Last month, the BF and I went on vacation in Europe. It was amazing! Technically, the trip was built around a birthday gift the BF gave me a couple of years ago. He offered to take me to any restaurant in the world - I just had to pick one. Yep, after long deliberations, I decided I wanted to go to a restaurant in Italy. Prior to this trip, I had never been to Europe so this gift was a great reason to go.

I looked up restaurants in Rome via TripAdvisor, with the help of my mom. She helped me choose Pianostrada. It looked like a lovely restaurant with good looking food. The goal wasn’t to eat at an outrageously expensive Michelin star restaurant - it was to eat somewhere memorable and delicious.

With the restaurant picked, the BF and I went ahead with trip planning. We scheduled PTO and booked our flights through Google. The BF found that flying from Oakland to Paris and then taking a local flight to Rome cost just as much as going straight from Oakland to Rome. So we decided to do a quick (like 24-hour total) pitstop in Paris! After that, our plan was to spend 2 nights in Rome followed by a night in Naples then 3 nights in Positano, and a final night in Rome.

What’d we do with 24-hours in Paris?

• Stayed at Les Deux Girafes in the 11th arrondissement (based on a suggestion from my CMO)

• Ate at L’Arbre Jaune - Honestly, one of our best meals in Europe was here. The waiter spoke English and recommended the most amazing dishes and red wine

• Saw the Eiffel Tower right at its last lighting of the night (around 1.15am) - Shoutout to the awesome Uber driver who made sure we got there in time

• Had breakfast at Yann Couvreur Patisserie

What’d we do for our first go in Rome?

• Ate a lot of gelato (La Gelateria Frigidarium is super popular and worth the hype)

• Visited the Sistine Chapel - stunning.

• Saw St. Peter’s Basilica (from the outside)

• Watched AS Roma vs. Juventus at Stadio Olimpico - Our seats were near the AS Roma cheering section and they won by 2!

• Saw the outside of the Colosseum - We ended up ditching our tour because it started pouring rain when we got there

• Ate lots of food at lots of restaurants that we can’t remember the names of…

What’d we do with a night in Naples?

• Went on a walking food tour with the friendliest guide, Mimo. The tour was organized by Walking Palates - we definitely originally thought it was called Walking Pilates…

• Ate deep fried pizza for breakfast and then more pizza for lunch

• Stayed at Hotel Palazzo Decumani - Recommended by a friend of the BF

• Ate more gelato

What’d we do in Positano?

• Spent 3 night at Residence La Tavolozza - We were upgraded to the best room in the place! Such an amazing view. And the place was run by awesome women. The location was perfect as well

• Soaked up the sun and drank a lot of Aperol Spritz’s on the beach

• Ate at pretty much all of the restaurants along the beach (including Chez Black)

• Hands down favorite place we ate at - Al Palazzo - expensive, but worth it. It was raining cats and dogs the night we went and the lights went out multiple times but it didn’t take away from the deliciousness of the food or the experience. I think it even added to it! Such a fun and tasty dinner

• Rented beach chairs one morning and ordered a bottle of champagne - living like Beyonce and Jay-Z was pretty much our goal while in Positano. Plus, it rained a lot of the time so we wanted to make the most of the sunshine!

• Ate even more gelato

Back in Rome, what’d we do our last night in Italy?

• Dined at Pianostrada - the ambience was gorgeous and the food was freaking amazing. So good that the BF ordered a second round of the focaccia, which had honey and pears and melted gorgonzola right before dessert!

• Stayed at The Inn at the Roman Forum - Such a neat place! While checking in, they had us roam around the Roman Crypto Portico while drinking a glass of wine and eating this scrumptious mousse dessert thing

It rained in every city we went to and it was even raining when we got back to Oakland. And while the rain may have dampened some of what we planned, like taking a boat to Capri, it didn’t keep us from having a great time. A lot of times, the rain gave us the perfect excuse to pop into a bar for a drink or relax in our rooms.

And now, for the pictures!