Italy!

Family and Friends!

Many of you know I had the privilege to travel abroad to Italy for 10 days. It far exceeded any expectation I may have had. The pictures are great, but do not give justice to the beauty I saw nor do they share the stories behind them. With that said, next time I see you, I hope to share with you some of the stories and blessings I received on this trip!

I traveled with my friend and former roommate, Jessica Schippers. We toured the cities of Rome, Cascia (Home of St. Rita), Cortina (lands of the Dolomite Mountains), Semogo, and Varese. Between the two of us, we took 1600 pictures! If you would like to look through these pictures we have created online photo albums for you to peruse. There are hundreds, so don't feel obliged to look through them all! But if you're bored, these will occupy your time!

Here's the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/ldirnber

Below are just a few to give you a taste of this amazing trip. You were all there with me in mind, spirit, heart, and prayer.

God Bless,
Lauren

p.s: If you are truly interested, the next blog entry is rough journal, not edited, with some blanks of what we did each day! The formatting lost the bullets, my apologies!

Vatican Square

At the top of St. Peter's Basilica at the Cupola, looking down upon the Vatican.

A Waterfall Gita (hiking excursion)!

A view from one of my windows!

On my birthday with Elena's father and the town of Semogo in the background!