Honeymoon

While meeting the Pope was certainly the highlight of our trip, we certainly did a lot of other things on our two week sojourn in Italy. All told we visited Salerno, Pompeii, Naples, Rome, Milan, Venice, and Florence.

Salerno had a wonderful festival of lights which covered most of the old town for the Christmas season. It was accompanied by Christmas markets and carolers in the street. In Salerno we stayed with my little brother's host family from the year he spent living there as an exchange student.  They were extraordinarily welcoming and friendly.

Pompeii was a really wonderful experience for me, having spent so much time studying classics, but its a really cool interaction with history no matter who you are.

Naples was mostly just walking around and looking at stuff - we didn't have much time to stop anywhere - but the scenery along the bay was wonderful. This shot is from Castel dell'Ovo - or the Egg Castle where it is said that Virgil hid an egg in the foundations - as long as the egg remains unbroken, the fortress will stand.

In Rome we met the Pope, but we also saw all the typical sights, and got to celebrate new years eve with old friends who just happened to be in Rome!

Milan was more of a rest stop as it was cold and drizzly the whole time we were there. We were able to attend mass at the Duomo (adding a holy door to our count) and have lunch with some of my family. We also did a little vintage shopping!

Venice was a one day affair - we did a truly lovely behind the scenes tour of the Doge's palace and then had lunch at a great seafood restaurant. Traditional Venetian cuisine is very different from what we think of as traditional "Italian" fare. It consists of a lot of seafood and is more on the bitter side than the sweet.

Florence, was our last, and possibly favorite stop. We saw the Ufizzi and the Galleria dell'Academia and all of the beautiful art that is scattered about the city. We also ate ourselves silly. The food in Florence was divine. At lunch one day we had a 2 pound steak because it was the smallest we could order!

Overall it was a wonderful trip that I'm sure we will remember for a lifetime.