It's Spritz: Venice, Rome & the Amalfi Coast

About a month ago, we embarked on a month-long trip and a hiatus from blogging and work. We started in Atlanta to see some friends, family and to attend a wedding. Then on June 11, we flew from Georgia to Italy. I should preface this by saying that we almost missed our flight, but ended up getting on the plane right at the cutoff. About a million hours later, we landed in Venice. On this trip, we took various forms of transportation -- trains, planes, automobiles, ferries.

But while in Venice, we actually never took a gondola ride. Yes, gondola rides are pretty, but just not our thing. We spent a lot of time walking around the narrow alleys of the city and crossing the bridges. We walked to the very first ever ghetto -- the Jewish ghetto in Venice. Even though pretty much every part of Venice is picturesque, there really isn't that much to do there. Our two days spent were relaxing and just enough.

I should mention that a little incident occurred on that bridge in the photo above. An Asian man started taking a photo of me. I kept moving and he just kept taking my photo. I had to ask him to stop, which he didn't until the hubs told him to stop. This isn't the first time something like that has happened during my travels. And it wasn't the last time it happened on this particular trip. I'm basically like a unicorn to certain people. They've never seen one of me in real life.

We left Venice and took a train to Rome. Train stations are weird and confusing, but they still offer such a unique and wonderful form of transportation.

When in Rome, we stayed very close to the Colosseum. It's wonderful to be in such a walkable city. It's amazing when something as massive, historical and well known serves as a city's backdrop that it eventually just becomes a part of daily life. If you live in Rome I guess it's just another (beautiful) building. And have you ever seen it from the inside? Just as cool.

"I'm basically like a unicorn to certain people."

We did a tour of the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. It was nice having a tour of the forum because -- at this point -- so much of it has been dismantled, so it can be difficult to truly get a sense of the place and what it used to be. But our tour guide was very good at making us see it for what it was. The remains of the forum can be seen in the photo below. 

One of the best things about this trip was that we were able to meet up with a lot of people in various countries. One of the hubs' coworkers was also on sabbatical and was visiting Rome at the same time, so we met up with he and his wife for dinner and drinks a couple of times. And, of course, we couldn't go to Rome without seeing Vatican City. If you follow me on Instagram then you probably saw photos and videos of the entire Vatican. The Sistine Chapel was great, but honestly, the map room right before the Sistine Chapel was everything.

Because there's simply so much to do there, we spent a lot of our time in Italy. This allowed us to do a day trip to the Amalfi Coast. We took a boat ride to Positano. You've probably seen a bevy of Positano photos on the gram. What can I say, it's a beautiful place. But the best way to get around is by walking. And when I say walking, I mean all. the. steps. 

The houses on the mountainside are gorgeous, and all the people were quite friendly. We had a lovely lunch there with a great view of the water. I will say that I've never walked as much on any vacation than I did on this one. All the cities in the Mediterranean are full of walkable streets. I think we did 17,000 steps that day.  And some were actual steps.

So, about that lunch. Like I said, we had a really good view of Positano and there were only two other couples at the restaurant.

Our lunch staples were very typical of what we ate on the entire trip: octopus, pasta and fish. Pretty much every octopus I ate was delicious. When we weren't eating fresh fish, we were eating fresh mussels.

And you might not think this, but the food in Rome wasn't as great as you'd think. But if you ordered the right dish, then it would hit the spot.

In the photo below you can see the drinks that the waiter made for us at the Positano restaurant.

We ordered two cocktails, but he actually gave us the two plus two extra on the house.

"I think we did 17,000 steps that day. And some were actual steps."

On the right is an Aperol Spritz. Now, going into this trip, I had heard a lot about the Aperol Spritz cocktail. I knew I had to try it: it's a Mediterranean staple! But boy, I had no idea what I was in for. No one told me how bitter they are! So I ended up ordering a spritz at least three times in the hopes that I would eventually like it. That never happened.

Note: I was too tired to edit these photos. They are presented in their raw form.