Thursday, August 8, 2013

The honeymoon is over... (literally).

Boo hoo! Our honeymoon is over, and now we're safely back in Haifa and trying to resume something that resembles our normal lives. Actually, now that I think about it, I guess it's not really over - I'm still in Haifa and it's still 30 degrees, and I'm still 10 minutes from a sandy beach. Yay! Oh, and I still have my lovely husband's company. That too. Love you honey!

So, here's the Sparks Notes version of what Italy was like:

During our ABSOLUTELY AMAZING stay in Sorrento (Hotel Mediterraneo - I'm not kidding, go there right now, you will thank me when you get there) we did a few interesting things.

We visited the ruins of Pompeii:




Then we decided it would be a really cool idea to go and climb to the top of a volcano (Vesuvius/Vesuvio):







After a little rest in beautiful Sorrento...








...we took a yacht trip with another few tourists to see the absolutely beautiful island of Capri:















We saw some really big boats there:


Including this one that looked like a spy boat (We asked the captain, he said it cost an extra 3 MILLION EURO to get it painted black. Some people have too much money.):


After a couple more days bumming around poolside, eating way to much, and indulging in a lot of happy hour goodness at the hotel, we said a sad goodbye to Sorrento and headed off to Roma!

On our first afternoon, after surviving the terrifying 10 minutes of actual driving in Rome that wasn't highway, we decided not to be too ambitious with our sight-seeing and just try to find the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. Unfortunately, we're a little easily distracted, so we followed a random tower in the distance....


... and walked unwittingly into one of the coolest things we saw - the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Piazza Venetia, where we took a (scary) glass elevator to the top of the building and got a wicked birds-eye-view of all of Rome:












Then we made our way to the Trevi Fountain, which was PACKED with tourists:



And the Spanish Steps, which were even MORE packed with tourists:




The next day we decided we would boldly set out and see the Coloseum, which had the longest/least organized lineup in all creation (and a sign that said "watch out for the ruggedness on the path", which made me laugh so hard when I imagined Russell Crowe in Gladiator), but was totally worth it:






Prior to that, we managed to run across (again, because we're too easily distracted), the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, which was gorgeous:





And we capped off the sightseeing of the day with walking a little around the ruins of the Roman Forum:








On the Thursday, we tackled Vatican City, beginning with the Basilica of St. Peter:









By chance, we discovered that by taking the 500+ steps up, we could get on top of the dome of St. Peter's, as well as walk around a bit on the roof, so obviously we did it:










After that we took a brief walk over to the Vatican Museum so that we could take a look at the Sistine Chapel, but unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to take any pictures. Boo. 

That pretty much concluded our time in Italy! I can't begin to describe what an absolutely AMAZING time Sharbel and I had while we were there. I must say, we were both much more attached to Sorrento as we found Rome to be a bit busy and touristy in the end, but I'm really glad we did it. 

Now, as you might imagine, we're back in Haifa recovering from our honeymoon and making gradual steps towards real life again. We're back at the gym in the mornings, and Sharbel's been practicing piano like a fiend. Myself, I think I might even start to think about repertoire for my kids choir for the fall! That being said, there are still some adventures planned for here.

Phew, I feel like I just published a novel with this post. No more 2 week waits for updates - I promise! :











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