Hey Reader,

We're home! Officially back in the states after 6 weeks traversing Italy and England. While we are so happy to be with family, back in our own bed, and snuggling with the animals again... we are missing the adventure we just had.
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Here's a quick look at our trip:

🇮🇹 ITALY: ROME, UMBRIA + TUSCANY

Italy was everything we hoped it would be and then some. We started in Rome — the chaos, the history, the pasta, the fried artichokes, the Aperol spritzes 🤤🤤🤤. Then we made our way through the rolling hills of Umbria to kick off our cycling tour with Mac's Adventure.

It was our first time in that region, and we got to see so much: Spoleto's magical escalator system connecting the entire town, hilltop villages like Trevi, Assisi, Perugia, Solomeo, San Gimignano (aka medieval Manhattan), and even cycling around Lake Trasimeno — the largest lake in the region.

We've explored Italy many times before, but cycling through the wine trails of Umbria was the highlight of the whole trip. We have so much to share about that experience, but the short version is: it was one of the most fun things we've ever done while traveling. We are hooked and have already started searching for our next cycling tour.

🇬🇧 ENGLAND: OXFORD, THE COTSWOLDS, CORNWALL COAST + MORE

Then it was over to England, where we traded bikes for hiking boots. We got to explore Oxford (Joey was absolutely in heaven with all the Tolkien and Lewis lore), Bath, St. Ives, and more.

The main event was our Mac's Adventure trip through the Cotswolds to the Cornwall Coast — two areas of England we'd never explored before, and wow.

We walked through some of the most charming villages in the Cotswolds, like Stow-on-the-Wold and Bourton-on-the-Water, meandered through English meadows and woodlands, and finished the trip with our first-ever pilgrimage to St. Michael's Mount. Stunning doesn't quite cover it.

We came home officially in love with walking trips — and with a bucket list longer than when we started (pretty normal for us).

There's something so incredibly calming about these daily walks inn-to-inn. The weather was perfect, and even when our feet hurt, we couldn't help but pinch ourselves over what an incredible experience it was.

Expect to hear a lot more about this format of travel from us going forward!

Over the next few weeks we'll be diving deep into everything we experienced — blogs, vlogs, free downloads, and so much more.

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⛺ AND SPEAKING OF WHAT'S NEXT...

We're home for a few weeks before we head back out for the next leg of our U.S. National Park road trip. Which means gear prep mode. Perfect timing, because REI Co-op is running a member sale right now until May 25th — and we grabbed a few last-minute things for an upcoming backpacking trip.

Here's what we picked up and why:

• ​🛏️ Sea to Summit Aeros Premium Pillow: With 6 days of backpacking ahead, we need our beauty sleep. These are widely considered the best camping pillows out there — and at 25% off, it was a no-brainer.
• ​💧 Sawyer Water Filtration System + Aquatabs Water Purification Tablets: No water dispensers where we're headed, so we're going straight to the source. Between the Sawyer filter and the Aquatabs, we'll be covered — because nobody wants to find out the hard way what's floating around in backcountry water.​
• ​🚽 PACT Outdoors Ultra Lite Bathroom Kit + Kula Cloth Reusable Antimicrobial Pee Cloth: Pit toilets exist on Isle Royale, but they're few and far between. We came prepared. Weird to say, but we're genuinely a little excited to try these out!​
• ​🥾 Leki Hiking Poles (Joey caved — $70 off): Katie has been a hiking pole convert for years. I've spent that same time insisting I don't need them. After hearing from basically everyone that they're a gamechanger, I finally gave in... and caught them on sale. I'll report back on whether they're a nuisance or a permanent part of the kit.​
• ​🎒 3-Liter Hydration Reservoirs (one each): All that filtered water has to go somewhere. We both upgraded to the Gregory 3-liter reservoirs (they are made to fit into our backpacks) to make sure we're staying hydrated out there.​

​REI Co-op Members get 20% off one full-price item + an extra 20% off one REI Outlet item with code ANNIV26 — but only through May 25th, so don't sleep on the sale!
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With that, I think we've covered it all! We can't wait to start sharing everything from the past few weeks. Be on the lookout for more updates!

Safe travels!
Joey and Katie

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