Had an amazing 9 days in Italy and promised a report back

Hello! And thank you again for all the tips we received in advance of our trip to Italy. I had promised a few people that I would report back. First of all, I would strongly recommend going to Europe again! We are fully vaccinated, and wherever we went (Delta, Airlines, our hotels, museums, churches, restaurants, Pompeii, Herculaneum, Paestum, Capri, Amalfi, Ravello, the Naples Archeological Museum, the ferries), they check to make certain that you have your white CDC vaccine card. (Don't be confused - they'll ask for your "Green Pass," but all you need to do is show your CDC vaccine card and passport.) The only place we found not checking were open air restaurants and also the bus back to Sorrento from Amalfi. Some places also took your temperature. We felt much more secure, even in very crowded places, against the virus in Italy (where there is a very high vaccination rate and indoor mask compliance) than in the US, where our federal government has been genuinely trying, but is often hitting an inexplicable anti-vaccination brick wall. We successfully used the Abbott BinaxNow self administered (but proctored) antigen test. It was accepted by Delta Airlines for the flight to Italy as well as when we showed it to the Italian authorities at the airport for the return flight home to the US. We found this test extremely easy to use, and we waited about 30 seconds (maybe not even) for a proctor each time. Results are immediately emailed to you. We highly recommend this test. Because it's been nearly two years since anyone has been able to travel to Europe, the guidebooks and audio tours, (and we of course used Rick Steves), are understandably slightly out of date with respect to new entrances and rules as a result of the current covid mitigations. For example, in Pasteum and in Pompeii, they have you entering in a completely different place, making following Rick's tours more challenging to follow correctly, but we did figure it out - sort of. In Paestum (which is the greatest place by the way) we took the tour in reverse, because they have you entering in a completely different place. Pompeii was harder to reconcile with our downloaded walking tour, again because of directional changes. Our favorite place, hands down, was Paestum. I would strongly recommend that you stay to seem Paestum at night. It is breathtaking. The place we would not go to again (but are still glad we visited) was Capri. Naples was also not our favorite (maybe because I drove there, and driving there is crazy), but the archeological museum is incredible and absolutely worth braving Naples for. We did walk a lot along back allies of Naples where we smelled the most wonderful foods (it was a Sunday afternoon and dinners were being prepared). I'm a historian, so maybe this explains my next comment - we spent double (and in Paestum triple) the time recommend in Rick's guide book everywhere we went, except for Capri. However, we had the luxury this trip (and this is the first time we were able to do this) to devote an entire day to each place we went (though we did do Positano, Amalfi and Ravello in one very long day). This enabled us to fully enjoy the place. We are so grateful to be travelling again! I'm already planning the next trip!