Italy & the Proposal

It’s been a couple of weeks since we returned from Italy, and by now, all of you should know that Henry and I are engaged!

Before Henry’s graduation, we decided to make a last minute trip to Italy. When I say last minute, we booked 9 days before we left for a 12 day vacation. It is truly a miracle that it all came together so perfectly. We settled on Rome for 6 days and Cinque Terre for another 6.

Our first day in Rome we started with the Heart of Rome self-guided walking tour (thanks Rick Steves)! The highlights were the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. At the Spanish Steps, I finally convinced Henry it was safe to drink the water coming out of the fountain. Somewhere in between all those landmarks, we had heavenly gelato. Back to the hotel for a 3.5 hour nap (oops!) then found a cute local restaurant that had some pretty darn good food. The best was Henry’s gruyere and onion lasagna. I had one of my favorite Roman dishes of spaghetti carbonara (think spaghetti, cream and bacon...) 

The next morning, we woke up and headed to the Vatican for a tour of the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica. I remembered to bring a shall to wear over my summer dress since you can't have bare shoulders, but when we were on the metro, I learned that knees must be covered too! I suppose the Pope and Catholic Church think that knees are too sexy... Anyways, rule follower me, had a mini-meltdown. Instead of turning back, I told Henry I would buy some pants to wear under my dress. I popped into the first shop I found, bought a pair of tights and put them on in the makeshift dressing room. The tour was  wonderful. However, it was upper 90s and most of the tour was inside with no a/c and the not-so-fashionable tights didn’t make it any better.

The following day we did a half day ancient Rome tour. We started at the Coliseum, headed to the Roman Forum and ended on Palatine hill. It was pretty cool and we learned lots, but it was super-hot. But there may, or may not have been, a lot of gelato involved throughout the day (for survival sake).

The next day we had a free day! Yay! We didn’t plan anything too extravagant but wandered the Borghese Gardens, had pizza al taglio (pizza by the slice) and more gelato. That evening, was probably our best dining experience. We picked a place near the Pantheon called Pietro al Pantheon. We didn’t have reservations but Pietro greeted us on the patio and gave us each a glass of prosecco. It was so good and Henry grudgingly gave me his glass (such a good pre-fiance!).  When we got a table, we ordered some amazing food and Pietro made sure everything was just perfect.

Our last day in Rome, we did a day trip to Mount Vesuvius and Pompeii. Although it was a really long day, it was an incredible experience. We first stopped at Mount Vesuvius and hiked to the top (the bus drove us most of the way) and experienced some killer views of the Bay of Naples. I was super impressed by all the elderly people doing the hike. It wasn’t really hard, but it was a steady incline and there were people in their 70s and 80s doing it… that made me complain a little less… After the sweaty hike, we went to Pompeii and it was amazing. The eruption in 79 AD completely destroyed the town but since ash buried it for about 1700 years, the ruins are remarkably preserved. It was a pretty eerie site and there are plaster molds of the people showing the position in which they died. The molds are so realistic that you can see facial features, belt buckles and even the folds of their togas. 

 

The following day, we woke up pretty early to drag our American sized luggage to the train station to head to our town of Vernazza in Cinque Terre where we enjoyed food, quaint villages, killer bun workouts (SO many stairs) and refreshing swims in the Ligurian Sea.

On our first day in Cinque Terre, we headed to the southernmost town of Riomaggiore and explored. Henry found an amazing takeout place and we ate lots of focaccia and pesto. The Cinque Terre area is the birthplace of pesto and focaccia, which combined, are out of this world. We walked along the via del Amore aka “lovers lane” along the coastline. Must to Henry’s dismay, I had to jump on the graffiti bandwagon. After we got back to Vernazza, we swam in the cool Ligurian Sea. We had dinner at what was supposed to be a wonderful restaurant. However, the awful, smelly service ruined the experience.

We woke up early the next morning and hiked from our town to the next one over. The hike was really intense but we did experience some life changing views. On the way, I made some friends with the feral cats, who after begging Henry to let me share my snacks with, turns out to not like granola bars. Once we got to Montorosso, we hit the gorgeous beach and ate some more gelato and focaccia. We overheard some fellow beach-goers talking about a train strike which we’d heard rumors of earlier. Apparently, since the towns are so small, whenever there is an event – wedding, birthday, etc, the train workers strike so they can all attend. Sounds odd, but it happens A LOT! Since there was no way I was making the hike back, I worked hard to get us home via train. We decided to go to another town for dinner – Manarola and had a phenomenal meal. Cinque Terre is also known for seafood but, at most places, the minimum seafood order is 2 people. So, I finally caved and let henry pick anything he wanted from the menu which meant we split handmade pasta and lobster. It was surprisingly good and the pasta was to die for. We had to rush afterwards to catch one of the last trains home. 

After we got to Vernazza, we decided to stroll down to the harbor. We perched ourselves on some rocks overlooking the village and harbor. Henry was a complete chatterbox, but I chalked it up to the after-dinner cappuccino.  He kept trying to make me stand up and I kept telling him, “No thank you, I’m fine sitting down.” So he finally pulls me up and takes a picture of me. At this time, its way after sunset and the only lights are coming from the village nearby. I’m wondering why he’s taking pictures and my pupils are unhappy from the flash then I realize Henry’s down on one knee. He’s got my right hand in his hand and then I realize, holy cow, he’s proposing! My right hand flew out of his grip and was quickly replace with my left hand as I said “wrong hand!” Henry says really sweet and romantic things to me and then asks me to marry him. I think the first things out of my mouth are “are you serious?” (just making sure I wasn’t misinterpreting) then I said “I can’t see the ring!” Ok, now looking back I realize that was not the best response, but it definitely funny, memorable and non-rehearsed. There might have been some happy tears involved. Henry had to prompt me for a response – “yes of course” I said and we found a lit cave nearby so I could see my new rock – and what a rock it is!

I immediately wanted to call our families and so we did. We couldn’t get ahold of Henry’s parents so we had to set an alarm for 5:00 the following morning to call them back (darn time zones…) Since we were up early, we headed out for another hike to Corniglia, which wasn’t nearly as difficult. The entire way, I kept looking at my hand, taking pictures of my ring and saying things like “yup, looks good when hiking, yup, looks good when I’m walking, yup looks good in the sunlight.” I was totally on cloud nine! We explored the remaining towns and had a great dinner on the beach followed by the best tiramisu I’ve had in my life.

Quite frankly, after the proposal, my memory isn't perfect. I don’t remember what we did the next day… Probably swam and explored other towns… Then we headed to Genoa for the night before heading back the states. 

Looking back it was the perfect vacation – a great juxtaposition of pastel villages and historical urban vibes, relaxation and chaos all being interwoven with food, wine with nonstop culture. We’re starting to brainstorm honeymoon ideas (hey, priorities…) and it’s really going to be hard to beat this trip!