Courtright Family Trip to Europe, Part 1

Over a year in the making, our family was beyond blessed to schedule a 2-week trip to Europe in late May 2025. We had originally wanted to take this trip when Connor graduated high school, but we waited a year to make sure everyone could get the time off and fully enjoy the vacation. I spent months and months planning our itinerary with the help of my travel expert friend, Katherine, and I was anxious but hopeful that it would be an extraordinary trip for our family. Probably the most impressive thing to know about our trip was that we all traveled with only carry-on luggage for the entirety of our trip, although admittedly we would have some access to laundry service a few times during our travels. We all piled into the car with our bags and prepared for our long journey, first with a direct flight to Frankfurt Germany and then a connection from there to Rome Italy. And off we went!

When we arrived in Rome, we met up with a driver who took us to our incredible AirBnb property in the heart of the city. Our host was amazing and prepared the most luxurious city home for us. Even more exciting was the fact that my brother Ben was able to meet and stay with us during our few days in Rome. We loved having him with us!

For our first day in Rome, we booked a golf cart excursion for the 7 of us to see some highlights of the city. It turned out to be such a wonderful way to get around and avoid some of the long stretches of walking that we would be doing to and from our activities. The tour guide was able to capture some great photos and get us excited about our next few days exploring this amazing city.

The next day, we had another excursion booked to the Colosseum and surrounding Roman Forum. Jeff and I had previously done this tour, and I didn't realize that I had booked the exact same type of tour this time. It was just as boring (haha, to me) but it gave us the opportunity to see some incredible sights and hear the amazing history of these historical landmarks. Jeff and Connor were in heaven with all the sight-seeing and storytelling, but the rest of us were mostly bored and trying not to voice our displeasure. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, perfectly sunny and cool, which was one of the highlights for our entire trip the rest of the way.

During our days in Rome, we thoroughly enjoyed the food and city sights together as a family. The only disappointing thing about our time in Rome was that the brand new pope was being installed which cancelled some of our activities, primarily our previously booked tour of the Vatican and Sistine Chapel. It was so disappointing that we couldn't take the kids, but I guess Pope Leo takes priority over the Courtrights.

Connor and Jeff became the best sightseeing buddies and did a couple extra excursions on their own, including the Pantheon and St. Peter's Basilica. The rest of us just explored the city at our own pace, and Collin hit the jackpot of Kinder eggs with the toy surprises inside!

The first leg of our European family vacation was complete, and it was now time to move on to the next leg. Ben left us in Rome and headed out on his adventures in Germany, and the rest of us traveled by car to the cruise port in Rome, Civitavecchia.