A year ago to this date Morgan got down on one knee and asked me to become his wife. When Morgan told me for my 21st birthday that we would be going to Italy, I jumped for joy. I dreamed about cobble roads, historic buildings, and gelato for 8 months before we said goodbye to the United States and headed over to one of the most beautiful and historic countries in the world. Morgan and I had talked about marriage for a long time and he had always had me convinced that he was just not ready and that we would both know when the time was right. Little did I know that he had been scheming from the beginning to propose right there in the heart of Italy.

It was the most magical and special experience of my life and I know I will always have the memories that we shared throughout our adventures through Italia. I wanted to go back and revisit our trip to Italy through some of my absolute favorite photos of our time there. This post will cover our time in Florence.

Let's start at the beginning:
Firenze (Florence)

The street market you could find outside our hotel every morning

Welcome to the Boboli Gardens, where Morgan proposed!

One of my favorite photos was this one of Morgan trying to figure out the most perfect place in the gardens to propose. I didn't know it at the time, so I thought it was funny he was sitting down looking through a guide book, when we were already there. J

Running for a timed picture right before Morgan popped the question. It was absolutely perfect and so romantic. I am definitely the luckiest woman on the planet!

Morgan and I spent a total of 7 days exploring the beautiful city of Florence. After reflecting back on the trip, this would probably be the only big city that I would ever want to live in. Of course, I would have to brush up a bit on my Italian, but I think Florence and I could be a perfect fit. It’s that perfect combination of big city, but not too much traffic and small enough that you can get around everywhere by foot. Morgan and I definitely did some serious walking throughout all of Italy, Rome probably the most out of anywhere, but Florence was a close second, walking probably close to 10 miles each day. Let’s just say I actually lost weight while we were in Italy!

Celebrating our engagement!

If I haven’t mentioned it earlier, I did mess up Morgan’s original proposal plans. He had wanted to propose on our last night in Florence because he had made prior arrangements at a new hotel with a gorgeous view of the river. But with my impatience to wait another day to go to the Boboli Gardens, he improvised and asked me a day earlier. No big deal, but he did have to spoil the surprise of the new hotel.

The view from the new hotel! Um, yes I think I could have just stayed here the entire time and been quite content.

Sharing a rather large panini and a bottle of wine after checking in to our new hotel J

This completes my journey back through the time we spent in Florence. I will be back to tell you more about everywhere else we traveled. Get ready for a bumpy ride. Cioa cioa!