When in Rome...(and Paris)

Rather than give you a long travel log of all the wonderful things we did (trust us there were lots) and what a fabulous time we had (believe us, we did), we thought we would list the top 5 things we learned while on our trip.

1.Europe is always an adventure, for good or bad. Best adventure: Getting lost in the streets of Rome only to find we circled around the Pantheon and Piazza Navonna several times. Worst adventure: Missing our flight back to Salt Lake from Paris only to pay more money to take a worse flight. At least we got home, right?

2. The guidebooks aren’t always accurate...we once wandered around for 2 hours in search of a restaurant in Rome that did not exist. That was disappointing to say the least. But it’s completely worth it when they are. In the picture below I'm eating what the guidebook described as the “best falafel on the planet." It took a while to find but it was definitely worth it.

3. It helps to speak the language, and the right language. Italians don’t speak Spanish. We tried, a lot. The French don’t speak Italian or Spanish. Sometimes, speaking those languages came in handy when we thought we might get better treatment from the Europeans if they didn't think we were Americans. A waitress in France even thought we were Italians because I kept saying things in Italian rather than French.

4. The touristy things are big for a reason. The Vatican is incredible and the Eiffel tower is especially beautiful when sparkling at night.

5. The classics should stick to the classics. While mildly entertaining to see the bizarre combination of modern art with a 17th century palace background, Versailles would have been best left as is.