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After shooting Dale & Meredith's awesome wedding at the Four Season in Firenze, Keats & I took a nice well deserved vacation around Italy. It was such a perfect trip that combined both business and pleasure. We arrived in Florence on a Monday night, and absolutely fell in love with the Four Seasons. It's incredible how much a difference a nice hotel room makes after a long day of traveling. The service was amazing and our room was gorgeous! Thanks again to Dale & Mere for hooking us up with first class accommodations.

We had a nice couple of days in Florence for the wedding and the workshop that surrounded it. The photographers who attended were great and we had a super good time. After the first 4 days in Florence, we decided to just fly by the seat of our pants and didn't have any plans or reservations for the rest of the trip (my new favorite way to travel). All I knew is that I wanted to go check out Cinque Terre and I also love Venice, so instead of trying to figure out the trains and such, we ended up renting a car then driving up to Venice. We had a nice weekend there before heading off to Cinque Terre for a couple more days. Finally we decided to check out Sienna before heading back to Florence for a day.

All in all, it was a great trip. I had reached my goal of losing 50 pounds right before the trip so I decided that I wasn't going to worry about my diet while I was gone. I sure did enjoy some nice meal and tasty treats (hello gelato). I did gain 8 pounds back in the 11 days I was there, but thankfully those pounds came off within 3 days of getting back on the Four Hour Body.

Here are a few of my favorite images from out Italian photo safari.

A view from the Rialto Bridge:

Of course we had to do a little gondola ride:

I posted this because when I went to Venice years ago, we ate at this tourist trap in St. Marks Square, and I am not joking when I say it was the best grilled ham & cheese sandwich I ever had. They call it toast over there, but it's basically bread, ham and cheese, melted in a panini press (which reminds me, I bought a panini maker after my last trip to Italy). Anywho... even though I knew it was going to be a crazy rip off, we went back and it was every bit as delicious as I remember! FYI... we split one toast, it came with a side of chips, Keats got a glass of wine and I had a Diet Coke... 50 Euros (about $70). There was a 6 Euro per person surcharge for the orchestra were playing. Totally worth it!

We didn't end up eating here, seems wrong to eat Chinese food while in Italy, but I like the color in this shot:

These new few were taken in Cirque Terre.

These lock images were taken on the "Lover's Walk" between Riomaggiore and Manarola.

There's a graffiti while, so I added my 2 cents. When in Rome right?

Keats & I with Manarola in the background:

Vernazza was my favorite and the most scenic of the "five lands":

It rained the first day we were in Cinque Terre, and it was overcast during most of the second day, but as it got closer to sunset, the sky got interesting and the sun even peaked out right before the sun went down. The color was just amazing and the light just made me so happy. These next few images we processed with the Pro HDR plugin from Nik Software. (It's my first attempt at HDR photography so go easy on me):

I was really patient getting this next series of images. I hiked up a plethora of steps and found a nice vantage point overlooking Vernazza. This shot was taken before the sun peaked out:

These next 3 we kissed with a touch of late afternoon sunlight:

This shot is my current lock screen on my phone. Every time someone calls this shot brings a smile to my face:

This was taken of Riomaggiore on our way out of town:

WE only spent 1 day and 1 night in Sienna, but I really enjoyed that city as well. We had out best meal of the entire trip (aside from the insane wedding feast at the Four Seasons) at a little square in the middle of town:

The Duomo in Sienna:

And finally, another self portrait:

Let me know what you think. Ciao!