Mel's Life: #Italy

Last month, I took an epic eight day trip to Italy. After traveling to Australia, the eight hours from New York to Rome was a piece of cake. We spent our first couple of days in a spacious Airbnb in Vatican City. I cannot even lie about how geeked I was to throw open the shutters to our Airbnb and look out on to the bustling streets below. I absolutely adored the charm of the world's smallest country. Each morning, I woke up early to walk the cobblestone streets on the hunt for a cappuccino and soak in the city's vibe.

Coincidentally my friend was in town the same time as I and we grabbed a drink at a quaint little bar that served up some killer cocktails and roamed (haha) around the city until 3 am. I am not sure how I managed to avoid a ridiculous hangover the next day but I am pretty sure it was due to the excitement of being in Italy. On our last night before we left for Amalfi we went to Life Ristorante and had a killer meal. I was literally dancing in my seat the entire time I was eating. This was probably THE best meal I had the entire trip and trust I ate a lot of good food.

We took the train to Amalfi after a couple of days in Rome. It was a scenic route to Salerno and I enjoyed looking at lush green landscape as we zipped by on the fast train. In Amalfi we stayed at awesome rental property that was perched on what felt like Mount Kilimanjaro. Imagine five girls struggling with overstuffed suitcases climbing what seemed to be the staircase to heaven celebrating reaching the top only to get to the gate of our villa to discover there were more stairs (OMG). However, the view from the top made it all worth it.

Our first day in Amalfi we took a tour of one of the many Lemon gardens. It was pretty cool to see and hear about the famous lemons of the Amalfi Coast and of course taste the Limoncello. For lunch we dined on the pizza we all deserved and have been waiting on for all of our lives. Seriously...it was amazing!

The next day we took a day cruise up the coast to Capri. This was hands down my favorite activity of the trip. Nothing makes me happier than being on a boat sipping on something sparkling. The views were unreal and the crew on our boat kept the bubbles flowing freely (a little too freely lol). We stopped at the Emerald Grotto before heading into Capri.

I ended up losing my Amex because... I am me but luckily it was near the end of our trip. The next day we headed back to Rome for one last hurrah. We went to the Colosseum which was a 10 minute walk from our Airbnb. Then we spent the remainder of the day touring the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel.

Overall I enjoyed my time in Rome and Amalfi. I will definitely be back. This was one of the most relaxing vacations that I have been on.