My husband and I married on a Friday in late August and then embarked on our epic 3 week european honeymoon. What we deem to be a once in a lifetime trip and it only exceeded our expectations. We planned for well over a year, prepared well in advance with work, and SAVED!
We are a gay couple that met in Vermont and we love good food and beautiful mountains, which we plan to fill our future with! We each packed only a backpack, which was perfect - surprisingly too as we experienced basically all that mother nature can throw at you! (we laundered our clothes twice)
Itinerary: BOSTON TO ROME (2 nights, 1 full day) >am train,taxi> ORTISEI/SANKT ULRICH (4 nights, 3 full days) >early am private car> ST. MORITZ (1 night) >glacier express> ZERMATT ( 2 nights, 1 full days) >train> CHAMONIX (2 nights, 1 full day) >private car> MONFORTE D'ALBA (2 nights, 1 full day) >private car> CORNIGLIA CINQUE TERRE ( 4 nights, 3 full days) > am train> ROME (1 night) >late pm flight> Boston
We arrived in Rome on 8/28 and it was hot! They are in the middle of an extreme drought apparently and it was over 100* F during the day when we were there. We still made the most of it and saw everything! I am a huge ancient rome nerd and i ate it all up. Colosseum in the morning before it was too crazy, lunch right at the touristy canteen at the bus stop. The colosseum tour we purchased included a tour of the palatine too! It was beautiful and the heat seemed to make the beautiful ancient red tones stand out even more. The dusty avenues of the palatine were ours in the bright sun and the tour guide really set the scene for us. Our hotel was the Palace Navona which was right off the piazza Navona. Navona is the perfect central location, you can walk to everything from there and the piazza is impressive! We loved having dinner here at night when the city came alive! We couldn't wait to come back to the city for one more taste before we left.
Off to Ortisei in the Dolomites. we took the fast train second class, always went 1st after that. The temperature in the mountains was PERFECT. Truly a relief from the inferno of Rome. We got off the train in Bolzano and taxied right to Hotel Grones our destination of relaxation. I cannot say enough good things about the hotel. Our next european trip will be directly to this place. When the taxi took us up the windy gorge towards the alpine valley literally my breath was taken away when I caught a glimpse of one of the dramatic Dolomite peaks, Langkofel. The hospitality and views here are out of this world. It snowed our last night!
Off to St. Moritz. We splurged and hired a private car to bring us over the mountains and directly to our hotel. We found that spending the money and saving on travel time was a valuable tool for getting the most out of our days. Also this was one of the hardest connections for me to figure out how to make. St. Moritz was beautiful but my big memory from there is how expensive everything is! - and they don't accept euros!! We are amateurs... but we are here for the train!
I was a little nervous about the Glacier Express because I had read so many mixed reviews. But we loved it! We got the first train off to Chur and then the journey to Zermatt. The audio guide was great, with snipets of ancient and traditional music and a Rick Steves worthy narration full of stories of princes, monasteries, hoteliers, really setting the picture for the classic train travel of yore. The vibrancy of the green in the alpine meadows was captivating and the trains windows let you soak in the beauty. We got the full meal plan, which as recommended really helps break up the long journey.
Arriving in Zermatt we settled into the honeymoon suite at the Alpenlodge, with what could have been the best views in town of local behemoth, the Matterhorn.
OMG I NEED MORE ROOM.... more to come i guess...
-Sam