What better activity after your huge sigh of relief post-wedding?
In September 2010, three weeks after I-Do, we went to Italy, Greece, and Egypt for a three-week honeymoon. We talked about this honeymoon option even before we got engaged, getting a kick out of the ancient-history angle, so I’m pumped we could make it happen. Thanks to our guests, the good people at Honeyfund, and some hoarded vacation time, we were on our way.
Let’s start with the first leg of the trip in Northern Italy: Florence and wine-tasting in Tuscany.
Bella chaos. All personal pics.
Florence is a good stop for anyone who likes Chianti, art history, and carts full of leather purses. We started out at a daily market in San Lorenzo replete with said carts, food, and other goodies, then hung out in a nearby church square with Peronis. Sitting around in a square with the current country’s cheap beer is one of my favorite tourist activities, so we enjoyed a restful afternoon after a long day of traveling. Our walk brought us over to the Florence Cathedral (Il Duomo) and Ponte Vecchio (literally “old bridge”), two of the city’s most recognizable landmarks.
I beg your pardon.
The author of Pinocchio was from Florence.
Il Duomo
Little cobblestone Florence was not meant for cars, and you can tell. It took us quite a while to get out of the actual city in our Fiat 500, as we circled from one roundabout to another trying to get on the proper road heading south. The wineries we were visiting didn’t have addresses, exactly, and we’re not too keen on all-aboard bus tours. Once we got out of town, we took many wrong turns throughout Tuscany until, finally…we couldn’t put the car in reverse. We eventually figured it out (it’s a drop reverse), but not before Strongman husband pushed the car slightly uphill and I steered.
Fiat 500 = Cute. Period.
Blurry newlyweds at Ricasoli, a winery in Tuscany.
Uffizi Gallery has many of the biggie pieces (Adoration of the Magi, Birth of Venus) from the Florentine Renaissance, and it’s definitely worth a visit. But its collection didn’t seem to make up for the lines — even for those of us who pre-bought tickets — and its massive crowd inside and out. I think I prefer later periods in art history and crowds of pushy hordes bother me more these days, so that probably had a lot to do with it. Michelangelo’s David at the Accademia was all it’s cracked up to be, though. I thought he was life-size; he’s actually 17 feet tall and on a pedestal as tall as me.
A piece of Ponte Vecchio and the Arno River.
So, food. After one pretty-good dinner and one bleh dinner, we finally had a molto Italiano dinner with antipasti, primi, (no secondi), e dolci.
I wondered early on whether limoncello is alcoholic, given its lemonade-like, sugary appeal. It is, for the record. 80-proof alcoholic, in fact. Therefore, it’s best consumed in digestif-size doses after dinner, not in multi-shot form to celebrate your wedding, marriage, and honeymoon. No matter how much the waitstaff offers for free, don’t do it.
The next day, we somehow made it to near-ish Pisa, the only thing on our itinerary.
This picture is called The Leaning Tower of Pisa Looks Photoshopped, Right? or Portrait of a Hangover. At least the torre looks drunk to complete the look.
A quick note on Honeyfund: the vast majority of guests used it, seemingly with no problem. I think people enjoyed specifying their gift, whether it was a bottle of wine with dinner, a camel ride, or a ferry to Santorini. My girls organized a honeymoon-themed bridal shower, so several ladies contributed then with checks, cash, or PayPal. More on PayPal nitty gritty here. We later received more of each on the day of, with a card or printout from Honeyfund saying what each person/couple/family bought. All unspecified cash and checks went toward the honeymoon. I didn’t total the ratio of gift money to our own contributions, but gifts helped a lot.
Italy proved to get more harried and feisty the further south you go. More on that in later. Next up: Venice, deserving of a post in itself despite our spending the least amount of time there. You’ll hopefully see why next time.
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