As I predicted in my Top 10 Countries I'll Return to Post-COVID-19 blog, Italy was not only one of the top ten countries I traveled to but the very first I returned to as travel restrictions abated in this post-COVID-19 era. Dan and I originally had a pre-Christmas trip planned in December. However, due to some unfortunate circumstances, he contracted COVID-19, and we had to reschedule for the time over our second anniversary. I kept notes throughout our trip on my phone to remember what we did each day. I'll summarize each below along with photos from our trip. Travel Day: February 28 + March 1 We started our trip on the evening of February 28th with a red-eye flight out of Honolulu. Over the next 24+ hours, we transited between Hawaii, Seattle, Amsterdam, and Venice. There were two red-eye flights during our travel along with 17+ hours of airtime and 8+ hours of layovers. We landed in Venice at 1 PM on March 2 and that's where our journey to Italy began! Italy Day 1: March 2 Though we arrived in the city of Venice via train around 1 PM, we weren't able to get into our tiny bed and breakfast until 2 PM. We killed time by eating pizza at Il Refolo. If it's possible to be disappointed by Italian pizza, we were disappointed by the fact that it wasn't Neapolitan style (our favorite). After we freshened up at the bed and breakfast, we walked the streets of Venice, remarking how many years it would take you to mentally map the city. No matter where we went, we had to use Google Maps, which wasn't even as useful as it could be. It was Ash Wednesday when we arrived, which meant the streets were littered with confetti from Mardi Gras the day before. Venice isn't the cleanest city (which I remembered from a brief previous stay); however, I found it much more interesting this time around. Coming from Hawaii, I wondered what it would be like to live in a city on the water with absolutely zero green space. We marveled at the fact that there was stone everywhere you looked. We saw a couple of trees but that was it. We were also curious about the sheer number of dogs we saw. People walked their dogs up and down the narrow streets, and some dogs even walked themselves. Yet, unlike most other countries and cities I've been to, these dogs were clearly cared for by someone. They were well-fed and bathed. They all had collars. None looked lost or scared. And absolutely none had the air of a "street dog." It was almost as if owners just let them out to wander the streets — knowing that they'd come home when they were ready. We saw the typical spots to see in Venice including the Bridge of Sighs and St. Mark's Basilica. The Basilica was just closing when we arrived for Mass, but we just managed to sneak in for prayer. We originally intended to go back for Mass but jetlag was wearing on us. Between the time that we were waiting for Mass to start, we found a cute wine shop called Dolcemaro and started drinking a delightful sweet red. Before long, we were heading down the road for an early dinner of bolognese and mushroom and zucchini tortellini at Ristorante Ca' Dolfin. With a cup of the most delicious hot chocolate on the way home, we were asleep right around 8 PM, attempting to swap our days and nights. Italy Day 2: March 3 When you go to bed at 8...you wake up at 4. We both woke up at 4 AM unable to get back to sleep even though we didn't need to get up until 6 AM or so for our train. I ended up doing some work during that time and then heading out to grab a croissant and espresso on the way. We then walked to the train station for our train departing at 7:18 AM to arrive in Verona around 8:30 AM. We were a bit delayed heading into the city of Verona because we had to wait for the luggage storage to open up at the train station. After a 25-minute walk into the city, we arrived at Casa de Giulietta (Juliet's House), which I had long wanted to visit thanks to the movie Letters to Juliet. Walking through the pretty (and clean!) streets of Verona, we grabbed another espresso and hot chocolate (because why not?), visited two nearby churches, and then walked along the river. Dan accidentally navigated us to the wrong train station for our 11 AM pickup time for the car, so we hopped in a taxi and ended up waiting for a shuttle to the rental car place, which was most definitely (and conveniently) not advertised. It now makes sense why that rental car was so much cheaper than the others located at the train station! Finally, at noon, we were in a (very nice) Italian car heading up to Santuario Madonna della Corona, a church Dan had visited on a previous trip to Italy and wanted to take me back to. The drive through the Italian countryside outside of Verona was smooth (much to Dan's relief), and we ate pizza in the tiny town near the church once we arrived. We then walked down to the church to visit and take pictures. While we originally wanted to attend Mass at the church, we were more than an hour away from the start time. Still exhau
