A long-delayed anniversary journey through Venice, the Bernina Express, Zurich, and finally Paris. If you’re dreaming of a Paris anniversary trip, this is the most personal chapter of our story.

When I was a little girl, I had an earring holder shaped like the Eiffel Tower. Decades later, my husband and I finally took the anniversary trip we had planned for our 25th — two years late, six cities, seventeen days through Italy and Paris. This is the story of the Amalfi Coast drive that stopped me in my tracks, the Rome food tour I now book for every client, the Paris photo shoot along the Seine, and the twist I never saw coming: I went for Paris — and Italy stole my heart.