When I met my husband he seemed so worldly. He was an architect and had studied in Italy (and traveled Europe during his time there); as a student, he also went to New Orleans after Katrina. Our first couple’s vacation was to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico – 2011, Montego Bay, Jamaica – 2012 & Punta Cana, Dominican Republic – 2014. We always did the all-inclusive route. Why? Because we enjoyed RELAXING and not having to worry about anything besides our next drink order and tanning.
We talked in length about where to go on our honeymoon. I had always wanted to go to Greece for my honeymoon and Anthony wanted to explore Europe. We planned on a 2-week vacation but couldn’t fit all our must have cities in that amount of time. We were very fortunate to be able to have the time, so we decided to take a 3-week honeymoon. It would be a week of tourist attractions and traveling about, followed by a week of relaxing, and then a week of traveling around again. We started in Paris on July 12 we walked the whole city in 2 days. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to go up into the Eiffel Tower because of strong winds that day. However, we were in the city for Bastille Day. We were actually up in the dome of Sacré-Cœur while the military planes flew over with blue, white and red colored smoke.
Then flew to London on the 15th. We jumped on the plane on the 17th to head to Barcelona (Anthony’s favorite city).
After Barcelona, our flight was to Athens. We stayed for 2 nights at the Emporikon Athens Hotel. Although we never made it to the Parthenon, (it was projected to be over 100 that day) before heading by a small plane to Mykonos on the 21st to relax. We stayed at Argo Hotel Mykonos. It was a beautiful hotel with a nice pool and a quick walk down to the beach and plenty of dining options for lunch and dinner.
We arrived on Capri on the 24th and stayed until the 28th. Capri is one of my favorite places in the world, that I have seen. Such a relaxing glamorous lifestyle. We rented a boat and drive it around the island. My biggest regret is NOT swimming in the water. I thought that I was see sick from the boat ride, which was weird, I had never gotten sea sick before. Little did I know, I was just newly pregnant. Then started our tour of Italy. We hopped on a train in Naples and went to Rome. While in Rome we stayed at From there we rented a car. Oh that car… my husband asked for an automatic, but the rental company said they didn’t have any. So my adorable husband taught himself how to drive stick right then and there. It took him an hour to drive from the rental place back to our hotel. I have never been more anxious than I was sitting in that car as we drove to Tuscany, and Florence and finished our trip by relaxing in Cinque Terre. Tuscany [swoon]! We took a recommendation from friends to visit Podere Il Cocco. www.ilcocco.it A small, organic family winery in Montalcino. Before having a tour of the winery. They prepared a One of a Kind farm to table meal for us. Their wine is a Brunello and simply amazing. We stayed at Hotel Casolare le Terre Rosse. We drove to Florence and stayed at Hotel Pitti Palace al Ponte Vecchio. This location, right off Ponte Vecchio, was perfection. They even upgraded us to the honeymoon suite! We had the entire top floor of the hotel. A large bedroom, 2 bathrooms, and a roof walk up. The sunsets from that roof were unbelievable. Our final honeymoon location was Cinque Terre. That drive had me white knuckled a lot. The roads were so twisty and winding as we drove up and down. We stayed at Park Hotel Argento and traveled to the 5 villages by boat. We had to drive one more time to get to the airport in Milian to fly back home. Those 3 weeks were some of the best, funniest, scariest, LOVEly-ist, dreamy-ist of my entire life.
I packed for 3 weeks in SMALL suitcase. You know, the smallest on the comes in the set. Yep, 3 weeks in there! We thought it would be best since we were taking so many flights, to carry it on with us. Well, that didn’t happen, apparently its bigger than the European size?
What did I pack? Well, when travel, I wear the same outfit to my destination and home, it is always some version of a lightweight pant, a tank top and a cardigan. Besides that, I packed Black, White and Denim shorts. 1 pair of jeans. 9 tank tops and 4 dressy shirts. 4 sundresses. 2 weeks worth of undies. 3 bras. 3 bathing suits. 1 pair of tan wedges, 1 pair of Toms and 1 pair of Flip Flops. I brought a medium sized, stone colored bag that easily fit my cardigan and all our important travel documents and passports and phones.
Thanks for stopping by and reading my thoughts!
Post your comments and questions and I’ll get back to you!
Christina