Epic Honeymoon - Day 15 - Rome

The exposed foundations of the Colosseum.

The next morning, we walked from our AirBnB to the Colosseum; an easy 10-15 minute stroll. This iconic and immense structure sits proudly at the south-eastern corner of Rome, neighbouring the ruins of the Roman Forum. I had seen the Colosseum on my Contiki Tour in 2011, but didn’t have the chance to go inside. On this occasion, I read up on it in advance and bought the tickets online before leaving home. 

Epic Honeymoon - Day 13 - Pisa

Our last full day in Florence was actually not in Florence – we took a train across the countryside to visit Pisa and its infamous Tower.

From Florence, it's an easy train ride across to Pisa, arriving in about 1 hour. There's no need to pre-book tickets for this one: just roll up at Santa Maria Novella and buy a ticket from the machine. It will only set you back about €8 per person.

Epic Honeymoon - Day 12 - Florence

The next day was a pre-designated as a day or art and culture, as we had pre-booked to visit the Uffizi Gallery, home to and incredibly huge collection of some of the most famous art from Italy’s Renaissance, and Galleria Accademia, which is of course known as the house of David.

We got going nice and early, arriving to Uffizi to find the crowds that pre-booking will get you past. You can save a couple of euros by getting yourself out of bed at the crack of dawn, if you so choose. But who needs that when you're on holiday??

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.