Christmas in Italy

We started out this past Christmas season with a trip to Florence to celebrate Michael’s birthday. We have been to Florence before when Lucy was only a few weeks old, but wanted to experience the city during the Christmas season.

We didn’t go with much of a plan – we stayed at the Hotel Pendini again, visited the Christmas market, and ate some yummy food. A highlight of this trip was our visit to Scuola del Cuoio, the Florence School of Leather. Michael was in search of an authentic Italian leather wallet, which is how we discovered this place. They have been teaching leather artisans since the 1930s, and have hosted many well-known people from around the world in their shop. I highly recommend visiting here and avoiding the outdoor leather markets to guarantee you are getting authentic, quality Italian leather!

We had two wonderful dinners at La Giostra and Gustavino, explored the city in the rain, and Lucy even decided to finally let go of our pinkies and walk by herself!

A few days before Christmas, Michael’s family arrived in Vicenza to spend Christmas and New Years with us. Since we only had the very beginning of December in Vicenza last year before flying to the US to spend Christmas with our families, it was really nice to stay here and soak up our beautiful town at Christmas. We celebrated Michael’s and his sister Grace’s birthdays at our favorite pizzeria the first night of their trip followed by homemade tiramisù. We made Christmas cookies, decorated gingerbread houses, and enjoyed yummy dinners at home for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

We took the train to Verona one morning to visit the Nativities Around the World exhibit hosted there every year. It is a beautiful display of all different depictions of the nativity scene, many from different parts of Italy, but also from countries around the world. We spent lots of time walking around Vicenza, enjoying the Christmas lights in Piazza Signori, and drinking cappuccinos and Aperol spritz.

All of the “kids” (Michael, his siblings, and I) took the train to Venice one day. We stopped for caffe and brioche on our way to Piazza San Marco, visited the Campanile (bell tower) to get the best, and highest, view of the city, shopped, had another caffe at Caffè Florian (the oldest operating cafe in the world!), and had a delicious lunch. Venice can be overwhelming, and it’s very easy to get lost, but that’s also one of the most fun parts of visiting. It’s one of the most unique cities in the world, and the maze of “streets” (or rather, alleys) is bizarre and amazing. We stopped by Ponte di Rialto on our walk back to the train station, and were happy to rest our feet on the 45 minute train ride back to Vicenza.

We spent one afternoon taking family pictures downtown in the piazza before having dinner at Il Ceppo, one of our favorite spots in Vicenza. We ended the their visit with a sushi dinner on New Years Eve followed by a walk up to and mass at Monte Berico the next morning. We love sharing this special city and our favorite places with our families and are so glad we got to spend a Christmas in Vicenza!