Our Dreamy Honeymoon: Italy, France, Belgium
EZ HONEYMOON 2016
We are so excited to share with you this vacation of a lifetime. These were some of our most favorite places in Belgium, France and Italy! We will highlight each of the places we visited. We’ll tell you our favorite areas, things we did, places we saw, delicious foods we ate, tips for travel, and much more. Enjoy!
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
BEER, BARS, BUILDINGS & BOMB FOODS! What a way to start our honeymoon! Belgium is one of the most fun and liveliest places we have visited. The pubs here stay open until 4am, their copper taps are beautiful, and their flights of beers are amazing. Belgium beers are so tasty! The cobblestone streets are filled with food shops, waffle trucks, bars, and music. “A food lover's dream. A beer lover's heaven.” they say!
There are beautiful, massive buildings, with real gold trimmings. Just walking around the city, there is so much to see. Belguim offers tons of free walking tours, where you can learn all about the history of the city. We decided to go on a beer tour instead, where we had a personal one on one tour with a local and fellow beer lover. He took us around the city to a handful of local pubs, where he taught us all about Brussels, it’s beer history, and other random historical fun facts! I found some of my favorite beers because of this wonderful tour. We got LIT with our tour guide, and he ended up buying us even more rounds after our tour was over. It was a blast! We learned about the Royal family and where they shop. These shops have the royal brand on each of their shop signs. One of our favorites we learned about were the chocolatier shop they buy from called Mary’s. We got to sample some of their chocolates and truffles! Our favorite was Mary’s Strawberry Champagne Truffles. YUM! (You can order these amazing bites of heaven online! www.mary.be/en/online-shop) We definitely recommend doing a beer pub tour with a local!
Waffles are one thing the Belgians don't mess around with. Now, if you’ve never had a REAL Belgium waffle, you better make this happen soon. Eating a plain Belgium waffle is definitely life changing and should be on your bucket list. Nuff said.
While in Belgium, we decided to take a day trip to Ghent and Bruges. You can do these both in a day! Both are awesome and cute little cities. They’re full of great food and drinks, canals, parks, street art, markets, beautiful architecture, and more!
You will fall in love with BELGIUM. The end.
Erika’s favorite part: Beer Pub Tour
Zach’s favorite part: Checking out all the local bars and breweries and learning about their beer culture
PARIS, FRANCE
Paris, the city of love, so full of charm! We spent a few days here exploring the city. We walked all over, rode the subway around town, rented bikes to ride throughout the city, and ate and drank as much as we could. We found some awesome rooftop bars, saw a Moulin Rouge show, visited tons of museums, had a picnic at the Eiffel Tower, saw it light up at night time, and so much more! The city of Paris is ginormous and there are endless things you can do. Our two favorite museums: Louvre Paris and Musée d'Orsay! Throughout the city there are many gardens to walk through, endless pastries to eat, crepes to try, markets to explore, and wines to taste. The Eiffel tower is quite a sight to see! It’s beautiful in the day time, and magical at night when it’s lit up. One day we decided to grab a baguette, fruit, and wine from a nearby market and take a seat with this Eiffel view. We picnicked in the grass, enjoyed our foods, and just soaked in those views.
Moulin Rouge was definitely on my bucket list before coming to visit Paris, and I am so glad we got tickets to go! They are a little pricey, but oh so worth it! We were treated very well at the Moulin Rouge. We had wonderful seats for the show- and the show itself was spectacular! Our table had macaroons and champagne awaiting us as we sat down. Everything about this night was so and exciting. One of our highlights from Paris, for sure.
Another highly recommended activity you do when in Paris is to take a day trip to Champagne, France. Why? Because bubbly is always a good choice. We booked most of our tours on our Honeymoon through Viator.com. We went with a small group tour of about 6-8 people and spent the day sipping champagne, learning the brewing process, and exploring the local regions (with lunch included too!) Sippin’ champagne in Champagne, is another little somethin’ to add to your bucket list! DO IT.
We enjoyed our time in Paris, but were super excited and ready to explore Italy. So- Au revoir, France!
Erika’s favorite part: MOULIN ROUGE!
Zach’s favorite part: Day trip to Champagne, Italy
VENICE, ITALY
This was personally my absolute favorite city out of our entire trip. Venice is a city filled with beautiful canal ‘streets’ you can explore on foot and by boat. Roaming the city’s quiet alleyways and colorful corners is a dream. The general rule to follow in Venice is if you don't get lost, you're not doing it right. There are so many bridges connecting these beautiful water canals, historic arches, and colorful homes and buildings. There is over four hundred bridges total connecting these tiny islands. Whoa!
Venice…A.K.A. food HEAVEN! Here we ate our way through plenty of seafood, fresh pastas, pizzas, tasty gelatos and desserts, and of course all the amazing wines. Oh! And I discovered my love for tiramisu here. (*my mouth is currently watering) In Venice, you’ll find the best restaurants! Just as long as you find where the locals go, and not where the tourists end up. We tried some unique and some classic dishes like squid-ink spaghetti, risotto with prawns and zucchini, stuffed crab shells, fresh lasagna, wood fired pizzas, truffle sauces, peccorino and parmesan cheeses, the list goes on…need I say more?
We walked the cobblestone streets at night with a couple of Moretti’s, (local delicious beers) watched live music, people dancing, and all the smiling faces around us. Watching the sunset bounce off the sea’s lagoons was super beautiful and calming.
Oh, how I wish we could go back!
One thing we were pretty excited for, but ended up being kind of a bust was our romantic gondola ride… or should I say, ehhh, not so romantic. The iconic gondola rides in Venice are a bit expensive, somewhat short, and are incredibly touristy. We found something similar that was one thousand times better. Just follow these simple steps. Step one, get a bottle of wine and two glasses. Step two, find a quiet spot at end of a street, right off a canal and take a comfortable seat. Step three, sit, sip and watch the gondolas go by! We enjoyed our bottle of wine with lots of conversation, peacefulness, and a beautiful scenery. This was so much more intimate and romantic watching the gondolas go by. HIGHLY recommend this instead of paying over a hundred bucks for a gondola ride. And yes, you can drink on the streets! Can I get an amen!?
As we stayed in Venice for about 4 days, we made sure to take a day trip to the most colorful town in Europe: Burano! We booked a day trip to see both Murano and Burano. Murano is known for their world famous glass blowing, and Burano is the cutest most colorful town there is, but is also known for it’s lace work and beautiful homes!
Murano was awesome to see the different glass blowing factories. We got to go inside of a glass blowing workshop and saw how a man made a glass blown horse. It was pretty rad to see how it was done. In all of the different shops, there was so much beautiful glass art. Chandeliers, jewelry, statues, animals, and more! Venetian glass is gorgeous, and VERY expensive- but pretty to look at! Take your time here and enjoy all the views. Side note: We would have loved to actually take a glass blowing class here. But, I guess there’s always next time!
Burano is like a giant rainbow, full of fun, bright colors — which is also the perfect place for that great Venice photo-op. SO. MANY. BRIGHT. COLORS. Burano is also a working fisherman’s island, which means you can get super-fresh seafood here—for a fraction of the price that it would be over the lagoon in Venice. So take advantage of this! Here we enjoyed a day full of exploring, eating, sight seeing, and of course— more getting lost. We even took a quick trip to the real Venice beach, and wrote bikes around the island! If you have the extra time, book a bed and breakfast in Burano and enjoy the night here. Definitely recommend visiting these two places! Venice, we love you.
Erika’s favorite part: Sipping on some wine, watching gondolas go by while enjoying each other.
Zach’s favorite part: Aimlessly walking around and exploring the unique water passage ways and drinking all the WINE.
FLORENCE, ITALY
Our view from our hotel
Our next stop, Florence! We took a train from Venice to Florence, (our first train trip!) which was a quick couple hour trip. Once we got to the beautiful city of Florence, we immediately began exploring the shit out of this amazing place. We market hopped, ate all the gelatos we could, tried Prosciutto e Melone, discovered what a Prosciutteria was, climbed to the top of the Duomo for incredible views, saw the bronze replica of Michelangelo's David & panoramic views over the city, the list goes on! This city is home to many masterpieces of Renaissance art and architecture.
I believe we had the best food of our entire honeymoon here in Florence. I found my favorite restaurant here! La Giostra, I still dream of the pasta I had. Ravioli di pecorino di fossa e pere williams. A.K.A. Homemade ravioli filled with pear and pecorino cheese in a light butter sauce. Queue the drooling. This place was SO amazing! You HAVE to go here if you make it to Florence. The owner of the restaurant walks around his place, greeting and chatting with everyone. The walls are filled with frames of the owner and tons and tons of celebrities. We had the ultimate date night here. Vino for days, apps, fresh pasta, breads, dessert- all the works. I wish we had more photos of all of our delicious foods, but we we’re too quick to eat everything.
Here’s a picture of this dreamy restaurant below!
Throughout the rest of Florence, we went on a Chianti wine tour where we were able to explore a handful of vineyards. From our open hotel window we watched the sunsets sipping bottles of wine. We would spend most of our days just walking through the town multiple bridges, filled with markets and the perfect amount of people to people watch. We hung out on our rooftop pool at our hotel and just soaked every second of this beautiful place. The weather was amazing, and we loved every moment.
Another honeymoon highlight spent was during our last day in Florence, where we hiked through famous CINQUE TERRE. We wanted to live the rest of our days in this damn place. We began by taking a train to one of Cinque Terre’s five towns and hiked from there to another little town called Riomaggiore. Each little village town is built into the mountains that is directly oceanside. This particular village we hiked to was like finding the end of a rainbow amidst the mountainous coast line. The mountains were so green, with the ocean so bright and blue. One of the most epic and beautiful places we have ever seen.
We got to explore all over this little gem. We shared wood fired pizza, a bottle of Cinque Terre wine, tried some beers, sampled some different limoncello (what they are known for here), and of course enjoyed MORE gelato. Such a beautiful place, with so much to offer! If we could go back, we would definitely stay a couple nights here and experience the other four little towns. As our time in this city came to an end, once again, we fell in love with Italy slightly more.
Erika’s favorite part: Hiking through Cinque Terre
Zach’s favorite part: Sitting on bridge of one of the canals, watching the sunset, while sipping vino.
ROME, ITALY
Our last destination in our honeymoon (sadly enough) was the lovely, Roma! We could have spent weeks in each of the cities we visited in Italy and would still not be able to experience all of the history, culture, and food these places have to offer…especially in Roma, the capital city. We took our last train from Florence to Rome, which was another surreal experience watching the beautiful Italian scenery rush by you. Once we got to Rome and checked into our chic hotel- we were ready to devour all the foods.
In Florence is where we found an ‘original’ prosciutteria shop, and we discovered there was a second shop in Rome! We loved this place so much we had to come back for seconds!! What is this amazing place we speak of? It’s called La Prosciutteria, a wine, cheese, and meats board specialty shop. This place had meats curing and hanging from the ceiling, a huge case of cheeses to pick from, homemade jams, fresh breads, fruits, nuts, olives, YOU NAME IT. The list of wine was extensive, with so many good choices! These delicious bites were served on a beautiful piece of wood with the cutest little pots and wooden spoons. It brought all the homie feels. The tables here even had two spots to hold your wine glasses on the wall. Like c’mon! We had the most EPIC charcuterie board of our life here. The picture just doesn’t do it justice. An amazing cheese board is definitely the way to my heart. We need someone in Tucson to bring this concept here!!! (hint hint) We’re still waiting. *long sigh* Take us back to Italy.
Throughout our several days in Rome, we had a schedule packed full of activities! One of which was of course, a wine tour! Our favorite vino tour (out of about 4 wine tours we took on our honeymoon) began here in Rome. We wined our way through lots of vineyards in Tuscany. This was a very small group tour, which was nice since it was a lot more personalized and intimate. This tour took us to (now) some of our favorite wine regions of Italy, which introduced us to some of our favorite variatals we love. These three being Siena, Pienza, Montepulciano and Montalcino. We took a walking tour around the medieval hill-town of Montepulciano, their wines were so yum! The scenery there is like a painted landscape. This part was our fav. With a day full of wine tasting, we were ready for some lunch. We got to sit down and relax with a locally produced 3-coursed menu on a Tuscan farm. The foods, wines, and views were all amazing.
It was definitely a perfect day.
The rest of our time in Roma was spent exploring every little piece of the Eternal city that we could! A couple days were spent exploring Vatican City and the Trastevere neighborhood, seeing the ruins at the Colosseum, walking through the famous Palatine Hill, exploring St. Peter’s Basilica, and seeing the Roman Forum. We took some lovely strolls through the heart of Rome, visiting sights such as the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, and the Trevi Fountain (..and heck yes we threw a penny in there!)
We would grab pizza and fresh pasta whenever we could! One of my favorite meals in Rome was very simple. We grabbed some fresh wood fired pizza from a little hole in the wall pizzeria, took our box of goodies nearby to find a seat. We found some steps outside of a busy square, which was the perfect place to people watch while we sipped on our bottle of wine and soaked in our last nights there in Roma. At night the squares come alive with tons of dancing, street artists, music and everything is beautifully lit. Such a charming place to be!
On our second to last day, we decided to go on a walking food tour. This tour took us to about 5 different food stops, with a bite to eat at each place paired with some vino, spritz, or aperitivo. The food was fantastic and the price of the tour was completely reasonable. We meet some fellow travelers who gave us some amazing advice, that we wish we knew at the beginning of our trip. It’s a little something called Eatwith.com. We took the advice of this couple and booked an experience with Eatwith for our very last night in town. This experience was by far one of our most favorite things of the entire trip, and a perfect way to end our dreamy honeymoon. Let me tell you about it!
If you’ve never heard of EatWith, it’s a website that allows locals in popular cities around the world to host activities such as dinner parties, cooking classes, and different culinary events usually in their own homes. Basically AIRBNB for eating! The events are super intimate, full of passionate people, an overall magical experience.
The dinner party was held in the famous Trastevere neighborhood, upstairs in the sweetest lady’s little loft apartment. Her and her family are a true roman family. They welcomed us with warm hugs, flower crowns, o’droves, and LOTS of wine. We enjoyed a delicious five course meal made from scratch. The atmosphere was great, and the company was even better. We met people from all over the world! Israel, Russia, France, Germany, Canada, there was even someone from Phoenix, Arizona at the party too! Such a fun, cool, unique experience. We highly recommend to anyone looking for a fantastic night. We had so much fun meeting and sparking conversations with new people, trying all the amazing dishes our host cooked up, and mingling the night away. The drinks were flowing and everything was absolutely perfect. It was truly a unique and amazing experience, and one we will never forget!
