Italy has to be on everyone’s travel shortlist — and, for a long time, it was on mine as well. It’s a destination like Paris or London or Tokyo that fills people with wonder and has an iconic feeling thanks to Hollywood and everyone’s brag-worthy Insta shots.
I can’t say why we hadn’t made it to Italy yet. We’ve been working our way through Europe country-by-country, mainly as add-ons to my work trips. There are other places I’ve gravitated towards first because they have been a bit higher on my list. We also took a massive three-week trip in 2013, and while we went to Portugal and Spain, Italy didn’t make the cut.