Mrs. Beetle, New York/Palm Desert
About: Mrs. Beetle previously wrote our weekly advice column. She got married in October 2006, and is currently guest blogging.
Honeymoon Recap: Italy! (part one)
March 5th, 2007 @ 3:00 pm by Mrs. Beetle
I’ll try to keep my exclamation point use to a minimum and not overuse “dreamy” “to die for” or “magical,” too much, but man was our 2 week honeymoon in Italy the dreamiest, most magical to die for trip of my life!
We flew from LA to Paris (didn’t stay over, just a quick stop) and Paris to Rome. We stayed in Rome overnight to catch up on some sleep and headed out first thing the next morning to Italy’s Amalfi Coast where we would be staying in Positano.
Ah, Positano (pictured above). Positano is a gorgeous, chic, coastal town that was simply like nothing I had ever seen in my life. All of the houses and hotels are perched up on cliffs overlooking the water and everywhere you turn are the most spectacular, breath-taking views. This is definitely not a place to go if you have any trouble walking as a simple trip down to the beach practically requires a climbing rope, but based on the fact that we were eating everything in sight, the forced exercise was welcome for me. I would have loved to stay in the hottest hotel in town, Le Sirenuse, however, it was waaay too pricey…so we stayed in The Marincanto up the street (which was also lovely).
This was the view from our hotel room.
On one of my favorite days, we took a speedboat trip to the gorgeous island of Capri (though I feel silly saying it that way, you actually do pronounce it as Cah-pree).
Along the way, we stopped in the Blue Grotto and this was the most exciting part of the day! You have to switch out of your big boat into little rowboats before entering the cave. The opening to get in is so small, you literally have to lay down in the boat or you will crack your head open on the cave rock. Once inside, my eyes almost popped out of my head. The pic above REALLY is the color of the water…only way more beautiful in person. All of the men rowing the boats sing old Italian songs and it just felt so special and unique.
Another big highlight was accidentally happening upon an Italian wedding. We were taking a daytrip up the coast to Ravello and made a quick stop in a charming coastal town called Amalfi. As we were exploring the town, we noticed some commotion at the Duomo and caught a bit of this gorgeous wedding above…
On to Firenze (Florence) in part 2!
18 Responses to “Honeymoon Recap: Italy! (part one)”
WOW! I’m so glad you posted this because my husband and I are starting to plan a trip to Italy. =)
omg you just made me more intent on going there for my honeymoon!! we picked italy and france but i’m not sure if 2 weeks is enough time to really enjoy 2 countries. please post more on your italian experience!
I am so jealous of you Mrs. Beetle!!! Positano looks so picturesque. You know Mario Batali’s favorite place in Italy is the Amalfi coast. Hopefully one day my FI and I can afford a trip to Italy. I would love to see the Amalfi Coast, Tuscany, Piedmont (cuz I love Barolo wine), Sicily, Sardinia, and Malta. Oh, and I have to see Portovenere and Portofino.
Looks like that might have been a ROYAL (or at least semi-royal) wedding judging by that blue stripe the groom is wearing! Lucky you! Cool recap!
I went to the almalfi coast, too. If anyone is considering it there is a cool hotel called the Onde Verde. It is built on a cliff (like many hotels on the coast) but has the added benefit of being linked by a cliffside walkway to several other beaches, hotels and restaurants. If you don’t stay in Positano or Ravello (places with little towns) you end up marooned in your hotel and it’s a nice option to walk to different restaurants at night and not have to worry abou driving on hairpin roads or coordinating a bus schedule. this hotel is in Praino, close to positano and Almalfi. I wouldn’t recommend staying in almalfi the city — it’s a trashy beach town.
It looks lovely! Can’t wait to hear more. We’re going to Italy (Milan, Venice and Rome) in May. Hubby will be doing a school trip for his master’s and I get a vacation.
My cousin went to Italy for her honeymoon also. Actually I think she went to the same places you did! And I agree, wow. Her photos are amazingly beautiful. I wish there were places like that in the states. Heh. I’d move there!
We’re doing almost the exact same trip! Can’t wait to hear all about it!!
how beautiful!
Seriously–just started planning out trip to Italy.
I sent out a company email for recommendations, right before checking weddingbee LOL.
We’re headed to Italy on our honeymoon too! Mrs. Beatle - any suggestions on airline/tour agencies that you used would be helpful, or if you did it all on your own, how did you co-ordinate it all? Can’t wait to hear more!
thistleorchid: We planned everything on our own. We flew Alitalia and Air France and I really liked them both. I also did a ton of research on tripadvisor.com and got loads of great info from that site. We wanted to do our trip a bit differently: rather than spending 2 nights here, 2 nights there, we picked two main bases (Positano and Florence) and then took a bunch of day trips from each location. Thus, we avoided all of the packing and unpacking you have to go through when its a new city every night.
Both of us had been to Italy before, so there wasn’t quite the same pressure of seeing everything. I do really love Venice and am a bit sad we skipped it, simply because it is such a wonderfully romantic city. I also wished that we would have spent a few nights on Capri…I loved the day trip we took over, but I hear that the nightlife on the isaland is totally different after all of the tourists go away.
Also keep in mind that (unfortunately!) the dollar is in the toilet right now, so you really don’t get a lot for your money when you are converting to euros. Our biggest challenge was finding nice hotels that weren’t going to cost $750/night.
Hope that helps!
how exciting! We leave to Italy this Thursday for our delayed HM!! We’re also flying Air France into Paris then into Florence. We’re doing Florence, Venice and Rome. Can’t wait!
I shrieked when I saw your post, because We’re planning to honeymoon in Italy. Gorgeous photos! Can’t wait to see more!
Whoa, $750/night? I hope you’re kidding, otherwise - ouch! Clearly we won’t be staying at very nice hotels!
Beautiful pictures! I especially love the view of the coast from your hotel room 
My hotel in Praiano — a very, very nice hotel — was no where near $750 per night. We had an incredible view, breakfast included and a full bath.
http://www.ondaverde.it/ingform.htm
if you spend $750 for a hotel, it means you weren’t looking very hard. It’s very easy to have a nice trip and not spend that kind of money. You might still pay more than $100 per night, but for what you’re getting, and compared to other parts of europe, it’s an incredible steal and really a great value. $100 in Swizterland will get you a dank motel with a shared bathroom — or worse — something with bunk beds. And you have to look for nice places in Manhattan that are just a little over $100 per night — and you’ll still have a shared bath.
I just realized I sounded harsh. I wasn’t trying to sound harsh. I just really heart the Almalfi coast and didn’t want people to be put off by cost. There’s tons of options! It does help to not use Frommer’s or other american guide books. And it helped us to stay in a smaller town, not one of the larger towns.
[…] Recap: Italy Part I, II by Mrs. […]
