The Reid's Take Italy!

Ever since we first started dating, my husband Ken and I always said that we wanted our relationship to be filled with adventure. 💑 We love to travel, try new activities, meet new people, try new foods, etc. We even decided on our first date that the hashtag for our relationship would be the #TheAdventuresOfKenAndNelli. We have definitely lived up to that hashtag because the last 2 weeks of my life has refinitely been an adventure! 👙💼✈️📸🏖🛤

My husband and I finally took our first trip together since we got married. We love to travel but haven't had the opportunity to since last summer (before our wedding) so this was much needed. And everyone has been asking me to see pictures so here you guys go!

Ramstein, Germany

As many of you know my Ken is in the air-force. One of the benefits that I am super excited about is the opportunity to take FREE flights ✈️  to different places both in the U.S. and also internationally. Y'all this is a travel junkies dream! So when we started planning the trip we decided we wanted to go to Italy, partly because I had never been anywhere overseas. Mexico, Jamaica and Puerto Rico don't count to me. The Caribbean is not quite over an entire sea in my opinion. 🤷🏾‍♀️ The second reason is because Ken's best friend, who is also in the military is stationed in Aviano, Italy with his sweet wife and 2 adorable little boys. 👨‍👩‍👦‍👦 But in order to get to Italy on a free military flight we had to find the best route. Space - A military flights are like flying standby. You do not know about the flight until about 3 days in advance. You also do not know if they will allow you on the flight until about an hour before you leave. So it was a real adventure not knowing what day we would be leaving. We ended up flying out of New Jersey's Airforce Base to Ramstein, Germany. It was a LONG 9 hour flight on a plane that looked like it belonged in a war movie 😫 but we made it. After sleeping off our jet lag we spend a day and half exploring the city by train and taxi. We ate in local restaurants which was quite interesting (the food isn't quite our cup of tea). We also hikes up the side of a mountain ⛰ to see the German Heidelburg Castle. 🏰Surprisingly Germany is really beautiful!

Aviano, Italy

Our next stop was just a short, cheap flight away. ✈️ We flew out of Frankfort airport in Germany (which by the way might be the best airport I have ever been to). We flew directly into Venice, Italy's airport to be greeted with a familiar face. Ken's best friend Kerry met us at baggage claim. Ken and Kerry hadn't seen each other in like 3 or 4 years so they were super excited to see each other. We drove about an hour to their cute Italian styled home and I met the rest of the family. Shanea and their sons Kerry Jr. and Kayden. They were honestly the best part of the trip. We stayed with them for 3 days and did everything from taking a ski lift up🚡 a mountain and mountain rollercoaster 🎢 to trying authentic Italian restaurants and lots and lots of gelato 🍨. Oh and you know I had to fit in a beach day 👙 (or 2). Aviano was awesome!

Venice, Italy

When I think of cool places I want to visit, Venice was on the top of my list. I always see cool pictures 📸 of people on gondolas 🛶 on the canal. It's just looked so romantic. And Venice did not disappoint. We rode the train about an hour from Aviano to Venice and stayed in a quant little Airbnb apartment. Most of the small islands of Venice do not have any cars or bikes. They only way to get around is by foot or boat which is quite different from what we were used to. If you plan on visiting wear comfortable shoes and prepare to get LOTS of exercise. We took a water taxi 🚤 to City Center and saw all the old, historical buildings. We also road the ferry to the beach. One cool this is that one of the best rated restaurants in the city was right outside our apartment. One more travel tip. If you go to Italy all you will eat is pasta 🍝 and pizza 🍕. Nothing else. They literally get offended if you ask for other things. But beware, it's a lot different than the pasta an pizza we are used to at home. All in all Venice was awesome to experience in person.

The last stops on our trip were Madrid, Spain and we flew home out of Rota, Spain. We flew from Venice to Rota but had a 11 hr layover in Madrid. We took a taxi from the airport and did a little exploring but because we were so exhausted we took very few pictures. Then we flew back home from Rota the very next day. 

All in all this was an awesome vacation! About a month prior to leaving we weren't even sure we would be able to afford to go. We prayed about it 🙏🏾 and God opened so many doors financially to allow this to happen. Saying we are blessed is an understatement. 🙌🏾 God already gives us everything we need yet he saw fit to even bless us with what we want as well. There is no way this trip would have happened if it were not for the goodness of our God. But stay tuned guys #TheAdventuresOfKenAndNelli is just getting started. God is writing out love story and he really is the best author! 📝❤️📚