luna di miele part II

Ciao!

The next leg of our Italian tour was where the real adventure began! David had organized for us to rent a car and drive from Rome, well, the airport, to Siena in the heart of Tuscany! Renting/driving a car in Europe left me a little uneasy at first but with Steves, a detailed family Italy Atlas on loan, and the Italian maps for the GPS that David purchased (best investment ever) we were able to freely explore Italy as we pleased - on our own time and agenda. And David was a fantastic European driver even though I had calluses form on my right hand from gripping the car handle for 7 days straight. Overall, we visited 16 cities and towns that we actually got out of the car and walked around in. We saw Italy!

our fiat

this is why I was told only one carry on sized bag :)

ah, thank you.

we tried to take pictures of all the town signs we visited...

the steep view from calcata

we stumbled upon this terme - a natural mineral water bath - aka the community pool

next we twisted and turned to reach orvieto - a view from the distance

orvieto is known for their white wine

their beautiful cathedral - love the striped marble

and of course we ate A LOT of gelato - sometimes twice a day!

the gelato was pretty much amazing wherever we had it

after a long drive of navigating for me (I told david I didn't know I was coming on this honeymoon to "think") we found our agriturismo just outside of siena literally by the grace of god.
what is an agristurismo you ask? a glorified farmhouse bed and breakfast! there's more to it than that but you can google it yourself. in a nutshell, it was the best place we stayed and the only type of lodging I want to stay at on our next visit!

agriturismo marciano

beautiful and fragrant lavender

room 1 - we stayed in two different rooms because of other bookings

our tuscan view

the main house where guests could enjoy internet and tv if they so desired

best part of the agriturismo is that it includes food...and food and wine made from its farm to be exact. talk about fresh. our stay included homemade breakfast each morning and a family meal one evening cooked by nadia, one of the cheerful owners.

room 2 - so sweetly chosen by my husband because I love the color green

the weather throughout our entire trip was perfect...no need for air conditioning at the agriturismo as you could sleep with your windows open (and feel safe!) and let the cool country breeze flow through

the courtyard

We spent the next 4 nights and 5 days in Siena and each day went exploring to all the other picturesque Tuscan hill towns....

luna di miele part I

So here we are with the end of July in sight and a move on the near horizon and honeymoon posts are finally here! Luna di Miele is Italian for honeymoon - isn't is such a beautiful word. There are four posts worth of pictures yet I felt like I took none on the honeymoon. It was really inconvenient getting the camera out each time I wanted to capture something so half the time I didn't! I wanted to enjoy myself, which meant few must-do tasks and plenty of eating and drinking our way through the boot shaped country.

As many of you know, our honeymoon was a surprise to me! David planned the entire fabulous trip and told me as far as packing that it would be "hot anywhere in June" and to try to fit it all in one carry on...which I successfully did!! I was not-so-secretly hoping that he was going to whisk me off to Italy!

On Sunday after the wedding, David accidentally spilled the beans as we were saying our final goodbyes to family in Tallahassee. We were off to Atlanta to catch our plane the next day for 10 glorious days across the pond...

we flew from atlanta to toronto (canada, check!) to roma

we stayed in rome for 2 nights and this was our lovely hotel in trastevere - just across the tiber river. I highly recommend staying in this area of town.

the hotel's courtyard and my husband through the olive trees

our room sign

we had a very clean, comfortable and spacious room in rome

we had a night flight from toronto and arrived in rome at 10:30 in the morning...6 hours ahead. our first stop was lunch from a small market around the corner from the hotel.
the start of my food love affair.

fortunately, david and I had both been to several cities in italy many years ago before we met so this time we were able to just walk by most of the "touristy" sites. we did have a few galleries, etc. on our list to see. this is the borghese gallery that we visited.

we spent our first evening walking through piazza navona and other near by sites - only a 10 minute walk from trastevere.

dinner was at recommended ciccia bomba in piazza navona

my first of many pesto dishes

david and I in front of the trevvi fountain - we only managed to take a few pictures of the two of us the entire time...more difficult than you would have thought!

david enjoyed the night setting on the camera and took this beautiful picture of the pantheon - which I learned was his favorite building in italy

wednesday morning we had early reservations (the way to go!) to the vatican museum as we both wanted to see the sistine chapel again. unfortunately, st. peter's was closed (and we never made it back) due to this...

the pope making his bi-weekly blessing in the piazza - we saw the pope and the pope mobile!! {he really is in this picture and you can see the white of his cloak on the big screen}

st. peter's basilica

"You are 'Rock' and on this rock I will build my Church, to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 16:18

we waved at the colosseum and did not get stooped into taking any expensive pictures with roman soldiers!

views of trastevere...

so good we had two meals here!

very, very happy

buffalo mozzarella, another sweet cheese, olives and artichokes - yum.

peony shout out while shopping near the spanish steps

I must confess we had a third-wheel on our honeymoon - Rick Steves, have you heard of him?? Apparently he and David got to know each other really well, through books and PBS, while planning the honeymoon and I had no idea! We stayed at several of the hotels he recommended and ate only at restaurants he recommended with only ONE bad meal we experienced. He was amazing and we didn't leave our hotel without one of his guides in our bag. The biggest tip was how to see museums with a reservation as you "laugh at the idiots waiting in the mile-long line!" Thanks Rick we enjoyed your company and your humor!

To be continued...