Katie & Justin

Oh, Italy. With its amazing views, good food and fun people, there’s no place quite like it.

As most of you already know, I’ve been obsessed with Italy ever since I spent a semester in Rome, so I was beyond excited to go back there with Justin for our honeymoon. We had such an incredible time traveling around the country and experiencing so many of the different scenes Italy has to offer. I could gush on and on about how perfect our trip turned out — even despite a few minor hiccups!

LAKE COMO

We landed in Milan late in the evening on Sept. 2 after having been stuck at the airport in Paris all day due to a missed connection (one of the hiccups, haha). I was so worried our rental car wasn’t going to be there for us any more, but thankfully it was — and in true Italian style, we got an adorable black Fiat with a convertible top! Only problem was we couldn’t figure out how to turn it on…

Justin ended up getting a nice little driving lesson from a guy who barely spoke English (“left is stop”) and we were on our way. Our first destination was about an hour drive to Varenna, a small town along Lake Como. It was dark, pouring rain (“How do you turn the windshield wipers on?”), and we were trying to navigate winding mountain roads. Not to mention the foreign road signs and crazy Italian drivers! I’m still amazed we found our apartment at all considering the final road up the mountain didn’t even look like it was meant for cars.

After parking (“Is this the parking lot?”), we had to climb through a big apartment complex to find our unit. It felt like we were trapped in a maze as I read over the directions to climb up stairs, go left, go right, go left, climb down stairs, go right, go left, go right, climb up stairs, keep climbing, and climb some more. (“If you get lost, just keep going up,” the directions read.) It was still raining and still pitch black. And at this point it was midnight and we were going on two days with no sleep. We reached what we thought was our apartment but couldn’t open the lock. The directions specifically said it was tricky to open, so we struggled with it for some time before ultimately calling for help and learning we were not at the right apartment. It was the one next-door, haha.

Finally, and miraculously, we made it!

The next morning Justin was in for a treat. (I handled all of our accommodations, and Justin didn’t want to see any pictures beforehand so he would be surprised.) Our living room had floor-to-ceiling windows that provided a breathtaking view of the lake and the mountains, which you couldn’t even see the night before because it had been so dark. Our rough trip in was well worth it after all.

We spent the day walking around beautiful Varenna, exploring the gardens of an old villa and kayaking across Lake Como. And finally got that first taste of authentic Italian food — so darn good!

During dinner that night at a restaurant on the water, it started pouring rain again. We had quite a hike ahead of us to get near the top of the mountain again where our apartment was. Going down hadn’t been so bad, but climbing up is another story…

When it seemed like there was a lull, we made a run for it from the restaurant. The rain quickly started up again so we paused when we made it to a tunnel along the lake. With a bottle of wine in hand, we thought we could wait out the rain there in the tunnel — until I accidentally broke the corkscrew! Oops, haha.

We made a run for it again, charging up the mountain road. On our way down earlier that day we had noticed several hidden paths — stairs that cut through the winding road and eventually brought you down to the town. We tried taking these back up, but we weren’t sure when to stop taking the stairs and cut over back to the road. We very easily could have bypassed the turn to our road but again — miraculously — we stopped right at the correct spot and made it home. Phew!

With perfect weather the next day, we explored more of the lake on a tiny tour boat and then sorta got tricked into seeing a museum. (I had promised Justin before we left we wouldn’t do any museums or churches.) I had talked on the phone to our captain, Luca, the day before and he went on and on about something I couldn’t understand. All I knew is that he said the boat leaves at 11:00 a.m. Perfect.

Turns out he was probably telling me how his boat tour also includes a stop and guided tour of Villa Balbianello, the former home to an Italian explorer and art collector. Though we weren’t quite sure what was going on when Luca dropped us off at the villa, it ended up not being so bad. The gorgeous property was originally a monastery and then became the palace of a cardinal. The last owner, the explorer, left the villa to the National Trust of Italy after his death. He had filled it with all kinds of artifacts and items from his expeditions. The grounds around the villa were also covered with beautiful gardens. So it wasn’t so bad to visit. Justin survived, haha.

Next stop: Verona

To be continued…

To see all of our pictures from Italy, click here for our photo albums and then click on “honeymoon.” Descriptions will show up when you click on a picture.