Rebellin

My digital camera LCD crapped out on our honeymoon, so we used it for one day and then opted to use an old fashioned film camera. The digital camera is now fixed, and today I grabbed the photos off of the card. I was thrilled to have some additional Honeymoon pics that I didn’t know we had. And since I didn’t manage to scan in any of the film pics we got, this is all you’re going to get!

This is the jacuzzi suite where we spent our wedding night.

JB drinking wine out of a champagne glass on our wedding night.

Jacuzzi tub… Mmmmmmmm….

JB in his robe…

JB looking at a map in our hotel room in Naples.

View from our hotel room in Naples. This is Piazza Garibaldi.

Our first Italian Bidet.

This was a really cool outdoor plaza that we stumbled upon in Naples on our way to catch the hydrofoil to Capri. Look closely and you’ll see JB.

Another shot of that plaza.

Poor JB didn’t really fit in Europe because Europeans are short and he is very tall. I thought the fact that he could see over the shower curtain was pretty funny.

And with that, on our first day in Italy, is where we decided to stop using the digital camera because we weren’t sure if it was really capturing images.

Well, you have now read my entire honeymoon travel journal. (All entries can be seen here, in reverse chronological order.) Some details have been omitted, because afterall, it was our honeymoon.

The trip was wonderful, and will live in our memories forever. There is something incredible about exploring a foreign country with your mate.

As for pictures, I forgot to request for online photos when we got our film developed (my digital camera died on the trip, as well as my film camera). Hence, any photos you see will have to be scanned in one by one. Don’t hold your breath waiting for them!

Back to the trip wrap-up.

We relaxed a lot. We slept in late. We laughed a lot. We ate a ton of really good food (as I’m sure you noticed), and drank a lot of really good wine. We saw some amazing scenery and buildings older than anything in the United States. We got lost, we got found, and at the end of it all, we again found each other.

Would I recommend Italy as a vacation to all of you? Definitely. Though I might try to go when the weather is a bit better.

I must mention that our trip was guided by the excellent Rick Steves. We carried his book with us everywhere, and even found ourselves quoting him from time to time.

One of the best bits of advice Rick Steves gave was to travel light. We each had one roller bag and one backpack for our 11 day trip. Yes, we ended up doing laundry once, but we wouldn’t have been nearly as agile on trains, boats and busses with anything more. If you’re going to Europe, we totally recommend following this advice.

As for the wedding, I guess the main bit of advice I’d give a new bride is not to listen to those people that tell you it takes a year to plan a wedding. Ours was planned in 5 months, and I wouldn’t have wanted to deal with the planning for one minute longer! It is not only doable, it is preferable to have a shorter planning window. Shorter planning window = less headaches.

And now we are concentrating on getting back to our normal lives. Or perhaps, defining just exactly what our normal lives are. It’s good to be young and in love.

Ciao!

We should document that Europe seemed to bring out the klutz in me. There are many uneven streets, and I stumbled a lot or had my shoes squeak, as JB seemed to have no problems at all.

While in Florence, I tripped on the step going into the bathroom and just barely caught myself from falling butt first into the bathroom. I managed to bang up both knees and elbows during the save though.

In Venice, I tried to go to the bathroom without turning on the light (so as to not disturb my slumbering prince), and I stubbed ALL FIVE of my toes on the step to the bathroom. JB thought this was hilarious.

Why Italians have steps into their bathrooms is beyond me!!!

We should document that Europe seemed to bring out the klutz in me. There are many uneven streets, and I stumbled a lot or had my shoes squeak, as JB seemed to have no problems at all.

While in Florence, I tripped on the step going into the bathroom and just barely caught myself from falling butt first into the bathroom. I managed to bang up both knees and elbows during the save though.

In Venice, I tried to go to the bathroom without turning on the light (so as to not disturb my slumbering prince), and I stubbed ALL FIVE of my toes on the step to the bathroom. JB thought this was hilarious.

Why Italians have steps into their bathrooms is beyond me!!!

Continue reading →

Written on a plane from Venice to London:

Well, this is the last day of our honeymoon, and we’ll be spending twenty four hours traveling. Ugh. We’re currently on the first of three planes we’ll ride today.

Since I have some time on my hands, I’ll detail our Venice, or Venezia, activities.

Upon arriving in Venice on Tuesday, we checked into Hotel Marin and went to dinner at a local Osteria (family run restaurant). We then made our way to St. Marks Square (Ponto Marco), where we were treated to deuling orchestras.

It was an incredibly romantic setting, with the lights on the square and beautiful music. It really felt like a dream.

After watching the orchestra, we started back to the hotel.

Our guide book had said that one of the charms of Venice was how easy it is to get lost there. Because the city is on an ancient grid, it’s more like a maze.

It took us an hour and a half to get back to our hotel that first night.

On Wednesday, we slept late and then walked back to St. Mark’s Square where we toured the Doge’s Palace. A Doge was like a president of the country. The best part of the tour was the prison. To get to the prison, we went over the Bridge of Sighs, which is the bridge that prisoners had to cross — their last glimpse of freedom.

I’ve never seen a prison so old, made of stone walls with two inch thick bars over the windows. You could also see where they used to shackle the prisoners in the cells.

We wanted to make a 3:00 tour of Venice, so at 2:15, we decided we needed to leave Doge’s Palace. We seemed to be trapped in the prison, as it took us a good 20 minutes to get out.

The 3:00 tour took us to a really old spiral staircase made of marble and then on a gondola ride. Unfortunately, it was raining during our gondola ride and all 5 passengers in the boat had their umbrellas up, impeding the view some. We were rather entertained when one of the gondaliers stopped rowing to answer his cell phone. It was the perfect example of Italy meshing the old with the new.

Our tour then took us to the church of the Friars, where we paid hommage to the painting by Bellini. The church’s interior was a mish mash of collections of art, including Renaissance paintings, wood sculpture and marble sculptures. There were marble caskets of Doges mounted high on the wall.

After the tour, we returned to the hotel for a nap, and then ventured out for dinner. We chose a restaurant from our guide book and decided to find it.

It is nearly impossible to find a specific restaurant in Venice, as we soon learned.

After over an hour of looking and passing numerous other restaurants with tempting menus, I was starved. In fact, at that point we determined that getting lost in Venice is down-right annoying when you have a specific goal in mind.

We finally settled on a different restaurant at about 9:00. After dinner, we once again got lost trying to find the hotel.

On Thursday, we once again slept late, and after breakfast at the hotel, we decided to take the water bus to St. Mark’s Square. On the way to the bus stop, I stopped to take a picture of JB in front of the Hotel Bellini, and realized that the camera (which was accidentally dropped the day before) was broken. We lost the entire roll of film, which put a damper on our morning. We then purchased a disposable camera for $18 Euros, and went on a mission to take all 37 pictures on the roll.

We spent most of Thursday shopping for souvenirs, since we hadn’t bought many up to that point.

I bought a glass christmas ornament of a gondalier Santa. JB and I picked out an oil painting of a canal together, and we bought a few small Venetian masks. I also bought some hand made black glass bead necklaces.

We toured St. Marks Bascilla (a really big church) that morning. The floors of the church are rolling due to the building settling over time. All of the floors and ceilings were decorated with mosaics.

We ate a quick lunch of calzones, pizza and gelato. After lunch, we walked to the canal that was featured in the oil painting that we purchased.

It was in a very untouristy and local feeling area of town. We settled down on a park bench in a town square and watched a day care group of toddlers play.

That night, we took the water bus back to that square where we ate at a true local Venetian Osteria. We had shrimp risotto in pumpkin sauce, I had beef with vegetable sauce and JB had grilled fish. The fish was an intact, unskinned fish, complete with head, tail, and teeth. I got pretty grossed out when I tried to open the fish’s mouth and the lower jaw broke off.

Italian Fear Factor, second episode!

We topped off dinner with some Pinot Grigio and then tiramasu. We then went back to St. Mark’s square for one more enchanted evening of deuling orchestras.

I forgot to mention my biggest souvenir — an orange sweater! Orange is all the rage in Italy, along with scarves. Up until this point in our trip, I had felt a bit scruffy in my jeans, tennis shoes and sweatshirt. That night for dinner, I donned my new orange sweater and white scarf and my loafers. I felt like a true Euro and the waitress at dinner even asked if I spoke Italian without assuming we were American (a first!).

The loafers later turned out to be a mistake. We had planned to take the water bus back to the hotel, but the next bus didn’[t leave for 20 minutes, plus it would be a 45 minute ride. We decided to hoof it.

I must credit JB’s ‘master navigational skills’ (coined by the man himself), as he got us back to the hotel in a record thirty minutes with only one wrong turn.

But man, did my feet hurt afterwards! JB took a picture of me cursing my loafers upon our return to the hotel.

My memory of yesterday seems a bit scattered. I forgot to mention that from dinner, we hopped on a water bus heading for St. Mark’s Square. We later discovered that we had boarded the wrong bus. Instead of taking two stops to get to our destination, it took nine, as we went all the way around Venice.

This turned out to be a lovely mistake. We had seats at the front of the boat, providing an excellent view as we cruised the Grand Canal all the way around Venice. The moon was a half moon with a yellow color as it poked through the clouds.

Random observations:

• Italians charge for everything, including going to the restroom, water with your meal, beaches and hiking.

• Evidently in Venice, tourists don’t need to use the restrooms after 8:00 p.m. That is when they close their public restrooms. We got scolded in Italian last night when we went to a bar to use the restroom. We ignored the scolding, saying ‘grazie’ as we hurried out.
• Italians cannot handle cold weather. They wear parkas, scarves, and gloves in 60 degree weather.
• We saw about 1/2 day of sunshine during our 10 days in Italy. It rained every day except for one, and was overcast pretty much the entire time. So much for my beach vacation!
• Nothing in Italy is as easy as it seems. Nothing. Even using a telephone can be challenging.

After we returned to our hotel after dinner, I saw a sign in the lobby stating there would be a strike on public transportation on Friday, our date of departure.

The all knowing JB said, ‘That doesn’t apply to us, now hurry!’ The man had to pee.

Well, the following morning, as we were checking out, the hotel desk attendant informed us the strike may effect both the airport and city busses that we needed.

We went to the bus station, and asked the attendant there if either of the busses we needed were running.

‘We don’t know, because there is a stike. It may show up or it may not.’

Typical Italian style, I tell you.

So instead of chancing the busses (which would have cost one Euro each), we decided to get a taxi (a cost of 50 Euro total — ouch).

We saw where the taxi pick up was, and got in line. Two taxis pulled up and took the people ahead of us.

And then we waited. There wasn’t another taxi in sight for at least 15 minutes. We started to sweat a bit, as the taxi was our last option to get to the airport.

Meanwhile, there were buses driving all around us. None of them said Aeroporto (as we needed), and many said they were out of service, but they were driving around with people on them.

Italians even have their own way of going on strike. I mean really — if you’re going on strike, why the heck are you out there driving the busses around?! You’re either on strike or you’re not, right?!

Anyway, a cab pulled up and we shared it with an Italian business man. When we got to the airport, the business man paid the full fare for us and refused to take any money from us. Now that was a nice note on which to leave Italia!

I thought that all of our hotels had string handles to help you get out of the shower and off of the toilet.

Today, I pulled on the string, commenting ‘I don’t think these strings would really be of much help’.

Then the phone rang.

Evidently, it is an emergency chord.

We’ve named it the ‘I’ve fallen and I can’t get up’ chord.

Written three hours later, still on the train from Cinque Terre to Venice on Oct. 19:

Well, we were again told that since we don’t have ‘reservations’ for seats on this train, that we can be asked to leave our seats at any time. This is on a different train, too. This train is packed full and the hallways are filled with people lacking reservations who are standing or sitting on jump seats or luggage.

This 6 hour journey is much too long to phathom doing without a seat. I’m amazed they don’t make this clear when you purchase tickets.

It is a clear class structure on the train… First class is well ventilated with nice seats and tables in between rows of seats. Second class is crammed into bright orange seats in warm, stuffy compartments. And evidently, there is a third/peasant class, where you don’t get a seat at all. So strange.

The bathroom on the train is a hole that dumps the excrement and toilet paper onto the tracks. I’m amazed this is legal.

Written on a train from Cinque Terre to Venice on October 19:

I started this entry unknowingly seated in first class on the train. We were soon asked to move to second class, where we discovered that we didn’t even have a seat assignment. Evidently, you can buy passage on the train without buying a seat. Somehow we managed to do that. Right now, we’re sitting in some seats that were empty, and hoping no one comes along to claim them

We’re currently in Genova, home of my cousin Julie and her husband Marco. Like the rest of what we’ve seen in Italy, it has old, tall buildings with walls made of stone. It’s very pretty and very old world feeling, too.

Overall, I can describe Italy as a feeling of stepping back in time. Besides the high speed trains and cell phones, everything else is older and more traditional than most of the United States.

Yesterday, we did a 7 mile hike from Monterosso (the fifth town in Cinque Terre) to Riomaggioria (the first town in Cinque Terre).

The hike wound between the towns along the edge of the Ligurian Sea, which is a beautiful turquoise color.

I think I climbed more steps yesterday than I have climbed cumulatively in my entire life. Between walking through the towns and walking through a long tunnel to go to a nude beach that was vacant, we estimate we walked at least 10 miles today.

The tunnel to the Spiagia (beach) was the longest tunnel I’ve seen in my life. I was so scared a mugger would be lurking in there, as no one would be around to hear our cries for help. Dramatic, yes, but I was a bit jumpy during the entire walk through the tunnel, which took at least 15 minutes.

When we arrived at the beach, the waves were crashing very high onto the beach, and considering the cold, overcast weather, we decided not to swim.

We stopped in a town called Corneglia for lunch (the third town), where JB had a spinach/potato concoction that looked like quiche, and I had a foccochia pizza. We ate sitting on some old stone steps in the middle of the village.

As opposed to Capri, which was filled with dogs, Cinque Terre has many cats. People leave food out for them along the hiking trail and outside of their shops.

We enjoyed Gelato in the fourth town. It was a well deserved treat, as the hike between the villages was pretty challenging.

After our hike, we boarded a train back to Monterosso. After the train left the station, we feared that we had boarded the high speed train to Genova by mistake. Fortunately, the train stopped in Monterosso and we were safe. Yes, we seem to have train issues.

We went to dinner last night at a very popular restaurant. It took over an hour to get our food, and we were very hungry after our long trek.

We chatted with the couple at the table next to us. They were from Victoria, Canada, where we vacationed last year. The wife kept saying how we were on our ‘sweet moon’, and kept calling me the Bride. Very cute.

JB got mussels and I tried them for the first time. Salty, but good. We each had ravioli for our main dish, along with grilled vegetables, including eggplant and tomato — very good!

We then went to a bar for a night cap. I tried the Limoncello and it was also very good.

This morning, we slept until about 9:30, which is very late for us on this trip. We enjoyed the American breakfast at the hotel, bought our train tickets, and then enjoyed lasagne al pesto for lunch. It was the most tender pasta I’ve ever had. Yum!

I cringe at the diet and exercise that will be necessary to burn off the pasta, wine and gelato consumed on this trip.

Oh, and after our hike yesterday, we happened upon the infamous European toilettes that are more like holes in the ground. I’ve also noticed that most public restrooms don’t have toilet seats. Not sure why they feel seats aren’t necessary…..

Written from Hotel La Collonia in Monterosso (Cinque Terre):

The train to Cinque Terre took much longer than we expected. At one station, there were a bunch of Police (polizia) watching our train. Then, when we arrived in La Spezia, there was a big group of college age boys that got off the train. At least 10 police were there to search them, and behind those police were about 10 more police in riot gear. We’re still not sure what that was all about.

Cinque Terre so far is wonderful. It is beautiful and very slow paced — just what I needed! The big cities of Naples and Florence left me kind of high strung.

Last night’s dinner was very interesting. But first, let me mention that we shared a bottle of white Cinque Terre wine at sunset on the beach. Very romantic!

Dinner was at Ristorante Belvedere. We ordered a seafood sampler, and felt like we were on Italian Fear Factor when it arrived. Mini pickeled squids with all of their legs, anchovies sliced open and splayed out on the plate, unidentified fish that we weren’t sure was cooked… The surprises just kept coming. And with each new plate, our eyes got big and the English couple next to us would laugh at us.

The second course was pesto pasta, since this in the home of pesto. It was amazing!

We then got grilled shrimp, which came with all the heads and legs. I didn’t like them much, so JB ate my portion, too.

For dessert, I ordered the local dessert wine, which was probably a bit too much alcohol for me, considering we drank wine before and during dinner!

JB had espresso for dessert, and then we walked from Old Town Monterosso to New Town along the shoreline, where JB picked up some hazelnut gelato.

JB’s cold seems to be getting worse. I have a stuffy nose, but so far that’s my only symptom.

They’re really big on church bells in Monterosso. From 6-7 last night, they rung the bells every 15 minutes in elaborate songs. This morning, the bells started ringing at 5 am, and have been ringing on the hour since.

Written on a train to La Speiza on October 17:

I was asleep on the train as it was stopped at a station when I was jolted awake by a loud sound that sounded like a gun. The Italians on the train stood up and looked out the window and they were laughing and talking amongst themselves. We then heard shouting outside the train, but couldn’t see what was going on. It was obvious that none of the Italians on the train were concerned. Unfortunately, none of the people around us spoke English, so this shall remain a mystery to us.

JB bought Italian shoes today. I knew he wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation for long (the man loves shoes!).

Written in Florence on October 17:

Luckily, the weather cleared up by morning, and we managed to get a full touristy morning in. We started out going to the Bagello, which is a statue garden. That is where we saw two versions of Donatello’s David.

We then went to the Acedemia, where we met the REAL David by Michaelangeo. David is 17 feet tall, and is really quite a site.

I took a picture of David, and was immediately apprehended by what I like to call the Camera Gustapo. A woman came up to me with a plastic bag and held it out for me to put my camera in.

I thought she wanted to take my film since she was speaking in Italian, but after a few broken exchanges, we determined that she just wanted me to put the camera in the bag.

I watched as she did the same thing to several other people. Put their cameras in a plastic bag and then hand it back to the person that had taken the photo. I think it would be more effective to post signs saying ‘No cameras’, but what do I know?!

We had lunch at a ‘snack bar’, where I had something like a Caprese salad with eggplant and a stuffed pepper. After lunch, we climbed up 414 steps in the Opera house next to the infamous Duomo church. It was really a nice view of Florence and the Duomo, but there was a strong cold wind up there.

We also went inside the Duomo, which was truly an impressive church. It’s the biggest one JB has ever been in, but for me, it wasn’t as big or impressive as Notre Dame.

We then took a nap, and afterwards, I ventured to a nearby laundrymat to do our laundry. That in itself was an experience. After figuring out the machine, soap, and softener (all in Italian of course), the power went out as my washer started to soak my clothes.

So, there I was, in the dark, with all of our clothes completely soaked, wondering what the heck I should do.

After about 20 minutes, the power came back on, and luckily my washer picked right back up where it left off. Overall, it took about 2 hours to wash and dry one load of clothes.

I finished my book, Tales of a Drama Queen, while I was there. I got quite the ribbing from my husband for reading that book… He called me a Drama Queen myself for a few days.

For dinner that night, I had a 3 pasta plate while JB had the Pennette. We then split salmon with lemon sauce and capers. We also had a 1/2 litre of wine, which made me very sleepy upon our return to the hotel.

Written from the Pensione Maxim (our hotel) in Florence on October 16:

We arrived in Florence today to more rain. I had hoped the weather would be different here.

After finding our hotel, where the toilet is IN the shower, we went to dinner. The restaurant wasn’t nearly as good as the ones we frequented in Capri and Naples. We spilt a bottle of very good Chianti, though, and topped dinner off with hazelnut and tiramasu gelato, since this place is known for gelato. It was wonderful!

JB came down with a cold last night. I figure it’s only a matter of time before I join him in his misery. It doesn’t seem fair to have rain AND a cold on your honeymoon…

After our day at the Blue Grotto and swimming in the sea, we enjoyed wine and cheese on the balcony of our hotel room. The balcony overlooked the sea and the harbor called Marina Grande. It was extremely romantic.

“One year ago, we could have never imagined we’d be sitting on a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean at sunset, sipping wine and eating cheese as a married couple,” I told JB.

While at dinner that night, we ordered some more wine, and well, that meant I consumed about one bottle of wine myself. I was a bit looped.

We were joined by several cats at dinner (we ate outside), and were entertained by some dumb American tourists that took way too long to decide what to order. Maybe it was the amount of wine we had consumed, but we could hardly suppress our laughter while listening to a lady that was fascinated by the idea of Grilled Fish (she repeated Grilled Fish at least ten times), but then she was unhappy because all she really wanted at this seafood restaurant was ‘meat’. I guess you had to be there.

After dinner, we took a walk along the beach, despite the fact that it started raining.

The next morning, which was Friday, we went for a swim in the hotel pool. This wasn’t just any hotel pool. It was set up on a cliff overlooking the ocean, and was filled with salt water. It was a nice, long pool, suitable for lap swimming. I have never done laps in such a scenic pool! It was like swimming in heaven, I tell you!

We then checked out and took the Vomit Comet (i.e. boat) back to Naples. In Naples, we ate lunch at a very nice restaurant where the waiter complimented me on my Italian (ha!). I ordered a Calzoni, which was nothing like I expected. I swear the thing was a foot long! JB thought he ordered tortellini and got a sandwich. Oops.

We then took a tour of the Royal Palace in Naples, and hopped on a train bound for Florence.

Random thought: the Bidets have been rather entertaining!

Written on October 11, 2004:

I am writing this on a plane from Reno to Dallas, the first leg of our honeymoon to Italy.

The past week has been a blur. My parents arrived on Tuesday. Wednesday was our last day of work, and it was extremely hectic trying to wrap up all of the loose ends.

Thursday was my bridal portrait. When I put my shoes on at the studio, one of them broke, adding another thing to the seemingly unending list of to-dos.

After my portrait, I picked up Amber (matron of honor) and her family from the airport.

That evening, we had 20 people over for dinner. JB managed the grill while I tried to keep drinks full. My nephew, Jack, gave us the cutest card that he had made himself.

After dinner, we had planned to all go to Reno to hit the bars. Instead, we sat in the living room and yawned as we tried to keep a conversation giong.

Neither JB or I could get to sleep that night. After tossing and turning until around midnight, JB went for a walk, I watched some TV, and when he returned, we split a sleeping pill.

It was that night we began to realize how overwhelming and stressful the next few days would be. Don’t get me wrong, everything was wonderful, but it was pretty hectic.

On Friday morning, after a breakfast of French toast and sausage (made by me!), we gathered up a group of our guests for a cruise on the MS Dixie at Lake Tahoe.

It was a beautiful day out on Lake Tahoe, and we all giggled when the recorded tour guide mentioned Lake Tittykaka (sp?). I have no idea what was being said about that lake, but will not forget its name!

After the cruise, we all ate at the Zephyr Restaurant. We then drove home, where I packed everything for the wedding and the night before the wedding. We then rushed out the door to drive to Reno for our final counseling appointment.

Once we hit Reno, we remembered that it was still a weekday and we were suck in rush hour traffic. Yes, Reno has some traffic.

We were 20 minutes late to our appointment, and we were both wound tight when we arrived. JB told the pastor that we were planning on having 2.5 kids (the American average).

We managed to get through the ‘sex’ conversation with the pastor without having to get into details.

Immediately after the counseling appointment was our rehearsal. Of course, the rest of the wedding party got caught in traffic, too, so the rehearsal started rather late.

Kylie, the flower girl, walked up the aisle and chucked her basket, hitting the videographer in the foot. Go Kylie! That’s a future softball player, people!

That night was the rehearsal dinner, attended by 40 people. We showed a slide show of pictures of Joel and I growing up. Jane did a great job putting it together. I met my soon to be brother-in-law, sister-in-law and 5 week old niece that night, which was also very exciting.

That night, I said goodbye to my groom and headed to the Eldorado with Sami, a bridesmaid. We stayed in a penthouse jacuzzi suite on the top floor — woo!

We woke up the next morning at 9 am, and I opened all of the window coverings and sat in bed alone while Sami showered and sang Dancing Queen in the shower. I kept telling myself, ‘this is your wedding day,” but it just didn’t seem real.

After enjoying breakfast and spa time with some of my girls, we were off to get my hair done and then to the church. By the way, the reverse French braid Barbie up-do turned out fabulous!

All of the girls got dressed at the church, and it took about 25 minutes to get me laced into my dress. At one point, I think there were about 15 people in the my dressing room.

The ceremony was like a dream come true. I’ll never forget taking my father’s arm, and then catching the first glimpse of my groom at the end of the aisle. We were both very nervous, but I managed not to cry, which shocks me still to this day.

The reception was great. Our first dance went well, despite the band playing our song very different from the CD to which we had been practicing. During my dance with my Dad, which was a swing, the bustle on my dress broke and my shoe started falling off. It is a wonder I didn’t fall on my butt.

My cousin managed to fix my bustle temporarily with rubber bands. By the end of the night, I was walking around just holding my train, and I had ditched my evil shoes for my running shoes.

And you people didn’t think I was serious about that!

I’ll save you the gory details of the reception, but just know that at the end of the night, the limo took us to a luxury jacuzzi suite at the Atlantis where a gift basket of champagne and food were awaiting us. It was wonderful!

Fast forward to the honeymoon now….

We arrived in Naples and checked into our hotel and ate at Naples’ most famous pizzeria (Naples is the birthplace of pizza). The next day, we headed to Capri.

At breakfast in Naples one morning, we had some bread/cheese/meat concoction taken from a display case with a roach-like bug crawling in it. We were hungry and in a hurry.

It was raining when we headed for our intended island/beach getaway. We both had our first bouts of sea sickness on the boat (hydrofoil) over to Capri. Luckily, we managed to hold on to our cookies, but we were both green afterwards. We have named the boat the Vomit Comet.

Our hotel in Capri was deluxe. Our room was two stories with a balcony overlooking the sea and the cliffs of Capri.

We hiked up a winding path to Capri Town, which overlooked the entire island. We then walked to the Giardini Augusto (gardens), where we ralxed at a beautiful overlook of the ocean. We watched the sunset over the sea, and then walked back to our hotel.

The next day, we took the bus to another town, Anacapri. The bus winds up the cliffs of Capri on a very narrow road, which gets very interesting when two busses have to pass each other. From Anacapri, we hiked down a path through some forest to the Blue Grotto (Grotta Azurra). On our hike, we were joined by a black and white dog. He strangely resembeled Tucker (our 2 year old lab/border collie mix), so we named him Italian Tucker. Italian Tucker stayed with us for about 45 minutes, and then disappeared at the end of our hike.

After seeing the Blue Grotto, which is a cave in which the water glows a turquoise blue, we followed some signs to a free beach. It was more of an access point from the rocks with ladders into the ocean, but we both stripped down to our swim suits and swam in the sea.

The water was the deepest royal blue I’ve ever seen. And it was so clear.

I started having flashbacks from the movie Open Water while we were there, but that’s another story.

I’m tired of typing for tonight, and you’re probably tired of reading, so I’ll leave at this point in our story. Stay tuned for more!