On September 3rd, we flew from India to Milan and got to our Airbnb near Rovereto. We stayed in a shared accommodation where we had a room for ourselves and the host served us authentic Italian breakfast.

On our first day out in the beautiful city of Milan, we went around in the metro and tram. Milano Centrale was one of the most beautiful railway stations that we came across in Italy.

We first visited Duomo di Milano, a marvellous cathedral that seemed like the most visited tourist attraction in the city. We climbed all the stairs up to its roof. We also got the chance to watch the Sunday mass from a distance.

We walked to Galleria Vittorio Emanuelle II, one of the oldest shopping malls in the world. We had a good look at the high-end branded stores such as Prada, Louis Vuitton, Versace, and Ferrari. Ferrari had a Formula-One sports car on display and a simulator with it for people to try on.

We had our lunch at Spontini, where they served the yummiest large pizza slices. One slice made me happy full! I was thrilled to see that they had more vegetarian options than non-veg. Woo hoo!

Next, we headed to Sforzesco Castle. It covered a massive space; we walked around the whole place. There was a music band performing right outside the castle.

After a long and tiring walk around the castle, we were off to San Siro stadium, the official football stadium of Inter Milan and AC Milan. Since it was an international break at that time, we missed the opportunity to watch a match. Nevertheless, we thoroughly enjoyed the stadium tour.

We then managed to get to Navigli ahead of the aperitivo buffet that started at 18:00. The sellers on the streets made the place colourful and exuberant. There were several artists who put up their paintings and other work for sale. We bought a few photographs, which were taken in the early 1900s, of the places that we visited in Milan. We had a good aperitivo buffet at one of the busiest restaurants on the banks of the canal in Navigli.
After that wholesome meal, we took the tram back to the apartment.

On our third day in Italy, we took the regional train from Milan to Varenna-Esino in the morning.
From Varenna-Esino, we took the ferry to Bellagio, a tranquil Italian town located on the banks of Lake Como.

Lake Como looked heavenly; no wonder celebrities like George Clooney and Madonna have villas on its banks! We spent the day hanging around in Bellagio—having lunch at a pretty restaurant facing the lake, eating gelati, and walking around in the park.
Before the sun went down, we took the regional train from Varenna-Esino back to Milan.


On our fourth day in Italy, we took the early morning inter-city train from Milan to Monterosso. Our host went nuts to see us get up early in the morning.

At Monterosso, we bought a Cinque Terre Treno MS card each for going on the walking trails and for unlimited travel on the trains between the five villages of Cinque Terre. We were warned by the lady at the counter to be careful with our backpack and valuables for they have some regular pickpocketers on the local train. Cinque Terre is a national park consisting of five beautiful fishing villages.

We chose to go on the blue walking trail from Monterosso to Vernazza, which was of “medium” difficulty. It took us 2 hours to cover a meagre distance of 3km. We walked on narrow pathways through grape farms, with deep mountain slopes on one side, and climbed steep steps. This was indeed the most adventurous experience of our entire trip and we thoroughly enjoyed the adrenaline rush. The trail, for the longest time, was facing the coast of captivating, ink-blue waters.
To treat ourselves for successfully completing the walking trail without much scratches, we ate lots of gelati at Vernazza and sat on the beach drinking red wine, discussing life.
Unlike most of the tourists who visited Cinque Terre, we didn’t stay there overnight. Instead, we took the train back to Monterosso to catch the inter-city train back to Milan in the evening.

On day 5, we took the super fast and super cool Frecciarossa train from Milano Centrale to Napoli Centrale. The train went at a speed of 300km/hr! Naples welcomed us with a light shower. We took out our lifesaver Popy umbrellas and managed to get to our Airbnb.
We had to be extra careful with our bags in Naples since the city was infamous for muggers. We went around in the city and shopped for our family back home. Pizza originated in Naples! We ordered a pizza for takeaway at L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele, one of the most popular and really crowded pizza joints in town. Neapolitan pizzas are not bland at all; chili oil drip from them; and they are truly divine. Naples is also famous for its assorted Nutella desserts.


The next day, we took the early morning Caremar ferry from Naples to Capri.

Here’s an itinerary that helped us plan the day: Capri in a Day. We missed the opportunity to visit the Blue Grotto because of the high tide that day. So we took the Red line boat tour around the island. Although both of us felt a little sea sick, the ride was awe-inspiring. From Marina Grande, we took the bus to Anacapri; from there, we took the chairlift to the top of Mount Solaro and witnessed the most breathtaking view of our lives. We took the chairlift back to Anacapri and visited villa San Michele. We walked around in the island, took a sip each of limoncello mistaking it for some popular lime juice, and ate a lot of gelati.

Capri was undoubtedly the most beautiful of all places that we visited in Italy. The island’s beauty really took a while to sink in. We took roads less taken by tourists and roamed around in Anacapri—checking out the beautiful white houses with colourful doors and pretty number plates.
Although we just couldn’t have enough of Capri, we took the ferry back to Naples late in the evening.

Our day 6 in Italy was the least planned. We got up too late to find time to go to Mount Vesuvius, one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world. So we took the Circumvesuviana train from Naples to Sorrento.

Sorrento was a beautiful and posh coastal town that looked like it was from a movie set. We bought the most beautiful souvenir fridge magnets, key rings, and postcards from shops in this enchanting little town. We went to one of the private beaches and took a good swim in the crystal-clear water.
We spent the rest of the day loosening up in Sorrento and got back to Naples by evening.


The next day, we took the Frecciarossa train from Napoli Centrale to Roma Termini. We stayed in an Airbnb shared accommodation in Rome as well.
We spent the afternoon in the smallest country in the world, Vatican City. We visited the glorious Vatican Museums. We walked around pretty much the entire country, all of 0.44 square kilometre.
From Vatican, we walked to Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, and further to the Trevi Fountain by night.

Piazza Navona was a lively and delightful square, packed with twinkly people and street performers.

The Pantheon was so much more than what we saw in pictures online. We were in awe of its colossal dome roof. We also caught a jolly bride and groom walk out of the cathedral after their wedding mass.

The Trevi Fountain was dazzling at night. From its pictures online, we didn’t expect such a big crowd in front of the fountain. Nonetheless, this fountain, I felt, spread so much joy around (it could also have been the red wine that I had just had for dinner) that you just want to give your partner a nice, long kiss. I tossed a coin at the fountain to make a wish. I later read about this coin-tossing-wish on the Internet; it is believed that you will soon be back in Rome if you toss a coin at the Trevi Fountain. Well, I hope I’m back further north in Milan because that’s my favourite Italian city. On a serious note, the authorities collect all the coins to help the needy in Rome.

On our 9th and last day in Italia, we visited the Roman Forum, the Palatine Hill, and the Colosseum. There were long queues to see all three of these attractions, which are also closer to each other. I was a little disappointed with the way the Colosseum looked; most of it was destroyed by earthquakes over the years and attacked by stone robbers. Well, I’m the kind of person who was disappointed even with the way the Taj Mahal looked. Notwithstanding the way it presently looks, the Colosseum’s Medieval and Modern history was incredible and it’s such a huge structure that is extremely ancient.

With tanned faces, extra pounds, pretty souvenirs, soiled clothes, and beautiful memories, we flew from Fiumicino airport back to India to get home just in time for Onam.


It was a wonderful trip and totally worth the wait. Since we had known each other for more than half a decade before we got married, this was the kind of adventure that we wanted on our honeymoon, instead of a romantic trip to an exotic resort or a package holiday.

Being a big foodie, I mostly rate places in terms of food and consider my travelling as interesting food trails. I don’t want to sound like an NRI, but Italian pizzas were nothing like what we get in India. Of course, what they serve in the fine-dining Italian restaurants in India do have a resemblance. Unlike the case with the American pizza chains like Dominos and Pizza Hut, I loved Italian Margherita pizza the most. Margherita was the name of a queen who once ruled the kingdom of Italy. Italian pasta, I felt, was undercooked when compared to what we get in India; I tried, but could not acquire the taste of pasta al dente. The husband of mine, who is a hard-core non-vegetarian while in India, liked the veg food better in Italy. He hogged on chicken biriyani to make up for it, in a Turkish restaurant in Naples. Very much like my Uncle’s warning, veg lasagna does not exist in Italy; it’s a subtler Indian lie than the KFC Paneer Zinger Meal; I helplessly watched the husband feast on his beef lasagna. In the beginning of our trip, we just ate pizza slices and gelati whenever we felt hungry. On our way to Vatican, there was a small eatery where the guy at the counter cut a piece out (using scissors) of a large, rectangular Margherita pizza according to the size of my choice and charged for the weight of that slice. By the end of our trip, we started having more of fine-dining meals. Unlike the husband, I don’t have a sweet-tooth nor do I relish ice-cream. As we reached Italy, he forced me to try gelato, since Italians invented ice-cream, and I fell in love with it. I kept having one cone after the other. The choice of flavours available was overwhelming. We had dark-chocolate, lemon, and many exotic fruit flavours of gelati. And ouch, I gained about 3 kilos in 2 weeks!
Our Airbnb hosts in Milan, Naples, and Rome served us amazing Italian breakfast on all days. They mostly consisted of plain croissant, croissant with Nutella filling, some plain cake, orange juice, espresso/black coffee, bread slices (not toasted), different types of homemade fruit jams/marmalade, cornflakes, etc. By the end of the trip, I was craving for some dosas and spicy chutney for breakfast. Even though I felt that I could have survived on the Italian junk for lunch and dinner for a longer time, I got a little tired of the sweetish breakfast.

Although Ferrari and Lamborghini are Italian, we saw only a handful of them on the roads. Fiat, quite evidently, ruled the Italian roads.

As I kept using as many Italian words as I could in my English sentences, people were extra helpful to me because they were amused at my attempt to speak their language.
Well, it was the same case with this East-Asian-looking guy who sat next to me on our 9-hour long flight to Milan. I thought he was drunk because he went on and on about random stuff and asked silly doubts. The husband of mine conveniently acted asleep and I had to deal with this fellow’s nonstop nonsense. But all of a sudden, he started saying things like “sukhamaano”, “vellam venam”, “I have had Malayali roommates”, and “Kerala is a beautiful place”. Then my startled husband opened his eyes and both of us were friendlier—“Hey, that’s so cool!” “Which part of Kerala have you been to?”

#konjamlatehoneymoon