These past few weeks have been a whirlwind! But one of the best whirlwinds I could have ever asked for. I got married to the love of my life, we went on a beautiful honeymoon in Italy, and amidst it all we had the pleasure of seeing our dear friends and families from France and the USA come together under one roof for a magical afternoon/evening that was our wedding.

There are so many wonderful people who helped make our wedding day a dream come true and for that I am forever grateful. But this post is about our honeymoon, something else that wouldn’t have been possible without the love and generosity of so many friends and family, whose contributions towards our trip truly made it the most magical honeymoon we could have imagined. We have been so humbled by each and every person who helped make this trip possible.

We took hundreds of photos (and even some fun videos –one of which was of one of the scariest moments I can remember… but more on that at another time!) and here is just a small sampling of a few highlights from our week in Cinque Terre, Italy. For the first time in my life, this sea-food hating gal tried anchovies (prepared 6 different ways), mussels prepared in a delightful wine sauce, squid ink (completely by mistake), and lots of pasta dishes with pesto (the specialty of this region). We hiked nearly every day, swam in the turquoise sea, took trains and boats between the villages, and stumbled our way through broken French-English-Spanish Italian sentences. It was sunny, hot, and entirely beautiful.

These photos are dedicated to our friends and family. Thank you!

(Above) Vernazza, the town we called home for a week. This photo was taken on a hike from Monterosso to Vernazza, one of the most physically challenging hikes we took, but well worth the views and beautiful trails. It is tradition for lovers to put a lock somewhere along the path of Via dell’Amore as a symbol of their love, so it seemed only fitting that we buy our own lock to place on the path during our honeymoon. Sadly the full trail was closed due to safety reasons, but we were still able to access the beginning of the trail where many other people had left their own locks. (Below, Florian tosses the key into the sea).This town is Riomaggiore, one of the 5 towns that make up the Cinque Terre (Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore). We enjoyed some gelato, a nice walk through the town, and attempted to go on the Via dell’Amore trail to Manarola.Our final evening we spent swimming in the sea and enjoying the sunset, before heading to a cliff-side restaurant for our last meal in Vernazza. The views were incredible and the food delectable. If you go to Vernazza yourself, be sure to make a reservation at the Belforte restaurant!A final view of Vernazza from the trail head to Corniglia. That beach below is where the handstand photos were taken.