Rome, Italy, Sorrento, and the Amalfi coast: Heidi & Erin show you how to rock your Italian honeymoon

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Honeymooners: Heidi & Erin

Type: Heidi & Erin's Dreamy Italian Honeymoon

Budget: Spendy ($5000-$10,000)

Where did you go? We spent ten nights in Italy, four in Rome and six in Sorrento. Erin's parents returned from a trip to Italy to celebrate her Dad's 60th birthday a few months before our wedding. When we saw their pictures and heard their stories, we knew that somehow we had to make an Italian honeymoon a reality.

View of Rome from the top of the Capitol Building

What did you do? Our first four nights we spent in Rome, and we were constantly on the go! We saw most of the main tourist attractions (Sistine Chapel, Colosseum, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain). We found that the double-decker tour buses, as cheesy as they are, are the best way to orient yourself to a new city.

Breakfast at the Pantheon

Our bed and breakfast in Rome, the Ancient Trastevere, was great. It was essentially a studio apartment, that the “innkeeper” would stop by each morning in order to replenish the breakfast pantry. It felt like we really lived in Rome for those four days.

More views of Sorrento's coastline

Our time in Sorrento was a little more laid back. Sorrento is a breathtaking town on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

We splurged on the hotel here, staying at the Hotel Minerva. Our room had a balcony over the sea with a view of Mt. Vesuvius. We spent our first day just strolling through town, and admiring the views (which never got old). Sorrento is a great home base for seeing the sights south of Rome.

Atop Mt. Solaro in Capri

Pompeii was easily accessible via the local train. We took a day trip via ferry to the island of Capri, where we shared a teeny row-boat with another couple into the Blue Grotto (which is worth every Euro they over charge you), and rode a somewhat rickety chairlift up to the top of the highest point on the island, Mount Solaro. I don't think my eyes have ever seen such a beautiful blue as the Mediterranean from almost 2000 feet above.

Amalfi town

But, one of the main reasons we chose to stay in Sorrento was because it was an affordable place to stay near the Amalfi coast. Much to our dismay, the buses were not running from Sorrento to the Amalfi coast during our time there because of a landslide. That didn't stop us! We discovered, after conferring with some locals, that the road was only “officially” closed, and that there were plenty of willing taxi drivers who would take tourists, at their own risk, past the roadblocks. We figured if we were going to die that would be the way to go. It was worth the risk — Positano and Amalfi Town are surreally beautiful.

Little treats

Finally, we ate, and ate and ATE! It's no lie, the Italians are serious about their food.

Waitng for the ferry back to SorrentoWhat would you have done differently? Scheduled time off after we returned from our honeymoon. For some reason, I thought I would be immune to jet lag and able to jump right back into work the next day. I was terribly wrong. Even if jet lag hadn't been an issue, it would have been nice to have some time to re-integrate into normal, everyday life.

What's your best travel advice for other offbeat honeymooners? We honeymooned in October, nine months after our January wedding. It was wonderful having all that time to focus on planning the trip without stressing about a wedding.

My trusty Pompeii tour guideAlso, with all of that planning time, we had a pretty comprehensive itinerary. Especially in a country with so much to do it's overwhelming, it was nice to have narrowed down our “must sees.” And, of course, when you're doing more of a sightseeing and less of a laying-on-the-beach type honeymoon, remember to set aside some downtime, because this is your honeymoon after all (something Erin needed to remind me of a few times!).

Also, we would never have been able to afford this trip on our own. By doing a honeymoon fund in lieu of a wedding registry, we were able to cover the airfare and hotels with the wedding gift money, and then saved up for the rest of the expenses (meals, museum tickets, shopping, etc.).

If you're interested in more stories, we blogged about our trip here.

Enough talk — show me more amazing places you explored:

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Comments on Rome, Italy, Sorrento, and the Amalfi coast: Heidi & Erin show you how to rock your Italian honeymoon

  1. Awesome!! We are doing a Med cruise for our delayed honeymoon next year and have a bunch of stops in Italy. Now I’m really excited.

  2. That B&B looks too good to be true! Looks like you had a blast! We are honeymooning in Europe in September and I’m definitely going to check this place out! Thanks!

  3. I love these travel posts

    An uncle was just showing me photos of his trip to Amalfi town, so amazing. What a trip, Congratulations on be able to make it happen!

  4. This looks AMAZING! Also awesome is that they delayed their honeymoon too. We’re going seven months after the wedding, because that was when we could get my step-dad’s time share (hooray for free lodging in Hawaii!).

  5. Yay!!! We just returned in October from a two week trip to Venice-Murano-Burano-Sorrento-Pompeii-Ischia-Roma and can’t wait to return. Still paying it off 9 months later and would do it again in a heartbeat. October was an absolutely gorgeous time to visit these areas and if you do it right (B&Bs, off-peak times FTW) it will likely be the most unforgettable trip of your lives!

  6. Sounds like a great honeymoon & it’s lovely to be reminded of my own trips to Rome & Sorrento.

    I know that OBB cares about the titles of your posts – so I found “Rome, Italy, Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast…” really jarring – it might just be me – but shouldn’t Italy come first? I can’t believe I’m making such a nit picky comment – sorry!

  7. Sounds like a wonderful trip! Thanks for sharing.
    Life has funny timing. I was just asking myself if it would be okay to have a delayed honeymoon when I started reading your article. You made some excellent points! I appreciate your insight.

  8. We are delaying our honeymoon by six months (married in December 2012, honeymooning in June 2013) and are going to Italy for a month! Turin-Venice/Murano/Burano-Florence-Pisa-Rome-Naples-Pompeii-Sorrento/Salerno-Rome-Home!

    SO EXCITE!I’ve been planning the details of the honeymoon with WAY more scrutiny than the wedding :p

    *End of excited rant* Anyway…this article is awesome, thanks for posting about your experience, hopefully I’ll be able to do the same when we get back in July 🙂

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