Italy – Part 4 (Finale)

The main purpose of our Italy trip was to attend a friend’s wedding in Orvieto. We decided if we were going to travel that far then we may as well spend time in Rome. Which we did and I highlighted on the links below:

Italy Part 1

Italy Part 2

Italy Part 3

We took a train from Rome to Orvieto on September 4^th, arriving just in time to attend the Welcome Pizza Party. It was the beginning of a beautiful weekend.

The wedding events were held at two venues, Torre Collevento and Pietra Campana. Both are located outside of town, in wine country.

Our hotel in Orvieto was the stunning Palazzo Piccolomini. Our room was huge! It actually took 4 keys to get into the room. One each for the building, the foyer, the main living area and then the bedroom.

One half of the living room

The other half of the living room

The living room ceiling

The bedroom ceiling

A bathtub tucked away in a little nook, not in the bathroom.

I am not sharing the bathroom pictures..seems a bit weird LOL.

But, trust me, it was impressive.

Friday, September 5^th was the rehearsal dinner held at Pietra Campana. The views of Orvieto from there are magnificent. You can see the Duomo of Orvieto, which makes a great backdrop for photos. Click the bolded link to read about this magnificent cathedral.

                                          

We took a tour of the Duomo on Saturday, September 6^th before getting ready for the wedding. It was gorgeous on the inside. As usual, I took way too many photos to share, but here are a few.

My 6'2" tall husband about to enter the big doors!

The organ pipes.

Statues of the twelve apostles. Six on each side.

The streets of Orvieto come alive on Saturdays. There are street performers and vendors around every corner.

The wedding was held at Pietra Campana. Since the couple had a wedding photographer, guests were asked not to take pictures of the ceremony. We will receive photos later. I can share the few I took of the grounds.

We were shuttled to Torre Collevento for the reception.

The weather could not have been nicer. We had excellent food, wine and desserts the entire weekend.

After enjoying a farewell breakfast on Sunday morning, we took the train back to Rome.

We had an early Monday morning flight, so we stayed at a hotel near the airport Sunday night. Surprisingly, hotel food is even delicious in Rome.

We enjoyed one last cappuccino in the airport’s Prima Vista Lounge before boarding our flight home.

Looking tired but it was a great time!

Thank you for following our little adventure. Tomorrow’s post will be a quilty one.

See you soon!

Floss Friday – Stitching in the Wild, August Stats and More

Welcome to the last Friday of September, 2025! How can this be?

Before getting to what happened after my return from Italy, I’ll give you my August cross-stitch stats.

Number of stitches = a measly 2,873 on three projects.

American Sampler

I finished my first (August) assignment on time. And I am currently working on the September assignment. This is where I am now.

                                          

Patriotic Heart – I’ll share this as part of my retreat update below.

Parrot

                                        

There hasn’t been any progress on this one since I shared it last.

We returned from Italy late on a Monday evening. I had one day to finish getting ready to attend a cross-stitch retreat in Montgomery, AL. I’ve mentioned previously that Stitching in the Wild is hosted by Gary and Ronny Hovatter who own a brick-and-mortar cross stitch store in Ozark, AL. They also have an online store called Garon-Stitchery. They’ve held three annual retreats so far and I’ve attended all of them.

I had enough time to make sour cream cookies with green butter cream frosting for my friends.  They are always a hit!

Gary and Ronny welcomed everyone early on Thursday morning.

There were 130 attendess, not including hosts and vendors.

There were a lot of table and attendee gifts exchanged. I haven't unpacked and organized those yet. I'll show them in a future post.

Many stitchers brought pieces for the brag tables.

There were so many creative finishes and absolutely stunning stitches!

In early August I had visited Gary and Ronny and left three pieces at their framer. The guys brought my finished framing to me at the retreat.

Witching Hour

English Rose Sampler

Red Bird Sampler

I'm entering this one into the county fair this weekend.

There were several of us from the GaRon zoom group that stitched Witching Hour together. Two of the ladies brought there finished pieces to share with me.

Karen, a zoom friend, wanted to start a chart that we both purchased at last year's retreat. I'll show you more on that in a future post.

I know...I hear ya...another start???? Well, I had a finish while at the retreat.

Patriotic Heart

I can check this one of the old WiP list!! It is small, but don't let that fool you. Those are a lot of stitches!

Friends old and new gathered for lunch

And one last hug until next time!

That is my September cross-stitch update in a nutshell.

My agenda for the weekend is back to binding quilts and enjoying some cooler temps. What are your plans? How is your weather? Tell me all the things.

Linking up with Alycia Quilts for Finished (Or Not!) Friday

Until next week...