ITALY with Tina Lee - @ofleatherandlace

What country would you travel to over and over again? For me, it's Italy. Hi, my name is Tina. I am a US-based travel content creator. I have been traveling the world since 2017 and my favorite country to visit is definitely Italy. Italy is special to me because my husband and I got married in Tuscany in 2019. I knew that I wanted a castle wedding and we found this beautiful location online. We had the most amazing destination wedding with 55 of our closest friends and family there to celebrate with us. It was definitely a weekend to remember. So after our wedding in 2019, COVID happened and I wasn't able to travel for over a year. When we finally decided to go on our first international trip in June 2021, we knew it had to be Italy. For this 23-day trip, we started in Milan then took the train to La Spezia to visit Cinque Terre. From there, we picked up a car and drove to Umbria and stayed two nights there. After that, we stopped by Tuscany then drove up to Florence. From Florence, we visited three areas in the Dolomites and finished the trip in Venice before returning back to the US. Since we visited so many places and saw so many beautiful sights, let's do a round of the best of Italy and discuss our thoughts on the most beautiful views, best city for walking, best way to get around Italy and more. Okay, let's start with the best city view. As a traveler, I love discovering different city views and the one that really stole my heart was Florence. Whether you're getting a gorgeous view of the cathedral from your Airbnb or seeing the entire city from Piazza Michelangelo, it's without a doubt one of the most picturesque city views. Pro tip, to avoid the crowds at Piazza Michelangelo, head further up to San Mignato Church instead. It has the same view but with us people. So we visited three gorgeous cathedrals in Italy for our trip. Milan Cathedral or Duomo di Milano, Florence Cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore and Saint Mark's Basilica, Basilica di San Marco. While they're all stunning, I particularly loved Milan Cathedral. It is the largest church in Italy and truly a sight to behold. I love to go early in the morning when there's hardly anybody around and it's also really gorgeous at night as well. To be honest, almost every city I visited in Italy is great for walking but Venice is the one that immediately comes to my mind for this category. While Venice is known for being a city on water, you might think that taking a Vaporetto or a boat is the best way to get around. We actually loved walking around Venice. So Venice is actually a very walkable city. All of the main tourist destinations are between 5 to 15 minute walks so we've been mostly walking. As it is a small city, you can easily see multiple sights in just a one hour walk. Of course, if you want to, taking a gondola would be really fun as well. You can start from Saint Mark's Square and go from there to visit Rialto Bridge and so many other unique sights. For me, hands down Tuscany and Umbria are spectacular destinations for an Italian summer getaway. We stayed at a hotel in each area and both were spectacular in terms of views, food and hospitality. You can also rent vintage cars and vespers and discover the area through a tour or book a local photographer to capture some of the most iconic Tuscan landscapes. Here are some of the images that we captured during our time there. Oh my god, I love this category. I love visiting unique hotels around the world and discovering the best hotel views. All of the hotel views in the Dolomites just blew me away. I have never seen such stunning mountain views before in my life. Whether it's a view from the hotel pools or from your room balcony, they're all spectacular. We were also able to book some very unique dining experiences in the Dolomites where you can dine with a mountain view. I definitely recommend saving six to eight days to visit the Dolomites because there's nothing quite like it. For me, it had to be Rio Maggiore. This is because it also has gorgeous sunset views and there is this area where you can walk down onto the rocks next to the water and you can face back towards the little colorful town and take a beautiful sunset photo there. So train is a great great option, especially if you're slightly on a budget, train is a great way to get around Italy. So you can definitely do a combination of both like we did on the train. You can relax and enjoy the scenery on the car if you love to drive. It's also very enjoyable because the highways are beautifully built and you get all these different sceneries as you drive. So I have to say both. Now this is a really tough question. My favorite moment from the trip probably had to be when I woke up to this gorgeous mountain view in the Dolomites. It was my first time in the Dolomites and people always said it was beautiful but I had no idea just how amazing it would be and the air is fresh and crisp and it's just nicely chilly but not too cold in the summer. So it really was the perfect experience. As you can see, Italy is a destination that has so much to offer. You can enjoy the beach, the mountains, ancient cities and see all different kinds of landscapes and experience different types of travel in just one country. I hope you've enjoyed a look into our best of Italy categories. Where in Italy do you want to visit the most? Leave a comment down below and let's chat about it. I really encourage you to plan a trip to Italy and enjoy some amazing experiences. You won't regret it, I promise.