Beachy Side Table Transformation & Santa Scala, Rome

The Santa Scale was quite the experience! 💜💙 According to Catholic tradition, these are the Holy Stairs from Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem. They are the stairs Jesus Christ stepped on his way to trial during his Passion. ✝️ ⛪ 

Architectural Headboard in Smoked Oak & Santa Croce, Florence

I had to visit the famous old church called Santa Croce because my fav guy Michelangelo is buried there.🎨 But there was so, so much awesomeness happening!!

St Frances started this particular church ⛪️ & monastery for the Franciscan monks that follow him. The monks still have a leather shop here. 👜 💀

Custom Birch Kitchen & Tre Fountain Abbey

The Apostle St Paul was beheaded in this small spot between an abbey and a (now) church. 👼🏻 The cream building called the Scala Cceli was Paul’s last prison. 😢 The top floor is now a church, ⛪️ while the basement holds the original cell. When we visited there were several nuns also visiting, praying, & singing. 

DIY Reclaimed Pine Floors & Our Florence Neighborhood

Hey friends! Florence is finally warming up and I thought it was the perfect time to show you our neighborhood. This is the intersection our AIRBNB is on. You can see we live in the middle of the tourist district, so basically we're in a mall. The buildings are mostly sienna coloured plaster and grey stone. The streets in Florence are alive with the sounds of street performers and always smell like (Italian) food. Note, there is no Italian food in Italy. It's all just "food"! ;)Each week we've been here the crowds have grown and it can sometimes take 10 extra minutes to navigate these streets. We don't have a car here, though we rent them from time to time. So everything we do is "a piedi" on on foot.

Restoration Hardware's Wood Beam Round Dining Table & Florence Piazza

It's Saturday night and the mood is right...we went and checked out the Lenarda DaVinci museum here in Florence. Although DaVinci lived here there's only three pieces of art from him, all found in the Uffizi. The DaVinci museum is more of a hands on place to see his experiments. After that we strolled the Florence streets, juts like the locals and all the other tourists. The Italians call this a passegiare and it's typical to find street performers are almost every square. Check out this rolling, 2 man band and the dancing pinnocchio.  

Quick Oak Shelf Makeover & Montepulciano. IT (New Moon Filming Site)

Montepulciano! If you’re a twilight fan, this is where New Moon was filmed. 🧛‍♂️ 👧 The midevil town is tucked in the Tuscany hills so you drive up these tight, winding switchbacks on these narrow ancient streets. 

Farmhouse Pine Coffee Table & Romantic Arno River, Florence

We don't have a car here, although we rent them frequently  But every day life is on foot, or a piedi. Our grocery shopping walk (or passegiare) takes us across the famous Arno River in Florence. It's a romantic walk, even when we are carrying heavy groceries back home.

White-Washed Side Tables & Volterra, Italy (Twilight Series)

Thank you, Stephenie Meyer, for writing about Volterra- because it’s completely magical! After we left Rome we took a one day detour to check out Voltarra. We stayed at a quaint B&B where the host assured us, everything there was in true Tuscan style. 🌟 

Rustic Cedar Beams & Roman Baths

Had fun with my favorite guy at the Baths of Diocletian. 🛁 Romans baths consisted of 4 stages. You would start with a (slave) massage 💆, then the hottest bath (with heated floors 😱), then two more progressively cooler baths. 😓 

DIY Farmhouse Tray & Villa Borghese, Rome

Zack and I went to the Borghese Museum to see these fabulous Bernini statues🎥. Here's a video of my favourite piece from the museum and it's probably one of the best marble statues ever made. It's from Greek Mythology, when Apollo falls in love with the wood nymph, Dauphne. At the very moment he catches her, she cries out for help and is swiftly transformed into a tree. You can see the leaves sprouting from her fingers tips and vines tethering her feet to soil.

Farmhouse Coffee Table Upcycle & St. Paul's-Outside-the-Walls, Rome

The Apostle Paul lies entombed beneath the alter of this giant basillica in Rome. ⛪️ This church is about two miles from his martyrdom site, which we were also able to tour. ✝️ This site is extremely busy with pilgrims and tourists, bustling with persons from all over the globe.

Weathered Gray Soffit & My G-Grandfather's Town

In the early 1900's, my wonderful great-grandfather immigrated from the beautiful mountainous town of Benevento, Italy. 🏔 This is not a tourist trap by and stretch, it''s about a hour and 15 minutes away from Naples, but we easily made the beautiful drive. 

Salvaged-Looking Porch Swings & Easter in Roma

When we planned this year abroad, we made sure we would be in Roma for Easter. Easter or Pasqua is Italia's biggest holiday. They have pilgrims travel to the country from all over the world to see the holy sites and to meet the Pope (Il Papi!) And believe me, Rome does not disappoint. Two weeks ago this place was pretty dead and now the museums and churches are packed with people. 

Weathering Raw Furniture & Palazzo Reale Napoli

Feast for the eyes! Check out the grand entrance to Palazzo Reale di Napoli! The royal palace was built in the 1600's and housed the famous Bourbons, relative of the conquering Napoleon. The exterior was okay, with it's orange stucco...but the inside! Wow!

Achieve the Perfect Rustic Brown & Palace of Caserta

Today was just amazing! Caserta, Italy is the tiny town my great grandmother immigrated from. Touring Caserta Italy, I got to walk the streets my great-grandmother walked, when she was a child. It was like falling back thru time! 

Dreamy Wood Ceiling & The Sistine Chapel, Vatican City

Now that we are in Rome, the art and architecture is coming hot and heavy. For example, we've spent several afternoons in the ginormous Vatican museum, which is a total dream for me. If you haven’t been to the Sistine Chapel, I can share my impressions. You enter and you’re taken aback by just how much is happening — all the walls and every inch of ceiling is covered in frescos.

Stripped and Stained Piano & a Trip to La Boca Veritas, Rome

We made it to Rome and our first day we strolled around our Trastavere AirBNB. One of the closest tourist stops is calledthe Mouth of Truth (Boca della Veritàs). Originally the disc’s from the temple of Hercules, but now people travel from all over the world 🌎 to put their hand in its mouth. The story goes, if the statue does NOT bite your hand, than you are true of heart! 👄💖 Somehow, we made it!

Weathered Beams & Apostle St. Andrew in Amalfi Coast

The incredible final resting place of the Apostle Andrew, in the tiny town of Amalfi on the Amalfi Coast. Duomo Di Amalfi towers above the small Amalfi square. You can see the duomo dwarfs the rest of the square, looking up these grand squares. This footage is mostly from the upper portion of the duomo, which was built in 900 AD!

EASY Barnwood Wall & Pompeii ART

We took around 1000 photos of Pompeii. I was shocked at the size of it, reading about the city in history books, you cannot comprehend the scale. The ruins are 80 hectares and it took us four days to explore everything. The customer services gals said most Americans get 2-3 hours there. 

Poplar Driftwood Dresser Makeover & Pompeii Architecture

We spent four wet, rainy, blustery February days days in Pompeii! It was incredible- you felt like you were simply falling back into time. I wish I could've brought you all with me. I've split up the art and architecture into 2 posts, because I don't want to overload you and it's ALL incredible! If you watch series like HBO's Rome, this will all look sooo familiar to you!