Honeymoon Planning

The tickets have been purchased…we are officially going to Italy!

We started talking about where we might like to go last year.  We knew for sure we were leaving the country.  Neither of us have ever left North America so we had to apply for passports. I looked up all of the information online and filled out our paperwork. We went into the Post Office about a half an hour before they closed.  There were literally no other people inside besides the employees.

I barely had the words out of my mouth that we’d like to apply for passports when the lady proved the USPS’s quest for complete uselessness and she said that we needed an appointment for that.  She dismissed us and I said “uhhhh can we make an appointment then?” “What date and time?”  “Thursday at 2pm.”  She seemed so bothered as she pulled out some personal appointment book and wrote our appointment down in pencil.  It was like I had time warped back to the 1950s.  “Okay you’re all set for 12:30.”  “Well that’s not the time I said.  The time I said is 2pm.”  I know the USPS hates me as much as I hate them.

At our scheduled appointment I pulled out all of our forms to be mailed.  I had typed most of it but filled in a couple of answers in pen that I didn’t have the answers to originally.  I handed over the forms and she said “This can’t be in blue ink.  Has to be black.”

I’m pretty sure she made that rule up but she literally handed me all of my stuff back like I wasn’t about to get my passport and tried to get ready for the next person.  I grabbed a black pen and re-wrote over the information and shoved it back to her.  No fucking way was I coming back a third time.  She accepted our forms and took our birth certificates.  I wasn’t aware that you had to mail your original b.c. with your forms and they mail it back to you but thankfully we received our passports and our certificates back without a problem.

My first choice for the honeymoon was Greece but Joey was worried about the “civil unrest.”  He really wanted to go to Italy and it didn’t take much to convince me.  Who doesn’t want to go to Italy?

Rachelle referred me to her friend who has been to Italy a few times and got married there.  He gave me a rundown of some major cities and the pros and cons of each.  Between the info he gave me and researching online, we ultimately decided to go to Rome, Florence and Venice, with most of our time spent in Rome.  I also wanted to visit Lake Como but it’s going to be pretty cold in northern Italy during that time so we opted out of it.  George Clooney will just have to get along without me!

Originally we were planning on flying into Venice, then taking the train (Europe apparently has an awesome train system) to Florence, then down to Rome and leave from Rome.  This did not turn out to be feasible because one way tickets to Italy are almost as expensive as round trip airfare.

We considered using a travel agent but for some reason most of the agencies here don’t do European travel, and the one we spoke to that does said that they don’t really save you any money but offer guidance navigating, so we decided to book all of the details on our own.

The process has been grueling.  Finding an affordable flight without multiple stops or a super long layover time proved to be tough.  We ended up booking through Expedia.  If you’re just booking a flight I would recommend going straight to the airline but since we were doing a flight and hotel package it ended up being much cheaper through Expedia.

I’ve been looking up tours and day trips at viator.com.  It seems to have great reviews and I am all about experiencing as much as possible!  One of the more annoying things I have encountered while planning is when I am looking for the best things to do around the country and there are lists that say “watch the sunset” and “take a walk.” WOW I was not going to do those things until you told me, thank you for the helpful guide!

If you’ve ever been to Italy I would love any advice or input!  I can’t wait!!!