that time of year again...finalmente

I took this picture just last summer at the end of our Italian summer vacation. Now, here we are just weeks away from our Italy trip. Seems like it was just yesterday that I was preparing for Olivia's 1st trip to the motherland.

A lot goes into preparing for the trip each year. The planning and research and then the packing. But planning when to go and what family to visit first. My family is from Puglia, Anthony's from Abruzzo. So, we decide which to do first based on any events going on with either family. This year Anthony's dad is going over during the summer so we planned to be in Abruzzo first to spend the time with him as well. This will be my father-in-law's first time in Italy with his grand-daughters! It also worked in our favor to be in Puglia on the second leg of the trip since Madonna del Carmine is mid-July. We weren't there for the festival last year, so I'm super excited to be this year. The girls are going to love it! But I'm so glad things worked out like this...Anthony will be able to spend some time with his dad in Italy and we'll be able to celebrate La Madonna with our fellow Mesagnese!

The research that goes into the trip is intense too. Probably only because I make it that way though. I research airfare and car rental for a couple months before actually booking anything. I'm not on the internet everyday, but every couple days I'll get in to check out fares and get car quotes. I feel like we get good deals on most of our trips, so it's definitely worth it in the end. We save up for this trip every year with our hard-earned money so I want to make sure to get the best deal I can.

And finally, there's the packing. Oh, the packing. I LOVE packing. It's the unpacking I can't stand. But packing, I could do that with my eyes closed at this point. But I make lists for every one of us of things to take. We've left some staple items at both family houses, but to this day, I continue to over-pack. No matter how many times I go through the luggage and take things out, I always manage to take too much.

It sounds like a lot, right? It is, but I love it. I just get giddy when it's that time of year again to start thinking about Italy and the details of our trip. Every minute spent planning, researching, packing (and un-packing) is totally worth it for me. It's not like the kind of work you dread to do. Like cleaning bathrooms. Or ironing. I'm preparing for our trip to ITALY, I better enjoy every second spent thinking about it!