Il matrimonio Italiano di Josh e Abi!

If I seemed busy or distracted or stressed (or all three!) a few weeks back, it's because I was just a little preoccupied with the details and logistics of a trip to Italy with my family for our cousin Josh's wedding!! (You did not misread this, by the way, it was indeed my cousin, not Tony's, that got married in Italy. Pretty cool!) I was busy with planning (my dad and I worked hard to put together a thorough itinerary before we left...with lots of help from Tony's folks), distracted with thoughts of, "Now what will I wear to the rehearsal dinner?" and "How do you say, 'More wine please.' in Italian?" and stressed when I thought about leaving the kids for a week. Luckily, Tony's folks were able to watch the munchkins, and Tony was there for part of the week, before he left for a science conference in DC that he was helping to organize. Under any other circumstances, he would have surely joined us!!

Mom, Dad, Beth and I arrived in Rome shortly after breakfast, checked into our hotel, and then hit the sights! We covered the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona and the Pantheon (all of which were within walking distance of our hotel!) all before lunch!

Speaking of lunch, Tony's parents recommended one of their favorite places for our first meal. Here I am with our assortment of antipasti. Mmmm...

And here are Mom with her bucatini all'amatriciana and Dad with his spaghetti alla carbonara. As they say, when in Rome!

After a shower and some rest, we took a walking tour of the Colosseum, Forum and Palatine with a guide who specializes in Roman archaeology and art history. It was very interesting!

For dinner, we ate pizza, drank wine, splurged on gelato...and then CRASHED. We were SO tired. Then bright and early, we took the train to Naples where we got a walking tour of Pompeii! It was really impressive...so much more to see than when Tony and I went with his aunt and uncle nearly 20 years ago. Here is our tour guide Fabrizio telling Mom about the ovens that were buried by Vesuvius. I thought, "Tony would happily make pizza in one of those!" ;-)

Then we drove along the Amalfi Coast to Positano and Sorrento. Here is Beth not looking at all like a tourist. ;-)

Our best meal of the week was at a restaurant called La Terra in the hills of Positano. Can you see our spectacular view??

This was my world-class seafood risotto. Yes, there was risotto under there!!

Even with high expectations, the Amalfi Coast blew me away. Everywhere you looked was another amazing view!

Then we headed to Capri for lots of wedding fun! Cousin reunion...it had been since 1992 (since three cousins live in Australia)!!

The next morning, we hit the water! Can we say, "La dolce vita!"??

Here we are in the Mediterranean with our cousin Mike. Yes, that is a villa at the top of the hillside!

I really worked up an appetite with all that swimming! Pizza and gelato were a must afterward!

Then we got all dolled up for the rehearsal dinner!

More cousin fun!!

On our last full day on Capri, we rode the chairlift up to the top of the island. The views were breathtaking!

Then just a few hours later, we were wedding ready!!

Here we are at the site of the wedding...beautiful, huh?

We were seated to the far left, so a good photo of the ceremony was tough to come by. Here's one from the professional photographer. So stunning.

The wedding party, including the newest Mr. and Mrs. Fayman!

Dinner was delicious! And so was dessert--there were dozens of Italian pastries and baked goods from which to choose...AND lemon wedding cake!

Time for the horah!

And then we danced to every good song you can think of! Whitney Houston, Rihanna, Cyndi Lauper, Justin Bieber, Drake, Montell Jordan, The Bee Gees, Pitbull, Abba, you name it!

So. Much. Fun.

Still going strong a few hours later!

Then (sadly) we bid "arrivederci" to Capri and took the ferry back to Naples, where we drowned our sorrows in some delicious local pizza. This restaurant was a suggestion from Tony's parents' Italian friend who lives in Naples. The staff had never seen tourists (maybe ever??), but they were very kind to us!

Yum! Can't wait to go back to Italy! And I could not be more thrilled for Josh and Abi...so glad we got to celebrate with you!

P.S. I took some great photos during all of our sight-seeing and adventures "around town" in Capri. I'll share those in a future post!