Italy-Georgia Trip, Day 14-15

 Our last day was spent in Milan, Italy.  We had a 6:15am flight from Kutaisi to Milan, so it was an early start.  We got to the airport around 4:00am and met a guy there to return the rental car.  Our flight was fine, but we wasted most of the morning trying to get through the airport and waiting for trains that were cancelled. We made it to our hotel around noon and they let us check in early, so we were able to drop all our luggage.  We headed out in the heat of the afternoon, in our long pants (since we knew there was a dress code at the Cathedral).  It was SO hot though.  We tried to see the Last Supper Painting, but the tours were sold out.  That's what we get for not planning ahead. We went to the Cathedral and walked several steps to get to a rooftop view of the Piazza del Duomo.  After more gelato, we went over to a small aquarium, which was a nice air-conditioned break for the day.  We had Italian dinner in the Navigli District, along the canal.  

Early Saturday morning, we headed out.  We walked about a 1/2 mile to the train station.  We took a 6:45am train from Milan to Venice, where we arrived around 9:00am.  From there, we took a 20-minute bus ride to the airport.  Our flight was supposed to leave at 12:40pm from Venice to London, but we didn't actually leave on time.  With a short delay and being on the very back of the plane, we only had about 30-40 minutes to make our connecting flight in London.  It seemed impossible as we waited for a bus to take us to a different terminal and then had to go through security again.  Thankfully we didn't wait in the security line more than a couple minutes. We took off running for the gate.  Luckily it wasn't boarding on time and we made the long flight.  We flew from London to Phoenix and then home.  We also had to go through security, customs, and get a bag re-checked in Phoenix.  Luckily that flight was delayed a little bit and we didn't have to run to make that connection.  We made it home around 10:30pm.  

It was a great trip, but also very tiring.  I calculated that we did at least 72 miles walking throughout our trip (according to the health app).  We sort of had a system.  We'd wake up early, drive to our destination and see the sites, get cleaned up for the day, and then head back out to walk around the city and have dinner.  Long days, but it was fun to spend it together.  

Italy-Georgia Trip, Day 12-13

 On Wednesday the 25th, we set out to see some canyons and waterfalls.  We went to Martvili Canyon, which had some amazing green water.  We did the 15-minute boat tour, which was cool, but obviously short.  We found one small waterfall nearby.  We tried to find a couple of waterfalls but didn't have any luck.  

We had a 5-hour drive up to Mestia, which was so and painful.  The road was horrible, with lots of rough, bumpy, and narrow places.  We went 25 mph many places along that road.  We got into Mestia and explored the city.  I was dreading driving back on the same road the next day, but our host let us in on a huge tip that saved us a lot of time.  Instead of driving back the same road, we were able to drive to Ushguli (our planned destination for Thursday) and then drive back to Kutaisi on a newly paved road.  Google Maps doesn't even have the road on the map.  It was funny to see the navigation map with just a dot in the middle of nowhere.  After Ushguli, we were able to drive on the new road (known to the locals) and make it to Kutaisi in about 3.5 hours on smooth road.  The scenery on the drive was so impressive!

Alex's favorite of the trip was Ushguli, with the mountainous scenery and the old towers throughout the city.  We were there by 9:00am and wandered around for 2-2.5 hours.  A dog followed us up the hill and I snapped a selfie with the dog.  There were lots of wildflowers there too.  We had lunch at a little cafe - we had meat pies and homemade yogurt with raspberry jam (as recommended on a blog).  We were headed out just before noon.  We tried to find a couple more waterfalls on the way back to Kutaisi, but some mean dogs were an obstacle for one. The other could only be seen by swimming to it, which we didn't really have time for.  We stayed in a hotel close to the airport in Kutaisi.

Why Georgia?  Even the locals there asked why we chose to come there... it was just a country on Alex's bucket list.  I didn't even know where it was before this trip.  But I'm glad we went because it was a very beautiful country.  I wouldn't recommend driving there... but it was amazing to see another country on the other side of the world from us. 

Here is some video highlights from Georgia:

Italy-Georgia Trip, Day 11

 Tuesday the 24th we headed back south.  We had to drive nearly to Tbilisi again before heading west to Kutaisi.  As mentioned, it wasn't my favorite driving day.  We stopped at the Russia-Georgia Friendship Monument on the Georgian Military Highway.  We also visited Uplistsikhe, a cave city, which was pretty impressive.  It was also pretty windy there, but it was cool to tuck inside the caves.  I liked singing in one of the cave rooms.  

We got into Kutaisi around 3:30pm, so we had time to wander all over Kutaisi (lots more walking - we walked at least 7 miles).  We had a nice dinner at the Argo Cafe, with Belgian waffles and ice cream for dessert.  It was outdoor seating, so we had a few dogs wander in, hoping to get some dinner scraps.  We walked up to Bagrati's Cathedral after dinner and then enjoyed the fountain lights.  

Italy-Georgia Trip, Day 10

On Monday the 23rd, we headed to Kazbegi.  We left early to get out of the city before traffic picked up.  It was a little crazy trying to follow navigation and get on the right road.  Driving on the "freeway" was pretty scary.  The 2-lane stretches sometimes had trucks parked and lining one entire lane.  The 2-way traffic was expected to share the other lane.  And people there are really aggressive drivers, passing all the time, even on blind turns.  We saw several near head-on collisions.  Cows were also all over the road that we had to dodge.  We saw pigs, dogs, chickens, ducks, goats, and even a camel alongside the road.  I think it was the next day when I had had enough of the drive.  Alex was starting to drive more reckless and I yelled at him a couple of times.  At one point, I told him to let me out if he was going to keep driving like that.  He might have slowed down just a bit, but not much.  I wasn't happy with the driving over there and wouldn't want to drive there again.  

We did make it into the village in Kazbegi, hoping to find someone to drive us to our hike in Juta.  The road is too rough for a rental car (and not permissible to drive there), so we needed a driver.  We saw a travel agency building and headed over.  A guy was standing outside of it, saw us, and asked "Juta?"  We said, "Yes."  He said, "I take you."  He knew very little English, so we had to get a translator to help with the details.  He drove us to Juta, waited for 5-6 hours, and then brought us back when we were done (for about $160 in Georgian dollars).  It worked well, but it was a little strange to get in a car with a stranger, who looked like he could be named "Boris", and trust him to take us where we wanted to go.  It probably wasn't the smartest idea, but that's what these guys do.  They stand around and wait to drive tourists around.  We were only about 5 miles from the Russian border for our hike. I absolutely loved the hike - it was probably my favorite thing of our whole trip.  It was quiet and peaceful, very little people there, pretty mountain scenery, horses, and tons of wildflowers.  

We went to the Gergeti Trinity Church that evening - pretty amazing view as it's perched atop a hill. A local stray dog seemed to be taking in the view as well.  Alex got his Georgia peach for the day and we had a yummy kebab wrap at a small local restaurant. 

Italy-Georgia Trip, Day 9

 Alex still had his work conference on Saturday, so he headed out with the big suitcase and his carry-on.  That left me with my carry-on backpack and snacks to cart around after I checked out of the hotel.  I had to check out at 11:00am, so I had about 5 hours to find something to do.  I didn't really want to wander around Venice with my backpack and snacks.  After sitting in the hotel lobby for about 45 minutes, I walked around Mestre for about 1.5 hours.  It was hot and I didn't see anything that particularly caught my attention, so I decided to head back to the bus station.  Took a bus to the airport and then sat there for a few hours waiting for Alex.  At least it was air-conditioned, I could sit down, use wi-fi, and have a free bathroom.  

Our flight was Saturday evening the 21st, with our first flight from Venice to Switzerland.  They had some tasty chocolate as a flight snack.  We had to wait a LONG time in Switzerland to go through customs.  We somehow got in the slowest line.  By the time we made it through, we had to take off running to make our connecting flight.  We did make it and our 2nd flight arrived in Tbilisi, Georgia around 5:00am.  We paid for an expensive taxi to our Airbnb and then had time to nap for about 2 hours.  We then got ready and found our way to church at 11:00am.  We enjoyed attending the church service, which they provided translation for (via headphones).  One of the missionaries was translating into Russian or English, from either Georgian or English, depending on the speaker's language.  I thought that was pretty talented for him to navigate 3 different languages.  

We had planned to get our rental car at noon, right there at the church building.  We found this rental service that would meet you with a car at whatever address you chose.  We had a little snag in securing the car.  The guy showed up as planned with the car, but then he wanted proof that Alex had been driving longer than 2 years.  Since Alex had recently renewed his driver's license, it appeared that he had only been driving for a short time.  We assured the guy that he had over 30 years of driving experience, but they needed proof.  We had to have the kids track down one of Alex's old licenses and take a picture of it.  We couldn't get that until later that night (because of the time difference), but luckily the guy still took our cash, let us take the car (using it at our own risk) and send the picture later. The whole deal seemed a little wonky, but it worked out and we had a car for the week.

We actually walked around Tbilisi the rest of the day after getting back to our Airbnb because the driving was so crazy there.  We wandered all over Tbilisi.  We ran into the senior missionary couple that we met earlier in the day at church.  The city was interesting - beautiful architecture, cobbly streets, and this charm to the city.  Yet there was definitely a lot of graffiti, poverty, and cats and dogs wandering around.  It broke my heart to see some of the poor people sitting on the street trying to sell stuff.  We walked past a lady selling cups of apricots and then felt like we should turn around.  We bought a cup from her and she seemed SO grateful that we bought them.  It nearly brought me to tears thinking about it - she seemed glad that someone had noticed her.  

One of the most amazing places we saw was the Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi.  The lighting was beautiful in the evening.  We also caught a nice view of the city from a church on the hill, but it was a steep walk to get up there.  

Italy-Georgia Trip, Day 5-8

 We spent the next 3-4 days in Venice.  This was Alex's work trip, so I didn't actually see much of him these few days since he was gone from about 7:00am-6:00pm every day.  On Wednesday, I took a rest day.  After so much walking around in Rome and traveling around, I just wanted to sleep.  I slept until about 11:30am and then went to the grocery store in the afternoon.  I met Alex and his colleagues in Venice on Wednesday evening for dinner.  I was a little worried about getting myself from the hotel to the train station in Mestre and into Venice, but it was pretty easy.  I tried fried calamari for dinner, but the texture was pretty hard to stomach.  The grilled veggies were good, along with the gelato we had after dinner.  

I ventured out by myself on Thursday back into Venice for the day.  I decided to buy a day pass so that I could hop on and off of the vaporetto (water bus).  I thought that would be a fun way to get around.  However... it was hot and crowded, I had to stand most of the time on the water bus and had to wait in lines to get on.  I made it to Murano and Burano Islands and walked all over.  Murano was really cool because it's known for Murano glass.  They had shop after shop full of beautiful glass.  I didn't really have a specific plan for the day or how to get around, but I somehow got to a couple places I wanted to see and made it back.  Too many people, too much waiting and walking around, shopping, and navigating buses and trains - all things I don't enjoy, but I did it.  I managed to buy a few cool souvenirs from the glass shops.  I was really drawn to the glass creations and pretty necklaces. 

On Friday, the trains and buses were on strike, so I didn't get out to wander around.  I was content to relax at the hotel.  By Friday evening, transportation was back to normal, so Alex and I had dinner in Venice again.  Alex had pizza, I had stuffed lamb ravioli, and we tried cannoli for dessert - so yummy!

Italy-Georgia Trip, Day 1-4

Alex and I took a 2-week trip to Italy and the country of Georgia to celebrate our 25th anniversary.  We left a couple of days after the boys got out of school.  Alex had a work trip in Venice, Italy, so we went in conjunction with that trip.  We flew out on Saturday afternoon of the 14th and arrived in Venice on Sunday evening.  

On Monday morning, we headed to Rome.  It was a little crazy trying to find a bus to the train station.  We also had to drop off and store our big suitcase in Venice so we didn't have to cart it around in Rome.  We each just took a backpack.  We did make our train and got into Rome in the afternoon.  It was really hot for our 2 days in Rome and we did a lot of walking.  We walked at least 8 miles on Monday, so it was very tiring.  We saw St. Peter's Basilica, which was really amazing.  We went up to the viewpoint from the cupola, which was a little bit of a feat just to get up there.  We walked up several narrow winding stairways. The view was pretty cool and the inside was also amazing.  We definitely needed gelato in the afternoon.  We had pizza for lunch and pasta for dinner.   

On Tuesday we had an appointment at the Rome Italy Temple at 11:15am to do some temple service.  We left early, around 9:00am, which should have given us about an hour to spare before our scheduled session.  We took the Metro a little ways, where we were supposed to get off and take 1 bus to get to the temple.  However... the bus never showed up.  It was showing arrival time to be an hour late. We waited for a while.  Eventually we took another bus, which would then feed into a 2nd bus to get there.  That bus was also delayed, so we didn't make it to the temple until about 11:20-11:30am.  We missed our scheduled appointment for an endowment session, but we were able to walk in for other temple service doing proxy sealings.  I really felt the Spirit there and realized we were probably supposed to do those for our anniversary trip.  We were reminded of the same covenants we made 25 years ago.  I was happy to finally make it (back) to the Rome Temple.  We visited on New Years 2018 when it was being constructed.  We had just learned that Alex's brother had passed away the day before, so it was a tender visit to the temple site, knowing the significance of the work we do inside.  I said I would make it back to Rome Temple sometime, and we finally did.  I loved seeing the olive trees on the temple grounds. The sculptures of Jesus and the Apostles were also really special. One cool thing about our experience trying to get to the temple was that we met a family from Lehi, Utah on the Metro who was also going to the temple.  The dad saw us sitting there, thought we were members of the church, and with no prior conversation asked if we were going to the Rome Temple too.  We ended up sharing our whole adventure of getting to the temple with them.  We had lots of time to chat.  I don't know why we were supposed to share that experience, but I'm sure it was hardly a coincidence.  Maybe we needed to have those conversations with this young family who had 3 boys and 1 girl.  

We had a couple of hours after the temple on Tuesday afternoon, so we decided to wander over to the Trevi Fountain.  We had also been there on our previous trip to Rome, and I thought we should go see it again.  It was jam-packed with people, so we just squeezed in one photo and headed out.  No coins thrown in this time, but maybe we don't need to go back to Rome anyway... 

We had an early dinner on Tuesday and took a train back to Venice (which was delayed 2 hours).  We did a lot of walking in the heat and waiting around in Rome.