Fast-tracking through Italy with the Fergusons!

On March 11th Daddy and Jared were supposed to fly in to Venice at 11:35am while Mama and I flew in to Venice at 11:20am with Joey waiting at the airport for all of us.  Perfect timing on my part, right?! Well the Venice airport employees decided differently!  They decided this day (the day my family arrives in Europe, my mom and I return from our short trip, oh and my brother's 15th birthday) would be the day they would go on strike. What a fantastic way to welcome Jared and Dad and REALLY test the patience of a mother/wife and sister/daughter!  

Everything turned out fine though!  Joey ended up helping dad and Jared find a flight that bypassed Venice and flew to Verona (on a teeny tiny plane through the Alps that I am confident made my dad's head and stomach flip) and actually got in an hour earlier from France than expected.  We were not so lucky.  We got to spend 13 hours in the Barcelona airport sleeping on the floor, buying duty free candy, and "sipping" wine to pass the time. Right. haha. (Those beautiful pictures are safely confined to my mom's camera!)  But at 9pm we finally arrived to Venice (because apparently strike only last there from 8am to 5pm) to find Jared, Dad, and my amazing husband waiting on us.  

When we finally got to the apartment we got to have a mini celebration of Jared's birthday.  Joey had made a fantastic cake and fashioned the candles into the number 15!  He had never made a cake before and it was wonderful...Jared even ate it and he does NOT eat cake!

From that day forward it was smooth sailing!  We went to Venice for a day, Lake Garda & the Soave castle, Florence, and then finally Rome (Vatican, Colosseum, St. Peter's Square, Tiber Island,  .  Spending an uninterrupted week with my parents and brother in the place where Joey and I have had some of our best memories and really our first memories since dating, engagement, and marriage was incredible.  I loved being able to show them around the place we lived and be able to explore some new places for the first time with them.  The only thing missing was (my other half/my best friend/my SEESTER) Katy and of course her husband Brad aka the new brotha.  

Disclaimer:  Even though they were not able to come on the trip I did get some of the biggest news of my life, thus far, after I dropped off the fam at the Rome airport from Katy.  So basically she pretty much gave me the MOST memorable moment of my family adventure in Italy even without being physically present: She and Brad are expecting a baby in November! OH ME OH ME OH ME!!!  Talk about an awesome way to end a day in Rome...call your sister on skype because she has been blowin' up your dad's cell phone, your email, your facebook wall, etc to have her scream "Where have you been? I am freaking out because you have always had to be the first person I told...I'm pregnant!!"  haha!  Oh I love her and can NOT wait for this baby to get here!   

But that is another topic I will post all about in a later post :) 

The rest of this post will be pictures from our travels together and continuation in the next post.

Dad, Me, Jared, and Mama in Venice.
I am so mad the picture is  dark and grainy, but I loved it! 

 Rialto Bridge in Venice.

 Adventure to beautiful Lake Garda in the rain and then off to the Soave Castle.

 Hiking up to the Soave Castle to learn it closed 5 minutes earlier...still a great view though!

Waiting on the train (bright and EARLY) in Vicenza to Florence :)