Final Honeymoon Post, Finally.

Now that we've been back from our honeymoon for almost a month and a half, it's time to wrap it up. We left Rome via train and headed to the Port of Civitavecchia (just over an hour west of Rome). We arrived at the mega-cruise ship "Norwegian Epic." It was HUGE. Something like 4,000 passengers and 2,000 crew members. Our seven day itinerary took us to Livorno (Florence), Marseilles, Palma Majorca, Barcelona, Naples and then back to Civitavecchia. We ended up using the cruise to relax from our long journey across Italy. Though it was amazing for our honeymoon, I don't think we'll be doing too much cruising in the future. While it is a great way to see snippets of quite a few places, it's too quick to really get the true feel of a city. We ended up using the Livorno and Marseilles port days to relax and eat....a lot on the ship while others were out exploring. That's another thing about cruising; the endless food can be a disaster if you lack self control. :)

Saul's grandma got us the "honeymoon" package on our cruise. When we embarked there was sparkling wine, chocolate covered strawberries and roses in our room.

Little did we know we'd have to go to a mustering five seconds after getting on and go over the emergency drill. Saul was having fun ;)

Din din the first night of our cruise.

When the ship docked in Livorno (gateway for Florence) we decided to spend the day on the ship. Here we are at the jacuzzi. 

One of the highlights of the cruise was the balcony in our room.

Marseilles, France. We got off the ship for about two minutes before a torrential downpour started. We decided to get back on the ship and participate in some more R & R.

Palma Majorca, Spain. A beautiful little island off the coast of Spain. So GORGEOUS!

The Mediterranean. 

Sangria on an island in Spain. Definitely a highlight!

We found a little casino right on the water and spent too much time here playing video roulette (guilty pleasure). 

We had the best in-room steward, Michael, who made the cutest towel pets. This one happened to be my favorite.

I'm pretty sure it was a gerbil or mouse or something.

Sunset in the Mediterranean from our balcony. Honeymoon defined.

Christopher Columbus statue in Barcelona. 

Gaudi's work can be seen all over Barcelona. It kind of has an Tim Burton [esque] feel.

Park Guell, designed by Gaudi, has the best views in the entire city. 

Such a neat place.

The bus that we took to Park Guell was full going back so we had to walk all the way back to Las Ramblas.

The world-famous shopping street, Las Ramblas. This rose was a long time coming. Saul had been saying he would since Venice! :)

More Sangria!!

Our epic ship "Epic."

Deal or No Deal on our cruise ship. This was a nice way to end our day in Barcelona.

One of the neatest things about the Epic was its branded shows. This was just after Blue Man Group.

More pictures in our room. They accidentally delivered us a second dozen of roses mid way through our cruise (we weren't complaining)!

At our port of call in Naples, we decided to take a tour to Pompeii. The city was devastated in 79 AD when Mt. Vesuvius erupted and buried the whole town. The city was preserved from the ash and rocks and later excavated. The body is an actual body in it's original position from when the volcano erupted.

The idea of Pompeii is really neat but we found it to be a bit of a tourist trap. This also could have  had something to do with our terrible tour guide.

I was over the tour towards the end and had to do my best AT&T commercial impersonation. (See below)

After Pompeii we went into Naples and had some Napoli pizza. Nom nom worthy for sure.

The cruise ship has cheesy photographers all over the place coercing us to take pictures. My favorite is the sailor. (haha, not).

We tried to save some money on the way back to Rome for our last night by taking the regional trains and later regretted it. There was absolutely no storage space so we had to put our luggage on the seats next to us.

One more time at the Spanish Steps. If you haven't noticed, I really like that sweater ;)

He secretly loved his poncho.

We were out walking around Rome one last time when a sudden thunder storm started. Saul, being the wonderful husband that he is gave me his jacket and bought a 3 euro poncho from a haggler. Such the gentleman. 

We packed up the night before and set off to the airport via train the next day. Our Lufthansa flight to Munich and then from Munich to LAX was largely uneventful except for some pesky turbulence. We were sad to leave but excited to start our next adventure... American Samoa. 3 days, STAY TUNED!!