Food
I was going in to this trip with high expectations about the quality of the food, and I was in no way disappointed. Every time we ate at a restaurant we had a fantastic meal, and in general we did not pay an arm and a leg for our food (although a can of Coke would run ya around four euros [make that SIX DOLLARS] in a restaurant!!!)
Things got off to a great start when we went to Bologna early on and I had the most rich, fresh, mouth-wateringly delicious pasta I have ever had (a close second coming later when in Rome).
Later we were in Naples (birthplace of pizza) and indeed, had some fantastic Napoli Pizza at a 100+ year-old pizzeria (Bill Clinton once ate here.)
As an aside, the pizza is just about the only thing good about Naples (plus one very solid antiquities museum.) Otherwise, you will simply find a city clogged with people, clogged with congestion- mopeds, pedestrians, cars, pigeons- and clogged with trash and grime. And if that's not enough, you'll probably have your wife's purse snatched by a thief.
Anyhow, back to the story: we also enjoyed the local European cuisine by stopping in to a market now and then and making ourselves a picnic to enjoy (this is a highly recommended activity.)
And don't forget French food! Yes, it was delicious. Yes, it was rich. Yes, it was fantastic. Yes, it was fairly expensive. But you get what you pay for, and then some!
Fun
One thing I was pleasantly surprised by throughout Italy and France was the number of things that were just plain fun. It started in Venice, which sure, it's all romantic and stuff with the canals and whatnot, but it's also like a giant (entire city) maze adventure for grown-ups! Navigate the bridges and streets, twisting and turning between curved four-story buildings on either side of you. You may come upon a dead-end piazza with a cute little fountain, you may pass a street-accordionist on the corner, or a giant fish market, or run right in to a massive gold-mosaic basilica on the edge of the canal.
Similarly in Rome, if you randomly walk around long enough (as we did on our first night) you are bound to run in to some millenia-old Roman ruins, or a Baroque-era water fountain extravaganza (we actually managed to stumble upon both the Roman Forum and the Trevi Fountains that night [both 10X cooler at night than during the day.])
Pompeii was one of the highlights of the trip for me. Although there was some solemnity to the site (the whole city was buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD), what remains 2,000 years later is the structure of the city, just as it was in 79 AD, replete with houses, courtyards, hotels, fast-food joints, brothels, and a theater to watch people get ripped to bloody bits. And the coolest thing is- you can walk around all inside it! Sit on the theater seats, walk the original streets, lean on the original walls, sit on the original latrines, and picnic in the original dining rooms! Yet another playground for grown-ups.
And finally, lest Paris should feel left out- the wide, tree-lined boulevards and amazingly symmetrical gardens (and I mean amazingly symmetrical) of Paris are truly a splendor to walk through, stroll through, or romp through. Quite frankly, I was not particularly excited to go to Paris, but I was blown away by how simply lovely (and fun) the place was; and if I had to pick one city to return to from the trip- it would be Paris (it helped that no one robbed us while we were there...)
Kissing
Finally, it was our honeymoon, right? So of course we had to do lots of kissing in front of the famous sites. Some of the places we visited were:
The Colosseum...
The Cathedral of Notre Dame...
The Tower of Eiffel...
The Pantheon...
And the aforementioned Trevi fountain.
In conclusion: A GREAT TIME! Better than I could have guessed. Recommended to all (just make sure to wear that money belt!)
