Italy has been at the top of my list of places to visit for a while now.

We were in Cortona for the Feast of Tabernacles and Last Great Day, and then Florence for a day and a half before making the trip back home. This was October of 2025.

It was our daughter’s second time traveling outside of the US, but the furthest she’s ever been, by a lot! We had a 10 hour flight from Houston to Munich, then about an hour and a half flight from there to Florence, and another hour and a half in the car to Cortona. She only threw up twice, but who was counting?

She brought a stuffed animal called Baby Foxy with her and I made sure to get plenty of snaps with it along the way.

We arrived to our hotel a few hours before the opening night service for the Feast of Tabernacles. It was a long day and a late night, but we were so happy to see our friends, the Hudson’s, and find that they were staying just up the road from us – big emphasis on up! We got burgers for dinner after church at a place that Bill and Melissa and the girls had been to and enjoyed when they were there the previous year.

The next day I made sure I used the stroller – we were staying uphill from the theater we met at for church and said hill was quite steep!

We met for church each day in a beautiful theater pictured above.

There were several group excursions planned – we ended up just going on one, which I’ll get back to later.

The rest of our time that wasn’t church, or getting our toddler a nap in the hotel room, was spent walking and eating and enjoying Cortona. It’s a beautiful place. One highlight was the playground, which was part of a beautiful park situated at the bottom of town.

The other MAJOR highlight for Sutton was the street parade and flag throwing ceremony. This took place as the sun was going down, and started off with a parade that began at the park.

A bunch of locals and a large number of people from church gathered and followed the flag bearers as they marched up to one of the main piazzas. They had big drums that they beat as we all made our way to the middle of piazza Signorelli. There, the flag bearers put on an amazing display – choreographed flag tosses and spins – with flags and staffs that were as big as they were and must have weighed a ton! All while the drummers beat on the giant drums, very impressive. Sutton still talks about the parade and pretend to beat a drum, months later.

The excursion that the three of us went on was to a winery, Osteria di Brolio. We had a lovely lunch then a tour of a castle! The castle tour was exciting for Sutton, although not quite as thrilling as the parade.

Glen and I really enjoyed the lunch – Sutton played outside for a bit with another little girl and then fell asleep. After lunch we got back into the van and headed to the castle.

I didn’t take many photos inside the castle but it was very beautiful and very interesting. There was also a wine tasting part of it, and a quick tour of the underground cellar, where we rode on a giant elevator (also not pictured).

Following the Last Great Day service, a large group of us met close to where we’d been at the start of the parade earlier that week for goodbye drinks and food.

I was able to get a picture of the sunset, but it was much more beautiful in person. It was the perfect end to the Feast & LGD.

There’s much more, and we left the next morning for Florence where we stayed for two days before heading back home, but I’ll have to save that for another post!

Here are a few more pictures from our time in Cortona:

Finally, I’ll leave you with Baby Foxy in Cortona: