Sorry for the delay. We have been busy with work, other weddings, and travel.
We absolutely loved our trip to Italy. Everything you planned worked out perfectly and traveling in style was a nice perk. We really felt like VIPs. It was great simply showing up and having either a guide or driver there ready to take us where we needed to go.
I, personally, loved Venice. Liassidi Palace Hotel was great and we had an amazing room. Jacque gets a little motion/sea sick, so Venice was not exactly her favorite. She did think the city was beautiful though! It was great being picked up by a private water taxi there. I can tell why George Clooney decided to get married there, very beautiful city! The walking tour of Venice, St. Mark’s, and the Doge’s Palace was great. The Gondola ride was a great way to see the city, however our gondolier must have been in a bad mood because he wasn’t the most friendly (comparing to the other gondoliers we observed in the city).
We loved Florence, we agreed that Florence was our favorite city. I loved seeing the David, the Uffizi, and the walking tour of Italy. Jacque and I both loved the cooking class and Tuscan vespa tour. The chefs were fantastic to work with, our table was a fun group to be with during the class, and of course the food was incredible. We walked the city a few times over and loved recalling famous events that took place there.
Sorrento and the surrounding area (Capri, Ravello, Amalfi, and Positano) is beautiful. We loved our pool overlooking the Gulf of Naples. Enzo was a great driver who picked us up at the train station and took us around. Our balcony also had a great view of the Gulf and Vesuvius. We loved our tour of Pompeii. Our guide was fantastic! Mr. Cuomo was a great driver as well for the driving tour of the coast. The boat tour to Capri was fantastic. We had a small group and got to sit on the front of the boat on the padded mats. They brought us drinks when we wanted and they gave us a great sandwich for our time on Capri. We walked the beach and rented another vespa for a few hours and drove the whole island. The views from the road way up above the city of Capri were fantastic. We loved swimming in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the back of the boat. The grottoes were very cool to see as well (We did not do the tourist trap Blue grotto. Thanks for that suggestion!)
Rome was beautiful, as all of Italy we visited was. It is definitely a major world city and you can tell that while there. Our hotel was nice, conveniently located about 10 minute walking distance from the Colosseum. The Colosseum, Forum, and Palatine Hill tour was great! The Vatican tour was so-so. It was awe-striking to see the wealth of statues, paintings, tapestries, and edifices in the Vatican, however it was so busy we often got almost a full room behind our guide and our headphones started losing signal. The Sistine Chapel is incredible to see and our guide did a great job describing it before we went into the museum, however the reverence/sanctity of the chapel was lost with the guards yelling “SILENCE! NO PHOTO! NO VIDEO!” every 5-10 seconds either into a microphone or manually. St. Peter’s was incredible to see. We went to the Trevi Fountain, but it was under construction and there was no water in it. Our driver to the airport was great.
The food was incredible in Italy, we had many great meals. We thank you for the suggestions you gave us for restaurants. Everyone you had helping us along our way was great. The trains were so slick getting us from city to city. It was a busy vacation, but we felt we saw a lot of Italy in not a lot of time and got the best value that way. We had a wonderful honeymoon that we will never forget. We did not want to leave. Thank you again for all your hard work!
Best regards,
Jacqueline Porter & Brian Mirr
