Epic Honeymoon - Day 11 - Florence & Prada Outlet

Firenze in all her glory.

The next day had been earmarked for a shopping trip for Avy. Not too far from Florence is the Prada Outlet in Montevarchi town called Space. The train there took about 45 minutes, and from there, you can catch a dedicated shuttle bus to the outlet. However, there is also a local bus option if you take the bus bound for Levane; it’s only 4 stops to the outlet and will cost about €1.30 per person. We went with this option, and picked up tickets for the bus at the local Tabacchi – from the station, cross the main road and walk to the right; you can’t miss it. The bus terminal is then further up the same road and then to the right.

Epic Honeymoon - Day 10 - Florence

Florence's amazing Il Duomo.

For our departure from Venice, we looked at the options and chose to take the train. Trains through Italy and quite convenient, but not necessarily cheap. Booking in advance, we managed to get a very decent price with TrenItalia, and so we set off to ride the rails for, arguably, Italy’s cultural capital, Florence.

Epic Honeymoon - Day 09 - Venice

A pretty rainbow of houses.

The next morning, we repeated our journey across to Venice, this time skipping the Ferrovia bridge and weaving our way east to the edge of the island, arriving to the F.te Nova water bus stops. We took the water bus for €7.50 each (one way) out to Burano. It’s worth nothing that this would also be covered by the ACTV pass. We had originally planned to buy the two day pass for €30 each, but decided to do a whole lot more walking instead. If you plan to hop on and off the water busses down the Grand Canal, you definitely want to consider this pass, as you will bankrupt yourself on the tickets.

Epic Honeymoon - Day 08 - Venice

The view from Ponte Rialto.

The next morning, Friday 22^nd September, we walked back to Mestre station to head over to Venice. You can use the ticket machines here to get a one way Trenitalia ticket to Venice Santa Lucia station for only €1.25 per person. Again, tickets must be validated before use and this is done at the green machines that occupy almost every pole in the station.

Epic Honeymoon - Day 07 - Santorini to Venice

A delicious way to start the day.

The next morning, we checked out and walked the length of Fira to the bus terminal, stopping first at the 24/7 bakery to pick up some breakfast. They have a huge range of pastries, stuffed with cheeses, sausages and the like. I opted for a spinach and cheese puff, while Avy took the cream cheese bagel. From the bus stop, Avy went for a quick walk to a cafe we’d seen on the street to the east side of town to grab some coffee. We each had an iced cappuccino, which was deliciously creamy (probably because it was topped with real cream rather than foam). At only €1.80, this was some of the best coffee we’d had, so certainly pay a visit to Coffee Island.

Epic Honeymoon - Day 06 - Santorini

Probably the most photographed church in the world.

The night’s sleep was somewhat interrupted by the bells of the local church. They would ring in a certain pattern of three or four tones; obviously there was some special day or celebration happening, as the same was going on the next morning from quiet early. Amazingly, we managed to take an easy morning and only set into town around 11am, stopping at Lucky’s Souvlaki for a breakfast yiros (when in Greece...!). I had read that Lucky’s was a “can’t miss” destination when in Fira. It was alright, but of the three I’d now had, Good Mood Food took the honours as best yiros in Fira!

Epic Honeymoon - Day 05 - Santorini

Looking out over the Caldera.

After an uneventful evening hanging around at Athens airport, we arrived to Santorini about 8:30pm. We had a small run-in with the first taxi driver, who wanted €25 to take us to our hotel – he’d loaded our bags into the boot, and while we debated and discussed the price (we’d read around €15 to Fira), he got pissed off and unloaded our bags to go get another fare. We lined up at the taxi rank again and ended up sharing with an American guy who was travelling to a hotel near ours; our fare came to €20, so it was a nice price for us, but the taxi driver probably made a good profit for the combined fare.

Epic Honeymoon - Day 04 - Athens

Gazing up at the Acropolis.

After two days in Dubai and a lavish afternoon in the Emirates First Class Lounge, we boarded our flight to the birthplace of democracy and the home of the Olympic Games. I had previously visited Athens in 2011 at the end of my Contiki Tour, but we only had a quick bus tour around the city and the obligatory trek up the Acropolis. On this occasion, we opted to only overnight in Athens and spend more time at one of the infamous islands: Santorini.

Epic Honeymoon - Day 03 - Emirates First Class Lounge

The gateway to another world.

With most of the big ticket items checked off our list, we took it easy on our third morning, enjoying another breakfast at the hotel before checking out and heading for the airport. My elevated status with the OneWorld group (due to my business travelling) got us access to the Emirates First Class Lounge, which is in a world of its own. Occupying an entire floor, the Lounge stretches the length of the terminal, and far and away surpasses any other lounge I have been in.

Epic Honeymoon - Day 02 - Dubai

Dubai Spice Souk.

Day two started with breakfast at the hotel, which was reasonably varied between Middle Eastern / Indian food and some Western staples, including an omelette station. The selection of fruit was a bit of a letdown; also the coffee, which was only instant. Nevertheless, we fueled up well and set out for the day. Catching the metro out to Al Ras, on the northern side of the creek, we wandered into the backstreets and a generally random direction to find the old Souks, running into the Gold Souk first. Here, there are modern shops selling all kinds of fine jewellery; we even spotted a single ring priced at 3-million Dirham (about 1-million AUD)! Though, reflecting on that, maybe we read it wrong. That seems a bit over the top!

Epic Honeymoon - Day 01 - Dubai

Zipping along the tracks on the Dubai metro.

Welcome to Part 1 of I-don’t-know-how-many-parts of my Honeymoon blog! My wife and I planned our massively epic honeymoon for more than a year (she planned it for about 4 years before we even met), and I was told by my boss that I was setting some kind of record for vacations at my company! Using my hard-earned frequent flyer points to get the main flights to and from Europe (plus a nice chunk of taxes), we planned our itinerary throughout, opting to cover as many countries as we could!