Our Honeymoon in Italy

This was taken in the second to last town on our Cinque Terre hike: Vernazza, home of the best pesto we've ever had.

Here I am sitting in the apartment we rented at the drop-leaf kitchen table.  In front of me is the extremely tasty meal we picked up at the local pizzeria.  Wine in plastic cups is made much better when it's made locally, extremely cheap, and better than most wines we've had in America. 

This is all the luggage we took on our trip!  I am watching all of our stuff while we wait for the train to Venice and Todd makes phone calls to find a hotel.

Venice = canals.  Todd almost fell into the canal taking this picture of a lovely waterfront hotel with gondolas out front. (Todd: I'm not sure those thick wooden pillars are entirely stable.)

This is at the top of El Duomo.  In the background you can see the Giotto's Bell tower which we also climbed.

We wisely chose to take the Best of Tuscany Tour on the day that Florence had a bank holiday.  This is at the vineyard where we had lunch as part of the tour.

Todd is standing on the Ponte alle Grazie and in the distance you can see the Ponte Vecchio.

Our first stop in Rome was the St. Angelo Castle.  St. Angelo is a family name on Todd's dad's side so it was particularly interesting to think that this castle was a part of our family history.

And no trip to Rome is complete without a visit to the Colosseum.

In this picture Todd is dwarfed by the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla.

For our honeymoon Todd and I spent 14 glorious days in Italy. We had a fantastic time. We decided to go somewhere that neither of us had ever been, and to "try not to do too much" so we only hit 4 cities/areas. We spent time in Cinque Terre, Venice, Florence and Rome.

The food and wine everywhere were fabulous! Even snacks from local pizzerias and the table wines were were amazing. Fortunately all the delicious food was balanced by miles and miles of walking. Everyone walks everywhere, so...when in Rome...

There was also lots of history. There is a change of perspective when you come from a country that is only a few hundred years old and you visit a country that is a few thousand years old.

First we flew into Rome on a redeye flight and then hopped on a series of trains to our first stop: Cinque Terre, specifically Riomaggiore. Cinque Terre is "a rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera" composed of 5 towns perched above the water. It's extremely laid back and a fun place to start our trip as we rested after the flight in to Italy and the train up the coast.

Venice was our second stop, and it was lovely.  But of all the places we visited it was surprising to us that it ended up being our least favorite.  The canals are one-of-a-kind and the food was fantastic at all of our meals.  We went to St. Mark's basilica and the Doge's Palace.  At the Doge's Palace we got the audio guide and learned all sorts of interesting facts about Venice's history and art. 

My favorite city was Florence.  Florence, or Firenze, is filled with historic landmarks and churches, and is in the middle of Tuscany.  The city is beautiful, and we could have spent another week there exploring all the museums and gardens and...historical stuff.  More on this in another post.

Our final stop was Rome, where we spent the most time soaking up history and identifying all the ruins that can be found all over the city. We trekked out to the catacombs and had a mediocre tour there. It was sort of a shame, because lots of people who had been to Italy before told us that it was one of the best things they did in Italy, so we'd sort of been expecting a lot.  It seems that they've really pared back on what you can see there due to the destruction caused by tourists.  One of the understated things that was surprisingly impressive was the Baths of Caracalla (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baths_of_Caracalla).  It's amazing how intact they are, considering that they're situated in the middle of the city. 

On our adventures we met lots of great people, locals and fellow travelers alike.  In our honeymoon-happy stupor we forgot to get contact info for some of the people we would have liked to stay in touch with, but you never know whom you'll run into again in the future.