A Review of Our Honeymoon through Italy, Switzerland, and France
Brace yourselves – this is going to be a long post. Last month, after arriving in the U.K. FOR GOOD, Steve and I took a proper honeymoon. Because why wouldn’t I want to get on another plane a week after getting on a plane to come here? I seriously love having jetlag, guys. It’s my fave.
But seriously.
We decided to spend a week traveling continental Europe. I was so excited to check a few more places off of my travel bucket list that I jumped at the opportunity to do this. Most people tend to go on honeymoons that involve laying around on a beach in the sun for a week – while that does sound lovely, that’s not for me. And thankfully, for my husband, it’s not for him either. We’re not ones to sit around on holiday – we’re constantly on the go (probably why we’re always tired when coming back from a holiday…).
Our course of action was to fly down to Italy, travel via bus/train to Switzerland, France, and then finally back to London. Yea, exhausting, I know. Oh, and it was freezing the entire time – OF COURSE after we book a trip, a severe cold snap came through all of Europe (adorably referred to as the “Beast from the East”), with freezing temperatures, rain, and snow. I’m pretty sure I was a human icicle by the time we got back to London, but ya know, I survived.
We flew to Treviso from Stansted, using Ryanair – they’re pretty much the CHEAPEST airline for European travel, although don’t expect too much accomodation-wise. The flight was only about two hours though, so for the price, it’s definitely tolerable.
From Treviso, we made our way to our first stop – Venice! This was probably the part of the trip that I was most excited about, as I’ve always wanted to visit Venice. We got in pretty early, arrived at our Airbnb and rested for a bit (I needed a nap desperately since we had been up since 3:00 AM), and headed out to explore for the next two days.
I loved wandering around Venice. It’s so easy to get lost navigating the narrow streets and canals, which kind of adds to the appeal of the place in my opinion – you never know where you’re going to end up! We stayed about a 10 minute walk from Piazza San Marco, which is where all the action is. In the Piazza, there are so many things to do and some very prominent sights to see.
We visited Palazzo Ducale, also known as the Doge’s Palace – it is the one thing you should DEFINITELY see when visiting Venice. It’s absolutely incredible. The first word that comes to mind is “opulent” – just look at the architecture (I must say, when the Venetians do something, they do it RIGHT). Currently thinking of ways to model our first house after this with no money and without being called gaudy. ANYWAY.
After that, we went up San Marco Campanile, which is the bell tower of Basilica San Marco. From there, you can see all of Venice – the view is incredible! What wasn’t incredible was the wind. Between that and the freezing temperatures, we only lasted 5-10 minutes up there. Mainly because of me (#weakassbitch).
After our stay in Venice, we made our way to Milan – we only stayed there one night (because, you know, it’s Milan and it’s expensive). We stayed at StarHotels Business Palace, which was really nice, and not that far away from the main square, Piazza del Duomo. Since we only had one night there, we just spent it walking around the main square. We saw the Sforza Castle – it was pretty, but not much to see. The big sight we were excited to see was Il Duomo. While we didn’t get to go inside (the line was huge, and we were crunched for time), the outside alone was amazing enough. One of the largest Cathedrals in the world, it took about 600 years to be built. Damn.
After gawking at the Duomo (and taking shameless selfies outside it), we wandered around a bit more before heading back for dinner. But not before stopping to get some gelato! I mean, we couldn’t leave Italy without having a freakin gelato. It was worth my hand almost freezing off carrying it around as we walked. It was honestly heaven in my mouth. All other ice cream has been ruined for me (not really, but you get the idea). We also had legit, the most amazing pasta at this small restaurant right next to the hotel called Ristorante La Plancia. Everything was so fresh and delicious – I’m still dreaming about that gnocchi.
Next stop was Zurich, Switzerland. We spent two nights there, which, in hindsight, seemed like a good idea. That was before we realized just how expensive Zurich is. Have you ever been somewhere and thought to yourself, “We just LOOK like we can’t afford to be here”? Yea, that was us. Looking back, we should have spent two nights in Milan and one night in Zurich. I’m not saying that Zurich was not nice, because it was! It’s just insanely expensive. And that was probably the coldest part of the trip, which didn’t help. So we used this portion of the trip to take things easy and relax a bit. We went into the main part of the city both days, and I have to give it to Zurich – their public transportation is efficient as hell. It was so easy to navigate, despite everything being in German.
Our last stop on the trip was Paris. And let me just say – the trip ended on an extremely high note. We stayed at literally the most amazing hotel I’ve ever been to, CitizenM (I’ll be sharing a blog post on the hotel itself some other time). Again, it was absolutely freezing, and actually snowed a bit, but it was amazing. We saw the Eiffel Tower, and had THE MOST AMAZING DINNER OF OUR LIVES in it at 58 Tour Eiffel (a huge thank you to my Mother-in-Law for that wedding gift).
The Eiffel Tower blew us away – it made for the most beautiful pictures. It also lights up at night, making for a spectacular show. We could actually see it in the distance from our hotel room, which was pretty cool. We also took a visit Notre Dame and to the Sacre Coeur Basilica. Warning, though – it’s a hike to get to Sacre Coeur. I’m talking long walk, up flights and flights of steps. By the time we reached the top I was exhausted and winded. It was beautiful, though – it sits on top of a hill, where you can look out and see all of Paris from it. Definitely go out of your way to see it if you can.
I don’t have any pictures of the inside of the Sacre Coeur (or for the Basilica San Marco and Notre Dame) since you’re prohibited from doing so. A lot of people don’t listen to this, and I find it extremely rude and disrespectful. So when traveling and you visit a religious site such as these, don’t be a jerk – keep the pictures for the outside!
All in all, the trip was amazing – we got to visit places that we both had been dying to see. It was a trip full of walking (100,000+ steps), good eats, and awesome sights. It took a lot of traveling to get to and from each place. We actually used several modes of transportation, which I’ve linked below.
Ryanair
FlixBus
GoEuro
EuroStar
What are some of the places you visited, or always wanted to? Let me know in the comments!
xx Lauren
