Honeymoon photos: Italy

My dear readers, Alex and I just got home from our two-week honeymoon to Italy and Greece, and I'd love to share a few photos, if you'd like to see...
Our first stop was Positano, a teeny seaside town on the Amalfi Coast, the most magnificent and charming place in the world. Even though it's a popular destination, it still feels like a authentic small town.
We were lucky enough to stay for four days at the Villa Fiorentino, a 6th-century home owned by a warm and wonderful Italian family. Our honeymoon suite had an outdoor shower and a little pool overlooking the town!
The bedroom was fancy, too. We secretly pretended that we lived there.
I'm more of a doggy-paddler than a swimmer, but the water in Positano is so salty that it keeps you afloat. We spent each afternoon floating on our backs in the clear blue water, gazing up at the town and pinching ourselves. One day, we also rented a giant pool float, and it felt like we were drifting in the sea on a double bed, which was funny and awesome.
At night, we'd head up to Montepertuso, the little town above Positano, for dinner; the restaurants would send a driver to pick you up (that's typical but feels so swanky!). We ate an especially incredible meal one night of pasta with shrimp and lobster, and a starter of grilled mozzarella on lemon leaves, a local specialty. Seinfeld says the secret ingredient to anything delicious is cinnamon, but I'd say it's lemon!
One afternoon, we took a boat trip to Capri and met cute couples from Australia, Africa, Russia and Hong Kong. It felt great to be out on the water.
During our boat trip, Alex took another little boat into the Blue Grotto, where the reflected sunlight makes the water glow blue. Gorgeous, right?
But the catch? To get inside the cave, you have to wait for the waves to subside, and then everyone in the boat has to lie down, so the boat can squeeze through a tiny hole in the rock (can you see it?). Freaky!
Being a tried-and-true claustrophobe, I was happy to watch my brave husband from a safe distance.
On our final night, on my dad's recommendation, we dressed up and went for cocktails at the fanciest hotel in town, Le Sireneuse. The waitress brought us chewy homemade potato chips, and Alex got a Negroni (his new favorite drink; now he orders it everywhere we go) and I got a crisp white wine. The sun was setting, and we felt sunkissed and wonderful--it was one of those perfect life moments.
Then we said goodbye to our beloved Positano and traveled north to Rome--a surprisingly easy jump up on the fast train--and spent three days exploring the city. Alex, of course, was obsessed with the history and spent hours at the Colosseum and in the Forum.
We wandered down twisty streets and dipped our hands in cool fountains. My favorite afternoon was spent visiting the Villa Borghese with its stunning art collection of a (now long dead) jovial cardinal and his family. We took the audio tour, which was hilariously irreverent and described the scandals behind each painting (the myths! the murders! socially inappropriate nudes of famous people!).
At night, we'd walk to to local restaurants for gut-busting pastas. One evening, Alex took a Sartorialist-inspired photo of me on the cobblestone streets outside our hotel. (I know, my flip flops would never cut it on his real blog!) We were staying at Maria Rosa Guesthouse with airy bedrooms rented out by a lovely French woman.
For dinner, Alex quickly become obsessed with carbonara and couldn't resist ordering it wherever we went. I loved cacio e pepe, a simple but rich pasta with Pecorino Romana cheese and tons of pepper. On our last night, we finally splurged and got dessert, too, and it was fabulous--a housemade tiramisu, which came in a glass with espresso at the bottom and thick hot chocolate on top.
Overall, our Italy trip was absolutely a dream come true, and we felt so grateful and lucky. Thank you so much for sharing our excitement! (Greece is up next!) xoxo P.S. A few more on Smitten...