My husband and I got back from our 10 year anniversary trip to Italy last weekend! It was the most amazing trip and I wanted to share everything we did and what we loved while it’s still fresh in my mind! We were gone for 9 days including travel, which, for Europe is not very long! But it was the max amount of time we could possibly imagine being away from Cal and Scarlett. And by the end of our trip, it felt complete and we were so ready to come home and see them.
My parents always did trips or little getaways for their anniversary, and sometimes Valentine’s Day and other special occasions. It’s something I always thought was so cool. They’d leave my siblings and I to stay with our grandparents (who sometimes would take us on our own trip), which also made for some of my greatest childhood memories! The thought of that makes leaving our kids with family we trust, and who we know our kids are obsessed with, so much easier.
Daniel and I had been throwing around ideas for what we’d do for our 10 year anniversary trip for the last five years lol. One of those overwater bungalows in Bora Bora or Maldives was always what I had in mind (maybe for our 20th haha), but when Daniel threw out Europe about eight months ago, we both immediately knew that’s where we should go! He’d never been to Europe, and I’d only been once on a Mediterranean cruise with my family. Italy sounded so romantic and fun and we know a lot of people who have traveled there and had a lot of good recommendations.
We bought our flights back in March just crossing our fingers Italy would open travel back up for tourism. We were also wanting to grab them before prices shot up once it did open! We’d been saving our Delta miles for a long time, and were able to buy our flights almost completely with those. We have the Delta American Express card so we earn miles using that, as well as traveling.
Anyways, around mid June Italy finally opened up travel to the U.S. again! Once that happened we started booking hotels and planning our itinerary. And I continued to frantically check the CDC and airline websites multiple times a day for updates, nervous the world would shut down again, which almost happened. And because quite a few people have asked, things felt pretty normal in Italy! Much like it felt in the U.S. when there were still mask mandates. Most places would ask us to put our masks on when inside, but no one wore them outdoors. Every restaurant, gelateria, store, etc. was supposed to ask to see your green pass (a European QR code that shows proof of vaccination, negative test, or recovery from Covid), or a CDC vaccine card or negative Covid test if you’re not from a European country. However, hardly any did! I think we maybe got asked four or five times, and if we’d nod and say yes, they usually didn’t even ask to see it. They just took our word haha. The only places that did actually ask to see were the Vatican and one restaurant. We did need to show a negative test within 48 hours of arrival before our flight to Italy, and one within three days of departure before leaving.
Here are the details of our trip - mostly for my own journaling, but I’ll bold any places I mention in case anyone is trying to skim through this quickly. I don’t expect anyone else to care about our hourly schedule each day, so feel free to scroll to the end for outfit links too, if that’s why you’re here!
We flew in to Rome and arrived around 10am (tried to sleep as much as possible on the looong flight there). We did the Vatican that afternoon, had lunch at Borghiciana Pastificio Artigianale (a little hole in the wall place that was recommended and was near Vatican City - homemade pasta, so good), walked by the Trevi Fountain, stopped by the Pantheon, walked up the Spanish Steps, caught the sunset up at Villa Borguese, grabbed some electric scooters and rode them to dinner at Dar Poeta (pizza place recommended by two different friends, but most urgently, Ruth from Rome by the Hour, and it did not disappoint), and stopped at least three different times for gelato in between all of that! It was a looong day and we squeezed so much in!
The next morning we were up bright and early and stopped by the Trevi Fountain again (for photo purposes), then headed to the Colosseum. We didn’t do a guided tour there because we realized after the Vatican that we aren’t really in to that, lol, but we got tickets to go inside and it was really cool to see! We grabbed some quick pizza (and probably gelato, I can’t remember but it’s very possible), then headed to the Roma Termini train station, which was just a 7-8 minute walk from our hotel. We actually missed our train to Florence because we didn’t know you had to be there early, and also didn’t know it would take us a few to figure out how things work. Rookies. Don’t make the same mistake we did. Luckily they changed our tickets for a small fee and we were able to hop on the next train just 45 minutes later.
We got to Florence and immediately fell in love! So charming and romantic and every street and alley was just so cute and pretty! Our hotel was again just a 5-7 minute walk from the train station. We checked in, changed, and headed out to explore and get dinner. We ate at Perione, which my uncle said we absolutely had to do and he was right. Then walked around to do more exploring and eat more gelato. We didn’t even know the Duomo existed until we ran right into it that night and wow! It blew our minds.
The next day we walked to find the most highly rated croissants and fresh squeezed OJ, then rented a moped to cruise around Florence with. Highly recommend! We rode through the cobblestone streets in the city, and up through the hills and vineyards of the countryside.
Before heading out of the city, we waited in a very long line to try a sandwich we’d read about online and seen on a YouTube vlog lol. It was called All’Antico Vinaio and the sandwiches were good, but actually not worth all the hype in our opinions.
We caught an absolutely breathtaking sunset at Piazzale Michelangelo that night (along with every other person visiting Florence), which was one of the most amazing views ever!
The next morning we found more croissants then headed to the train station to make our way to the Amalfi Coast!
We took the train to Napoli Centrale Station, then had a car transfer arranged through our hotel to take us to Positano. We knew that Naples was where pizza was invented and were so hungry after a 3 hour train ride, so we asked our driver if he’d stop and let us grab a quick slice (no shame)! He said he had another transfer after us and didn’t have time, but then as we got talking and it came up that I was pregnant, he told us he couldn’t not stop for pizza for a pregnant woman haha. He waited while we ran in and grabbed the BEST pizza. Still dreaming about it and mad I didn’t write down the name!
We stayed at Poseidon Hotel in Positano and LOVED it. The location was unbeatable, with amazing views of the ocean and the staff was so friendly and helpful! Any time we needed a recommendation for a restaurant, help getting transferred where we wanted to go, or booking an experience, they had someone on the phone within seconds, and it always seemed like it was an old friend they were calling. For example, we had no idea the restaurant at the top of the hill in Montepertuso we were eating at had a free shuttle service that would come pick us up. When we asked our hotel staff what the best way to get there was, they had someone on the phone immediately and just asked what time we wanted to be picked up.
The first night in Positano we just walked around and explored, made our way down to the beach (very crowded but for good reason), and scoped out which gelateria we wanted to try first. I found the cutest boutique called La Bottega di Brunella and of course grabbed dresses for mine and Sidney’s girls (eek!) and an adorable linen shirt for Cal. All of the clothes were hand made in the back of the store with the prettiest neutral fabrics. Everything was white, beige and tan. So me. I wish I’d taken some photos!
We weren’t hungry for a full meal for dinner after that late lunch pizza and a gelato, but ended up back at our hotel once it got dark for drinks and a charcuterie board out by the pool overlooking all of Positano, which is just as magical at night with all the lights!
The next morning was our anniversary! We took the morning slow. Grabbed breakfast at our hotel (which was included every morning!), then hung by the pool for an hour or so. I was debating if it was worth it to get a hotel with a pool, and that morning made me glad we did! It was so nice just laying out. No kids. With amazing views overlooking the ocean. We eventually made our way down to the lobby, and decided to check with the concierge to find out if he had a connection to get us a boat for the day. A few different friends had told us their favorite thing they did on the Amalfi Coast was rent a little self-drive boat and explore the coast. We had asked around at all of the little shacks along the beach that sell them the night before, and they all said they were sold out for the next two days! Well, our hotel came through again and found us a boat that was ready to go right then. It was a larger boat with a skipper, and more expensive, but we jumped on the chance and it was definitely my favorite thing we did the entire trip! Having the skipper made the experience so relaxing and stress free. We spent four hours cruising along the coast, laying out, stopping to swim in the perfect blue, warm water, jumping off rocks, using our skipper as a personal photographer, and we even got out in the city of Amalfi to explore for 30 minutes and grab a gelato. It was so fun and I can’t recommend this enough! The name of the company we went with was Grassi Junior.
After we got back we made the sweaty hike up the steep stairs back to our hotel, and quickly got ready for dinner. We had a reservation at Il Ritrovo - also recommended by Ruth - and it was so yummy + the prettiest views up above Positano, overlooking the ocean. We took the shuttle I mentioned before up there, but walked down 1000 steps to get back. It was quite the trek, but so pretty and romantic - we didn’t see a single other person the entire walk back to the city!
The next day we explored Capri. We booked a tour through Viator, which ended up being not quite what we expected, but we are glad we got to see Capri, and the boat tour around the island at the end was really fun! The only thing we were a little bummed about is that we didn’t realize the tour left from Massa Lubrense, which is about a 45 minute, car sick inducing drive from our hotel! The tour said “from Positano,” which I guess meant they pick us up from our hotel in Positano and shuttle us to the Massa Lubrense marina. From there it was a quick 15 minute boat ride to Capri, which was spent listening to our super friendly and hilarious guide give us the run down of what to expect during our four hours exploring Capri, and what time to meet back at the marina, etc. If you do go to Capri, make sure to get a lemon granita (or slushee). My mouth is still watering over it and it may have been my favorite sweet treat we had the entire trip! Ridiculously refreshing and the perfect combination of sweet + tart.
When we got back we showered and went back down to the moped rental shop to pester Pepe again. Haha. He’s a man everyone knew around Positano for his scooter rental place. Super friendly and very busy! We had asked both previous days if he had any mopeds available, and they were always sold out. However, on the last evening he had one he said we could take (we actually think it might have been his personal moped, and he gave it to us just to get rid of us lol). We had it all night until 9am the next morning and went on such a fun, long ride down the coast. We ate the most amazing lemon linguine at Midnight Sun in Amalfi (our favorite pasta of the trip!), and then got one last gelato to take down to the beach there and enjoy. It was dark the whole scooter ride back, but so pretty with all the lights along the coast!
The next morning we enjoyed one last breakfast at our hotel, got our Covid tests (the guy at the pharmacy told us we were negative in literally two minutes so not sure what this new technology is but we were happy haha), then headed back to the train station to go back to Rome for one last night.
We got to Rome around 4pm, walked to our hotel, then rode electric bikes about halfway to the Rome temple until we realized our bikes were out of range! It was hot and we were still a 40 minute walk from the temple so we grabbed an Uber to take us the rest of the way. The temple was amazing and we are so glad we made time on our trip to see it! It felt like home being in the visitor’s center with American sister missionaries and was a spiritual experience for both of us.
We ate at Roscioli, and had another gelato from Giolitti (bless you, again, Ruth), then stayed out as late as we possibly could enjoying one last night roaming the streets and trying to find little knick knacks to bring back for Cal and Scar lol.
Our flight left at 11:55 the next morning, so we took it easy enjoying our hotel’s breakfast and then got an Uber to the airport.
It was seriously such an amazing trip. I didn’t realize how much we needed a vacation with just the two of us until we were there! It felt like we were back on our honeymoon. So thankful for all the help we got planning and pulling off this trip!
And finally, below are links to anything I wore that I could find!
