Our Trip to Europe (Engagement Moon)

Before we got engaged, I totally thought it was going to happen on our upcoming Europe trip . I imagined us getting engaged in the Amalfi Coast but then my mind was like where would he hide the ring? How would he hide that from me the whole trip? I figure everything out! Would he be nervous the whole trip? We have only been together 2 years, will it even happen this soon?! Turns out the best way to get engaged is while you are still in America, preferably in the place you live, so that you can always visit your engagement spot but also so that you can call all your family and friends to tell them the news! The icing on the cake is having a big trip to go on a day or 2 later so that you can bask in your engaged glory for as long as possible!

University of Michigan (Craig’s alma mater) was playing in Dallas for the college football season opener in 2012 so we decided to go to that game first before heading to our first stop of Shannon, Ireland where we met up with Craig’s parents. We stayed in a house in Doonbeg on the property of The Lodge at Doonbeg. We visited the Cliffs of Moher, a couple of castles, and consumed plenty of Guinness and bangers and mash at the pubs. My favorite part of our leg in Ireland was visiting the Burren Perfumery where we got to try and buy perfumes, soaps, and creams, plus eat at their charming Tea Room and enjoy yummy treats! Above you can see our booklet that Craig binded for us at work that had every last detail of our trip in it. I’m pretty sure this is what started my Type A trip planning (I plan our trips down to every last detail for every day using a google spreadsheet). Also note that we collect Christmas ornaments from places we travel to (so that when we decorate our tree every year we can relive the memories!) and you will notice a few of them we got on this trip!

My favorite photo from Burren Perfumery with our coffees/teas and baked goods!

From there we went to London just for one night. We had both been to London before and didn’t want to waste any of our precious Italy time in England. We managed to squeeze in a few fun things including The London Eye, Big Ben, and more pubs. We also had brunch at The Wolseley, no photos are allowed in there but it was memorable and delicious (I specifically remember my brûléed grapefruit!). Another highlight was getting a monogrammed wedding planner and thank you cards that I would soon be needing from Smythson.

Finally we headed to our favorite country, Italy! We flew from London into Pisa and rented a car from Hertz at the Pisa airport. We stayed the night in Pisa and stopped by the Leaning Tower for a quick photo opp.

Next, we began our road trip and headed to Cinque Terre for a few days where we stayed in a tiny cottage! Our cottage was on top of Monterosso and had tomato, olive, and lemon trees all around it! I had traveled to Cinque Terre while studying abroad and was dying to take Craig there! It did not disappoint. We had lots of pesto, wine, and even found the same limoncello man (actually it was his son) while hiking. We put a special lock that we decorated on the Via Dell Amore (the trail between Riomaggiore and Manarola that brought lovers together). One of our favorite restaurants in Cinque Terre was Belaforte. It was at the top of a cliff and of course had amazing pesto! Every night before we would go to sleep on our whole trip we would watch a movie for 20 minutes. I had never seen Indiana Jones so we watched it every night on our Europe trip!

After a couple days in Cinque Terre we started heading down the boot of Italy! We decided to stop in Florence for about 20 minutes because I demanded we get a sandwich from my favorite place in the world (from studying abroad) Antico Noe. Literally we just drove straight there, picked up a sandwich, and kept driving. It was totally worth it and Luca really remembered me! Craig and I had both been to Florence before separately and decided we wouldn’t do it this trip. I cannot wait to go back to Florence!

Next up was the big portion of our road trip, driving all the way to the Amalfi Coast!

We had a GPS in our rental car but weren’t sure how accurate it would be so we printed out all google map directions. Also to be noted- we got numerous speeding tickets on this drive and to this day we are still getting bills from the Pisa Hertz to pay the fines!

Finally after a 5 hour drive we made it to Sorrento to begin our Amalfi Coast leg of our trip. We decided that we wanted to stay in Sorrento, Amalfi, Positano, and Capri (lol yes a different hotel every night or 2 or 3) and we booked stays at Maison Tofani, Hotel Marina Riviera, Villa Gabrisa, and La Floridiana. We would not recommend doing this when you visit the Amalfi Coast! We thought we wanted to town hop but it was such a pain to move our luggage each time and it is so easy to take a taxi or bus to get to each town instead (or drive if you have a car like we did! Duh us!).

While in Sorrento we had dinner at a delightful little restaurant (the top photo in this post is at our Sorrento dinner) and shopped around a little. I got a handmade crocheted table runner just like my grandma would have made. We love taking food photos as you can see!

The next days were spent exploring the rest of the Amalfi Coast. First up was Amalfi and Positano. Our favorite restaurant was Da Vincenzo in Positano. It was so good that I later emailed the restaurant and asked them for their zucchini pasta recipe! I will post that below! We ate so much good food, drank the best wine, and took in all the beautiful views.

The view from Da Vincenzo in Positano

The next town we went to was Capri. You really feel like you are in vacation mode when in Capri! Make sure to hire a boat to take you around the whole island and into the grottos. When I went to Italy after college we couldn’t get in to the Blue Grotto because the tide was too high. Luckily for me and Craig we got in to the Blue Grotto this time! We also took the chair lift to the top of Anacapri.

Hanging out in the Blue Grotto!

BY FAR, the best part of our trip was spending the day with Mamma Agata for her cooking class! We still talk about it and recommend it to people to this day. You have to reserve your spot in the class many months in advance but it’s totally worth it. It was a whole day of drinking wine, making tons of recipes, and learning from an Italian Grandma and her English-speaking daughter, Chiara. I made so many notes on my recipe booklet because I didn’t want to forget a single thing they showed us! One of the best days of our life!

The most delicious pappardelle with sausage and fresh tomato sauce!

Here is Mamma Agata making the eggplant parmigiana also known as “the bambino”

We got to explore the whole property. It was so interesting to take a peak into the way Italians live.

After the Amalfi Coast we kept driving down to Reggio Calabria to take a ferry to Sicily where our American friends (Danny & Meighan) that were in the Navy were living! Sicily was beautiful and had barely any tourists. The most amazing things we ate in Sicily were the customary brioche and granita for breakfast and farfalle with pistachio cream sauce for dinner. I got a special apron with my name sewn on it as a souvenir. We went wine tasting and left with a ton of wine and ended up having to buy another suitcase for the journey home! The last two photos are of our first homemade dinner when we got back home of prosciutto and melon and the farfalle with pistachio cream sauce.

Brioche with sugar on top!

“Spaghetto alle Zucchine from da Vincenzo”

Everything you need is a good organic zucchine, a lot of parmigin cheese, basil, just little bit of butter, salt,pepper and extra vergin olive oil. 

Sautee the sliced zucchine (or little zucchini squares) in a large pan with extra vergin olive. (honestly better if deep fryed) 

When they are done you can keep on the side in a large bowl with a knob of butter. 

Cook the pasta al dente (better if is long pasta like spaghetti) and when cooked add to the bowl. Add a good amount of parmegian cheese, better if is quite old and dry to prevent lumps, basil, black pepper,and as boiling water as you need (that is full of starch) ,mix strongly till it became creamy. 

Sorry for the translation i know that is not that good, but if you need help let me know.”

My favorite pasta dish I have ever had! Thanks da Vincenzo!