini and a bottle of rosé for the beach in Positano

The first time we went to Italy I scoured the pages of History in High Heels. So naturally, I made sure to do the same for this trip, and her recommendations on Positano are right up my alley. I mean, who doesn’t want to grab a sandwich and a bottle of wine and sit on the beach on the Italian coastline?

4. Taking a boat tour around Capri

There are a lot of options for taking a boat tour from Positano to Capri, so thankfully our friends were given a recommendation from someone who was recently in Positano. For four hours, we will have our own private boat that will tour us around Capri and I am straight up smiling ear to ear with excitement for it.

5. Hiking the Path of the Gods

Yes, you read that right. Look, I am not a let’s-go-hiking-this-weekend kind of girl. It’s just not my jam. But, the 12-mile hike in Cinque Terre was far too amazing to not want to consider a hike along the Amalfi Coast (especially when everything I have read says it is easier than the Cinque Terre hike, ha!).

6. Seeing my niece in Florence

My niece will have been in Florence for a month by the time we arrive, and I am beyond excited to see her! But not because we miss her, obviously, but because I cannot wait to see how much of Florence she has soaked up, and hear her recommendations on where to go and what to do. Plus, the day we arrive the hubs is heading to golf and we are headed to lunch at Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura (as if lunch at Gucci isn’t awesome enough, it is the brain child of THE Chef Massimo Bottura).

7. Day trips from Florence (Cinque Terre, Rimini, Milan)

While we could stay in Florence every second of our week there – and not be disappointed – to me, the allure of Florence is how easy it is to explore Italy from Florence. We loved Cinque Terre and will be taking my niece there for the day, but also have plans to visit the beach town of Rimini on the east coast, and then a quick day trip to Milan for a special piece of jewelry (more on that at another time!).

8. A Tuscan wine tour

Okay, let’s be real, the wine in Italy is incredible. Even the cheap house wine at sandwich shops rivals most high end restaurant wines here in the states if I’m being honest, so narrowing down to find a wine tour is daunting. We booked with Tuscan Wine Tours by Grape Tours and this might be in the top 3 of things we are most excited about. We are doing the Super Tuscan wine tour, which sounds great on its own, but the highlight may be in stopping for lunch at Antica Macelleria Cecchini, the butcher shop of famed butcher Dario Cecchini.

9. Seeing how many times we can get a sandwich from All’Antico Vinaio

I challenge you to meet my hubs and not have him mention this sandwich shop within the first half hour of meeting him. This sandwich shop (err, three sandwich shops – yes, on the same street there are three store fronts) is the stuff of legends. Aside from being the best sandwich you could possibly ever have, the €6 price tag still blows my mind.

10. Getting bumped off the wait list and landing a reservation at Osteria Francescana

I get inspired by other people’s travels abroad and this summer Jacey Duprie of Damsel in Dior spent five weeks in Florence. When their friends visited they managed to secure reservations at Osteria Francescana. The level of excitement they had for this made me look up the restaurant immediately, upon which I discovered the pilot episode of Netflix’s Chef’s Table was based on Chef Massimo Bottura and his famed Osteria Francescana (the #1 restaurant on the Top 50 Restaurants in the World list!). After watching the episode, and with a general love for food, we hopped at the chance to dine here – along with every other sane person on the plant – and are now on the wait list. Fingers crossed!

Follow along on Instagram to see highlights from the trip! Ciao!