Los Angeles Wedding Photographer | Chelsea Elizabeth Photography | Westlake Village, Santa Barbara

Our last day in Italy was spent in Siena. It’s a beautiful city in an old medieval wall. We had a great lunch in the city center. We had a great walk through the rest of the city on our way back to the train station. Great ending to a fabulous trip!

On Tuesday we headed out for Cinque Terre. It’s a beautiful part of the Italian coast made up of 5 towns. We took the train directly to Monterosso al Mare. We headed out to hike the trail that lead through out the the towns. We hiked about 45 mintues in and then headed back to Monterosso. The hike was amazing and the view made the hard hike worth it. The town in November was pretty deserted to we got to enjoy a lot of it just by ourselves. We chilled out, bought a bottle of wine and just enjoyed the sunset. Afterwards we took a walk on the beach and had the best sunset ever… and I mean EVER!!!! :)

Here’s Pisa on from the train… couldn’t see the leaning tower :(

My engagement sunset :) Sooooo romantic!

Leaving Monterosso… $10 Euro. Leaving Monterosso engaged.. priceless ;)

On Monday we had a fabulous time wine tasting in Tuscany with Tuscan Trails. We drove to the Chianti Ruffina region in a bus with 2 other couples. The countryside is so beautiful. It’s autumn so the trees were changing colors. The vines were empty of grapes after the September harvest. Our first stop was to Castello del Trebbio. The castle was amazing, beautiful and rich with history. The wine was so good. You can come with your own canister and buy jugs of red table wine. We ate lunch down the hill at the family restaurant for an authentic tuscan meal. It was soooo yummy! The wine was good too :) I loved having a real meal! Our second stop was to Fattoria Selvapiana. The winery has been in production for hundreds of years. It was amazing to see wine from the 40s. A true italian wine cellar! It was the best wine tour I’ve been on :)

Day 6 – Florence

We took the Eurostar back from Venice to Florence. We were getting pretty spoiled riding in first class. It was nice! Gave me a chance to edit all my pics on the train :) The countryside was amazing too! I’m so glad we got to see Italy along the way. We got into Florence in the afternoon. Our first trip was to walk up to Michaelanglo Piazza and see all the piazzas along the way. Florence really shuts down early. We didn’t see much open past 6pm. The trip across the city was nice and I was so excited to get to the bridges at sunset. The bridge reflecting on the water and the sunset was amazing. Michaelanglo piazza is at the top of the hill in Florence. The view of all of Florence was beautiful. You could see all the cathedrals all lit up at night. On the way back down the hill we walked through all the shops on the bridge. Now I now where all the people are at night. It was like the 3rd street promanade in Santa Monica. I love Florence. i think it’s my favorite city so far :)

On vacation :)
 
Day 1 – Tuesday
Steve and I are traveling through Italy. We almost didn’t make it. Our flight from LA was delayed and we had only 5 minutes to catch our connecting flight in chicago. Close call! The next flight to rome was on Wednesday! Yikes!!!! So we didn’t have time to upgrade our tickets to first class, but we were just so happy to get on the plane we would have sat anywhere. The first day we spent walking to the touring ancient rome (Colosseum, Palazzo Venezia, and the old Roman Forum). it’s simply amazing! We arrived at 8 am and literally walked around till 8pm. My feet were going to fall off. After lunch we walked around and toured the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain. The Trevi fountain is amazing! So beautiful. I just had to walk back after dinner and see what it looked like all lit up at night. I just listed off a few things we saw, we really covered the map on foot. I think we walked about 15 miles, from 8 am to midnight. At least that’s what my feet were telling me ;) Steve and I had a great time walking through all the winding alley ways through rome. It was truely and amazing first day in Italy :)

Day 2 – Wednesday
Since we had such a big day the first day I wasn’t suprised when we woke up to find it was 3pm in the afternoon… yes… we slept 15 hours! By the time we showered and left the hotel it was dusk. We missed our second day in Rome. Everything looks fabulous lit up a night we didn’t mind. After dinner we walked even more and toured across the Tibre river to the vatican, then onto Castel S. Angelo and onto Piazza Navonna. The vatican was so big it took my breath away. I couldn’t imagine how big St. Mark’s square was. It looked beautiful lit up at night. The We saw Piazza Barberini, Piazza Del Popolo, Galleria Nazional d’Arte Antica, I think we even ventured onto see Trevi fountain again ;) Piazza Navonna was one of my favorite spots to hang out and get a bottle of wine.

The Vatican at night

Day 3 – Thursday
Our first stop was the Vatican. I couldn’t wait to see St. Peters. It was amazing. The font bordering the basilica was so large it really let you realize how big St. Peters is. I could have spent hours in the basilica listening to the story of each piece of art. The celiings were my favorite :) The Sistine Chapel was closed on Thursday…. we were sooo bummed. We decided that since we like Piazza Navonna so much that we were going to head back there for lunch. Upon the way we found the cutest little alleyway resturant so we decided to eat there. My second favorite resturant. It was two of the best hours I’ve spent in Italy :) I love getting out of the tourist areas and just hanging out. After dinner we walked to check out the Basilica of Rome. It’s where the pope carries out his role of Bishop of Rome. The Basiica almost looks as big as St. Peters from the outside. On the way home we got some gelato. I think I like golden spoon better… but I’m just not a big ice cream fan.

Day 4 – Friday
I just had to see the Sistine Chapel… so we headed out first thing in the morning to see it. I had no idea the line would be a mile long. We tried :) no luck! So we headed to the train station to catch the train to Venice. I loved seeing the countryside by train. i can’t wait to go wine tasting through Tuscany :) We got into Venice Friday night and I was just blown away when I got off the train station. What a sight!!!!!

I loved shooting Sophie’s Christmas portrait. She looked soooo cute in her red dress, tights and little black shoes. The only thing missing was Santa! Next time I’ll have to dress up ;)

Kelli and Jimi were married at the Moorpark Country Club. It was the kinda day where you wanted some hot cocoa and some comfort food. Really homey comfy kinda day. Perfect day to show someone you love them. I loved the gazebo at Moorpark country club…. it was such a great shot to get Kelli and Jimi’s facial expressions as they looked at the officiant. It even started raining but that didn’t ruin the celebration! I love the fact that Kelli didn’t sweat the small stuff. Such a fun wedding!

 

I’m having soooo much fun playing around with textures. You’ll be seeing a lot more of these :)

I had the best time photographing Melanie and Jay’s wedding! What a blast. I almost forgot I was working ;) Melanie and Jay had their ceremony at the Santa Barbara Court House in the Mural Room. The reception was held at Stella Mare’s event Center. Lots of love, lots of laughs and an all around great time! I was so honored to be a part of the event :)
Love those two!!!

Of course Shawna and I had to put our picture in too! I love the Polaroids :)