The Naylors in Germany & Beyond

Okay, I just had to do a whole post dedicated to our Florence cooking class experience. This was hands down our favorite thing we did on our trip to Italy back in September. When I found the company online and read the reviews, I knew it would be tons of fun and I'm working on my culinary skills so it was a win-win situation :) Our group had a total of 8 people. This included a Canadian couple on their honeymoon and two couples who were empty nesters from Colorado. There is something about traveling and being in a new place that allows people from all over the world to come together and have common ground. We all had a great time and really enjoyed getting to know each other. We started off by going to an outdoor produce stand to grab some of the ingredients for our meal. We got zucchini, tomatoes, and fresh basil. Outdoor fruit and vegetable markets are all over Europe and I'm obsessed. I love the colors and the social aspect of buying your fruits and veggies from a ve

My sister and I were long overdue for a sister trip so we knew we couldn't pass up an opportunity to travel together! Why Malta, you ask? Well, my sister has been to almost 100 countries (that is her goal!) and she wanted to go somewhere new. We have a slight difference in traveling taste (lol) so it was a little difficult trying to choose a spot. Honestly, when Sarah mentioned Malta, I had never even heard of it. A quick google search led me to beautiful, bright blue waters and beaches. I was in!! Along with the beaches, Malta has a ton of history and lots to do. I was very surprised at how "big" this super small country was. We stayed in the St. Julian's Bay area, which I highly recommend. Do you see how small Malta is? You can barely see it on the map! The view of the city from our hotel rooftop! Our first full day in Malta we spent on a 3 island boat tour. It was SO much fun and really cool to see the 3 different islands that make up the country of

To kick off my sister and Glenn coming to Europe, Drew, Tex, and I drove to Switzerland for the weekend!  (It was about a 3.5 hour drive! Oh, and Drew had a lot of fun driving in parts of Germany because there are no speed limits!) We met up in Zurich and did a night there. After that, we drove to Lucerne and spent the whole day there. I must say Lucerne is absolutely beautiful!! The drive up to the gondola. Breakfast time! We had a lovely breakfast outside at Gugelhupf Cafe and then started driving through the winding streets up towards Mt. Pilatus. Mt. Pilatus is a huge mountain where they have tons of outdoor activities. They have hiking, biking, ropes courses, tree camping, and the world's longest summer toboggan. Check out their website here ! You can take the world's steepest cogwheel railway to the very top or take a gondola. We took a small gondola about halfway up and then did a 45 minute hike. Once we reached that point, there were tons of activities and fo

The last part of this Italian adventure was Rome! This was my third time to Rome and Drew's first. I was excited to dig deeper into the history of the city and appreciate the food that Rome has to offer. We arrived on Sunday and we had a few hours until our Colosseum and Roman Forum tour so we walked around and saw some of the sights. Let me just say this... The amount of tourists and people trying to sell you things was really overwhelming, especially right next to the major sights. It was quite unnerving and really spoils the historic sights. Anyway, we saw the Trevi Fountain and the Colosseum and then grabbed a bite to eat before our tour. We definitely recommend buying your tour tickets ahead of time for the Colosseum and Roman Forum. This way you get to skip the line and get information about the sights that you otherwise might not know. Drew and I love doing tours... Can you tell yet? :) The Colosseum was built around AD 72 (that's really old!) and could hold around 5