Italy, France and Spain. Oh my!

Dear Diary,
 I'm very excited to say our honeymoon is officially booked! We had the main part booked but it's actually complete now. We decided to take a Mediterranean Cruise! We are sooo excited about this as neither of us have ever been on a cruise or have gone to any of the places on the cruise so we get to experience it together for the first time. Our cruise doesn't leave until the following Saturday so we decided it would be nice to spend two days on land in Barcelona, Spain before departing. We just booked two nights at a hotel right on the center of the main strip of Barcelona called Las Ramblas. They have great shopping, bars and restaurants here. We are also right near the beach and ports so it's great! The hotel is call Hesperia Metropol Barcelona And here is a great pic:)

We will then depart on Saturday on the Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas:

We make our first stop in Toulon, France where we plan to take a tour and see: Saint Victor Abbey,  the cathedral Notre Dame de la Garde Basilica,  Palais Longchamp, and the famous Old Port with the Canebière Avenue. Here is a pic of the Basilica:

Our next stop will be in Nice, France where we plan to travel to Monte Carlo and see the burial place of Princess Grace of Monaco. Not many people know this but she actually lived here in Philadelphia and my grandfather was her actual Plumber:) Her knew her well and it i'm very excited to visit her place of rest and pay my respects:

Isn't she gorgeous!

We will then move on to Florence, Italy where we plan to travel to Tuscany and do a wine tasting day at a local vineyard and learn all about the wine. here is pic of the one vineyard:

We then move on to the city J and I are most excited about, Rome! There is soooo much to see here and we wish we had more then one day here. We want to see the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain and especially the Vatican. We definitely have to stop there because J's Great Aunt is an actual nun for the Pope! She lives at the Vatican and works for Pope Benedict. So you can say we have connections with the big guy above! haha we hope to get see her while we are there but who knows. Fingers crossed. Here is a pic from the inside of the Vatican:



We will then travel to Naples, Italy where we plan to take the Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii Hike! We will see who lasts longer, me or J. Here is a pic of Mt. Vesuvius today:

Then we head back to Barcelona, Spain to fly home from our world wind adventure. We are truly looking forward to experiencing all of this together, as husband and wife. You can bet there will be pictures and lots of them!!

Until next time.

My Dearest Diary,
The Blushing Bride To Be