I’m back with another blog hop with the Blended Blog ladies. Today Shelly, Andrea and I are sharing our favorite vacations. If you are coming over from Andrea’s blog, thanks for visiting! Here are my favorite vacations we’ve taken. Most of them involve some sort of travel, although since we live in Florida staycations count too. I’d love to hear what yours are too!
Favorite Vacation
The Beach
Of course this had to be first. I’m originally from Italy (a peninsula) and I’ve been living in Florida for the past 32 years (another peninsula). So even if we don’t GO anywhere for vacation, I can still drive 30 mins and be at the beach. I love the beach so much that my house has a beach cottage feel to it. Some of my favorite beaches are…
Taormina (in Sicily)
My favorite body of water is the Mediterranean Sea. Within the Med are smaller seas. This one is the Ionian Sea which runs along the eastern coast of Sicily. The water is COLD and crystal clear and the beaches in this region are pebbles. No messy sand. It’s just gorgeous.

Citta del Mare (also in Sicily)
This is a resort on the western side of the island of Sicily, past Palermo. I was so sad to hear that it is in decline. We have been to this place many times over the years and it holds such a special place in my heart! The slides (“toboggan”) were our favorite part!

The Bahamas
We’ve been twice; both times to the Abacos. The beaches there are just lovely and going with my brother-in-law who really knows his way around is the way to go!
The Florida Keys
(Although they are not really known for their beaches but they have wonderful coral reefs so I’m including it here. Hey, it’s not the mountains…) You can read about Key Largo here and Key West here.
Atlantic Beach, FL (basically Jacksonville)
This is the beach in my backyard and I am not minimizing it. We used to live on the west coast of Florida and I do NOT love those beaches, at least not in the summer. I much prefer the east coast and the Atlantic Ocean. The water is cooler and much more refreshing. The Gulf of Mexico is so warm in the summer that it feels like bathwater. And who wants to swim in bathwater when the air temps are in the high 90s? Not this girl.
The Mountains
Every few years we like to escape the heat of summer in Florida and head for the mountains for a change of scenery and temperatures. I love going for hikes, enjoying the scenic views, finding waterfalls. We usually head for the North Carolina (I love Blowing Rock and Boone) but have also enjoyed the mountains in north Georgia, South Carolina and even Virginia. The Blue Ridge Parkway is my favorite. Sometimes we rent a cabin and sometimes we camp.
Europe
Being from Italy, I love to go back to “the motherland.” (Read here and here)I also studied French in high school and college (and was going to be a French major in college but my first 3000 level class freaked me out and I changed to English) so you can imagine that I love France as well. We’ve been to Provence (and want to go back one day) and more recently to Paris. (You can read about the Paris trip here.)

My husband’s father is from Spain (like my mother’s from Italy – born and raised) but we’ve never visited. Our son spent a month is Spain this year and now I really have the bug. We are finally going to change that! We just booked our tickets for September! I’ll spend my big number birthday in Spain! Ole’!
Israel
In 2010 we took the whole family on a Shoresh Study Tour with our church family and had an absolutely amazing trip.


My Timehop has been full of pictures from that super special trip! If you’re curious, you can read about it here.

If you’ve every considered going to Israel, I HIGHLY recommend going on a Shoresh trip!
Those are my top vacations! What are yours? I’d love it if you’d share in the comments!
You are quite the connoisseur of fine beaches. I remember the pebbles and sea glass on the beach in Nice. PC and I sat for several hours entertained by the beautiful pieces of glass washing ashore.
I’m a bathwater kind of gal. Like my water at least warm and so we heated the pool water to a tepid 90 degrees when we first filled it. Then we got the gas bill. And let’s just say I am growing accustomed to chillier water.
Hurray for your trip to Spain. What a host of wonderful memories you will make! Look forward to seeing pictures and hearing all about it.
90 degrees???? Wow that’s hot!! Yeah you probably wouldn’t like the beaches I like! Haha!!
MY kind of vacay girl!! Love the Paris picture, you two lovebirds..so CUTE!! And ahhh the mediterranean sea….looks so fabulous! Spain here you come!!
Yep!! I’m so looking forward to it! We just booked our airbnb house last night! It’s coming together!
Wow you’ve certainly done a lot of travel! I loved reading about it all!
Yes I do love to travel! And I love to hear about other people’s adventure too!
Yup, I love the beaches too- I just wish my hubby did
Oh that’s hard! My mom LOVES the beach but my dad hates it. He would do it “for the kids” when we were younger but not much now.
You’ve had so many fun vacations! I think we’re going to Italy next – but I definitely want to go to Spain too!
I do love to travel and see new places! This world is so interesting, isn’t it?
Learned something new….did not know you were from Italy!! These pictures are just beautiful. I think Israel should definitely be on my list. Just so many amazing places to see. We are considering Florida the week of Thanksgiving but hoping the gulf side will be much cooler by then!
Shelly|The Queen in Between
This list is so you! It always makes me smile to read and see fun and beautiful places through your stories and pictures. I had no idea about Spain…how exciting!!! My favorite vacations so far have been Israel and Scotland. The history and culture is so rich in both places and I feel as though I’ve only been able to scratch the surface of both places. Maybe someday I’ll be able to return.
Spain *just* happened! M’s mom is going so we all piled on. I’d love to go to Scotland, Ireland and the Lake District. Glad I make you smile! You comment made ME smile 🙂
Soo cool that you are from Italy. I have never been. My travel has been limited to Canada, US, Mexico and Cuba. But one day I hope to travel through Europe (when my kids are a bit bigger). What don’t you like about sand beaches? I’ve never seen a really nice pebble beach.
Sand is so messy! It clings to your feet and gets in your car…pebbles fall right off. Plus they are fun to look at! Different colors and shapes… I’d like to go to Canada some day!