Okay, so I know it’s been like almost 4 months since we went on our honeymoon and I still haven’t finished all my blogs about it.. (I’ve been busy!) But this is one I could easily post since I typed most of it in my phone while we were in the car on our way back home from Chicago after our honeymoon. (And I was just going through my notes and found it.) I asked Ryan these questions and got some answers, and they conveniently were questions we got asked a lot by other people who were curious about our trip. It is conveniently in the same format as all of those Facebook quizzes my friends and I used to do in Middle/High School, so please enjoy.
1. What was your favorite city?
Ryan: Probably Florence
Aim: Florence
2. What was the most surprising thing you saw or did?
Ryan: Probably the way they built all of those houses into the sides of the mountains
Aim: Saw? Probs the random baby in the elevator with no mom in sight in Venice. Did? Probs climbing to the top of the Palazzo Vecchio tower, the duomo, and the bell tower of the Basilica Santa Maria del Fiore (Florence Cathedral) all in the same day
3. How long did it take to pick up some of the language?
Ryan: I didn’t pick any of it up
Aim: Ummmmm I didn’t learn much for Italian other than “due cappuccinis” (2 cappuccinos) and “grazie” (thank you). It was very similar to Spanish that I could pick up on some things but different enough that I couldn’t understand a lot of what was going on around me
4. What was the scariest moment?
Ryan: The bus rides on the Almafi coast
Aim: Tbh probs being at the top of the Duomo bc by then my legs were jello and shaky and we were high up and for some reason I was really anxious about how high up we were (which I usually don’t get anxious about heights so that was weird)
5. What were the locals you met like?
Ryan: Most of them were pretty nice
Aim: ^ what he said
6. Did you find any sights or activities a bit off the beaten track? Beyond the tourist traps?
Ryan: We explored some random cathedrals
Aim: Our Airbnb in Furore (Almafi coast) was definitely off the beaten track
7. What was your favorite meal?
Ryan: Sorbillo’s (Pizza in Naples) or the first place we went in Florence where I had shrimp gnocchi
Aim: The ravioli I had in Almafi or my ginormous steak and potatoes in Florence
8. What was the strangest thing you ate?
Ryan: Probably some of the seafood because some of it still had tentacles 🐙
Aim: Probably the apricot jelly croissant I had for breakfast one morning
9. Where would you revisit? Would you ever move to any of those cities?
Ryan: No I wouldn’t move. I would revisit Venice and Florence again someday though. And maybe Naples because we didn’t really see anything there. And possibly Cinque Terre in the summer when grapes are growing and things are actually open.
Aim: I would revisit Florence for sure and maybe Cinque Terre in the summer so we could go to the beach and I could go cliff diving like I wanted to and maybe snorkeling
10. What did you eat?
Ryan: Pizza, pasta, seafood, gelato, croissants, Italian food.
• Aim: Pasta and pizza and gelato and croissants and steak and some veggies
11. Drink?
Ryan: beer, Aperol Spritz, water
Aim: Aperol Spritz, espresso, water, a little wine
12. What did it smell like?
Ryan: Venice smelled like fish
Aim: Florence smelled like poop
13. Best way to get around?
Ryan: Bus
Aim: Train
14. What was the coolest thing you did?
Ryan: Probably the Duomo
Aim: ^same
15. Is there anywhere you wish you would’ve gone?
Ryan: Pompeii would’ve been cool
Aim: Pompeii or Positano but we ran out of time
16. What was the best moment of the entire trip?
Ryan: Sorbillo’s
Aim: When Ryan told me he can’t wait to buy me a puppy lol
17. What are two interesting things about Italy that the average person doesn’t know?
Ryan: Don’t go channel surfing on the local channels late at night…
Aim: I didn’t know it was so mountainous lol
18. Tell me about one person you met
Ryan: the bartender in Atrani was really nice and he was playing Fifa on his PS4 when he had nothing to do
Aim: The lady in Furore from the grocery store was my favorite because she was so sweet and kind and tried to help us as much as she could. We really appreciated her
19. Now that you’ve been there yourself, when you think of Italy, what’s the first image that comes into your head?
Ryan: Pizza
Aim: Lemons
20. What was the hardest or most frustrating part of the trip?
Ryan: Public transportation in Almafi
Aim: Everything being closed because it was off-season. And also stairs
21. Did anything go wrong that seems funny now?
Ryan: I don’t think so
Aim: We missed our bus to the Almafi coast and then we missed our bus back to Furore from Almafi and had to pay 60€ for a 15 min taxi ride but neither one of those are funny.
22. What little, ordinary thing did you miss from your usual routine?
Ryan: Mountain Dew tbh
Aim: I missed my Apple Watch haha and cellular data solely for the purpose of navigation
23. What did you learn about yourself?
Ryan: I get car sick
Aim: That it’s good that I studied abroad so I knew (mostly) what we were doing/how to get around
24. Now that you’ve been to Italy, what are two other places you’d like to go?
Ryan: Germany and Norway
Aim: Back to Portugal and to southern Spain
25. What food from home did you miss most?
Ryan: Eggs
Aim: Chicken lol
26. Best piece of travel advice?
Ryan: Don’t go to bed at 8 pm the first night you get there to try to beat the jetlag because it won’t work
Aim: Research everything ahead of time because you don’t have data and you don’t know if the WiFi will work or not and you might get stranded somewhere. Also, wear comfortable shoes.
27. Would you like to live in Italy?
Ryan: I don’t think so
Aim: Nah
28. The sea – on it, in it, or stay on dry land?
Ryan: Dry land
Aim: In it
29. What’s the most interesting thing you learned on this trip?
Ryan: The duomo took over 2 centuries to build
Aim: Their pizza is really thin and floppy and “real” gelato isn’t the bright colored mounds
30. Are you a traveler or a tourist?
Ryan: A traveler
Aim: ^ditto
31. Strict schedule or go with the flow?
Ryan: go with the flow
Aim: I like to know what’s going on
32. Most overrated place we went?
Ryan: Palazzo Vecchio because we waited for 2 hours and there wasn’t much to see
Aim: Inside the Basilica Santa Maria del Fiore (Duomo) because it was super bland and there wasn’t much to see. The painting on the top of the duomo but it was too high up to really appreciate it and that was it. The other churches we went to had waaaaay more to look at
33. City or countryside?
Ryan: City (in Italy at least)
Aim: Yeah city. The countryside was cool but we live in the country at home so I liked being in the city for a while
34. San Marcos Cathedral, Basilica de Santa Maria del Fiore, or the San Andrews Cathedral in Almafi?
Ryan: San Marcos
Aim: I liked the one in Almafi the best tbh
35. Best thing we bought?
Ryan: Our Mokapot
Aim: The espresso perkalator and some espresso beans 😋
36. What was the best place we stayed in?
Ryan: Either of the Venice Airbnb’s
Aim: Venice because we felt like locals. It reminder me a lot of Alcalá de Henares
37. If you had to pick one place we visited to live, where would you pick?
Ryan: Florence
Aim: Venice probs bc it felt familiar
38. If you could change anything about it, what would you change?
Ryan: Probs the Almafi coast bc we couldn’t really do anything down there because it wasn’t in season
Aim: I would pay for a SIM card..
39. Favorite sight out of all of them?
Ryan: probably San Marco’s square
Aim: I really loved looking at the Duomo but I also liked looking at the ocean in Cinque Terre and I loved the view from our Airbnb in Furore sooo
40. Favorite place overall?
Ryan: Florence
Aim: Florence
41. Do you wish we would’ve stayed somewhere longer?
Ryan: Probably Naples
Aim: Almafi Coast so we could’ve seen more of it but also we’d need a car
42. What is something you wish you would have known before going somewhere?
Ryan: I wish we would’ve known about the off-season in the coastal towns
Aim: I wish we wouldn’t have eaten by the Rialto Bridge in Venice bc it was way too expensive
