Sono con mio marito (“I’m with my husband”)
On Saturday we celebrated our first wedding anniversary! I can’t believe how quickly the first year went.
If any of you have married someone who is not a citizen or resident of your home country, you will know what a nightmare it is to get everything in order to legally get married. Even now, a year later, we are sorting out Matthew’s visa paperwork so we can move back to the US. If every couple had to go through what we have gone through to stay together, and eventually get married, I believe the divorce rate would be much lower!
We were married in a very small, private ceremony in London. After dating for over six years, with much of that time spent apart, I had dreamed of this day for a long time! We went through many years of hardship living apart while I finished college and Matthew got his career started. Everyone we know says our relationship is a true love story, and I have to agree!
Just a little detour to briefly discuss weight, because I think of my wedding as sort of a milestone in that department. I had lost 20 lbs for my wedding day and felt great, but continued to drop the last few pounds and by our (late) honeymoon, six months later, I was down the final 10 lbs! Nowadays I’m probably closer to my wedding weight than my honeymoon weight, but I’ve accepted that things fluctuate and I’m still happy somewhere in between. Life changes and my weight will probably continue to flutter a little bit through the years, but I hope to keep it relatively stable and never again have giant fluctuations!
Here are just a few more photos of the wedding and honeymoon, if anyone is interested!
One year later:
The above photo is the only photo I have of us at dinner on Saturday and it came out horrible! Oh well, back to the actual day itself.
We started off our second day in Florence with breakfast. The hotel had a great selection; I was not expecting the range of choices and quality of food. These aren’t great photos but you can see there is fresh fruit, juice, rolls, croissants, granola, cereals, biscuits, apples, spreads, yogurts, cheeses, salami, crackers, and cakes.
It was kind of overwhelming for me! We loaded up and sat out on the patio (we were up early so it was empty!).
I learned a lesson here…get what you really want! At first I just wanted to stick with “safe” options so I grabbed random things like an apple, wasa cracker, and yogurt and granola.
I started eating the yogurt and granola and then decided to pimp it out a bit and add some fresh and dried fruit.
It was good, but as I was eating it, I was eyeing Matthew’s croissant. Then I saw the Nutella at our table, and had a brilliant idea.
My friends, I am with you all in wanting to be thin and healthy and disease-free. I really am. But you have not lived until you have had Nutella spread on a fresh croissant. Please, please trust me. Life is too damn short not to eat this.
Pardon my puffy eyes
So, this is essentially what I actually ended up eating for breakfast (1% yogurt not pictured):
I packed up the apple and wasa crackers for emergency snacks later.
We were up early to get to the Uffizi Gallery and the piazza was nearly empty as we made our way there! The shops were just opening up and the sun was just starting to really heat up.
Walking through the Piazza della Signoria
We waited in line to get tickets forever. Seriously, big mistake not to order tickets online. But the Uffizi is supposed to be the best museum in Italy with tons of Renaissance art and I really wanted to go. So we waited.
Matthew did more map-studying while we waited. The man loves maps. I do not understand it, but he is handy to have around. He seems to have a photographic memory with them.
Me? Well, I just stretched and imitated a flamingo. Seemed entertaining at the time.
The gallery was beautiful but not as amazing as I hoped it would be. I am glad we went, but I was upset that we spent a good chunk of our anniversary waiting in line! Lesson learned.
When we left at the museum we explored the city more, for the first time in many months I was not concerned about lunch or obsessed with what I would eat. I really think the big breakfast combined with the insane heat had something to do with it, plus the fact that I was just enthralled with everything around me.
When we finally did stop for lunch, we kept it pretty light. We shared a chicken salad, plus prosciutto and melon and a little bread. Both dishes were amazing. I have never tasted ham like that in my life, and it was so refreshing with the juicy melon.
Chicken salad with tomatoes, raisins, and pine nuts
Prosciutto and melon with focaccia bread
More walking and exploring…as you can imagine we did LOTS of walking. I had a very carb-heavy three days but, as I will explain later, I really think all the walking helped even everything out. We never took a taxi or bus, we did all of our exploring on foot.
A few hours later, we were ready for our daily gelato treat 
Pana cotta (caramel) and tiramisu gelato
Gelato can really tire a girl out, so we went back to the room to take a little nap and then change for dinner. I could have easily slept through the night but Matthew woke me up with the promise that we could get champagne on the patio again before dinner. It worked.
We toasted our anniversary and they even brought out little appetizers for us:
Salami and cheese with honey and green olives
We ate dinner pretty late, which I found out is quite common there. We read a suggestion to visit the Frescobaldi Wine Bar, which is a little restaurant hidden behind The Duomo. They make all of their own wines and the food is AMAZING. We each ordered a glass of Pinot Grigio and took home a bottle of Chianti.
For dinner I ordered the small portion of their pumpkin ravioli with sage and butter sauce, topped with an amoretti cookie.
Matthew ordered a spaghetti dish with bacon. I can’t remember all the details but I know there was butter involved and I know it was damn good.
I think this may have been my longest post ever. Sorry for all the photos and info. This is also my little journal of the trip! It’s so nice to look back at old posts and be able to remember stuff like this that I otherwise wouldn’t write down.
Thanks for sticking with me! Ciao!
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Wow – all the food looks incredible and I completely agree with you about the croissant with nutella. Why not, right? You only live once!! I love big breakfast buffets, I always feel a little better splurging at breakfast because I have all day to burn it off & make lighter choices.
The outfit you have on in the “flamingo” picture is really cute too.
HAPPY BELATED ANNIVERSARY, DEAR LARA!!!
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! Your photos are GORGEOUS.
Aw, what a beautiful bride you made Lara… seriously. Happy Anniversary to you both!
I have heard such rave reviews on your anniversary dinner spot. My best friend lived in Florence for a semester and ridiculously adored the pumpkin. Unfortunately during my short time there I wasn’t able to experience them… glad you were
Such a beautiful, special way to celebrate your anniversary and AMEN to learning to make peace with weight fluctuations and enjoying the foods you really want to eat!
Tiramisu Gelato? Yum, that sounds great.
Love the Italy pics. They make me so excited to go there one day. Would it be pathetic if I said I am most excited about the FOOD?? Have a great night.
Congrats on your one year anniversary, I love to hear about real-life happy endings
What a beautiful set of pictures from your wedding. I love them all. You were a gorgeous bride. I also think you look stunning now! I think weight fluctuations are funny things – probably no one else in the world notices them but you.
I think you made a great breakfast choice and I agree with your timely advice about nutella and croissants. Match made in heaven!
The Gelato looks pretty amazing too
Happy Anniversary!!! What a wonderful trip! Nutella on ANYTHING is fabulous
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!! I love your wedding day ‘look’ – very old Hollywood glamor! You look gorgeous!
“you have not lived until you have had Nutella spread on a fresh croissant” SO true! European breakfasts are the best in the world
Happy anniversary! I love all the photos and the eats and …everything! i’m so glad you’re having such a great time!!!
happy anniversary! what a great post! i love all the pics, thanks for sharing them with us
Everything looks beautiful lara! I’m glad you enjoyed your trip fully. Nutella is one of the best things ever. I’ve experienced that combo, but not with a fresh croissant. I think Italy sounds worth it just for that!
Also, I love the pictures from your wedding. You looked beautiful in all of them and in the Italy ones!
I really and truly enjoyed this post SO much! You and MAtthew make such a good-looking couple. I thought these kinds of beautiful couple only existed in the movies or Hollywood!
All the food looks crazy terrific…and girl, I think your body now is absolutely PERFECT! I’ll bet your hubby thinks so, too!
Your photos are gorgeous! I love Florence so much, and yes life is way too short to NOT have a little Nutella now and then!
What a beautiful way to celebrate your anniversary!
The little nutella package is so cute
Happy anniversary!
I love Nutella. I’ve heard it’s better in Europe. I tried it in France, but haven’t tasted it enough to tell the difference.
I so enjoyed your Italy posts! What an amazing anniversary!
The pictures are gorgeous! I love the croissants and nutella combo!
Looks amazing! I love hearing people’s storys about how they met/got married
agree 100% on your nutella sentiments!
Happy anniversary! The food looks incredible, and it sounds like you had so much fun! Beautiful pictures
You are absolutely stunning…on your wedding day and NOW!
Lara, how did you and Matthew meet? I’d love to hear that story!
http://www.smallchangesaddup.wordpress.com
How beautiful! It looks like you are having an incredible time!
Aww beautiful post!! Lara I love the black & white shot of you and Matthew in the car smiling at each other. It is adorable!
aw happy anniversary
you guys make an adorable couple! and you are absolutely beautiful!
i love nutella, its amazing..especially when its all melty so i can only imagine how great that breakfast was haha!
What a wonderful way to celebrate your first anniversary!! It was neat seeing the wedding pictures too (which are SO gorgeous).
I will gladly accept your challenge of nutella on a croissant
I’m learning to accept those small weight fluctuations too… ’tis life. And usually, we’re the only ones that notice anyways 
GORGEOUS wedding pics! You look like a movie star in those black and whites!!
All the other eats look absolutely fantastic as well. By the way, that black shorts outfit is awesome. You definitely look like an Italian 
Yeah, nutella is pretty much the best thing ever
CONGRATS! Beautiful pictures!
ciao bella! gratzi milli for posting these amazing photos! You look so beautiful. I love european dining! yum. I can’t wait to check out the album!
happy anniversary! nutella on croissant sounds amazing!!
Happy Anniversary! Great story and amazing photos!
I just loved this post! Your wedding pics were AMAZING. Loved the shoes, loved the dress, love how clearly happy you two are – fabulous! I also loved the anniversary pics – your blue dress is presh as is the pic of you as a flamingo. Sorry about the wait – but it sounds like you had such a wonderful trip regardless. Yay!!
glad you had fun and now i am trying to figure out a way to get myself to italy soon! happy anniversary!
I’m not sure if I’ve commented on your blog before (I think I have?) but I just want to let you know that I love it, and I struggle with some of the same things you do. First of all I think you are absolutely gorgeous and you have an amazing figure. I know what it’s like to want to look like you did in the past, but honestly you have a great figure.
I actually just got back from England, Paris and Bruges a few days ago and I feel like the trip has really helped me sort out a lot of my feelings related to food, counting calories, measuring, weighing, looking a certain weigh (oops! thought I’d leave that there), etc. It’s amazing how traveling to a foreign country and observing the way people over there live and eat can really put things into perspective. Plus you’re right – it’s amazing just how MUCH walking you do when you’re over there!
I need to catch up on more of your posts, but I absolutely loved Florence when we went there on our honeymoon. Looks as though you are getting (or got?) great weather.
Thanks for putting out such an honest blog…it’s one of my favorites.
love the flamingo stretch pose! Where did you find that gorgeous black # you have on in that photo?
I swear, you have such amazing clothes AND take amazing photos!
Mmm pinot grigio and chianti are some of my favs!
I agree on the nutella and croissant!
awwwww Lara I love you too!! hahah
That’s such a wonderful love story and i only wish you told us moooore!! Where’d u meet? How’d you meet?? and…are there any kids in the pipeline?? hahaha How come you’ve decided to move back to the US?? (I’m not complaining of course!! It ups the chances of me finallly meeting you. heheheh)
Now that is REAL croissant!!! It’s so hard to find that beautiful brown color over the top of the pastry these days. Yum!!!
I LOVE that you finally posted your wedding photos, I think they’re so amazing! Whoever it was truly captured some wonderful moments!
Glad to hear you truly took advantage of your vacation. Nutella with anything is always heaven and totally worth it
you look gorgeous gorgeous!!!! Like a celebrity in that wedding pic
Italy sounds totally glorious- love the recap!!
you look like an old Hollywood glamorous moviestar in your wedding photos! love that flower in your hair and the dress!
oh i love the wedding photos! so adorable. you are gorgeous lara! and ALL the italy posts have really been amazing. makes me want to go back there SO bad! xo
Oh trust meee! The nutella and fresh croissant. I miss getting off at the train station and stopping by a bakery and grabbing one and some nutella because it’s EVERYWHERE! Not over here though
Bah
Looks like you had a beautiful time and a true vacation! And that pumpkin ravioli sounds divine.
Happy anniversary!! Such a beautiful bride!
One of my friends is marrying a guy from Brazil, and it is INSANE what they have to do for them to move to the US. I do not envy that part of their marriage!
i love your story, and i love you guys, and i dont even know you! haha. seriously though, its amazing that after all the long distance and time apart, how wonderful that your relationship is still as wonderful as the beginning. i loved all the pics. thanks for the break in regular food blogging for this love story
i heart cheesy-ness!!
if I was where you are, i’d be having nutella on a fresh coissant for breakkie EVERYDAY and ENJOYING IT – you go girlfriend!! enjoy every morsel! life is short – enjoy it!