Italy Every Day

Justin and I spent three weeks of our first year of marital bliss in Italy. In just a week, it will be one year since we have been there and we both still reminisce about our trip on a daily basis. One may wonder why this is, aren't we happy in America? Why yes, we are, but in our very own family room, I have hung large scale prints of photographs I took while on our trip. These happily remind us of the beautiful landscapes and amazing time we had there. To the unknowing person, these have been mistaken for professional art pieces, but alas, they are not. They are an inexpensive, personalized representation of our travels.

I can't even stress the extent of how easy and affordable it is to duplicate the appearance of fine art. Nearly anything placed in a simple, nice frame, behind some glass immediately enhances the object's value. These are the shots that Justin and I selected to display in the room.

Amalfi, Italy

Burano, Italy

Capri Island, Italy

Riomaggiore, Italy

Riomaggiore, Italy

Rome, Italy

While the colors in each photo are beautiful (especially Burano) I ended up converting the photos to black and white, which increased their artsiness even more. One day at lunch, I ran the files over to the nearest Kinkos and had them printed out on matte paper. Some of you may be thinking, what, matte paper?! In my experience, it isn't necessary to print on photo/glossy paper when it is going to be framed behind glass since the glass will reflect light anyways. Plus, printing on the glossy paper is much more expensive. By printing on matte paper, I saved half! Kinkos was so fast, that I picked them up on my way home the same day. Then during a trip to Ikea, I picked up two sets of these, these, and these, which are awesome because they include crisp, white precut mattes. I inserted my photos and Justin helped me hang them in less than an hour.

Now, this is what we are surrounded by every day!

You can check out all of our photos from our trip to Italy on flickr.